Interviews & Features

March is National Kidney awareness month. The aim of this month is to educate the public about this unknown and often undetected disease. “It is about getting the word out there that kidney disease is a very common deadly disease, and we have ways to prevent it,” shares Dr. Susan Quaggin, president of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN).

Demand for medical testing is expected to grow in coming years due to the introduction of new genetic tests to the market and an aging population, but there is a concerning shortage of laboratory professionals plaguing hospitals, doctor’s offices, and labs that is only expected to get worse. We investigate why there aren’t enough laboratory technicians and technologists to go around and what a career in medical laboratory sciences looks like.

With so many professionals and titles in this field, it can be challenging for clients to determine who to go to for help and what kind of help a given nutrition expert can provide. Common titles in this field include clinical nutritionist, integrative nutritionist, dietician, nutritional therapist, wellness consultant, life coach, eating disorder nutritionist, and forensic nutritionist.

It can be too easy, sometimes, to look past the work of a dental assistant. But they represent the largest segment of the dental workforce. This is a fast-growing, patient-facing role that’s much more complex than it seems.

Medical technology has come a long way since the invention of eyeglasses and the stethoscope. The broader availability of mobile internet, the expansion of a more affluent middle class, and an aging global population are all driving change in the healthcare industry, and the associated technology is changing faster than ever before.

Phlebotomists are essential members of the healthcare ecosystem. Their skill and expertise are necessary to perform venipunctures and other laboratory test sample collections. Thanks to their hard work, physicians have the test results they need to help to diagnose patients based on blood work.

Governments face enormous political and technology challenges in ensuring the safe return to “normal.” Yet, a growing distrust of government and authorities and the mental health toll from extended lockdowns and restrictions will require pandemic preparedness to focus not only on disease control but also on ensuring the protection of individual freedoms.

A new study from researchers using technology from AI company AKASA found the company’s novel machine learning approach (Read, Attend, and Code, or RAC) outperformed current state-of-the-art models to decode medical notes for patient billing in a matter of seconds.

November is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Awareness Month. COPD is a long-term disease that makes it hard to breathe and is primarily caused by smoking, although it can also be caused by many factors, including asthma and chronic bronchitis. Currently, there are 16.4 million Americans living with COPD, and in 2018, 156,045 people died from this disease.

To aid students in their quest to reduce or eliminate the financial burden of education expenses, here’s a list of fifteen scholarships that support students pursuing degrees in dental assisting.