After our website was repeatedly targeted by hackers in recent weeks, another security update was carried out today.
Our current X-ray and practice management server is now 6 years old. It's still running without problems. Nevertheless, we plan to replace the server in the next few weeks to minimize the risk of a sudden failure due to hardware failure.
While our stated goal was always to replace the old server with the most powerful new one possible, this time we're focusing on a different concept – energy savings.
Our old server had a power consumption of almost 300 watts even in idle mode. Over a year, that adds up to a tremendous amount of power consumed.
The new server will change this time. In addition to a highly efficient power supply, only one processor will be installed this time, instead of two. This one will have 10 or more cores. All components will be put to the test to ensure the most efficient server possible.
As we were informed by pharmacies, Novalgin, the medication we routinely prescribe after surgery, is no longer available until further notice.
This is a real problem, as many other pain medications either have dangerous side effects or are detrimental to the healing process.
Germany has a highly praised healthcare system, and all too often, there are arguments about costs and rising drug prices.
Certainly often not unfounded. However, what is forgotten is that the majority of the medications in pharmacies are old medications. These medications have been on the market for many years, and their patent protection has long since expired. The result is a rigorous price war. Discount agreements with health insurance companies do the rest.
Before a medication reaches the patient, it goes through countless stages: pharmacy, wholesalers, and various pharmaceutical companies, all the way to the manufacturer of the basic ingredients.
It is precisely the latter, the manufacturers of the basic ingredients, who ultimately have no money left. The result is that important basic ingredients can no longer be manufactured and are no longer produced. Since these manufacturers often supply many pharmaceutical companies simultaneously, supply shortages quickly arise for various companies. All major names (Ratiopharm, Hexal, etc.) are affected.
Recently, there have been frequent supply shortages for penicillins, and now for the absolute standard pain medication Novalgin, also known as Novalminsulfone (active ingredient: metamizole).
The German Pharmacist's Journal also writes about this: Is a metamizole supply shortage looming? Read the full article here>>>
Yesterday's edition of the daily newspaper "Die Welt (August 21, 2016)" reported on a groundbreaking therapeutic success.
For the first time in Europe, a genetically caused metabolic disorder has been successfully cured in a patient. The 43-year-old patient suffered from lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), a hereditary disease in which a special enzyme for breaking down fats is not produced or is produced insufficiently in the body.
The result is extremely high fat levels in the blood. These can rise up to 10 times the norm.
The typical sign in these patients is that when a blood sample is taken, the blood serum is not clear due to all the fat, but looks like milk.
High fat levels in the blood trigger a variety of other diseases. Extremely painful and even dangerous inflammation of the pancreas occurs very frequently. The life expectancy of patients is significantly reduced.
For the first time, gene therapy has now been successfully used to treat this disease at the Charité Berlin.
It is the first gene therapy ever to be used to treat a metabolic disorder in Europe.
This success is encouraging. In the future, other diseases based on a genetic defect could also be cured. A true milestone in medical research and a ray of hope for many affected patients.
Especially when the discussion about rising medical costs and rising additional health insurance contributions is being raised again.
The cost of treating this one patient amounted to €800,000.
Progress doesn't come for free. We all want it, and it's a blessing for patients.
The article's closing remarks were also noteworthy. It pointed out that the fee schedule for genetic analysis, a basic prerequisite for diagnosing and planning treatment for genetic defects, had just been removed from the statutory health insurance catalog.
The wheel continues to turn in medicine, too. After giving a presentation to 200 doctors in Portugal last week about my findings on calcific tendonitis, our page on calcific tendonitis is now being completely revised.
Many scientific findings gained in recent years will be incorporated into the new article, as will my own experiences from over 3,000 treatments.
As part of my preparation for the presentation in Portugal, I statistically analyzed more than 1,300 cases from recent years. These results differ slightly from those published in the literature. This may be due to the fact that there are hardly any studies with more than 400 cases. Here, with the 1,300 cases examined, we are far above this number, so our results are also of interest to many other physicians working in scientific research. The fact that we are not a university institution is also important. The patients who come to us are a direct reflection of the population. University hospitals generally have a select clientele, as patients are only treated after being referred to other physicians. This is an important aspect in the evaluation of research work.
