Health
No cardiologists available in half of US counties as study reveals ‘incredibly concerning’ care gaps
Nearly half of all U.S. counties don’t have a practicing cardiologist on staff, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).
Rural communities are most affected, with Americans in those areas dying earlier and more often from heart disease that could have been prevented, according to a May report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study, led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, analyzed over 3,100 counties.
TOP 10 CAUSES OF DEATH IN THE US, SEE THE CDC’S LATEST LIST
Forty-six percent of the counties did not have access to cardiologists — meaning that 22 million residents would not have access to heart-related health care.
When looking just at rural counties, more than 86% of them did not have a cardiologist.
Nearly half of all U.S. counties don’t have a practicing cardiologist on staff, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. (iStock)
“While cardiologists are not the only determinants of cardiovascular outcomes, the lack of access to cardiologists in areas with greater prevalence of heart disease and mortality is incredibly concerning,” said senior author Haider J. Warraich, M.D., director of the heart failure program at VA Boston Healthcare and an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in a press release.
How does this impact patients?
In counties without a cardiologist, patients have to travel an average of 87.1 miles to get the care they need, the study found.
“When a patient is having a heart attack, time matters,” said Dr. Bradley Serwer, a cardiologist and chief medical officer at VitalSolution, a Cincinnati-based company that offers cardiovascular and anesthesiology services to hospitals nationwide.
In the counties without a cardiologist, patients have to travel an average of 87.1 miles to get the care they need, the study found. (iStock)
“If a patient is unlucky enough to have a heart attack in a rural area, without cardiology services, they are sometimes transferred via ambulance or helicopter, but this takes time while the heart is dying.”
In some cases, these patients receive high-risk medications called thrombolytics to help stop the heart attack, according to Serwer, who was not involved in the new study.
“Thrombolytics are an inferior option to treat heart attacks compared to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), also known as stenting,” Serwer said.
“When a patient is having a heart attack, time matters.”
“Thrombolytics are a last resort when transfers are not possible or will take too long, as they are still better than the alternatives.”
Patients in rural counties have a higher age-adjusted cardiovascular mortality rate — on average, they live one year less than their urban cohorts, according to Serwer.
Why the lack of cardiologists?
Several factors may contribute to the scarcity of heart specialists in rural areas, according to Serwer.
HUNDREDS OF RURAL HOSPITALS ARE IN DANGER OF SHUTTING DOWN, STUDY FINDS: ‘AT RISK OF CLOSURE’
“Cardiologists train in academic hospitals with a wide network of colleagues, specialists and sub-specialists,” he told Fox News Digital.
“When they finish training, many of them want to join a large group practice or hospital practice, as there is comfort working alongside other cardiologists who can provide mentorship and guidance, especially early in one’s career.”
“These deficiencies cause a delay in care and can mean the difference between life and death,” a cardiologist said. (iStock)
Many cardiologists are unwilling to leave an urban environment to move to a remote location, he noted, particularly if they have children who need access to more schooling options.
Cardiologists in rural areas are also more likely to be overworked, Serwer said, due to the fact that the community may only have one or two heart specialists. Often, the community doesn’t have subspecialists such as CT surgeons, electrophysiologists or interventional cardiologists.
“These factors ultimately lead to less time with the family and an unfavorable work/life balance,” the cardiologist said.
Another challenge is that rural facilities require a complex system to transfer patients for a higher level of care, he went on.
“Inpatient and critical care beds at tertiary medical centers are hard to find,” Serwer said. “These deficiencies cause a delay in care and can mean the difference between life and death, which takes an emotional toll on rural health care providers.”
“Understand the importance of cardiac risk factor modification with healthy lifestyle, exercise, diet and medication compliance,” a cardiologist advised. (iStock)
There are also reimbursement considerations, as many rural hospitals don’t have the financial ability to pay their doctors adequately, according to Serwer.
There is also a great need for anesthesiologists in rural counties, he added.
“Nearly every hospital procedure requires an anesthesiologist, whether it’s cardiology, OB, orthopedics or general surgery.”
What needs to happen?
Solving the rural health care dilemma should start with greater awareness and a better understanding of the issues and limitations, according to Serwer.
One option is to set up “creative staffing models” to cover more parts of the country.”
“We need to reduce the hurdles and increase the incentive for physicians, nurses, technologists and administrators to provide rural health care,” he told Fox News Digital.
One option is to set up “creative staffing models” to cover more parts of the country, said Serwer.
HEALTH CARE IS ‘OVERWHELMINGLY COMPLEX’ FOR OLDER ADULTS, EXPERTS SAY: ‘EVER-INCREASING HURDLE’
His company, VitalSolution, partners with rural facilities to provide long-term coverage for cardiologists, nurse anesthetists, nurses and cath lab technicians.
“Our physicians work seven days on and then get seven days off,” he said.
“This unique model allows our physicians to work where they are needed and live wherever they want — it’s a win/win for physicians and community hospitals.”
Technology-based clinical support — such as telemedicine — should also be used on a wider basis, a cardiologist recommended. (iStock)
Technology-based clinical support — such as telemedicine — should also be used on a wider basis, Serwer recommended.
“We also need more governmental financial support for rural community hospitals and incentives for physicians, nurses, technologists and administrators,” he said.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
Another option is to promote rural health care while in medical school by requiring rotations in those communities, the cardiologist said.
“These rural rotations can be very rewarding, and can help young physicians gain a more comprehensive understanding of the practice of medicine.”
“Establish a relationship with a primary care provider and know more about your chronic medical conditions,” a doctor advised. (iStock)
The study researchers also called for policy changes to expand internet availability for telemedicine access and to broaden health insurance coverage.
Managing modifiable risk factors for heart disease could also help to reduce risk in rural communities, they stated.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
“This study underscores the urgent need for policy reforms and innovative solutions, such as financial incentives for clinicians and the expanded use of telemedicine, to bridge this gap,” said Harlan M. Krumholz, M.D., editor-in-chief of JACC, in the release.
“Ensuring equitable access to cardiovascular care is a crucial step toward improving overall public health outcomes and reducing preventable cardiovascular mortality.”
Short-term fixes
For patients who are currently living in one of the cardiac care “deserts,” Serwer recommended becoming familiar with the medical care that is available.
“Establish a relationship with a primary care provider and know more about your chronic medical conditions,” he advised.
“Understand the importance of cardiac risk factor modification with healthy lifestyle, exercise, diet and medication compliance,” he also said.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews/health
Those who have a cardiac condition should make a plan of where and how to seek cardiac care if needed, the doctor said.
“They can also write to their elected officials to ask them to do more to supplement the existing health care infrastructure,” Serwer added.
Over the two and a half years following the 2022 rollout of the 988 national suicide prevention hotline, the rate of suicides among young people in the United States dropped 11 percent below projections, decreasing most sharply in states with a higher volume of answered 988 calls, a new study has found.
The findings, published today as a research letter in JAMA, compared suicide deaths from July 2022 to December 2024 with sophisticated mathematical projections that were based on historical trends. This yielded good news, with 4,372 fewer suicides of adolescents and young adults, ages 15 to 34, than had been projected.
To ensure that the decline was related to the use of the hotline, researchers at Harvard Medical School teased out the trends in states with high and low usage of the hotline. The findings were striking: The 10 states with the largest increases in 988 calls experienced an 18.2 percent reduction in observed suicides compared with expected suicides; in the 10 states with the lowest uptake, the reduction was smaller, 10.6 percent.
The results suggest that the government’s investment in the 988 rollout has translated into “a measurable reduction of deaths,” said Dr. Vishal Patel, a resident physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one of the authors of the study.
“What our study has added,” he said, “is evidence for the deeper benefit of the program, and that is, that at the population level, among young people at least, suicide mortality is lower than it would have been without the program.”
Tips for Parents to Help Their Struggling Teens
Are you concerned for your teen? If you worry that your teen might be experiencing depression or suicidal thoughts, there are a few things you can do to help. Dr. Christine Moutier, the chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suggests these steps:
He added, “The implication of that is that sustained funding for this program matters.”
The United States rolled out the three-digit hotline with bipartisan support in July 2022, replacing a 10-digit hotline number, and augmented it with a $1.5 billion investment in crisis center capacity. Since its inception, the service has fielded more than 25 million contacts, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency has asked Congress for $534.6 million to fund the program for 2027.
Last summer, the Trump administration terminated one element of the hotline, the Press 3 option for L.G.B.T.Q.+ callers. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said that the Press 3 option was being discontinued because it had exhausted its funding from Congress and that the hotline would “focus on serving all help seekers.”
But advocacy groups and policymakers protested the decision, and in testimony before the Senate on Tuesday, the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said his agency was planning to restore the Press 3 option.
Dr. Patel said his group had become curious about measuring the program’s effectiveness after Press 3 was eliminated. While call volume and satisfaction surveys suggested that 988 was succeeding, he said, the harder question was, “Did the creation of this 988 program, the transition from the old hotline to this hotline, actually move the needle on suicide mortality?”
Experts said it was difficult to tease out the beneficial effect of 988 from other things that changed in 2022, the year that the new hotline was created. Around that time, suicide prevention programs were being introduced in schools, in faith communities and on social media, but more important, the pandemic was ending.
“We were finally out of this crazy time, and there was a sense of optimism and hope,” said Jonathan B. Singer, a professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago and a co-author of “Suicide in Schools.” He called the downward trend in youth suicides “encouraging, but it is tempered by the fact that we don’t have a good explanation as to why.”
The authors acknowledged that their findings could not account for the influence of social and economic changes, changes in mental health services or public awareness about services.
But they did make comparisons to exclude other possible explanations. The authors looked for similar effects among American adults over 65, who are less likely to use the hotline. In that group, there was a reduction in suicides that exceeded expectations, but it was smaller, at just 4.5 percent.
To ensure the decline in suicides did not reflect a general improvement in young-adult mortality, the researchers tracked cancer deaths, and found there was no change. They also looked at the rates of suicide among young people in England, where no change had been made to the national crisis line in that time period; they found no reduction in youth suicides there.
Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said she was persuaded that the hotline had contributed to the improvement in suicide rates, in part because it did not appear among English youths or in older Americans.
“To me, that really helps hone in that this might really be the differentiator,” she said. “We are seeing potentially a pretty significant decline in suicides among young people. For public policy, this is strong evidence to double down on that we are doing.”
Emily Hilliard, a senior press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said H.H.S. and SAMHSA are “committed to ensuring that all Americans have access” the 988 line, which she said “clearly provides lifesaving support, helping millions of people every year.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A highly contagious digestive virus is surging across the U.S., experts warn.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain.
The virus primarily affects infants and young children, but there have also been outbreaks in elderly populations, such as nursing homes.
AT LEAST 46 CHILDREN DEAD AMID MEASLES OUTBREAK AS VIRUS SPREADS GLOBALLY
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in the week ending April 4, out of 2,329 rotavirus tests, 7.3% were positive for the infection. Last year’s highest infection rate was 6.77% as of the week ending April 19.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain. (iStock)
“We’re seeing a lot of rotavirus in the wastewater right now,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, confirmed to Fox News Digital. “Testing for rotavirus is way down, but the percentage of positive tests is up.”
While the virus typically peaks in the spring, it is not currently slowing down, he noted.
Why cases may be rising
Patricia Pinto-Garcia, M.D., a medical editor at GoodRx who is based in California, said there are several possible reasons for the rotavirus spike.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” she told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.”
The rotavirus vaccine series must be completed by the time a child is 8 months old, she noted.
HEALTH ALERT ISSUED FOR DENGUE OUTBREAKS SPREADING IN TRAVEL HOTSPOTS
As a result of the declining vaccinations, herd immunity isn’t protecting vulnerable children, according to Pinto-Garcia. “Children who haven’t finished the vaccine series yet, are too young to get vaccinated, or can’t get the vaccine due to medical illness are more likely to get exposed to the illness because other children aren’t vaccinated,” she said.
Siegel noted that before the vaccine became available, rotavirus resulted in 55,000 to 70,000 in the U.S. per year.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.” (iStock)
“I am concerned that the vaccination rate has been declining over the past seven years and is continuing to decline in the current climate of vaccine skepticism,” he said.
Surveillance methods are also much better than they used to be, Pinto-Garcia noted, which means public health experts are able to pick up and track cases better than ever before.
HOW LONG YOU’RE CONTAGIOUS WITH THE FLU — AND WHEN IT’S SAFE TO GO OUT
“But we see that rotavirus-related healthcare visits are also up, so improved detection is not the only reason we are seeing this spike,” she said.
The COVID pandemic also disrupted the pattern of infections, according to Pinto-Garcia, so it’s “tricky” to compare the current levels against older cycles.
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor,” she added.
Transmission and risk
Dr. Zachary Hoy, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Pediatrix Medical Group based in Nashville, Tennessee, often sees young patients with rotavirus.
“Rotavirus is spread via the fecal-oral route, meaning that a person comes into contact with virus droplets from contact with other children or adults, or from contact with objects such as toys that have been contaminated with the virus from someone who is sick,” he told Fox News Digital. “This can lead to outbreaks, especially at schools where many young children share the same toys.”
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor.”
Rotavirus is associated with many dehydration cases in the hospital due to the degree of diarrhea, according to Hoy.
In some severe cases, the virus can lead to seizures due to electrolyte imbalances from dehydration and loss of electrolytes in the stool.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“Younger children do not have the reserves that older children and adults have, so they can become more dehydrated quicker and develop more severe electrolyte imbalances, leading to more severe infections,” Hoy said.
“Patients with problems with their immune systems or on medications that can decrease their immune systems can have more severe and prolonged infections, too.”
Treatment and care
Because rotavirus is a viral infection, antibiotics are not effective against it. There is no specific antiviral treatment for the condition, with doctors typically recommending supportive care.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” Hoy told Fox News Digital. “Sometimes it can take up to two to three days of IV fluids to help get patients rehydrated.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES
Blood draws are often necessary to evaluate patients’ electrolyte levels, such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, according to the doctor.
“If these electrolyte levels are significantly low, sometimes patients need special IV solutions or individual electrolyte medications,” he added.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
Dr. Daniel Park, medical director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, noted that most children recover with supportive care, but parents should seek medical attention if a child shows signs of dehydration. Those include decreased urination, lethargy or inability to keep fluids down.
“While rare, rotavirus can be life-threatening in vulnerable populations, especially very young infants or children with underlying medical conditions,” Park told Fox News Digital.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
Prevention strategies
Given the lack of antiviral medications for rotavirus, doctors emphasize the importance of prevention, primarily the vaccine.
There are two rotavirus vaccines – Rotateq (a three-dose series) and Rotarix (a two-dose series). They are given starting at age 2 months as oral drops, not injections, according to Hoy.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ
“It’s important to get the rotavirus vaccines on schedule, because these younger infants are at greatest risk if they get rotavirus,” he advised.
Other recommended prevention methods include handwashing with soap and water.
Every day we’re faced with a zillion small choices: Go to sleep early, or watch one more episode of that Netflix drama. Call an old friend to catch up, or cruise social media. Of course, no single action will guarantee a long, healthy life or doom you to an early grave. But those little daily decisions do add up, and over the long term they can make a difference when it comes to both your longevity and your health span, the amount of life spent in relatively good health.
Scroll through this theoretical “day in the life” and select the option that best fits your typical day. Not every situation will apply perfectly, but think about which choice you’d be most likely to make. This isn’t a formal scientific assessment. The goal here isn’t to assign you a “good” or “bad” score, but to help you understand the central factors that shape the way we age and how long we live.
-
Movie Reviews4 minutes ago‘Madhuvidhu’ movie review: A light-hearted film that squanders a promising conflict
-
World16 minutes agoGoogle puts AI agents at heart of its enterprise money-making push
-
News22 minutes agoSenate Adopts GOP Budget, Laying the Groundwork to Fund ICE and Reopen DHS
-
Politics28 minutes agoU.S. Seizes Second Tanker Carrying Iranian Oil
-
Business34 minutes agoHow We Cover the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
-
Science40 minutes agoRFK Jr. Says His Department Advises All Children to Get Measles Vaccine
-
Health46 minutes agoYouth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline
-
Lifestyle1 hour agoYou’re Invited! (No, You’re Not.) It’s the Latest Phishing Scam.