Fire in the brain: How psychosis may arise when the body attacks itself
Antibodies made by the immune system can sometimes target human brain cells, producing psychiatric symptoms. Researchers aim to better identify such rare cases as well as fine-tune treatments. Peter Jones once treated a patient with strikingly vivid hallucinations of animals. During ward visits, the patient would stroke and interact with the critters “in as real a way as he was with me,” says Jones, an academic psychiatrist at the University of Cambridge in England. Antipsychotic drugs did nothing to dissolve these Snow White-esque visions. But when the patient received plasma exchange –– a treatment normally reserved for a misbehaving immune system –– his hallucinations dissipated....
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital breaks ground on future home for Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute
Nicklaus Children's Hospital has broken ground on the next chapter of the Helen & Jacob Shaham Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute, a transformative expansion that will create a more integrated, accessible and patient-centered environment for children receiving cancer and blood disorder care. Nicklaus Children's Health System leadership, donors, patients and the hospital's foundation joined together to mark the official start of construction. The institute, expected to open in its new location in 2028, will be housed within the renovated Medical Arts Building and will encompass approximately 25,500 square feet across two floors. Designed to blend clinical efficiency with comfort,...
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The treatment was worse than the disease
On December 12, 1799, George Washington returned to Mount Vernon after several hours on horseback in snow, hail, and freezing rain. The next day he developed a sore throat and hoarseness, and in the early morning of December 14 he awoke struggling to breathe and swallow. Doctors were called, and what happened next is now one of the most talked-about medical cases in American history. Washington did not lack medical care. In fact, he received a lot of attention from three skilled physicians, who used the treatments they thought best for someone as sick as he was, such as repeated bloodletting and other methods meant to reduce inflammation and restore balance. Late that night, Washington...
ABA Billable Units and the Eight-Minute Rule
ABA billable units are not a rounding convention your billing team gets to choose. Florida Medicaid sets the arithmetic in writing, and the rule is that leftover minutes count only when they reach eight. If your agency bills behavior analysis in fifteen-minute increments, you need to know that a documented 52-minute session is three units and not four — because the difference between those two numbers, repeated across a caseload for a year, is the cleanest overpayment finding an auditor can make. A billable unit is fifteen minutes of a covered service, delivered by a practitioner permitted to render it, documented in a signed note, and falling inside an authorized period. The arithmetic...
