Health Care

MinnPost provides updates on coronavirus in Minnesota Sunday through Friday. The information is published following a press phone call with members of the Walz administration or after the release of daily COVID-19 figures by the Minnesota Department of Health. Here are the latest updates from November 8, 2020: Thirty-one more Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health said Sunday, for a total of 2,656.  Minnesota has now reported more than 30 deaths in four of the last five days, and a total of 199 deaths in the first eight days of November. In July, when the outbreak declined, the state only reported 159 deaths over the entire month. If COVID-19 deaths continue in November at the state’s current pace, Minnesota would break its one-month record of 696 deaths set in May. Of the people whose deaths were announced Sunday, six were in their 90s, 15 were in their 80s, four were in their 70s, three were in their 60s, one was in their 50s, and two were in t...

A group of researchers from seven health systems in the United States and Canada including Bloomington-based HealthPartners has developed an algorithm that can predict and identify individuals at higher risk of attempting suicide. Rebecca Rossom To identify members at elevated suicide risk, explained Rebecca Rossom, HealthPartners psychiatrist and senior investigator, a group of researchers from the health systems known as the Mental Health Research Network created a machine-learning model to identify a set of health predictors that place individuals at greater risk of attempting suicide. The model then selected members who had experienced a pre-identified number of those health predictors. The set of health predictors for suicide risk were, Rossom said, “in a lot of ways what you’d expect. Things like, ‘Have they had a previous suicide attempt?’ ‘Have they had a depression diagnosis?’ ‘A substance-use disorder?’ ‘An alcohol-use disorder?’ We have access to that information an...

MinnPost provides updates on coronavirus in Minnesota Sunday through Friday. The information is published following a press phone call with members of the Walz administration or after the release of daily COVID-19 figures by the Minnesota Department of Health. Here are the latest updates from November 1, 2020: 150,672 cases; 2,475 deaths Eighteen more Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health said Sunday, for a total of 2,475. Of the people whose deaths were announced Sunday one was in their 50s, one was in their 60s, seven were in their 70s, six were in their 80s and three were in their 90s. Thirteen of the 18 deaths announced Sunday were among residents of long-term care facilities. MDH also said Sunday there have been 150,672 total cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota. The number of positives is up 2,200 from Saturday’s count and is based on 27,524 new tests. You can find the seven-day positive case average here. On Saturday, MDH announced an increase of...

 MinnPost provides updates on coronavirus in Minnesota Sunday through Friday. The information is published following a press phone call with members of the Walz administration or after the release of daily COVID-19 figures by the Minnesota Department of Health. Here are the latest updates from October 25, 2020: Twenty-one more Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health said Sunday, for a total of 2,349.  Of the deaths announced Sunday, one person was older than 100, five were in their 90s, seven were in their 80s, four were in their 70s, two were in their 60s, one was in their 50s, and one was in their 30s. Of the 21 deaths announced Sunday, 12 were among residents of long-term care facilities. MDH also said Sunday there have been 133,802 total cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota. The number of positives is up 1,680 from Saturday’s count and is based on 34,488 new tests. You can find the seven-day positive case average here. The current caseload ...

MinnPost provides updates on coronavirus in Minnesota Sunday through Friday. The information is published following a press phone call with members of the Walz administration or after the release of daily COVID-19 figures by the Minnesota Department of Health. Here are the latest updates from October 18, 2020: 122,812 confirmed cases; 2,234 deaths Seventeen more Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health said Sunday, for a total of 2,234. Of the deaths announced Sunday, three were of people in their 60s, three in their 70s, seven in their 80s and four in their 90s. Fourteen of the 17 deaths announced Sunday were among residents of long-term care facilities. MDH also said Sunday there have been 122,812 total cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota. The number of positives is up 1,722 from Saturday’s count and is based on 31,634 new tests. You can find the seven-day positive case average here. On Saturday, MDH reported an increase of 1,694 cases and five deaths....

MinnPost provides updates on coronavirus in Minnesota Sunday through Friday. The information is published following a press phone call with members of the Walz administration or after the release of daily COVID-19 figures by the Minnesota Department of Health. Here are the latest updates from October 11, 2020: Ten more Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health said Sunday, for a total of 2,141. Of the people whose deaths were announced Sunday, two were in their 90s, three were in their 80s, two were in their 70s, one was in their 60s, one was in their 50s and one was in their 40s. Three of the 10 deaths announced Sunday were among residents of long-term care facilities. Of the 2,141 COVID-19 deaths reported in Minnesota, 1,521 have been among residents of long-term care. Minnesota has now reported double-digit deaths in four of the last five days. There have been 107 deaths so far in October. There were 79 deaths in the first 11 days of September and 66...

MinnPost provides updates on coronavirus in Minnesota Sunday through Friday. The information is published following a press phone call with members of the Walz administration or after the release of daily COVID-19 figures by the Minnesota Department of Health. Here are the latest updates from October 1: 100,200 confirmed cases; 2,049 deaths Thirteen more Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health said Thursday, for a total of 2,049. Of the people whose deaths were announced Thursday, six were in their 90s, three were in their 80s, two were in their 70s, one was in their 60s and one was in their 50s. Seven of the 13 deaths announced Thursday were among residents of long-term care facilities. Of the 2,049 COVID-19 deaths reported in Minnesota, 1,465 have been among residents of long-term care. The current death toll only includes Minnesotans with lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 tests. Minnesota surpassed 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Thursday. ...

This article was originally published by FairWarning . As genetic testing companies increasingly pivot  to medical and pharmaceutical ventures, a regulatory gap in consumer privacy protections is drawing calls for change and even legislative proposals. At-home DNA test kits from companies like 23andMe and Ancestry have enabled customers to trace their heritage and piece together family trees. A lack of strict data privacy protections has allowed these companies to rack up hundreds of millions in revenue through the collection of DNA samples and sales of genetic data, all with the consent of customers who may not have read the fine print. As it stands, there is no comprehensive federal privacy law in the U.S. Other laws, including HIPAA and the Genetic Information Discrimination Act, only keep genetic information off-limits to certain types of insurers and employers. Further, the agency that is supposed to enforce privacy rules by DNA testing companies, the Federal Trade Commi...

For years, telemedicine has been touted as a way to address mental health provider shortages in Greater Minnesota or as an option that could help stave off the looming mass retirement of the state’s aging psychologist workforce. But, despite the promise offered by technology, most mental health providers in Minnesota avoided making the move to telemedicine, instead preferring to see their patients face-to-face.  Then COVID-19 hit Minnesota and everything changed. Within weeks of Gov. Tim Walz’s statewide stay-at-home order , mental health providers across the state were forced to embrace telemedicine: Sticking with the old ways of doing business would mean turning patients away and shutting down their practices.  This rapid switch went surprisingly quickly, said Teri Fritsma, senior research analyst for the Minnesota Department of Health Office of Rural Health and Primary Care . With an eye on keeping their practices alive, mental health providers made the switchover...

MinnPost provides updates on coronavirus in Minnesota Sunday through Friday. The information is published following a press phone call with members of the Walz administration or after the release of daily COVID-19 figures by the Minnesota Department of Health. Here are the latest updates from September 27, 2020: Four more Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health said Sunday, for a total of 2,008.  Of the people whose deaths were announced Sunday, two were in their 80s, one was in their 70s and one was in their 50s. One person whose death was announced Sunday was a resident of a long-term care facility. Of the 2,008 COVID-19 deaths reported in Minnesota, 1,445 have been among residents of long-term care. The current death toll only includes Minnesotans with lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 tests.  MDH also said Sunday there have been 96,734 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota. The number of confirmed cases is up 1,075 from Saturday’...

Implanted medical devices can be used to treat a number of medical conditions, including regulating heart function or delivering electrical stimulation to targeted areas of the brain to treat essential tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease . A new implantable device, to be designed and developed by scientists at the University of Minnesota Medical School , may be able to help treat common but serious mental illnesses like depression and PTSD.  A team of researchers, led by Alik Widge , M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , has been awarded a $6.6 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to develop the device, which would use electrical impulses to help misfiring brain rhythms fall into synchrony.  In a departure from the pace of typical academic research, this team —  which includes Widge; Greg Molnar , Ph.D., a medical device expert and associate professor in the Univers...