Arizona

PHOENIX — It's been said that marriage is good for your health — especially if you're a man. Research at Mayo Clinic in Arizona shows that's true when it comes to seeking care for stroke symptoms. A Mayo Clinic study, presented at the American Stroke Conference in New Orleans in early February, says that men experiencing a stroke call for emergency help quicker than women, especially if they are married. "Marriage has long been shown to offer health benefits and often more for men," said Joyce Lee-Iannotti, M.D., a neurology Fellow at Mayo Clinic in Arizona and author of the study. "The reasons are unclear, but it's been postulated that it can be societal roles, where women take on the roles of caregivers and advise their spouses to seek care, often putting their own health behind that of their children and husband." VIDEO: Dr. Lee-Iannotti explains the study. The study was a retrospective review of 209 patients with acute stroke symptoms brought by emergency medical services to Mayo Clinic in Phoenix over 15 months ending in November 2011. Researchers collected participants' age, gender, marital status, time of symptom awareness and time of emergency medical services dispatch. They compared the time from symptoms awareness to EMS dispatch between married and single participants and between men and women. Married men called within 28 minutes of symptoms compared to married women, who called an average of 67 minutes after their first stroke symptoms. Single men activated EMS earlier than single women, but the difference was not significant.

PHOENIX — Mayo Clinic in Arizona has completed more than 200 pancreas transplants since the program opened in 2003, performing the highest number of simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplants annually in Arizona. The benefit of pancreas transplantation is normalization of blood sugar levels, thereby eliminating the need for insulin. In some cases, a pancreas transplant can slow the progression of diabetic complications. Mayo Clinic's first pancreas transplant took place on July 17, 2003, and the 200th transplant took place on Nov. 23, 2011. As of Aug. 31, 2011, according to data collected by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), Mayo Clinic in Arizona had performed 152 simultaneous kidney/pancreas transplants and 41 pancreas transplants in the form of pancreas transplant alone, or pancreas-after-kidney transplant. Only two other medical centers in Arizona perform pancreas transplants, with Mayo doing the most simultaneous kidney/pancreas transplants. In 2010, Mayo Clinic in Arizona was the second largest transplant center in the U.S. performing simultaneous kidney/pancreas transplants. Mayo Clinic as a three-site organization (Arizona, Florida and Minnesota) has performed pancreas transplants for more than 20 years for patients having complex diseases such as diabetes. The first pancreas transplant (a simultaneous pancreas/kidney) was performed on Dec. 16, 1987, at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Since then, a total of 403 pancreas transplants have been completed. At Mayo Clinic in Florida, 147 pancreas transplanted have been performed since the program opened in 2000.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — This morning, Fortune magazine named Mayo Clinic to its select list of the"100 Best Companies to Work For" in 2012. This is ...

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Administrative burdens and limits on reimbursement are among the obstacles keeping hospitals from choosing to implement potentially lifesaving telemedicine programs, according to a study published in the January/February issue of Telemedicine and e-Health. The study by researchers from Mayo Clinic in Arizona, C3O Medical Group in Ojai, Calif., and UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, surveyed emergency and critical care telemedicine users to determine factors that motivate and barriers that impede development of a robotic telemedicine program. VIDEO ALERT: Click here to view comments about the study. Telemedicine provides timely medical expertise to patients who have medical emergencies but do not have ready access to specialized medical centers. For instance, in Arizona, Mayo Clinic operates a telestroke program featuring a robot that allows a stroke patient in a rural emergency department the opportunity to be seen in real time by a specialized stroke neurologist at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. The study results are not surprising, says Bart Demaerschalk, M.D., a neurologist and professor of neurology, director of the Mayo Clinic Telestroke Program and co-author of the study. He says the study revealed that the primary impediments to continued success in telemedicine are: Licensing restrictions The administrative burden of giving physicians privileges and credentials to engage in telemedicine and lining up malpractice insurance Limitations in ability for billing and reimbursement