MIAMI – Every year, more than 11,000 Americans of all ages are in need of life-saving organ transplants and that need didn’t stop in the face of COVID-19.
Dr. Adela Mattiazzi with The Miami Transplant Institute said there was very little change in the number of transplants performed in 2020 versus 2019, in large part because of efforts to remotely assist patients post-transplant, even with lab work.
“It’s very important for the transplant patients to follow up with the labs so we use programs to bring the products to the patients home and have phlebotomists do the labs for us so we can get the labs here or to another place,” Mattiazzi said.
Along with the RemoTraC system that allows for at-home lab work, Dr. Mattiazzi said telemedicine also allows for vital visits with patients to monitor progress and address concerns.
Also in today’s health news, researchers are learning more about how exposure to plastics can disrupt the endocrine system, causing serious health issues.
The lead author of the study at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign said that many of the plastics we use today can lead chemicals into the body that affect hormones secreted by various glands, intensifying or causing any number of conditions, including heart disease and cancer.
Despite mounting evidence on the harmful effects of endocrine disruptive chemicals or EDC’s, so far regulation on their use has been limited.