Health Connection E-newsletter
Play it Safe in the Sun
With summer in full swing, it is important to take appropriate measures to protect your skin from the sun’s harmful rays. Skin cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in the United States, with more than 3.5 million diagnoses each year. Here are several steps you can take to ensure that you and your family are properly protected from the sun.
25 Years of Dedication to Kansas City's Health
By Jessica Wahaus
Imagine you have an upset stomach that just won’t go away. What do you do? You don’t have time to wait for a doctor’s appointment and you’re not sure it’s serious enough for the Emergency Department. For the past 25 years, the ASK-A-NURSE Resource Center (AAN) at Shawnee Mission Medical Center (SMMC) has been the Kansas City area’s source for immediate medical information.
Take Care of Your Legs During Summer Travel
It’s the first day of a much needed vacation. You’ve just boarded the plane, sat back and kicked your off shoes to enjoy the three-hour flight. Upon arrival at your destination you reach down to put your shoes on, wondering if you happened to have mistakenly grabbed the shoes of the child sitting in front of you. Then you remember the co-worker who told you about the compression garments she wears when she travels to avoid leg swelling. You thought it was because she was overweight, which you aren’t, but now you wished you would have asked more questions.
Building for the Next Generation
When it comes to the health and well-being of mothers and their newborns, Shawnee Mission Medical Center (SMMC) has long been recognized as the area leader in maternity care. SMMC delivers more babies annually than any other hospital in Kansas City – nearly 4,000 each year – and welcomed its 100,000th baby on November 23, 2010.
On Tuesday, May 24, SMMC will break ground on a $42 million maternity expansion designed to meet the demand of the growing numbers of mothers who turn to SMMC for a safe, reassuring environment to deliver their babies.
Tinnitus Treatment Improves Patient's Quality of Life
At age 59, Alan Rittel remembers struggling with a hearing loss from the time he was in elementary school.
“I’m not sure what caused it, but I have had some difficulty hearing most of my life,” he said.
Like many individuals with hearing loss, Rittel also found himself dealing with the constant presence of what he describes as a very high-pitched chirping sound, better known as tinnitus.