Latest news with #MedStar
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
So your beer league teammate is Evgeny Kuznetsov. Yes, that Evgeny Kuznetsov.
On the last Sunday in July, Jack Yager walked into a dressing room at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, focused on getting changed and ready for his men's league hockey game that night. As he crossed the threshold, Yager had a flash of recognition for the guy sitting in front of the door.
Washington Post
24-06-2025
- Climate
- Washington Post
D.C. region cooks under high temperatures amid heat wave
High heat clamped down on Tuesday across the eastern United States once again, with more than 75 million Americans between North Carolina and Maine spending the day under an extreme heat warning from the National Weather Service. In Washington, temperatures hit 95 degrees by noon. The heat index, a measure of heat and humidity, climbed to 105, a high enough measurement to trigger public concern and warnings. The high temperatures are the result of a heat dome, or a region of high pressure that stretches over a geographic region, and are expected to continue through Friday, according to The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang. For the Washington region, the impacts of the extreme heat and humidity have led to the cancellation of multiple events and caution from local leaders that people should stay indoors. In D.C., a Stray Kids concert at Nationals Park was reportedly shut down early Monday night due to the heat. The National Park Service closed down the Washington Monument for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday due to concern 'for visitors, and especially staff, who would be outside in the sun on the stone plaza for an extended length of time,' according to Mike Litterst, NPS's chief of communications for the National Mall. At Washington MedStar Hospital Center, providers saw a handful of patients with heat-related illnesses on Tuesday and two on Monday, according to Lauren Wiesner, the chair of emergency medicine. Such illness is typical when temperatures hit the 90s and above, she said. MedStar Georgetown treated several people who came to the emergency department Monday evening after they passed out due to the heat during an outdoor concert, a hospital spokesman said. In Maryland's Prince George's County, call volume for emergency services increased by ten percent over the last 24 hours, according to Alan Doubleday, public information director for Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department, with five specific heat-related calls coming in since 7 a.m. Tuesday morning. Virginia's major jurisdictions, such as Fairfax County, implemented heat plans, which in Fairfax included opening cooling centers with free bottled water and sunscreen. Tuesday's heat alerts stretched across parts or all of 26 states. Only corners of the desert Southwest were as hot as the east coast. Around Miami, by comparison, temperatures peaked around 90 degrees Tuesday afternoon, with humidity making it feel close to 100 degrees. The heat reached into parts of the Northeast that rarely see such extreme heat: Boston hit at least 101 degrees, a record for the month of June, according to WBZ-TV meteorologist Eric Fisher. Manchester, New Hampshire, hit the triple digits for only the ninth day on record, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Jonathan Erdman. Heat-related speed restrictions slowed train traffic on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, while utility companies, including Con Edison in New York, urged residents to conserve energy as the heat strained the power grid and contributed to outages. In Baltimore, where a sanitation worker died of heat-related illness last year, city officials told residents that trash collection may take longer than usual as crews took mandatory rest breaks and considered ending routes early or pausing collections as conditions became dangerous. Down Interstate 95, stifling heat gripped the Carolinas, causing the region's major utility, Duke Energy, to warn that it may not have enough electricity to keep the power going for all customers. The situation has caused the Trump administration to grant Duke Energy an emergency exemption allowing power plants that are not in compliance with federal air pollution rules to temporarily keep running. Groups of people, some unhoused, congregated in patches of shade midday Tuesday at Northeast Washington's Starburst Plaza. Nearby, an air-conditioned Metro bus offered a mobile cooling station — one of four stationed throughout the city. The resource is a partnership between WMATA and several D.C. agencies to provide immediate relief from extreme weather. Tyrone Edwards, a 65-year-old unhoused man who said he has lived in D.C. all his life, found relief from the high heat index on the bus. He said he's seen heat like this affect other homeless people and recalled watching friends die of heat-related causes. 'It shouldn't be that way,' he said, a tear mixing with beads of sweat on his cheek. An outreach worker from Community Connections, a nonprofit partner of the city's Department of Human Services, handed him a water bottle, and, to an elderly man on the bus, the can of bug repellent he requested. 'The heat is exhausting,' Edwards said. 'It drains you. But we seniors, we look out for each other.' Outside, outreach workers put their hands into a cooler of fast-melting ice, coming out with bottles of Gatorade for the people in the plaza. The cooler emptied quickly. Across town, the pool at Anacostia Recreation Center in Southeast Washington barely had a spot of shade by midafternoon as dozens waded in to stay cool. Steven Washington, 32, took his four kids to this pool for the first time. He typically goes to Fort Stanton Recreation Center — and went to a pool in Oxon Hill, Maryland, yesterday — but came to Anacostia because they had life vests for two of his kids to practice swimming. Washington was sweating and playing with his kids but said that as long as his family was around and happy, he was staying cool enough. Curtis Taylor was looking out at the sixteen kids he was leading all day as part of his Capital Cycle Camp. He was sweating but resting while standing on the pool deck. Taylor, 51, is a social worker for D.C. Public Schools. He runs the camp, which keeps kids, usually ages 6 to 11, active on two wheels for six weeks every summer. His group started the day at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church at 9 a.m. They biked over to the Fields at RFK Campus, then Heritage Island, then Anacostia Pavilion — where they rested for lunch — before they plopped down at the pool. Taylor built in this activity time because he wanted to make sure the kids are not biking outside for longer than two-and-a-half hours straight. The sweltering days are a time for him to teach his charges some practical ways to beat the heat. 'I emphasize extra hydration in the morning,' Taylor said. 'Often we think about just hydrating while we're moving and while we're in our activity but we've got to hydrate an hour before the activity.' Taylor said it was unfortunately relevant during yesterday's stretch of the heat wave, when one of his campers stopped sweating at one point because he was so dehydrated. 'It's oppressing,' Taylor's son, Jahwill, 25, said, who works as a manager at the camp. It was too hot to unwind in the way the father and son preferred. 'Your body feels pressurized,' Curtis Taylor said. 'I couldn't even drink a cold [beer].' Evan Halper and Jenna Portnoy contributed to this report.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Crash on westbound I-30 at Montgomery leaves all lanes blocked Monday evening
All westbound lanes of Interstate 30 at Montgomery Street in Fort Worth are closed Monday evening after a multi-vehicle crash, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Fort Worth police said the number of people involved and extent of any injuries are unknown as of 7:15 p.m. MedStar reported one person had non-life threatening injuries. The crash possibly involved two or three vehicles and one vehicle reported rolled over, police said. Officers are still working at the scene. 🚨 More top stories from our newsroom: → Is Texas banning all THC products? → 900 tips led to arrests in fatal Grapevine Lake crash → 3-alarm fire damages Fort Worth mansion [Get our breaking news alerts.]
CBS News
21-05-2025
- CBS News
Man trying to rescue his dog killed after he was struck by a train in Fort Worth, police say
A man trying to retrieve his dog was killed after he was struck by a train in Fort Worth Tuesday night, police said. Just before 6:30 p.m., police were called to the intersection of Kelton Street and Avington Way, where a "train vs pedestrian" accident had been reported. When officers arrived, they found a man had been accidentally hit by a train while trying to rescue his dog. MedStar said the man was pronounced dead on the scene. Fort Worth PD said the dog was also killed in the accident. Police have not yet identified the man.
Medscape
12-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
The Promise of AI and Cardiovascular Diseases for PCPs
Physician outlooks on artificial intelligence (AI) vary, but most will tell you they're open to using it. AI as a tool to improve the administrative side of medicine is widely embraced, as is AI in medical imaging. But what is its role in helping detect cardiovascular diseases in the primary care setting? As with all areas of AI in medicine, that's an evolving picture. In an official statement, the American Heart Association (AHA) said it supports the creation of tools and services that would 'further the science and practice of precision medicine by enabling more precise approaches to cardiovascular and stroke research, prevention and care of individuals and populations.' Nevertheless, the AHA continued, 'several challenges exist, and few artificial intelligence tools have been shown to improve cardiovascular and stroke care sufficiently to be widely adopted.' Still, AI isn't going anywhere, and the push for its use in cardiovascular disease prediction and treatment will only increase. 'AI is everywhere in the healthcare system,' said Hector Garcia-Garcia, MD, an interventional cardiologist with MedStar, based in Washington, D.C. 'AI tools are involved with labs, imaging, values, and more, and it's well integrated into electronic medical records today.' Hector Garcia-Garcia, MD The role of primary care physicians (PCPs) continues to be critical in heart disease detection. As frontline healthcare workers, PCPs are generally the first to note something amiss when it comes to patient cardiovascular health. 'PCPs are crucial to identifying cardiovascular health risks,' said Anthony Mercando, MD, a cardiologist at White Plains Hospital Physician Associates in New York City. 'They take family histories, do physical exams, and get blood panel results, all of which may show cause for investigating heart health.' While all these traditional tools have long led PCPs to refer patients to their cardiologist peers, today AI is increasingly involved in screening. And that may be a boon, as a high percentage of heart diseases go undiagnosed. The AI-Enhanced Tools If there's a traditional workhorse in the world of heart disease, it's the stethoscope. And now, AI has joined the show, promising to enhance the tool's ability to pick up subtle changes. Preliminary studies have demonstrated that AI-enhanced stethoscopes may lead to higher discovery and earlier diagnosis of cardiac murmurs associated with valvular heart disease, which affects 1 in 10 adults older than 65 years. The new stethoscopes work by making a 30- to 60-second recording of the patient's heart and lung sounds. Doctors also hear the sounds with greater clarity, thanks to amplification and noise cancellation. From here, AI steps in, instantly analyzing the sounds and ECG data to deliver a full picture of cardiac health — sometimes in as quickly as 15 seconds. The stethoscope represents a big step forward in early diagnosis, according to a Lancet-published study. Mercando is a fan of the new tool. 'We're doing a pilot here to screen patients who are not yet symptomatic or have abnormal test results,' he said. 'It's an exciting tool to pick up disease earlier in the process, and it's a tool that any healthcare practitioner can use.' The stethoscope is one example of how AI can enhance diagnosis of heart diseases, and represents a low-cost, frontline tool that PCPs can add to their practices. Other tools are less obvious, at least to the patient. One of these is imaging, a key player in heart disease diagnosis. CT scans of the heart have long been stalwarts in recognizing heart disease. For a relatively low cost, a scan can reveal three-dimensional images of a heart and its surrounding structures. Cardiac CT may involve contrast dye to reveal the moving heart and blood vessels. In the AI-enhanced version, CT can produce faster analysis of the images it takes. 'The AI is digging into hundreds of data points and is key in making the results faster,' said Garcia-Garcia. 'The results are always supervised by a cardiologist, but the AI is giving us the ability to identify red flags faster and earlier.' Anthony Mercando, MD Still, as with other uses of AI in medicine, it's important to recognize the clinical correctness of the results may not be perfect— thus the continued need for human intervention. According to the AHA's statement on CT imaging using AI, the applications are now 'capable of automating the computing of coronary artery calcium score' from low-dose CT or even from nuclear imaging studies. 'There's no AI tool in the United States that isn't supervised by the doctor, so the final word lies with the doctor,' said Garcia-Garcia. 'Therefore, there is no real downside.' At Mercando's community hospital, the newly created position of AI coordinator is looking into relevant applications for AI. One of those is a solution that looks at every chest CT and creates a calcium score. 'When you have a tool that can predict risk and allow specialists to treat patients earlier, you are saving lives,' said Mercando. Going Forward As a PCP, you may or may not be tuned into how AI is helping your cardiac/potential cardiac patients. But as the technology becomes more widespread and the public becomes more aware, patients may bring it into conversation. 'A classic example is how AI is now reading mammograms, identifying differences from 1 year to the next,' said Mercando. 'Patients are aware of this and now asking for it. The same may carry over to heart disease — patients are supportive of the technology.' AI in cardiac care isn't limited to stethoscopes and CT — its tentacles are beginning to reach into structural interventions like measuring stenosis, and by automatically detecting intracranial hemorrhage in stroke diagnosis. In its statement, the AHA warns against AI limitations specific to imaging. The group points to sourcing, curating, and sharing appropriate data as one sticking point, along with questions surrounding the appropriate reporting of results using accepted statistical measures. The AHA suggests that deep learning algorithms may be enhanced by using a new medical imaging data readiness scale for improved outcomes. As with all medical uses of AI, the AHA also cautions against bias leading to health inequities. The organization encourages the development of AI learning models that involve underrepresented races in cardiac care. The tool is far from perfected yet, but its potential will continue to intrigue doctors of all stripes, including cardiologists. Moving forward, the fact that AI will play an increasingly larger role in cardiovascular screening isn't up for debate. What is debatable is the point when will the tool be useful to improving patient outcomes at scale. In the AHA's opinion, the answer lies in the need to mitigate bias and ensure education and access to AI technologies. Only then, said the organization, can AI realize its full potential. From his perspective, Garcia-Garcia views AI's role in cardiovascular care as a game changer. 'AI can change how a patient is treated,' he said. 'Early detection gets patients to specialists sooner, and that saves lives.'
