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Today's OpEds: Health summit critiques

We're told that gridlock, procedural holds, partisanship and extreme ideology are preventing members of Congress from working together. While some of this analysis is true -- Washington is petty, partisan and shortsighted -- few are acknowledging that Congress does enjoy remarkable unity in one critical area: spending beyond our means (Sen. Tom Coburn, 2/26).

26 Feb 2010

California subpoenas financial records of seven biggest insurers

"The California state attorney general's office said Thursday that it had subpoenaed financial records of California's seven largest health insurance companies as part of an investigation into whether they illegally raised customer premiums and denied payment of legitimate claims," the Los Angeles Times reports. "Prosecutors said they sought documents from Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna Health, Blue Shield of California, Cigna, Health Net, Kaiser Permanente and PacifiCare."

26 Feb 2010

With rate cut looming, doctors threaten to stop accepting Medicare patients

With a 21 percent Medicare reimbursement rate cut set for Monday, unless Congress acts to block it, some doctors are threatening to refuse new Medicare patients in their practices.

26 Feb 2010

Fate Therapeutics named to Technology Review's 2010 TR50 most innovative companies in the world list

Fate Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that the Company was named as one of Technology Review's 2010 TR50, the publication's first annual list of the 50 most innovative companies in the world. The 2010 TR50 companies span the fields of energy, computing, the Web, biomedicine, and materials and have been evaluated based on business model, strategies for deploying and scaling up its technologies and the likelihood of success. Each company in the 2010 TR50 has excelled not only at inventing technology but also at using it to transform how we live and work.

26 Feb 2010

Rare Disease Day 2010: Alexion Pharmaceuticals joins NORD and EURORDIS to raise awareness

Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., has joined the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) and the European Organization for Rare Diseases (EURORDIS) in supporting the goals of the third annual Rare Disease Day, February 28, 2010.

26 Feb 2010

Making public policies on vaccination with limited information

"Let's say you're a public health official from the Centers for Disease Control, and you don't really know how much disease is going to be averted by vaccinating different fractions of the population," said Manski, the Board of Trustees Professor in Economics in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. "Then how should you choose a policy? That's really what the paper tries to address."

26 Feb 2010

Widely used biomarkers in early detection of liver cancer are not ideal: Study

Widely used biomarkers are not optimal in early detection of liver cancer, the third most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide, according to a new study published in this month's Gastroenterology.

26 Feb 2010

Salmonella-infected mice help understand how symptoms of HLH develop

A new University of Colorado at Boulder study shows mice infected with the bacteria salmonella develop clinical signs consistent with a deadly and poorly understood human inflammatory disease, a finding that may lead to new therapies.

26 Feb 2010

Mutations in MeCP2 cause autism spectrum disorder Rett Syndrome

A paper published online today in Molecular Cell proposes that Methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) impacts the entire genome in neurons, rather than acting as a regulator of specific genes. Mutations in MeCP2 cause the autism spectrum disorder Rett Syndrome as well as some cases of neuropsychiatric problems including autism, schizophrenia and learning disabilities.

26 Feb 2010

New strategy against Botulinum toxin

A study involving the world's deadliest substance has yielded a new strategy to clear toxins from the body-which may lead to more efficient strategies against toxins that may be used in a bioterrorist event, as well as snake bites, scorpion stings, and even some important chronic diseases.

26 Feb 2010

OneWest Foundation, UCLA Health System grant $600,000 for helping low-income patients obtain medical care

Thanks to a generous three-year, $300,000 grant from the OneWest Foundation — matched by funds from the UCLA Health System — qualified Venice Family Clinic patients who need hospitalization or specialized medical care may now be helped by a pilot project launched by the foundation, the clinic and the UCLA Health System.

26 Feb 2010

First Edition: February 26, 2010

It's the day after the White House health summit and the headlines are focused on what went on yesterday and what will happen next.

26 Feb 2010

Advances in surgical technology enable surgeons to perform many operations as outpatient procedures

Nearly 58 percent of the surgeries performed in hospitals were done as outpatient procedures, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

26 Feb 2010

$Fragility fractures: 'Own the Bone' program for enhancing prevention and treatment$

Fragility fractures: 'Own the Bone' program for enhancing prevention and treatment

As many as half of all women and a quarter of men over the age of 50 can expect to sustain a fractured bone related to osteoporosis or low bone density. To enhance prevention and treatment of these fragility fractures, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center has implemented an innovative program called Own the Bone™ developed by the American Orthopaedic Association.

26 Feb 2010

Cause of multiple sclerosis: Researchers test autoimmune hypothesis

A non-pathogenic bacterium is capable to trigger an autoimmune disease similar to the multiple sclerosis in the mouse, the model animal which helps to explain how human diseases work. This is what a group of researchers from the Catholic University of Rome, led by Francesco Ria (Institute of General Pathology) and Giovanni Delogu (Institute of Microbiology), have explained for the first time in a recently published article on the Journal of Immunology.

26 Feb 2010

Over 16% of pregnant women diagnosed with gestational diabetes

Two to three times more pregnant women may soon be diagnosed and treated for gestational diabetes, based on new measurements for determining risky blood sugar levels for the mother and her unborn baby, according to a study that was coordinated by investigators at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

26 Feb 2010

Possible damage to children caused by compulsory vaccines: CVS calls for investigation of federal agencies

In a letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of House and Senate Committees charged with oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Coalition for Vaccine Safety (CVS) is calling for hearings to investigate HHS, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other government agencies for failure to fully address issues of vaccine safety as intended by the Mandate for Safer Vaccines in the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act.

26 Feb 2010