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State Round-up: California adult day care, Massachusetts and D.C. insurance news

In today's state news, a California judge rules that state cuts to adult day care violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, pending legislation in Massachusetts could help ease the insurance burden for small businesses and insurers in Washington, D.C., may have to share a portion of their $687 million surplus with the city.

11 Sep 2009

Joint Commission to help hospitals fix patient safety problems

"The Joint Commission announced today that its newly-formed Center for Transforming Healthcare will work on new collaborative programs with leading hospitals and health care systems to find a cause of the most deadly breakdowns in patient care, and put a stop to them,"

11 Sep 2009

Weight training may help the elderly retain muscle

Have you ever noticed that people have thinner arms and legs as they get older? As we age it becomes harder to keep our muscles healthy. They get smaller, which decreases strength and increases the likelihood of falls and fractures. New research is showing how this happens — and what to do about it.

11 Sep 2009

Oregon lawmaker continues to push for end-of-life care benefit

Despite an opposition campaign full of misinformation, an Oregon lawmaker continues to push to keep his controversial end-of-life provision in the House's health care proposal.

11 Sep 2009

More options seen for patients to bargain hunt for health care

CNN reports on the "growing number of hospitals, Web sites, even states, helping patients comparison shop on the Internet before undergoing a medical procedure or test. Hospitals say they're responding to a growing demand from patients who are paying for more of their health care out of pocket, thanks to rising deductibles and the advent of high deductible, consumer-driven plans."

11 Sep 2009

Dell enters health IT fray, catering to small providers

The computer company Dell unveiled a new offering to doctors and hospitals shopping for an electronic medical records system Thursday, Dow Jones Newswires reports. Dell's system will be cheaper, easier and more compatible with other products, the company said, helping to overcome longstanding health information technology obstacles (Solsman, 9/10).

11 Sep 2009

Care Support of America on overlooked healthcare issues in eldercare and family caregiving

As healthcare reform is being debated in Congress and on Main Street, vital and practical issues in eldercare and family caregiving are being overlooked. Some 30 million U.S. baby boomers are family caregivers for their aging parents, trying to keep their parents safe at home and helping them navigate the complexities of Medicare and manage an advancing illness. If they had their say, most elderly people would prefer to age in their own homes.

11 Sep 2009

Health policy research roundup

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: A Snapshot of U.S. Physicians: Key Findings from the 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey - This brief reviews findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey, a national survey including the responses of more than 4,700 U.S. physicians who provide "at least 20 hours per week of direct patient care."

11 Sep 2009

Number of uninsured grows even as government programs cover more Americans

Kaiser Health News reports: "More children had health insurance last year, partially offsetting a growing number of adults who lacked coverage as the troubled economy helped push insurance out of reach for many workers. New Census Bureau numbers show the total number of uninsured rose to 46.3 million in 2008, up from 45.6 million in 2007. The percentage of uninsured remained at 15.4 percent."

11 Sep 2009

University of Surrey lecturer on Co-sleeping

The event will be a series of overlapping presentations based on video clips of older people talking about their experience of poor sleep, and the impact this has on their lives. The presenters are all involved in the SomnIA (Sleep in Ageing) project based at the University of Surrey. As well as the video-based presentations and discussions, members of the audience will be invited to share some of their own experiences of poor sleep, and write down questions which they would like the panel of presenters to address during the last part of the event.

11 Sep 2009

Immigration and education policies to impact United states' leadership in science and discovery

Immigration and education policy experts gathered on Capitol Hill today to address the impact of policies related to U.S. medical innovation. The briefing, titled Education & Immigration: The Building Blocks of Innovation, was sponsored by the Council for American Medical Innovation as the first in a three-part series, Recovery Through Discovery, which examines medical innovation as a driver of U.S. economic recovery and enhanced global leadership in science.

11 Sep 2009

Mayo study raises hope for treating multiple sclerosis

A Mayo Clinic study has found that two genes in mice were associated with good central nervous system repair in multiple sclerosis (MS). These findings give researchers new hope for developing more effective therapies for patients with MS and for predicting MS patients' outcomes. This study will be presented at the Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Sept. 11, 2009.

11 Sep 2009

IMIA Salary Survey to provide key insight into the medical interpreting profession

A new 2009 IMIA Salary Survey will offer key insight into the medical interpreting profession. The strongest participation ever is anticipated, based on trends in this fast-emerging profession.

11 Sep 2009

HIV/AIDS patients in U.S. have no long-term treatment options: ATAC report card

With the estimated 1.2 million people with HIV/AIDS in the United States expected to live close to a normal life span, the majority of pharmaceutical companies are not developing innovative, new long-term treatment options that offer improved efficacy, safety and tolerability when taken for decades, according to a report card on the pharmaceutical industry released today by the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition's (ATAC) Drug Development Committee.

11 Sep 2009

Results from the BRITE-MD trials published in Psychiatry Research: Aspect Medical Systems

Aspect Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASPM) today announced that two companion articles highlighting results from the BRITE-MD (Biomarkers for Rapid Identification of Treatment Effectiveness trial in Major Depression) were published in the September issue of the journal Psychiatry Research.

11 Sep 2009

Dyax' Phase 3 hereditary angioedema clinical program affirms reliability of its novel PROs

Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ:DYAX) today announced a study published evaluating the Company’s novel Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROs) used to assess hereditary angioedema (HAE) attacks affirmed the PROs as valuable instruments in capturing HAE symptom severity and impact of treatment.

11 Sep 2009

Brigham & Women's Hospital to implement Patient Safety's Safety-Sponge System

Patient Safety Technologies (OTC Bulletin Board: PSTX) announced that it has signed a contract with Partners HealthCare and will be implementing its Safety-Sponge(TM) System at Brigham & Women's Hospital.

11 Sep 2009

Elderberry extract prevents H1N1 infection in vitro

A recent research study has given new scientific evidence to the long-held empirical belief that elderberries possess antiviral activities. The research involved a specific, reproducible elderberry extract developed by HerbalScience Group LLC, and succeeded in identifying key chemical components of the extract that inhibited in vitro infection and were shown to bind directly to Human Influenza A (H1N1) virus particles. The binding blocked the ability of the viruses to enter host cells, and thereby effectively preventing H1N1 infection in vitro.

11 Sep 2009

One-fifth of Americans follow health news very closely: Pew Research Center

Approximately one-fifth of Americans follow health news very closely, according to the Pew Research Center. To identify how the demand for health stories is met, University of Missouri researchers surveyed national health journalists about their development of story ideas and use of expert sources and public relations materials.

11 Sep 2009

USPTO allows Isis an additional patent for single-stranded RNAi technology

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISIS) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY) announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has allowed an Isis patent application that further expands the scope of the "Crooke" patent estate. The newly allowed patent broadly covers methods of cleaving a target RNA via a double-stranded ribonuclease mechanism, including the RNAi mechanism, with chemically modified, single-stranded RNA-containing drugs.

11 Sep 2009