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State roundup: Gov. Brown offers revisions to health budget

A new state department would be formed to manage California's violence-plagued mental hospitals under a proposal in the governor's Monday budget revision. The push to create a Department of State Hospitals — and eventually do away with the Department of Mental Health, which now oversees the facilities — comes as lawmakers and employee unions press for changes to address increasing patient assaults on fellow patients and staff.

18 May 2011

First fully integrated wireless monitoring kit for post-surgery applications compatible with NFC cell phones

GENTAG, Inc., Third Technology Capital Investors, and The CORE Institute are pleased to announce the first fully integrated medical grade wireless monitoring kit for post-surgery applications compatible with the new generation of Near Field Communications (NFC) cell phones. The kit allows patients to self-monitor for excessive swelling in the surgery area or inside casts with their cell phones after hospital discharge (compartment syndrome monitoring).

17 May 2011

Connecture, MAXIMUS partner to deliver comprehensive government Health Insurance Exchange solution

MAXIMUS, Inc., a leading provider of government services worldwide, and Connecture, the leader in Web-based marketplaces and administration solutions for health insurance distribution, announced today that the two companies have entered into a strategic alliance.

17 May 2011

Pioneer of ‘organ-on-a-chip’ technology to speak at Imperial College London

The potential of microscopic organ-on-a-chip devices that mimic the way real organs work, so that scientists and engineers can model the effects of therapies more accurately, will be discussed by a pioneer in bioengineering at Imperial College London this week.

17 May 2011

Fluidigm launches 192.24 Dynamic Array integrated fluidic circuit for genome studies

Fluidigm Corporation today introduced its 192.24 Dynamic Array™ IFC, designed to genotype 192 samples against 24 SNP assays in a single run, providing 4,608 data points in just one hour. The 192.24 integrated fluidic circuit (IFC) has immediate applicability in agricultural biotechnology and genome wide association studies.

16 May 2011

Kindred Healthcare plans $550 million senior notes offering

Kindred Healthcare, Inc. today announced that it is planning to issue an aggregate principal amount of up to $550 million of senior notes due 2019 to qualified institutional buyers in accordance with Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and to certain non-United States persons in offshore transactions in accordance with Regulation S under the Securities Act.

16 May 2011

HHS dual-eligible program seeks to lower states' Medicaid costs

The centerpiece of the program, which HHS says could result in savings of billions of dollars a year, would give states access to data detailing how Medicaid populations use Medicare services.

13 May 2011

Kool Smiles inaugurates new San Angelo dental office

Kool Smiles, a leading dental health provider for children and adults, now has opened its doors to additional families in Texas with a new office location in San Angelo. Kool Smiles of San Angelo officially opened on February 7 as the organization continues to expand access to quality dental care for families in underserved communities across the nation.

12 May 2011

Medicare, entitlement reform continue to trigger political rifts

The AP reports that, as unlikely as it may seem, the Obama administration and congressional Republicans may share some common ideas regarding Medicare costs. Still, the issue of how to address the programs — and the related proposals — still are causing rifts within the GOP.

11 May 2011

Rapid blood-based test can determine patients with SLE

"At present, it can take up to a year before a patient is diagnosed with SLE. This is because the symptoms are diffuse and are often mistaken for other diseases. However, with this blood-based test, it is possible to determine quickly whether someone has the disease or not", says Christer Wingren, associate professor in Immunotechnology at CREATE Health, Lund University.

10 May 2011

House passes restrictive abortion measure, includes limits on insurance policies that cover abortions

In other House action, the chamber also approved another bill related to stripping funds from the health law. This one targeted money for a program in last year's health care law providing for construction of school-based health clinics.

6 May 2011

$University of Oregon physicist to design fractal vision devices$

University of Oregon physicist to design fractal vision devices

University of Oregon researcher Richard Taylor is on a quest to grow flowers that will help people who've lost their sight, such as those suffering from macular degeneration, to see again.

6 May 2011

First Edition: May 5, 2011

Kaiser Health News staff writer Jessica Marcy recently spoke with Dan Hawkins, the association's senior vice president, about the future and finances of community health centers and their evolving budgets.

5 May 2011

Viewpoints: Basic benefits package budget buster?; Colorado CHIP cuts; pharma's public image

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aims for a delicate balance that even its champions acknowledge as highly challenging: Making medical services affordable for tens of millions of uninsured Americans, and yet restraining the expenditures needed to vastly expand coverage. To grasp why the reform bill risks missing both goals -- and why the measure's margin for error is so perilously narrow -- it's crucial to follow the debate over its central provision, what it calls the "Essential Health Benefits" package.

5 May 2011

Chromatrap Pro-A Spin Columns improve ChIP assay performance

Porvair Filtration Group has announced the launch of the first product, a ChIP kit containing 24 assays, based upon its novel Chromatrap™ Pro-A Chromatin ImmunoPrecipitation (ChIP) technology. The exciting new product has been enthusiastically tested at 12 beta sites around the world with excellent results and feedback.

From Chromatrap® - Porvair Sciences Ltd 3 May 2011

New non-invasive device can measure brain's precise temperature

Doctors have long sought a way to directly measure the brain's temperature without inserting a probe through the skull. Now researchers have developed a way to get the brain's precise temperature with a device the diameter of a poker-chip that rests on a patient's head, according to findings presented May 1 at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Denver.

3 May 2011

Kindred Healthcare responds to CMS' proposed Medicare rule

Kindred Healthcare, Inc. today issued a response to the proposed rule issued late yesterday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding Medicare payment rates for skilled nursing facilities for fiscal year 2012.

30 Apr 2011

New microchip sensor can detect individual's respiratory rate

Researchers at Tyndall National Institute, UCC, Cork, have developed a microchip sensor that can detect a person's respiratory rate without any contact with the person under observation.

28 Apr 2011

Researchers identify three enterotypes in human intestinal bacteria

It would appear that in terms of composition, the intestinal bacteria of every individual can be divided into three main groups known as enterotypes. The intestinal bacteria in each enterotype organise themselves into distinct, stable clusters displaying common features.

28 Apr 2011

Dems eye Ryan Medicare plan as political opportunity

With Obama administration officials part of the campaign against the Ryan plan, other opponents also are stepping forward and launching a new wave of television ads in Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's very own congressional district. Meanwhile, The Washington Post analyzes some of the poll numbers behind where voters may stand on Medicare cuts.

27 Apr 2011