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Siestas can dramatically boost and restore brain power

If you see a student dozing in the library or a co-worker catching 40 winks in her cubicle, don't roll your eyes. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour's nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter.

21 Feb 2010

Health worker training program cuts stillbirths by 30% in 6 developing countries, study says

The rate of stillbirths was cut by more than 30 percent after health workers in rural parts of six developing countries were trained "in how to help a newborn start breathing and to keep it warm and clean," according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Reuters reports. The trainees - who included midwives, nurses, traditional birth attendants and physicians - were given "hand-held pumps and masks to fill babies' lungs with air if they were not breathing at birth, clean-delivery kits to prevent infection and scales to measure their weight," the news service writes.

20 Feb 2010

State lawmakers address 'troubling trends' in insurance market

Des Moines (Iowa) Register: "State lawmakers want to press Iowa health insurers to release more details to help lawmakers decide whether rate increases are justified. This week, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the state's largest health insurer, said it would raise rates an average of 18 percent for about 80,000 Iowans who buy their own health insurance" (Jacobs, 2/19).

20 Feb 2010

Standard checklist for home palliative sedation

Can patients near death safely receive sedation at home, fully respecting their own and their families' wishes? This practice, which is on the rise, is coming under increasing scrutiny and debate by palliative care researchers and practitioners.

19 Feb 2010

U.S. Patent and Trademark office issues Patent on Positron’s Tech-Assist

Positron Corporation a molecular imaging solutions company focused on Nuclear Cardiology, announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark office has allowed for issuance a Patent on Positron’s Tech-Assist™. The Tech-Assist™, invented under the direction of John A. Zehner, a nuclear pharmacist, dramatically reduces exposure to the worker while injecting radiopharmaceuticals into patients when performing Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging studies.

19 Feb 2010

Travellers are likely to become increasingly exposed to canecutter's disease: Study

A team led by PhD researcher Dr Colleen Lau from the School of Population Health http://www.sph.uq.edu.au/ , has discovered the disease, known medically as leptospirosis, was traditionally a concern for males working in the agricultural and livestock industries, as it is contracted from contact with the urine of host animals.

18 Feb 2010

Review: Giving employees more flexibility over their work schedules likely to boost their health

A new evidence review suggests that giving employees more flexibility over their work schedules is likely to boost their health as judged by measures like blood pressure and stress. But interventions that are motivated or dictated by the needs of the employer, such as cutting hours, either have no effect on employee health or make it worse.

18 Feb 2010

Imposing tax on health benefits likely to cause major cuts in health benefits

Since the vast majority of Americans who have health coverage get it through their jobs, one obvious question raised by the health reform legislation pending in Congress is: How might it affect the U.S. employment-based health benefits system?

17 Feb 2010

Rate of seasonal flu vaccination doubles national average at Johns Hopkins East Baltimore medical campus

A campaign that makes seasonal flu vaccinations for hospital staff free, convenient, ubiquitous and hard to ignore succeeds fairly well in moving care providers closer to a state of "herd" immunity and protecting patients from possible infection transmitted by health care workers, according to results of a survey at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

12 Feb 2010

SafeBridge Consultants validates improved hygiene air sampling and analytical method for naproxen sodium

SafeBridge® Consultants, Inc. headquartered in Mountain View, California announced today that its industrial hygiene analytical laboratory has recently validated an industrial hygiene air sampling and analytical method with improved analytical sensitivity for measurement of naproxen sodium on filters. SafeBridge now has a validated method that will detect as low as 20 picograms per filter in an air sample collected on appropriate media. This limit of detection is four (4) to five (5) times lower than methods available from other commercial laboratories.

11 Feb 2010

Neuroscience research and clinical care launched at UT Medical School

Innovative neuroscience research and expanded clinical care have been launched at the new Center of Excellence on Mood Disorders at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

4 Feb 2010

Despite improvements, aid delivery bottlenecks persist in Haiti

Three weeks after a major earthquake struck Haiti, challenges in getting aid to those in need persist, the Washington Post reports. "Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the relief effort has escalated in recent days and will continue to do so.

4 Feb 2010

Associates at SJRMC's new hospital in Mishawaka now have access to on-site concierge service

Associates at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center’s (SJRMC) new hospital in Mishawaka, Ind., now have access to an on-site concierge service provided by Best Upon Request, a national organization based in Cincinnati.

3 Feb 2010

HHS appoints new members to Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today the appointment of 24 new members to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). The PACHA’s chair, Dr. Helene Gayle, was appointed in August 2009.

2 Feb 2010

Majority of surgeons experience occupational injuries from minimally invasive techniques

Surgeons who engage in minimally invasive, laparoscopic surgery are providing great benefits to their patients, but possibly to their own detriment. That's the finding of the largest survey ever conducted of surgeons in North America who perform laparoscopic procedures.

2 Feb 2010

New mental health coverage rules promise to end some discrimination

Reuters: Employer-provided group health plans must offer the same level of coverage for mental illness and drug abuse treatment as for other ailments, according to federal regulations issued on Friday.

31 Jan 2010

Palliative care program may complement patients' ongoing care with symptom management and support

Georgia Sue Huston knew she was really sick. Every time the 82-year-old woman tried to turn over in her bed in the coronary care unit at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, she’d panic because she couldn’t get enough air and because it hurt so much.

28 Jan 2010

Study shows ActiveHealth's VBID programs increase adherence to medications

ActiveHealth Management (ActiveHealth®), a subsidiary of Aetna, today announced the publication of a paper in the February issue of Health Affairs. The paper demonstrates that properly structured value-based insurance design (VBID) programs can be effective at increasing adherence to drug regimens for specific chronic medical conditions without increasing overall costs.

28 Jan 2010

WHO Director-General highlights global health gains, challenges at executive board meeting

During the WHO's recent executive board meeting, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan reflected on public health gains over the past decade and the challenges that lie ahead, Nigeria's Guardian reports. Chan commended the international community's response to H1N1 and global efforts to reduce child mortality, fight malaria and tuberculosis.

27 Jan 2010

Former union officials attempt to stop 29 elections

After months and months of saying they wanted union elections held immediately at hospitals and nursing homes in California, former SEIU-UHW officials who were ousted from the union are now trying to stop 29 elections that are ready to proceed for more than 4,000 workers.

24 Jan 2010