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Cincinnati joins with children's hospitals to affirm critical role patient families play in making hospital stays

As National Patient Safety Awareness Week kicks off (March 2 - 8, 2014) Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is joining forces with children's hospitals around the country to affirm the critical role patient families play in making hospital stays as safe as possible for their children.

6 Mar 2014

WHO launches new guidance to help countries provide contraception information and services

In advance of International Women's Day on 8 March 2014, WHO is launching new guidance to help countries ensure human rights are respected in providing more girls, women, and couples with the information and services they need to avoid unwanted pregnancies.

6 Mar 2014

Costs for medications expected to rise by 3 – 5% in all health care settings in 2014

Costs for medications are expected to rise by three to five percent in all health care settings in 2014, according to a report published online ahead of print, by the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy (AJHP), the professional journal of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).

6 Mar 2014

Doula's support increases satisfaction during labor and delivery

Fewer medical interventions, fewer hours in labor and increased satisfaction with the birthing experience—that's what national statistics say a doula's support during labor and delivery means to women and their partners. A doula is a trained woman who provides nonmedical support during labor and delivery.

6 Mar 2014

Research to identify exact mechanisms behind preterm birth and fetal brain injury

An inflammatory protein that triggers a pregnant mouse's immune response to an infection or other disease appears to cause brain injury in her fetus, but not the premature birth that was long believed to be linked with such neurologic damage in both rodents and humans, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests.

6 Mar 2014

Virginia House Republicans press for special session to debate state's Medicaid expansion proposal

The expansion is currently being tackled as part of the state's two-year budget blueprint, but the House GOP is urging that it be considered separately in order to avert a potential government shutdown.

6 Mar 2014

$600M for health law implementation in President's proposed budget

In the meantime, the budget also proposes $5.5 billion for "risk corridors" in 2015 to pay insurers who find themselves with a higher number of sicker and older people they must insure. Some call that program a bailout.

6 Mar 2014

Patient and family satisfaction with acute care transfers for STEMI patients can be high, survey reveals

The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation today announced the results of survey research aimed at discovering patient and family satisfaction with acute care transfers for patients with STEMI (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction), a severe heart attack best treated quickly with specialized care.

6 Mar 2014

ASTRO white paper recommends specific guidance to follow in the delivery of HDR brachytherapy

The American Society for Radiation Oncology has issued a new white paper, "A review of safety, quality management, and practice guidelines for high-dose-rate brachytherapy," that recommends specific guidance to follow in the delivery of high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy to improve quality and patient safety, according to the manuscript published in the March-April 2014 print issue of Practical Radiation Oncology, the official clinical practice journal of ASTRO.

6 Mar 2014

Feds give South Dakota's partial Medicaid expansion plan a thumbs down; Utah may need a special session

News outlets report on these and other state efforts to address issues related to expanding the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people.

6 Mar 2014

States: Texas GOP rift in primary; L.A. nursing homes scrutiny; Calif. health costs protest

A selection of health policy stories from Texas, California, Arizona, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Virginia and Georgia.

6 Mar 2014

Study finds long-term reduction in mortality for young men who undergo radical prostatectomy

More than 230,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year in the United States, but determining their course of treatment remains a source of considerable debate. A new study by researchers from Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden, Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues—which draws from one of the few randomized trials conducted to directly address this issue—finds a substantial long-term reduction in mortality for men with localized cancer who undergo a radical prostatectomy.

6 Mar 2014

Viewpoints: Obama's budget punts on entitlements; Medicaid debate rankles states

There is a lesson in this unexpected juxtaposition nevertheless: No nation can safely base its tax and spending plans on inflexible commitments. Political life, both domestic and international, is too unpredictable. Yet U.S. government spending is mostly on autopilot. The government is scheduled to lay out $3.8 trillion this fiscal year - 70 percent of which will go to mandatory-spending programs, chiefly Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the federal debt. Mr. Obama's plan for fiscal 2015 does not change this; it would increase overall spending slightly, paying for it with selected tax increases, while shifting money among priorities here and there. But these tweaks would take place within the same 30 percent of discretionary spending that the current budget contains (3/4).

6 Mar 2014

White House to announce 2nd renewal for old health plans

Americans who kept health plans that didn't comply with the health law's coverage requirements will be able to renew those policies again, sources tell media outlets. The Obama administration is expected to announce the extension today.

6 Mar 2014

President Obama's budget: Medicare means testing and lower drug costs

The budget proposal includes a provision to make wealthier seniors in Medicare pay more as well and another to try to drive down the cost of prescription drugs. A rival Republican plan is also expected to propose cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

6 Mar 2014

CBO projects lower health law cost; Oregon lawmakers seek marketplace probe

The cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office takes into account lower-than-projected enrollment this year. Meanwhile, Oregon's Democratic senators ask the Government Accountability Office to examine federal funding of that state's website a day after House Republicans make a similar request.

6 Mar 2014

Report highlights benefits of different access approach to treat uterine fibroids

Interventional radiologists have devised a new way to access a woman's fibroids-by flipping her wrist and treating via an arm not groin artery-to nonsurgically shrink noncancerous growths in the muscular wall of the uterus. Researchers found this to be less painful and traumatic for women, allowing them to immediately sit up and move after uterine fibroid embolization (UFE)-with no overnight stay, according to a March article in the Society of Interventional Radiology's flagship publication, the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

6 Mar 2014

Arkansas House votes to fund Medicaid expansion private option

The measure, which extended for one year this "private" approach to expanding health insurance coverage to low-income state residents, failed in four previous votes. Its opponents say the debate is not over -- they are just "hitting the pause button."

6 Mar 2014

Poll: Public is split on candidates who backed Obamacare

But support has significantly increased for lawmakers who voted for the law, according to the Washington Post/ABC News poll. Meanwhile, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a potential GOP presidential candidate, tells a constituent worried about Obamacare to "elect a new president," and former White House adviser Ezekiel Emanuel writes in a new book that many of the early problems with the law were "self-inflicted."

6 Mar 2014

New study uses Lumosity games to detect subtle cognitive impairments in patients with cirrhosis

A new study from the University of Washington has found that performance on Lumosity games can distinguish between patients with cirrhosis of the liver, pre-cirrhotic patients, and healthy controls. The study used Lumosity games as psychometric tests to detect subtle cognitive impairments in patients with cirrhosis. The study is published in the March issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

6 Mar 2014

Health Care News and Research

Cincinnati joins with children's hospitals to affirm critical role patient families play in making hospital stays

WHO launches new guidance to help countries provide contraception information and services

Costs for medications expected to rise by 3 – 5% in all health care settings in 2014

Doula's support increases satisfaction during labor and delivery

Research to identify exact mechanisms behind preterm birth and fetal brain injury

Virginia House Republicans press for special session to debate state's Medicaid expansion proposal

$600M for health law implementation in President's proposed budget

Patient and family satisfaction with acute care transfers for STEMI patients can be high, survey reveals

ASTRO white paper recommends specific guidance to follow in the delivery of HDR brachytherapy

Feds give South Dakota's partial Medicaid expansion plan a thumbs down; Utah may need a special session

States: Texas GOP rift in primary; L.A. nursing homes scrutiny; Calif. health costs protest

Study finds long-term reduction in mortality for young men who undergo radical prostatectomy

Viewpoints: Obama's budget punts on entitlements; Medicaid debate rankles states

White House to announce 2nd renewal for old health plans

President Obama's budget: Medicare means testing and lower drug costs

CBO projects lower health law cost; Oregon lawmakers seek marketplace probe

Report highlights benefits of different access approach to treat uterine fibroids

Arkansas House votes to fund Medicaid expansion private option

Poll: Public is split on candidates who backed Obamacare

New study uses Lumosity games to detect subtle cognitive impairments in patients with cirrhosis

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

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