Health Care News and Research

RSS

Early enrollment numbers far below administration targets

The projections, which put the total number of enrollees so far at fewer than 50,000 people, is just a fraction of the tally the Obama administration initially was hoping for.

12 Nov 2013

Promethera Biosciences completes patient enrolment for first clinical trial of HepaStem

Promethera Biosciences, a Belgian biotechnology company developing Promethera HepaStem, a cell-based therapy for the treatment of liver-based metabolic diseases including Crigler-Najjar Syndrome and Urea Cycle Disorders, announces today the completion of patient enrolment for its first clinical trial.

12 Nov 2013

Kaiser Permanente's Medicare health plan website launches new seminar search tool

Kaiser Permanente's highly rated Medicare health plan website, kp.org/medicare, has launched a new feature that is designed to help seniors find information more easily and conveniently.

12 Nov 2013

Zients warned years ago about problems with federal IT; Obama administration turning to insurers' expertise for website difficulties

Jeffrey D. Zients, a multimillionaire entrepreneur and management consultant, joined the Obama White House in 2009 with a mandate to streamline the federal bureaucracy. A year later, he issued a prescient warning. The government "largely has missed out" on the information technology revolution, Mr. Zients said in a 2010 internal memo. "I.T. projects too often cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than they should, take years longer than necessary to deploy and deliver technologies that are obsolete by the time they are completed," he wrote. These days, Mr. Zients is witnessing that ineptitude up close as the emergency fix-it man charged with righting HealthCare.gov (Stolberg, 11/10).

12 Nov 2013

State highlights: New Hampshire lawmakers contemplate Medicaid expansion; wide variation in indigent care among California counties

A selection of health policy stories from Massachusetts, Oregon and Iowa.

12 Nov 2013

Viewpoints: Shinseki's efforts haven't yet solved VA's problems; treating children with mental illness is complicated; abuse of painkillers

Just in time for Veterans Day, the embattled secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric K. Shinseki, announced last week that his department had reduced its backlog of overdue disability claims from more than 600,000 in March to about 400,000. "The trend line is in the right direction," Shinseki told reporters, noting that the VA had cut the number of claims older than a year by 93%. With hundreds of thousands of cases still unresolved, Shinseki hasn't gotten much credit so far - but to the surprise of his critics, he's on track to achieve his goal of eliminating the backlog by 2015. Still, that won't solve all the VA's problems; far from it (Doyle McManus, 11/10).

12 Nov 2013

IEEE-SA, Continua partner to broaden adoption of standards-based technologies for healthcare arena

IEEE Standards Association and Continua Health Alliance today announced they have signed a strategic agreement to help accelerate and broaden the adoption of globally relevant standards-based technologies for the healthcare arena.

12 Nov 2013

Choosing right health insurance could be more difficult for uninsured: Study

The new federal health-care law gives millions of Americans access to medical insurance. However, choosing the right coverage - a daunting task for most people - could be even more difficult for those who have never had health insurance, according to a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

12 Nov 2013

GOP sees potential in health law's problems, as website issues and overhaul complications take toll on Obama's ratings

Even as Republican lawmakers took a hard line during the weekend talk shows, Democrats still maintain the measure will, in the end, be a political advantage.

12 Nov 2013

Issa issues another subpoena about health law website -- his target: Top White House tech officer

So far, the White House has resisted congressional Republican efforts to speak with chief technology officer Todd Park about the roll-out of healthcare.gov.

12 Nov 2013

Researchers develop model that predicts earlier prediction of Alzheimer's disease in older adults

Using scores obtained from cognitive tests, Johns Hopkins researchers think they have developed a model that could help determine whether memory loss in older adults is benign or a stop on the way to Alzheimer's disease.

12 Nov 2013

JGU joins with 3 Chinese universities in fields of research and teaching

The Institute of Sports Science at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) will be collaborating with three Chinese universities in the fields of research and teaching. The agreements cover such as aspects as research projects in high-performance sports to health care courses for students.

12 Nov 2013

'Crunch time' for Obama on health law; the problems with that apology; young people feeling the sting of higher prices

But today, it's Obama in the spotlight. A president famous for his unflappability, he is now struggling to square assurances that he is on top of the problems confronting his administration with assertions that he was unaware of the problems as they were developing.

12 Nov 2013

Results announced for Phase 3B/4 study of RAPAMUNE in kidney transplant patients

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) announced today top-line results from a Phase 3B/4 study of RAPAMUNE® (sirolimus) evaluating kidney transplant patients who transitioned from tacrolimus-based therapy (TAC) to RAPAMUNE® 3 to 5 months after transplant.

12 Nov 2013

Health law overview: At the state level, divided government appears to function better than in congress

Some states have had more success striking compromises that expand health insurance coverage.

12 Nov 2013

Calcium-channel blocker and antibiotic intake linked with small but greater risk of kidney injury

Among older adults taking a calcium-channel blocker, simultaneous use of the antibiotic clarithromycin, compared with azithromycin, was associated with a small but statistically significant greater 30-day risk of hospitalization with acute kidney injury, according to a study published by JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the American Society of Nephrology's Kidney Week 2013.

12 Nov 2013

Health Care News and Research

Early enrollment numbers far below administration targets

Promethera Biosciences completes patient enrolment for first clinical trial of HepaStem

Kaiser Permanente's Medicare health plan website launches new seminar search tool

Zients warned years ago about problems with federal IT; Obama administration turning to insurers' expertise for website difficulties

State highlights: New Hampshire lawmakers contemplate Medicaid expansion; wide variation in indigent care among California counties

Viewpoints: Shinseki's efforts haven't yet solved VA's problems; treating children with mental illness is complicated; abuse of painkillers

IEEE-SA, Continua partner to broaden adoption of standards-based technologies for healthcare arena

Choosing right health insurance could be more difficult for uninsured: Study

GOP sees potential in health law's problems, as website issues and overhaul complications take toll on Obama's ratings

Issa issues another subpoena about health law website -- his target: Top White House tech officer

Researchers develop model that predicts earlier prediction of Alzheimer's disease in older adults

JGU joins with 3 Chinese universities in fields of research and teaching

'Crunch time' for Obama on health law; the problems with that apology; young people feeling the sting of higher prices

Results announced for Phase 3B/4 study of RAPAMUNE in kidney transplant patients

Health law overview: At the state level, divided government appears to function better than in congress

Calcium-channel blocker and antibiotic intake linked with small but greater risk of kidney injury

Proposals likely this week to respond to health law policy cancellations

Administration's mental health parity rule is part of effort to curb gun violence

FDA proposes change in generic drug makers' labels

In states not expanding Medicaid, hospitals face a squeeze as federal funds dry up

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®

Latest News