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Mass., Vermont pioneer their own health reforms

Efforts in Massachusetts and Vermont offer insight regarding cost controls and a state initiative to create a single-payer system.

10 Apr 2013

Hospitals, other providers increasingly using 'the cloud' to store images

Health-care providers are starting to embrace the fast-growing area of technology known as cloud services, the model of shared computing in which data is stored on remote servers that hospitals can access via desktop, tablet or smartphone.

10 Apr 2013

Adults younger than 65 more likely to skip meds to save money

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that adults younger than 65 were more likely than older Americans to skip medicines, or not take them as prescribed.

10 Apr 2013

House GOP leader to introduce Tavenner at nomination hearing

Senators are planning to grill Marilyn Tavenner, the Obama administration's nominee to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, but Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., has said she is "eminently qualified," and her confirmation is expected.

10 Apr 2013

AP analysis reveals big jump in compensation package for insurance exec

Aetna Inc. missed an earnings goal last year, so the health insurer chopped the performance-based bonus it awarded Chairman and CEO Mark T. Bertolini.

10 Apr 2013

Most Americans concerned about misuse of pain medication to treat chronic pain

A new national public opinion poll commissioned by Research!America shows only 18% of respondents believe chronic pain is a major health problem, even though a majority of Americans (63%) say they know someone who experienced pain so severe that they sought prescription medicines to treat it.

10 Apr 2013

Podcast addresses food security in Ethiopia

In the third Humanosphere podcast, development blogger Tom Paulson interviews Roger Thurow, a former foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and senior fellow on global agriculture and food policy at the Chicago Council of Global Affairs.

9 Apr 2013

Patients follow preventive health practices if their doctors do likewise

Patients are more likely to follow preventive health practices like getting a flu shot or mammography if their doctors do likewise, researchers at the University of British Columbia and in Israel have discovered.

9 Apr 2013

Research suggests number of dengue cases three times higher than current WHO estimate

"Around 390 million people are infected each year with dengue fever -- the world's fastest-spreading tropical disease -- more than triple the current estimate by the World Health Organization, experts said on Sunday," Reuters reports.

9 Apr 2013

Some GOP governors see block grant opportunity in Medicaid expansion

Politico reports that some conservatives who have long sought to convert Medicaid into a block grant program see an opening with the health law to move in this direction. Also in the news, states continue to mull how to proceed with this provision of the law.

9 Apr 2013

New hospital gown blends style for patient with clinical function

The drafty backside is finally gone, replaced with comfort, warmth and dignity in a newly designed hospital gown that blends style for the patient with clinical function for the health care team.

9 Apr 2013

Hospice of the Western Reserve offers tips for making healthcare wishes known

National debate about health care reform is focusing new attention on advance directives and the decisions people make in the final stage of life.

9 Apr 2013

First Edition: April 9, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about about various elements of the health law and how they are being viewed as implementation rolls ahead.

9 Apr 2013

Blogs, opinion pieces recognize 1,000 day milestone until end of MDGs

April 5 marked 1,000 days until the end of the Millennium Development Goals, agreed to by the U.N. in 2000 as the world's first development agenda. International discussions are underway to determine the post-2015 development agenda.

9 Apr 2013

Cuts to NIH 'inconsistent' with university interest in global health research

"As the debate over federal budget allocations and cuts continues, the National Institutes of Health, a leading funder for both domestic and global health research, could experience a whopping $1 billion budget cut," Karen Siegel and colleagues from Emory University write in the Health Affairs Blog.

9 Apr 2013

World Heart Federation publishes position statement on rheumatic fever, rheumatic heart disease

The World Heart Federation has published a new position statement outlining the five key strategic targets required to meet its strategic goal for rheumatic heart disease - a 25% reduction in premature deaths from rheumatic fever and RHD among individuals aged <25 years by the year 2025.

9 Apr 2013

Experts discuss challenges in global health

In a post in the Skoll World Forum, experts address the question, "What are some of the biggest challenges in global health today, and how do we address them?"

9 Apr 2013

Opinion pieces, blogs address World Health Day

To mark the anniversary of the founding of the WHO in 1948, the international community on April 7 observed World Health Day. This year's theme was high blood pressure, or hypertension.

9 Apr 2013

Politicians need to address 'increasingly ominous' issue of food security

"A study by the U.K. Institution of Mechanical Engineers found that somewhere between 30 percent and 50 percent of all the food grown in the world never makes it to the plate," and "[u]p to one billion people are malnourished or hungry," a Guardian editorial writes.

9 Apr 2013

VOA News reports on pilot program against lymphatic filariasis in Nigeria

VOA News reports on "a new public health strategy, tested in Nigeria," which is "raising hopes" that the tropical disease known as lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis, can be eliminated.

9 Apr 2013