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U.S. News ranks Meridian Health among 2011-2012 Best Hospitals

Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Ocean Medical Center and Riverview Medical Center, all members of Meridian Health, are included in the 2011-2012 Best Hospitals metro area rankings released by U.S. News & World Report.

19 Oct 2011

Young adults born prematurely show multiple biological signs of risks to future health

Young adults who were born prematurely show multiple biological signs of risks to future health, research from Imperial College London has found. The scientists, reporting their findings tomorrow in the journal Pediatric Research, say that the research indicates that urgent work is now needed to monitor preterm babies into adulthood to improve the detection of early signs of disease.

19 Oct 2011

Jersey Shore completes first procedure with Abiomed's Impella 2.5 heart pump

Jersey Shore University Medical Center announces the completion of its first procedure with Abiomed's Impella 2.5 heart pump. Jersey Shore is the first and only regional hospital to include the World's Smallest Heart Pump in their portfolio of treatment options to assist critically ill heart patients.

19 Oct 2011

Study finds 30% decline in heart failure hospitalization rate

Being hospitalized for heart failure (HF) was about 30 percent less likely in 2008 than in 1998, according to a study by Yale physicians in the Oct. 19 issue of JAMA. The team also found that the rate of hospitalization for black men dropped at a lower rate, and that one-year mortality rates declined slightly during this period, but remained high.

19 Oct 2011

Viewpoints: CLASS decision ends fear of government bailout; the strengths and failings of U.S. health care

The problem, as numerous experts warned at the time, was whether the program could be run, as the law required, in a way that made it financially solvent for at least 75 years. The difficulty with the CLASS Act was ensuring that premiums could be set low enough to attract widespread participation but high enough to pay tbenefits. The risk was that the program would attract the sickest participants, who thought they might need its protections, and thereby drive premium prices ever higher in a spiral of dysfunctionhe promised.

19 Oct 2011

Heart-failure related hospitalizations has declined substantially among Medicare patients

Between 1998 and 2008, heart-failure related hospitalizations declined substantially among Medicare patients, but at a lower rate for black men, according to a study in the October 19 issue of JAMA. Also, 1-year mortality rates declined slightly during this period, but remain high.

19 Oct 2011

Effective liability reform could reduce hospital admissions

Visits to emergency departments climbed nearly 10 percent in one year to a new high of more than 136 million visits in 2009, according to preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), just as emergency physicians are releasing new studies showing an association between medical liability concerns and rising hospital admissions from the emergency department.

18 Oct 2011

UTA technology could reduce time and cost to finding a cure for Alzheimer's

Technology developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin could significantly reduce the time and cost to finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease and help answer one of the greatest biological questions: why do we age?

18 Oct 2011

Potential new protein target for pulmonary hypertension

A protein critical to development appears to have a grave impact on lungs exposed to smoking and air pollution, researchers report.

18 Oct 2011

New DNA-based prenatal blood test can identify pregnancy with Down syndrome

A new DNA-based prenatal blood test that can strikingly reduce the number of risky diagnostic procedures needed to identify a pregnancy with Down syndrome is ready to be introduced into clinical practice.

18 Oct 2011

Patients with AB blood type 20% less likely to die after CABG surgery

A new study presented at ANESTHESIOLOGY 2011 focused on whether blood type affects survival after heart surgery. Researchers from Duke University Medical Center studied more than 15,000 patients to determine if a specific blood type puts patients at a higher risk for death or complications after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.

18 Oct 2011

Omega-3 in fish oil could reduce signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis

New research has shown for the first time that omega-3 in fish oil could "substantially and significantly" reduce the signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis.

18 Oct 2011

High glucose and oxidative stress stimulate AMPK in embryo

In a paper published today in Diabetologia, a team at Joslin Diabetes Center, headed by Mary R. Loeken, PhD, has identified the enzyme AMP kinase (AMPK) as key to the molecular mechanism that significantly increases the risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida and some heart defects among babies born to women with diabetes.

18 Oct 2011

Researchers identify 42 genetic regions associated with liver function

Researchers have identified a large number of areas in the human genetic code that are involved in regulating the way in which the liver functions, in a new study of over 61,000 people, published today in the journal Nature Genetics.

18 Oct 2011

Viewpoints: Class Act's effect on health law; new prescriptions for Medicare; food marketing to kids

Now that one of ObamaCare's major new benefit programs has been scrapped, liberals are trying to make stone soup by claiming that the Obama Administration merely committed an act of "good government." They claim that when this long-term care insurance program proved to be unworkable, the Administration conceded as much, and now it's gone. So let's review the evidence, not least because it so perfectly illustrates the recklessness that produced the Affordable Care Act.

18 Oct 2011

Order of the day – massive calorie cuts for Britons

Andrew Lansley made an announcement that Britain needs to cut 5 billion calories a day from its diet to curb obesity. Lansley urged individuals to eat less and eat more wisely, and promised to talk to the food industry about voluntary cuts in the calorie content of processed food and drinks. The health secretary and the chief medical officer, Sally Davies also issued a “call to action” on diet, pointing out that alcohol contributed 10% to our calorie intake.

16 Oct 2011

Experts from CHOP address American Academy of Pediatrics annual meeting

Numerous experts from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia will be addressing their colleagues at this year's annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics on topics as varied as vaccine education, fetal surgery, sudden cardiac arrest, and sports injuries, among others.

15 Oct 2011

MRI scans may become useful tools for assessing cholesterol drugs

MRI scanning could become a powerful new tool for assessing how well cholesterol drugs are working, according to Loyola University Health System cardiologist Binh An P. Phan, MD.

15 Oct 2011

Heart-related treatments may improve wellbeing of patients with COPD

A new study has found that processes that control heart rate play an important role in the quality of life experienced by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

15 Oct 2011

Exercise stimulates two beneficial proteins in women before and during pregnancy

Although exercise is generally considered to be a good thing for people with high blood pressure, it has traditionally been considered too risky for women who are also pregnant. Some studies suggest that exercise has benefits such as decreasing the risk of women developing preeclampsia, a condition that raises blood pressure to dangerously high levels but how this might happen has remained unknown.

15 Oct 2011