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Xenex Healthcare Services receives GSA contract to purchase room disinfection systems

Xenex Healthcare Services, the world leader in UV room disinfection systems, today announced it has been awarded a U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) contract, making it even easier for federal agencies (including Veterans Affairs hospital systems) to purchase Xenex's room disinfection systems.

11 Oct 2012

Obama campaign unleashes ads on Medicaid, link between Medicare and Romney's 47 percent comment

According to news reports, these ads are part of the Obama campaign's more urgent approach since last week's debate performance.

11 Oct 2012

Medicare beneficiaries who are victims of identity theft face difficulties getting new IDs, accessing health care

More than a quarter-million Medicare beneficiaries are victims of identity theft and hampered in getting health care benefits because the government won't issue new IDs, according to an investigation report released today.

11 Oct 2012

Viewpoints: Wis. Senate candidates Thompson, Baldwin offer competing views of health law; 'Disturbing lack' of oversight of compounding pharmacies

The meningitis outbreak that has sickened at least 119 people and killed 11 of them has laid bare a disturbing lack of regulatory oversight of pharmacies that mix drug compounds and ship them around the country. Unless Congress passes legislation to strengthen the hand of the Food and Drug Administration, the public will continue to be at risk from contaminated products.

11 Oct 2012

First Edition: October 10, 2012

Today's headlines include reports that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has pledged that his presidential agenda does not include abortion legislation.

10 Oct 2012

MSF launches online 'Patent Opposition Database'

"The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has launched an online resource to help civil society and patient groups in developing countries challenge unwarranted drug patents," an MSF press release reports.

10 Oct 2012

Romney's pre-existing conditions plan questioned

News outlets examine this aspect of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's health care policies and report that it would only help a fraction of the country's uninsured.

10 Oct 2012

Meningitis outbreak fuels calls for more oversight

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, eight people have died and 105 people in nine states have been sickened by a type of fungal meningitis they were exposed to when they received tainted spinal steroid injections.

10 Oct 2012

Study to explore how mobile technology use can improve coordination in perioperative services

Three Clemson University professors have received $797,066 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate how the use of mobile technology can improve coordination in perioperative services.

10 Oct 2012

Senate candidates spar over Medicare, health policies

Campaign debates in Virginia and Michigan focus on Medicare and health issues while the GOP candidate in Ohio says he has not yet signed on to Republican plan to revamp Medicare.

10 Oct 2012

New limits on death record access could limit hospital safety

A shift last year by the Social Security Administration to limit access to its death records amid concerns about identity theft is beginning to hamper a range of research, including federal assessments of hospital safety and efforts by the financial industry to spot consumer fraud.

10 Oct 2012

In Congress, deal-making mood may emerge from budget issues

The New York Times reports that, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill face "so many potentially calamitous tax and budget issues," necessity may bring consensus.

10 Oct 2012

Nutrition education needed to combat child malnutrition in India

"Among causes of child malnutrition in India are not just poverty or inadequate access to food but also a lack of nutritional knowledge among families," Nisha Malhotra, an instructor of economics at the University of British Columbia, writes in a Live Mint opinion piece.

10 Oct 2012

Decrease in doctor appointments, preventable hospital visits draw scrutiny

Medpage Today offers a pair of stories exploring Census findings regarding doctor visits in 2010 as well as MedPAC's interest in "preventable" hospital visits.

10 Oct 2012

'Bold goals' needed to spur political action in fight against hunger

"Achieving the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the prevalence of hunger in the world by 2015 is still within reach, but a strong, sustained acceleration of efforts is needed," U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva writes in a Reuters opinion piece.

10 Oct 2012

Letters to U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator address global AIDS blueprint

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports on a letter sent by 12 organizations and institutions to U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby, detailing the ways a U.S. global AIDS blueprint, proposed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the XIX International AIDS Conference in July, can address the concerns of key populations, such as injection drug users and men who have sex with men.

10 Oct 2012

ASTRO names distinguished neurosurgeon as 2012 Honorary Member

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has named Mark P. Carol, MD, a distinguished leader in the fields of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), as its 2012 Honorary Member, which is the highest honor the Society bestows upon distinguished cancer researchers and leaders in disciplines other than radiation oncology, radiation physics or radiobiology.

10 Oct 2012

GlobalPost blog examines issue of HIV/AIDS in U.S. presidential election

GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog examines the issue of HIV/AIDS in the presidential election, writing, "This campaign season, the fight against HIV/AIDS has been absent from the press materials released by both President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Gov. Mitt Romney -- as well as from the conversation."

10 Oct 2012

Pakistan to become first south Asian country to introduce pneumococcal vaccine

"Pakistan is set to become the first country in south Asia to introduce the pneumococcal vaccine to protect children against pneumonia, one of the biggest killers of children under five in the developing world," the Guardian reports.

10 Oct 2012

Telemedicine: Nantucket hospital's example demonstrates telemedicine's utility

When Sarah Cohen's acne drove her to visit a dermatologist in July, that's what she figured she'd be doing - visiting a dermatologist. But at the hospital on Nantucket, where her family spends summers, Ms. Cohen, 19, was perplexed.

10 Oct 2012