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Advocacy group's aid transparency index shows more openness but room for improvement

"As a major international deadline on foreign assistance transparency draws closer, a new index shows that while donors are becoming more open with their data, still less than half of foreign aid information is openly available," Inter Press Service reports.

4 Oct 2012

CMS revises readmissions penalties up; How hospital networks play into readmissions equation

Kaiser Health News examines readmissions at hospitals, including how CMS has revised up penalities on hospitals who readmit patients too soon and how hospital networks play into the readmissions equation.

4 Oct 2012

Certificate of Need appears to do neither for heart bypass surgery

Certificate of Need, a form of state government regulation designed to keep mortality rates and health care costs down, appears to do neither for heart bypass surgery, according to a health economics researcher at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM).

4 Oct 2012

Scientists use new communications, research technologies to quickly identify, contain microbes

Since the outbreak of what became known as SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, 10 years ago, scientists have been quick to identify and contain new viruses, which they attribute to improved communication among researchers and from the general public, NPR's "Shots" blog reports.

4 Oct 2012

Obama spending more cash than Romney on TV advertising, with new ad highlighting Medicaid

Meanwhile, GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, who is also seeking reelection to his congressional seat, unveils a new health care ad in his district.

4 Oct 2012

Viewpoints: Key issues for Romney, Obama to address in the debate; Peter G. Peterson's mission to cut entitlements

With the U.S. population aging, Social Security and Medicare are projected to account for a growing share of the federal budget and the economy. To accommodate that change, should federal spending (and revenue) amount to a larger share of the economy than it has historically? If not, how does Washington make ends meet?

4 Oct 2012

Georgia Tech's ClockMe system helps older adults identify early signs of dementia

With baby boomers approaching the age of 65 and new cases of Alzheimer's disease expected to increase by 50 percent by the year 2030, Georgia Tech researchers have created a tool that allows adults to screen themselves for early signs of dementia. The home-based computer software is patterned after the paper-and-pencil Clock Drawing Test, one of health care's most commonly used screening exams for cognitive impairment.

4 Oct 2012

Family planning experts launch task force in support of International Conference on Population and Development goals

"Gathered at the Ford Foundation in New York Monday, international luminaries, family planning experts and women's rights activists ... marked the launch of a new 26-member high-level task force to galvanize support behind the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)," Inter Press Service reports.

4 Oct 2012

Swing state campaign highlights: The scoop on early voting; The latest on political ads, campaign appearances and polls

As election day approaches, KHN's Sarah Barr samples news coverage each week from swing states around the country – how health policy developments are playing in this year's vote.

4 Oct 2012

Preterm births fell for the fifth straight year in 2011

Preterm births fell for the fifth straight year in 2011, and the improvement was across the board -- every racial and ethnic group benefited, and there were fewer preterm babies born at all stages of pregnancy, according to preliminary birth data released today by the National Center for Health Statistics.

4 Oct 2012

Experts worried political commitment, health services delivery still lacking despite efforts to improve family planning in Uganda

"Family planning advocates in Uganda have scored some major financial and policy wins this year, but experts remain concerned that inadequate political commitment and poor health services will continue to impede women's and girls' access to contraceptives," IRIN reports.

4 Oct 2012

Study finds significant variation in overall health of all major Latino subgroups in the U.S.

Despite a shared Latino heritage, there are significant differences in the overall health and the use of health-care services among Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans and Puerto Rican-Americans - even between men and women in the same subgroup - according to two recently published studies by Florida State University researchers.

4 Oct 2012

New JEBDP series provides updates on evidence-based care in periodontics and implant dentistry

What's the latest, research-supported best practice in periodontal care and implant dentistry? Dental specialists and generalists alike can read about it in the first of a new series from The Journal of Evidence-Based Dental Practice (JEBDP), the foremost publication of information about evidence-based dental practice, published by Elsevier.

4 Oct 2012

Roundup: Individual mandate back on Fla. ballot; More Mass. doctors embrace new payment methods; Ga. hospital tax fight rages on

In a bid to remake Florida's judiciary, Republicans are asking voters to oust three state Supreme Court justices and give the Legislature greater power over Supreme Court appointments. ... In Florida, the issue is not same-sex marriage but another politically divisive matter: President Obama's health care law. In a 2010 ruling, the Florida Supreme Court removed from the ballot a nonbinding amendment allowing Floridians to refuse to buy mandatory health insurance.

4 Oct 2012

BMI concerns raised for childhood stem cell transplantation survivors

Childhood survivors of hematologic malignancies treated with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation should undergo long-term monitoring of their body mass index and lean body mass, US researchers recommend.

3 Oct 2012

First Edition: October 3, 2012

Kaiser Health News staff writer Jordan Rau reports: "Medicare's new readmission penalties for hospitals just got a bit tougher. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has discovered errors in its initial calculations in August. As a result, 1,422 hospitals with comparatively high readmission rates will lose slightly more money than they were expecting, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of the revised penalties. Fifty-five hospitals will lose less than were previously told."

3 Oct 2012

HIV prevention, vaccine research progressing

In a guest post on the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog, Margaret McGlynn, president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), and William Snow, director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, discuss the recent AIDS Vaccine 2012 Conference that was held in Boston.

3 Oct 2012

Health Care News and Research

Advocacy group's aid transparency index shows more openness but room for improvement

CMS revises readmissions penalties up; How hospital networks play into readmissions equation

Certificate of Need appears to do neither for heart bypass surgery

Scientists use new communications, research technologies to quickly identify, contain microbes

Obama spending more cash than Romney on TV advertising, with new ad highlighting Medicaid

Viewpoints: Key issues for Romney, Obama to address in the debate; Peter G. Peterson's mission to cut entitlements

Georgia Tech's ClockMe system helps older adults identify early signs of dementia

Family planning experts launch task force in support of International Conference on Population and Development goals

Swing state campaign highlights: The scoop on early voting; The latest on political ads, campaign appearances and polls

Preterm births fell for the fifth straight year in 2011

Experts worried political commitment, health services delivery still lacking despite efforts to improve family planning in Uganda

Study finds significant variation in overall health of all major Latino subgroups in the U.S.

New JEBDP series provides updates on evidence-based care in periodontics and implant dentistry

Roundup: Individual mandate back on Fla. ballot; More Mass. doctors embrace new payment methods; Ga. hospital tax fight rages on

BMI concerns raised for childhood stem cell transplantation survivors

First Edition: October 3, 2012

HIV prevention, vaccine research progressing

Adolescent and young cancer cost barriers: an interview with Anne Kirchhoff

Post office's retiree health benefits hole gets deeper

Census reports Americans go to the doctor less often

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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