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Brand-name drug makers bet coupons will help their products edge out generic competition

If brand-name prescription medicines cost you as little as generic pills, which would you choose? A few drugmakers are betting Americans will stick with the name they know. They've begun offering U.S. patients coupons to reduce copayments on brand-name medicines and compete with new generic versions of the drugs.

22 Aug 2012

Views on Medicare: Ryan plan could hurt disabled Americans; Pitting the poor against seniors

Opinion writers continue to look at the debate about Medicare as it becomes a focal point of the presidential election.

22 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: The importance of hepatitis C testing; Medicaid needs to provide coverage for circumcision

I consider myself to be a fortunate person. I have a good education, a great job and excellent health insurance. I am a baby boomer who has aged reasonably well and can look forward to a fairly comfortable retirement. I am also fortunate because I was diagnosed with hepatitis C by a proactive and knowledgeable doctor in the late 1990s and had the opportunity to be treated and cured. The odds are that if I had not been diagnosed and treated, I would be on a liver transplant list right now, have liver cancer or even be dead from this disease.

22 Aug 2012

International community must address challenges to food, water security in a systematic, coherent manner

"New ideas and approaches to the water and food nexus will be addressed at World Water Week," which will take place in Stockholm, Sweden from 26-31 August, Anders Jagerskog, an associate professor and director of knowledge services at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), writes in this post in the AlertNet Blog.

22 Aug 2012

ICUS applauds FDA's decision to modify U.S. product label for OPTISON ultrasound contrast agent

The International Contrast Ultrasound Society (ICUS) today applauded the FDA's decision to modify the U.S. product label for OPTISON, an ultrasound contrast agent used to improve the accuracy of radiation-free ultrasound scans.

22 Aug 2012

Study finds 'inconclusive' evidence to support use of WHO-backed drug to prevent hemorrhage during labor

"The World Health Organization [WHO] should review its approval of a drug used to prevent life-threatening bleeding in women in childbirth because there is not enough evidence that it is effective," according to a study published Monday in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Reuters reports.

22 Aug 2012

Poll finds Calif. voters strongly support federal health law; Montana lawmakers consider Medicaid expansion

States are confronting a bevy of issues in implementing the health care law including gauging public support for the law, fights over a contraception coverage mandate, expanding Medicaid and assessing the Medicare prescription drug "doughnut hole."

22 Aug 2012

African Development Bank report compares, analyzes African countries' performance in water, sanitation sector

"According to a new African Development Bank report that compares and analyzes the performance of sub-Saharan African countries in the water and sanitation sector," "the two major factors why progress on meeting water and sanitation-related development goals across sub-Saharan Africa is largely uneven" are "differences in financial and operational capacities among governments," the Devex "Development Newswire" reports.

22 Aug 2012

Roundup: Texas insurance regulator pulls out-of-network notice rules; Bay-Area Komen fundraising suffers after flap; Mass.'s Steward pushing to buy Maine hospital

Texas' top insurance regulator has rescinded new rules designed to help consumers avoid a common pitfall when they seek medical treatment -- big bills for out-of-network care -- a move that angers consumer advocates and doctors groups. The rules were meant to give more than 4 million Texans covered by preferred provider organization health plans, or PPOs, more information about whether they'd pay the higher out-of-network costs if they were hospitalized and seen by a specialist.

22 Aug 2012

Tips for menopause symptom relief

An estimated 6,000 women in the U.S. reach menopause every day (about two million annually).The most common menopausal complaints include hot flashes, sleep disturbances, anxiety, poor mood, and physical and mental exhaustion. Hot flashes affect 80 percent of peri- or postmenopausal women, with 30 percent reporting hot flashes severe enough to seriously affect their quality of life.

21 Aug 2012

GWCI announces new collaboration with National Institutes of Health Federal Credit Union

The National Institutes of Health Federal Credit Union, one of the largest credit unions in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and the nation's largest serving the healthcare and biomedical industries has proudly announced a new collaboration with the George Washington Cancer Institute (GWCI).

21 Aug 2012

Declining circumcision rates in the US raise healthcare costs and disease risk

A team of disease experts and health economists at Johns Hopkins warns that steadily declining rates of U.S. infant male circumcision could add more than $4.4 billion in avoidable health care costs if rates over the next decade drop to levels now seen in Europe.

21 Aug 2012

First Edition: August 21, 2012

Today's headlines include reports from the campaign trail, where House candidates are turning up the Medicare debate; and from the health care marketkplace, where Aetna acquired Coventry Health, a Medicare and Medicaid insurer.

21 Aug 2012

DR Congo reports Ebola outbreak near Uganda border

"Nine people have died in an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Health Minister Felix Kabangue said on Saturday," Agence France-Presse reports.

21 Aug 2012

WHO calls for emergency stockpile of cholera vaccine

The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for the establishment of a global stockpile of the cholera vaccine to respond to outbreaks like the one that has gripped Haiti since an earthquake hit the country in 2010, NPR's "Shots" reports.

21 Aug 2012

International community observes World Humanitarian Day

On World Humanitarian Day, recognized August 19, "United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has highlighted the power of individual actions to spark global changes, and praised the work of humanitarian workers who provide assistance to vulnerable people around the world," the U.N. News Centre reports.

21 Aug 2012

World Mosquito Day marks 114 years of battle against malaria

"Each year on August 20, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) celebrates World Mosquito Day to honor the date in 1897 when British doctor Ronald Ross discovered that female mosquitoes transmit malaria between human beings," AlertNet reports.

21 Aug 2012

Sierra Leone declares cholera outbreak a national emergency

"Sierra Leone has declared a cholera outbreak that has left 176 people dead since the start of the year a national humanitarian emergency, officials said Friday," AlertNet reports, adding, "Jonathan Abass Kamara, public relations officer for Sierra Leone's health ministry, said the outbreak was the worst in the West Africa country's history."

21 Aug 2012

Competing Medicare positions: The debate behind the campaign rhetoric

As the Romney and Obama campaigns continue to spar over Medicare politics, news outlets examine the questions in play.

21 Aug 2012

Central African Republic faces 'dire' health situation

"Surrounded by Sudan, Chad and Congo where more high-profile crises are taking place, [the Central African Republic's (CAR)] dire and desperate health situation -- in which few people have access to health care and many die of easily treatable diseases -- has received little attention and even less assistance," writes Unni Karunakara, international president of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), in an article on MSF's webpage.

21 Aug 2012

Health Care News and Research

Brand-name drug makers bet coupons will help their products edge out generic competition

Views on Medicare: Ryan plan could hurt disabled Americans; Pitting the poor against seniors

Viewpoints: The importance of hepatitis C testing; Medicaid needs to provide coverage for circumcision

International community must address challenges to food, water security in a systematic, coherent manner

ICUS applauds FDA's decision to modify U.S. product label for OPTISON ultrasound contrast agent

Study finds 'inconclusive' evidence to support use of WHO-backed drug to prevent hemorrhage during labor

Poll finds Calif. voters strongly support federal health law; Montana lawmakers consider Medicaid expansion

African Development Bank report compares, analyzes African countries' performance in water, sanitation sector

Roundup: Texas insurance regulator pulls out-of-network notice rules; Bay-Area Komen fundraising suffers after flap; Mass.'s Steward pushing to buy Maine hospital

Tips for menopause symptom relief

GWCI announces new collaboration with National Institutes of Health Federal Credit Union

Declining circumcision rates in the US raise healthcare costs and disease risk

First Edition: August 21, 2012

DR Congo reports Ebola outbreak near Uganda border

WHO calls for emergency stockpile of cholera vaccine

International community observes World Humanitarian Day

World Mosquito Day marks 114 years of battle against malaria

Sierra Leone declares cholera outbreak a national emergency

Competing Medicare positions: The debate behind the campaign rhetoric

Central African Republic faces 'dire' health situation

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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