Speech News and Research

RSS

GOP divided over health law repeal as White House readies midterm push

In the run up to November's midterm elections, President Obama will tout the new health law, hoping the consumer-friendly provisions taking effect this week will help erode ill will toward the overhaul, The Wall Street Journal reports. "Starting Thursday, insurers officially must adhere to about a half-dozen key changes under the law, including eliminating co-payments for preventive services and allowing children to stay on their parents' insurance policy until their 26th birthday.

21 Sep 2010

St. Jude Medical granted European CE Mark for Athena deep brain stimulation therapy management system

St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, today announced European CE Mark approval of its new Athena™ programmer, a deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy management system. This next-generation platform offers clinicians a powerful yet easy-to-use interface that enables them to set or adjust therapeutic parameters to optimize patient results.

20 Sep 2010

EHS is now SuccessEHS

www.successehs.com, a Birmingham-based company specializing in physician practice management software systems and electronic health record (EHR) (sometimes called an electronic medical record or EMR), is pleased to announce they are changing their name, and the name of their flagship product CareRevolution™, to SuccessEHS™.

18 Sep 2010

Professor advocates steps to help health care industry increase patient understanding of health information

Studies show that nearly half of all Americans have difficulty understanding health information. Confusing medical directions, such as dosage and timing of prescription medicine, can lead to serious consequences including health setbacks, inappropriate hospital admissions and, sometimes, death. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri School of Health Professions are examining what health care facilities can do to increase patient understanding and positive outcomes.

16 Sep 2010

SLActive chemical surfaces promote dental bone integration

Dental implants have offered a successful way to restore teeth for more than 20 years. New challenges for improving the process include shortening the time to restore functionality and meeting aesthetic demands. Altering implant surfaces to help promote bone integration is one solution. SLActive, a new chemically modified surface for titanium, the standard material of which implants are constructed, has shown positive results in this area.

15 Sep 2010

Berwick breaks silence, calling on insurers to join pursuit of 'shared goals'

In his first big speech as President Barack Obama's top Medicare official Donald Berwick Monday called on insurers to join in a "full partnership" with his agency to achieve a health system with lower costs that doesn't withhold care from anyone or risk harming patients, The Associated Press/Washington Post report. The remarks were delivered to a conference hosted by America's Health Insurance Plans. "The choice of the insurance lobby for his speech was unusual since the administration continues to trade verbal potshots with the industry" (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/13).

15 Sep 2010

First Edition: September 14, 2010

Among today's headlines, Berwick talks, health reform politics continue and coverage of the run up to Sept. 23 - the day several health overhaul provisions take effect - is in full swing.

14 Sep 2010

AIDS activists protest to decry Obama administration's dismal record on AIDS

52 AIDS activists from the groups Housing Works, AIDS Action in Mississippi (AAIM) and AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) interrupted a speech by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius with a spirited protest to decry the Obama administration's dismal record on AIDS during an appearance by the Secretary at the United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) on Monday in Orlando.

14 Sep 2010

ALIAS research project to initiate elderly care through robots

A partnership among 20 European states, the European Union and a number of private enterprises has launched a three-year, 3.87-million-euro project to make robots capable of serving as adaptable, interactive, and above all safe assistants for elderly people. The research project, known as ALIAS, places special emphasis on maintaining social networks, warding off feelings of loneliness and isolation, and increasing activities that may protect and enhance cognitive capabilities.

14 Sep 2010

3M Health Information Systems releases ICD-10 Code Translation Tool

3M Health Information Systems, an international leader in ICD-9 and ICD-10 coding and clinical terminology management, has released the 3M ICD-10 Code Translation Tool, now fully integrated with 3M's medical vocabulary server, the 3M Healthcare Data Dictionary, to provide a single source solution for translating and converting ICD-9 based applications to ICD-10.

13 Sep 2010

Sec. of State Clinton discusses Obama administration's foreign policy strategy

In a speech on Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined the Obama administration's approach to foreign policy and said that U.S. "global leadership is essential, even if we must often lead in new ways," the Washington Post reports.

10 Sep 2010

Summit negotiators seek to get MDGs 'back on track'

"World powers are moving slowly toward an accord on the strategy to be embraced at a looming United Nations summit aiming to get the lofty Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] back on track," Agence France-Presse writes in an article examining the ongoing debates over how best to achieve the MDGs before the 2015 deadline.

10 Sep 2010

Seaside reports positive data from STX209 Phase 2 study in ASD

Seaside Therapeutics, Inc. announced today positive data from an open-label Phase 2 study of STX209 conducted in patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The primary endpoint of the study, an improvement on the Irritability subscale of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC-I), achieved statistical significance (p<0.001).

9 Sep 2010

Researchers find minocycline antibiotics effective for fragile X syndrome

One of the antibiotics most commonly prescribed to treat adolescent acne can increase attention spans and communication and decrease anxiety in patients with fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of mental impairment, according to a new survey study that is the first published on parents' reports of their children's responses to treatment with the medication.

9 Sep 2010

Alcohol consumption by pregnant women can seriously harm unborn children

To kick off Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is reminding the public that alcohol consumption by pregnant women can seriously harm unborn children.

8 Sep 2010

TransOral Robotic Surgery removes head and neck cancer tumors, while preserving speech

An incisionless robotic surgical procedure is offering patients a new option to remove certain head and neck cancer tumors without visible scarring, while preserving speech and the ability to eat.

8 Sep 2010

Researchers decode words from brain signals in paralyzed people

In an early step toward letting severely paralyzed people speak with their thoughts, University of Utah researchers translated brain signals into words using two grids of 16 microelectrodes implanted beneath the skull but atop the brain. "We have been able to decode spoken words using only signals from the brain with a device that has promise for long-term use in paralyzed patients who cannot now speak," says Bradley Greger, an assistant professor of bioengineering.

7 Sep 2010

VOA News examines U.S. Global Health Initiative

VOA News examines President Barack Obama's $63 billion Global Health Initiative (GHI), noting the initiative's emphasis on cost-effective strategies to improve child- and maternal-health as well as programs to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. The article includes recent comments by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on the role the GHI will play in strengthening health systems and the administration's on-going commitment to global HIV/AIDS programs.

4 Sep 2010

ISWG researchers establish guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of infantile spasms

Researchers from across the U.S., as part of the Infantile Spasms Working Group (ISWG), established guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of infantile spasms (IS). The goal of the ISWG is to improve patient outcomes by creating protocols that educate pediatricians on early diagnosis and treatment options. Full details of this study appear online in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy.

3 Sep 2010

International consortium publishes third-generation map of human genetic variation

An international consortium today published a third-generation map of human genetic variation, called the HapMap, which includes data from an additional seven global populations, increasing the total number to 11 populations. The improved resolution will help researchers interpret current genome studies aimed at finding common and rarer genetic variants associated with complex diseases.

2 Sep 2010