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Researchers investigate impact of physician financial incentives

Health systems haven't figured out how best to structure financial incentives to encourage primary care doctors to do their jobs better, suggests a new paper.

12 Sep 2011

Transcendental Meditation practice reduces health care costs

According to a study published this week in the September/October 2011 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion, people with consistently high health care costs experienced a 28 percent cumulative decrease in physician fees after an average of five years practicing the stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation technique compared with their baseline.

12 Sep 2011

Will Obama jobs plan undercut health sector's jobs growth?

Health care providers are warning that President Barack Obama's new jobs plan could actually siphon jobs from one of the few industries still hiring - because the only way to pay for it would be to make deeper cuts in the health care entitlement programs (Dobias, 9/11).

12 Sep 2011

Capsules: Private Medicare plans grow despite health law cuts

Now on Capsules, KHN's news blog, Christopher Weaver writes, "The industry of private Medicare health plans is continuing to grow, despite steep cuts enacted in the 2010 federal health law, according to a report released Friday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

12 Sep 2011

First Edition: September 12, 2011

Today's health policy headlines include reports about the pressures faced by the 'super committee' as well as the latest on how states are doing with the implementation of the health law.

12 Sep 2011

Study indicates need for antivenoms and better health-care services in Africa

One and a half million people per year are poisoned by snake venom in Sub-Saharan Africa. An IRD researcher recently analysed around 100 surveys and medical reports published over the past 40 years. No large-scale study of the situation had hitherto been conducted and public health authorities had underestimated the size of the problem.

12 Sep 2011

Decision Innovations to improve quality, patient satisfaction and financial outcomes of hospitals

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Wouldn't it be nice to have a computer program that could help you make work-related decisions? That's exactly what Drs. Faye Anderson, Karen Frith, Fan Tseng, Mikel Petty and Gregory Reed have done.

12 Sep 2011

JHUSON nursing research news

In a six-month, randomized controlled study of asthmatic children living with smokers reported in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, August 2011, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON) professor and School of Medicine faculty member Arlene Butz, MSN, CPNP, ScD, and others found that regular use of indoor air cleaners can greatly reduce household air pollution and lower rates of children's daytime asthma symptoms.

12 Sep 2011

The importance of safe drinking water in Haiti's ongoing post-earthquake recovery efforts

Stacey McMahan, sustainability advisor and design fellow with Architecture for Humanity, who has resided in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for a year teaching the locals how to build safe structures, writes about the importance of clean drinking water as an integral part of post-earthquake recovery in Haiti, which she writes will be ongoing in in the country for decades, in this post in Huffington Post's "Impact" blog.

12 Sep 2011

Experts gather in London to propose appropriate medical devices for developing world

The Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog" reports on a one-day conference held in London this week that brought together engineers, health workers, donors and charities to look at devices specifically designed for the developing world.

12 Sep 2011

Gates Foundation's Ananya Alliance aims to improve newborn health in India

Usha Kiran Tarigopula, deputy director in global health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes about the Foundation's partnership with the state of Bihar, India through the Ananya Alliance "aimed at reducing maternal, newborn, and child mortality by 40 percent by 2015," in this "Inpatient Optimists" blog post, which is part of a series called "Global Conversations on Newborn Health in India."

12 Sep 2011

Residents of Pakistan’s tribal areas face dangerous obstacles to access HIV/AIDS treatment

"Having to contend with U.S. army drones and the crossfire between the Taliban and the Pakistani army, the residents of Pakistan's tribal areas find access to treatment for HIV/AIDS harder than in most other parts of the world," Inter Press Service reports.

12 Sep 2011

Haiti's cholera epidemic, the hemisphere's worst in decades, neglected by international community

"Cholera in Haiti is the worst epidemic that this hemisphere has seen in decades, yet it has received relatively little attention," Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and president of Just Foreign Policy writes in this Al Jazeera opinion piece, adding, "The international community has failed Haiti in so many ways and for so many years that it is almost unimaginable."

12 Sep 2011

GOP contentiousness on Medicare, health law to emerge in Monday debate

The tea party movement roars into the Republican presidential spotlight Monday night, as grassroots conservative-coalition members are scheduled to question GOP candidates at a Tampa, Florida debate. ... in his economic blueprint, released last week, Romney lauded the movement, saying, "The rise of the tea party is a classic instance of the self-correcting forces of American democracy in action." He still has a fight ahead.

12 Sep 2011

Candidate malaria vaccine represents 'potentially encouraging anti-malaria strategy,' researchers say

A team of researchers led by Stephen Hoffman of Sanaria Inc. has created a candidate malaria vaccine against Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly of the malaria parasites, using live but weakened parasites that "represents a potentially encouraging anti-malaria strategy," an NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases press release reports.

12 Sep 2011

Access to lifesaving generic medicines threatened by U.S. trade pact

"Access to affordable lifesaving medicines will be threatened where they are needed most -- in parts of the developing world -- if the U.S. insists on implementing restrictive intellectual property policies in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement," states a press release from Doctors Without Borders.

12 Sep 2011

Australian scientists create iron-rich 'super rice'

Scientists from three universities in South Australia and the University of Melbourne have created genetically modified rice that "has up to four times more iron than conventional rice and twice as much zinc" in an effort to "provide a solution to the iron and zinc deficiency disorders that affect billions of people throughout the world," News Corp Australian Papers/Fox News reports.

12 Sep 2011

Former president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, on the importance of family planning as global population approaches 7 billion

The GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog reports on an event held on Wednesday at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., entitled "7 Billion: Conversations that Matter," at which Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile and now the under secretary-general and executive director of UN Women, spoke about the importance of family planning as the global population approaches the seven billion mark.

12 Sep 2011

‘Weight Watchers’ twice as effective in weight loss as standard care: Study

A new study published this Thursday shows that overweight patients told by their doctors to go to Weight Watchers lose around twice as much weight as people receiving standard weight loss care over 12 months.

9 Sep 2011

Research roundup: U.S. doctors' pay exceeds foreign counterparts; Medicare Advantage prevents some hospitalizations

Higher Fees Paid To US Physicians Drive Higher Spending For Physician Services Compared To Other Countries -- Researchers focused on primary care visits and hip replacements in the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada, France and Germany and found that, "public and private payers paid somewhat higher fees to US primary care physicians.

9 Sep 2011

Health Care News and Research

Researchers investigate impact of physician financial incentives

Transcendental Meditation practice reduces health care costs

Will Obama jobs plan undercut health sector's jobs growth?

Capsules: Private Medicare plans grow despite health law cuts

First Edition: September 12, 2011

Study indicates need for antivenoms and better health-care services in Africa

Decision Innovations to improve quality, patient satisfaction and financial outcomes of hospitals

JHUSON nursing research news

The importance of safe drinking water in Haiti's ongoing post-earthquake recovery efforts

Experts gather in London to propose appropriate medical devices for developing world

Gates Foundation's Ananya Alliance aims to improve newborn health in India

Residents of Pakistan’s tribal areas face dangerous obstacles to access HIV/AIDS treatment

Haiti's cholera epidemic, the hemisphere's worst in decades, neglected by international community

GOP contentiousness on Medicare, health law to emerge in Monday debate

Candidate malaria vaccine represents 'potentially encouraging anti-malaria strategy,' researchers say

Access to lifesaving generic medicines threatened by U.S. trade pact

Australian scientists create iron-rich 'super rice'

Former president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, on the importance of family planning as global population approaches 7 billion

‘Weight Watchers’ twice as effective in weight loss as standard care: Study

Research roundup: U.S. doctors' pay exceeds foreign counterparts; Medicare Advantage prevents some hospitalizations

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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