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More than 2M people in Pakistani province of Sindh affected by flooding from monsoon rains

"Pakistan's southern province of Sindh is facing disaster once more with heavy rains over the past five days, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA)," with at least 85 people reported dead and more than two million people affected, IRIN reports.

7 Sep 2011

March of Dimes urges all pregnant women to get influenza immunization

Getting a flu shot during pregnancy protects the mom-to-be from what could be a very serious – even fatal – illness and can protect her newborn who is too young to receive his or her own immunization.

7 Sep 2011

Number of malaria cases in Brazilian Amazon drop 31% in first half of year compared with 2010

Brazil's health ministry on Monday said 115,708 malaria cases had been reported in the first half of this year in the Brazilian Amazon, down 31 percent compared with the same period in 2010, the Latin American Herald Tribune reports.

7 Sep 2011

Anthem proposes double-digit rate increase in Conn.; Mass. bill would cut payments to high-cost providers

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Connecticut's largest health insurer and a favorite target of advocates for more stringent regulation of rate increases, is seeking to raise premiums by 12.9 percent next year for more than 45,000 individual-market customers, including some whose plans were the subject of a controversial request that got denied last year.

7 Sep 2011

UC San Diego Health System to receive HIMSS' Stage 7 Award

UC San Diego Health System has received the prestigious Stage 7 Award from HIMSS Analytics, a nationwide-system used to track electronic medical records (EMR) progress at hospitals and health systems.

7 Sep 2011

Rep. Berkley's efforts on kidney program questioned

At the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, alarms were set off three years ago - kidney transplants were failing at unusually high rates ... Federal regulators moved to shut down the kidney transplant program.

7 Sep 2011

Feds' push for Medicaid 'transparency' irks states; Minn. chips away at fraud; Kansas seeks more assisted living

A federal push for more transparency in how states run their Medicaid programs is pitting patient advocates and medical providers against state officials who fear being hamstrung. The transparency effort comes as states seek ever greater flexibility in how they manage their Medicaid programs to cope with historic budget woes.

7 Sep 2011

Oxycodone no safer than codeine for breastfed infants: New study

Doctors have been prescribing codeine for postpartum pain management for many years, and, until recently, it was considered safe to breastfeed while taking the opioid. But the death of an infant exposed to codeine through breast milk has many health care providers questioning the safety of the drug when used by breastfeeding mothers.

7 Sep 2011

Fujirebio Diagnostics receives FDA 510(k) clearance for Risk of Ovarian Malignancy Algorithm test

Fujirebio Diagnostics, the industry leader in oncology biomarker assays, announced today that it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market the company's HE4 Test in an algorithm called ROMA (HE4 EIA + ARCHITECT CA 125 II) to aid in assessing whether a premenopausal or postmenopausal woman who presents with an ovarian adnexal mass is at high or low likelihood of finding malignancy on surgery.

7 Sep 2011

Viewpoints: Analyzing Texas' health insurance record; advice for 'super' committee; one doc's cancer experience

Targeting waste, fraud and abuse; eliminating unnecessary and duplicative spending; and ending military adventurism need not be accompanied by slashing essential services such as education and shredding our social safety nets - Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

7 Sep 2011

U.S. smoking rates on slow decline: CDC report

Roughly 45 million adult Americans smoke and this is much lesser than the figures a few years back. Even those who still smoke have cut back on the number of cigarettes they smoke, but the rate of decline has begun to slow, U.S. health experts said on Tuesday. Smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, killing an estimated 443,000 Americans each year.

6 Sep 2011

Mental health problems ail nearly half of all Americans: Report

According to a new government report about half of Americans will experience some form of mental health problem at some point in their life. The report stresses that more must be done to help the population with mental health problems.

6 Sep 2011

First Edition: September 6, 2011

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations include reports from a GOP presidential candidate forum in South Carolina and analysis of what to expect as Congress returns to Washington.

6 Sep 2011

Latest Consumer Reports Index: 16.3% of Americans unable to pay medical bills

When we visit our doctors, we don't typically think of ourselves as "consumers" or buyers of health care, but in these tough times, that is precisely the role a patient needs to play to avoid drowning in a sea of medical bills.

6 Sep 2011

The Arthritis Society warns Canadians to check for OA

Canadians who never have their joint pains and aches examined by a doctor could be making the problem much worse, The Arthritis Society warns.

6 Sep 2011

Ontario Liberal Party includes OMA recommended health care policy initiatives in election platform

Ontario's doctors were pleased to learn that the Ontario Liberal Party has included several health care policy initiatives in their election platform as recommended by the Ontario Medical Association.

6 Sep 2011

Three cases of novel influenza A virus now linked to agricultural fair in southwestern Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania departments of Health and Agriculture today announced three cases of a novel influenza A virus have been identified, and are now linked to an agricultural fair in southwestern Pennsylvania.

6 Sep 2011

Romney faces Tea Party critics, especially on health care

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, tried to bridge the gap between himself and the Tea Party on Monday morning, telling a gathering of supporters that the differences between the Tea Party and traditional Republicans were not as wide as many people seem to believe. Mr. Romney's critics in the Tea Party say that his record as governor of Massachusetts – notably his passage of a universal health care law that has been likened to the federal legislation passed by President Obama – does not jibe with Tea Party principles. Mr. Romney did not address that criticism directly on Sunday.

6 Sep 2011

For 3 key GOP candidates, health care efforts show wide spectrum

The three most prominent current or former governors running for president - Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Jon M. Huntsman Jr. - are firmly united in their commitment to repealing President Obama's health care law. But that unanimity masks a broad divergence in their approaches to the issue while in office, spanning the spectrum of Republican positioning.

5 Sep 2011

UNFPA Executive Director to visit refugee camps in Kenya on 3 September

Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is visiting refugee camps in Kenya to underscore the urgent needs of women affected by the famine in the Horn of Africa.

3 Sep 2011

Health Care News and Research

More than 2M people in Pakistani province of Sindh affected by flooding from monsoon rains

March of Dimes urges all pregnant women to get influenza immunization

Number of malaria cases in Brazilian Amazon drop 31% in first half of year compared with 2010

Anthem proposes double-digit rate increase in Conn.; Mass. bill would cut payments to high-cost providers

UC San Diego Health System to receive HIMSS' Stage 7 Award

Rep. Berkley's efforts on kidney program questioned

Feds' push for Medicaid 'transparency' irks states; Minn. chips away at fraud; Kansas seeks more assisted living

Oxycodone no safer than codeine for breastfed infants: New study

Fujirebio Diagnostics receives FDA 510(k) clearance for Risk of Ovarian Malignancy Algorithm test

Viewpoints: Analyzing Texas' health insurance record; advice for 'super' committee; one doc's cancer experience

U.S. smoking rates on slow decline: CDC report

Mental health problems ail nearly half of all Americans: Report

First Edition: September 6, 2011

Latest Consumer Reports Index: 16.3% of Americans unable to pay medical bills

The Arthritis Society warns Canadians to check for OA

Ontario Liberal Party includes OMA recommended health care policy initiatives in election platform

Three cases of novel influenza A virus now linked to agricultural fair in southwestern Pennsylvania

Romney faces Tea Party critics, especially on health care

For 3 key GOP candidates, health care efforts show wide spectrum

UNFPA Executive Director to visit refugee camps in Kenya on 3 September

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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