Health Care News and Research

RSS

Dems, union activists flex Medicare muscle at town hall meetings

Democrats and union activists have made a concerted effort to play the town hall game this summer, pressing lawmakers to preserve Medicare and end tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

31 Aug 2011

Medicare costs will increase with weight of baby boomers

The largest generation may now be the fattest generation ever. And that spells trouble for the health care system. Studies show that baby boomers - 81 million born between 1946 to 1964 - are losing the battle of the bulge.

31 Aug 2011

Chagas parasite infects 18M worldwide, often without detection

Chagas, which is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, affects 18 million people worldwide, but is particularly prevalent in Latin American countries, "where a bug called the vinchuga, sometimes known as the kissing bug, transmits the disease," the Atlantic reports. The parasite "remains dormant in peoples' bodies for up to 30 years, until it kills them suddenly by stopping their hearts or rupturing their intestines," the magazine writes.

31 Aug 2011

Ramped-up anti-fraud efforts trigger significant jump in prosecutions

New government statistics show federal health care fraud prosecutions in the first eight months of 2011 are on pace to rise 85 percent over last year due in large part to ramped-up enforcement efforts under the Obama administration.

31 Aug 2011

Comprehensive review on non-drug interventions for treatment of high blood pressure

More and more, patients show up to appointments with hypertension expert John Bisognano, M.D., Ph.D. carrying bags full of "natural" products that they hope will help lower their blood pressure. And like most physicians, Bisognano doesn't always know if these products will do any good, or if they will cause any harm.

31 Aug 2011

Changes to Medigap plans meet resistance

Reporting for Kaiser Health News, Susan Jaffe writes: A provision of the 2010 federal health law seeking to increase Medicare beneficiaries' share of health care costs is meeting resistance from an unlikely group of 33 state insurance regulators, health insurers and consumer advocates charged with revising Medigap insurance policies that cover most out-of-pocket expenses.

31 Aug 2011

Many women give birth in Haiti's tent camps without medical services

In the refugee camps in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince nearly two years after a devastating earthquake, "health and human rights officials warn of another crisis: an explosion of tent babies," the Miami Herald reports.

31 Aug 2011

Nova Southeastern University's medical school plans to expand residency programs

Nova Southeastern University's (NSU) medical school announced plans to expand its affiliated residency programs following recent Congressional legislation to increase the number of residency spots in Florida.

31 Aug 2011

Poll: Understanding of health law slipping — especially among uninsured

The poll also shows that, among people with employer-sponsored health insurance, very few respondents would accept changes - such as a more restricted list of doctors or hospitals - to their current coverage levels.

31 Aug 2011

Erratic weather exacerbates food insecurity in Indonesia's eastern province

"Erratic weather has exacerbated food insecurity in one of Indonesia's driest regions," including the districts of West Timor (TTS), Nusa Tengarra Timor (NTT), and North Central Timor (TTU), "leaving farmers and families hoping for the best as October's planting season approaches," IRIN reports.

31 Aug 2011

Cost of second-line ARVs a 'huge barrier to care' in resource-poor countries

In this U.N. Dispatch blog post, Mark Leon Goldberg, managing editor of the blog, examines the costs of second-line antiretroviral treatments (ARVs), which "are several orders of magnitude more expensive than traditional, first-line ARV treatments" and are a "huge barrier to providing care" for resource-poor countries.

31 Aug 2011

UCLA develops dual-mode microscope that uses holograms instead of lenses

To serve remote areas of the world, doctors, nurses and field workers need equipment that is portable, versatile, and relatively inexpensive. Now researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have built a compact, light-weight, dual-mode microscope that uses holograms instead of lenses.

31 Aug 2011

Aid floods into Tripoli, hospitals reopen as fighting ends in Libya's capital city

"Tripoli's hospitals have put the worst behind them after an end to the fighting in Libya's capital opened the way to a flood of aid and enabled medical staff to get back to work, aid agencies said on Monday," Reuters reports, adding, "Although the violence in Tripoli has not completely ended, the relative peace has reassured aid agencies that they can now get into the capital."

31 Aug 2011

Symptom-based viral load testing detects HIV in MSM

Testing for HIV when flu-like symptoms develop may offer a cost-effective alternative for early detection of HIV infection in men who have sex with men (MSM), reports a study in the journal AIDS.

31 Aug 2011

Scientists using molecular epidemiology to diagnose and track disease outbreaks

The New York Times examines "new methods of quickly sequencing entire microbial genomes that are revolutionizing the field" of molecularly epidemiology and could help public health officials identify and track disease outbreaks.

31 Aug 2011

Medicaid news: Calif. providers seek more details on cuts

Several N.C. businesses will now offer employees the opportunity to use a well-known medical home network that has primarily served Medicaid enrollees. Meanwhile, in California, hospitals and doctors are complaining that the state has not given them adequate details about its plans to cut Medicaid costs.

31 Aug 2011

Presidential panel reveals new details of 1940s syphilis experiments in Guatemala

"A presidential panel on Monday disclosed shocking new details of U.S. medical experiments done in Guatemala in the 1940s, including a decision to re-infect a dying woman in a syphilis study," the Associated Press/Seattle Times reports.

31 Aug 2011

Epilepsy 'treatment gap' in Sierra Leone a result of stigma, lack of resources, experts say

In Sierra Leone, "one of Africa's poorest countries, ... scarce health care resources and the stigma surrounding epilepsy add up to a 'treatment gap' of more than 90 percent -- meaning that fewer than 10 percent of the estimated 60,000 to 100,000 Sierra Leoneans with epilepsy are getting the treatment they need," the New York Times reports.

31 Aug 2011

Hospitalized children with colonized with MRSA more likely to develop full-blown infections

A Johns Hopkins Children's Center study of more than 3,000 hospitalized children shows that those colonized but not sick with the antibiotic-resistant bacterium MRSA are at considerable risk for developing full-blown infections.

31 Aug 2011

Roundup: Laid-off IT workers in Conn. prepare for health jobs

Julie Michaelson has spent five years working on her hospital's information technology system. ... Mary McAward worked for years in data processing before being laid off. ... Both are taking federally funded courses at Capital Community College, part of a national effort to educate more than 10,500 people in the electronic systems that, after years of discussion, are poised to become commonplace in medicine. That means jobs, to build, install and maintain the systems.

31 Aug 2011