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Philadelphia program promotes health services and insurance across cultural barriers

Promotoras — volunteer "health promoters" … carry messages of health and wellness to their peers, mostly Spanish-speaking Mexicans in South Philadelphia. As the minority group least likely to have a primary-care doctor and with nearly half living beneath the poverty line, Latinos, especially recent immigrants, have challenged doctors for decades.

18 Aug 2011

Medicare Advantage plans may be counter-productive for the elderly

In health care, more choice may not always lead to better choices, particularly for the elderly. In a new study, researchers from Harvard Medical School's Department of Health Care Policy found that the large variety of managed care plans offered by the Medicare Advantage program may be counter-productive.

18 Aug 2011

Making sense of maternal mortality statistics

Referring to a Maternal Health Task Force infographic depicting maternal mortality worldwide, Jen Quraishi, editorial coordinator for Mother Jones, writes in a post on Mother Jones' "Blue Marble" blog that "there are lots of ways to juggle maternal mortality numbers, and ultimately I find the death rate per capita more useful than the total number of deaths … Charts like these obscure the point that the relative wealth and size of a country do have an effect on its maternal mortality, but they're not everything."

18 Aug 2011

UnitedHealthcare, 4-H to launch new nutrition and wellness program for young people

Texas 4-H and UnitedHealthcare joined together today to launch a new partnership - Youth Voice: Youth Choice - a program to help young people in the state improve their health and well-being through exercise, proper nutrition and attention to personal safety.

18 Aug 2011

Timing for Supreme Court's health law review unclear

The Wall Street Journal reports that the high court is likely to decide by January whether a ruling on the health law will come before or after the 2012 election. Meanwhile, Politico reports that a "conservative gadfly" has won a round in his battle against the Obama administration's health overhaul effort.

18 Aug 2011

Powder-free gloves linked to reduced latex allergy in health care workers

Researchers at The Medical College of Wisconsin investigating latex allergy in health care workers have demonstrated the most effective public health strategy to prevent allergic sensitization is by stopping the use of powdered latex gloves.

18 Aug 2011

Humanitarian agencies stand by in Pakistan as floods kill 25, displace estimated 50,000 others

"Predictions by Pakistan's Meteorological Department of more rain in the days ahead have raised flood fears, especially in Sindh Province, as the monsoon season peaks," IRIN reports.

18 Aug 2011

Researchers isolate 17 novel antibodies against HIV

A team of researchers at and associated with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), The Scripps Research Institute, the biotechnology company Theraclone Sciences and Monogram Biosciences Inc., a LabCorp company, report in the current issue of Nature the isolation of 17 novel antibodies capable of neutralizing a broad spectrum of variants of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

18 Aug 2011

UNHCR reports 10 children dying daily and women facing risk of rape in Ethiopian refugee camps

"Ten Somali children under the age of five are dying every day of hunger-related causes in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, according to the U.N. refugee agency," the Guardian reports.

18 Aug 2011

While most docs are sued few pay up: Study

A new study revealed that more than three in four US doctors will face a malpractice suit at some point in their careers, but cash is paid in only about 20 percent of cases. The analysis by researchers at several major US medical schools and the RAND Corporation, a non-profit research group, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

18 Aug 2011

States move forward with creating health exchanges

In Minnesota, though, party-based challenges are emerging to Gov. Dayton's exchange plan. Also, Politico reports that, even though the health law allows for a federal exchange as a fallback plan if states don't develop their own, no funding exists for these federal activities. On the other hand, the law provides almost unlimited resources to support states' efforts.

18 Aug 2011

Skin infection admissions are now the seventh-most-common reason for hospitalizations

The number of children hospitalized for skin and soft-tissue infections, most due to community-acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), has more than doubled since 2000, a study by researchers at UC Davis and elsewhere has found.

18 Aug 2011

GOP presidential hopefuls — at least the ones who were or are governors — have clear health care positions

ABC News examines the health policy records of three GOP presidential candidates — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

18 Aug 2011

Viewpoints: Perry's Texas 'miracle' or 'sad fact'?; Reich on Medicare for all; Orszag on health IT boom

Twenty-six percent of Texans have no health insurance — the highest percentage of medically uninsured residents of any state. It leads the nation in the percentage of children who lack medical insurance. Texas has an inordinate number of employers who provide no insurance to their workers, partly because insurance rates are high, thanks to an absence of regulations.

18 Aug 2011

Roundup: Rx discounts for Medicaid programs are increasing; deadline extended for Mich. Medigap verifications

Governors have complained repeatedly in recent months that spiraling Medicaid costs are crushing their budgets. But there's good news on at least one line item in the $370 billion program — prescription drug discounts are getting more generous. According to a new report from the Inspector General of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, discounts under the federal-state Medicaid program have been growing since 2006, adding up to a 45 percent rebate for most brand name drugs by 2009.

18 Aug 2011

Zelboraf receives FDA approval for treatment of metastatic melanoma

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Zelboraf (vemurafenib), a drug to treat patients with late-stage (metastatic) or unresectable (cannot be removed by surgery) melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer.

17 Aug 2011

First Edition: August 17, 2011

In today's headlines, a report about how the timing of the Supreme Court's health law review is in play -- will it happen before or after the 2012 election?

17 Aug 2011

The Washington Post explores comparative effectiveness research

American medical care is rife with such treatments, whose usefulness is uncertain not just to the doctors who deliver them but also to the patients who receive them. These days, however, many people are pinning their hopes on "comparative effectiveness research" as way to solve the dilemma of how best to treat this and hundreds of other common problems in day-to-day medicine.

17 Aug 2011

Debate emerges regarding benefit of CT scans for lung cancer

Some hospitals are offering discounted CT scans to worried smokers, leading experts to question whether it's a marketing strategy or offers some health benefit.

17 Aug 2011

Vanderbilt's Handle with Care initiative aims to reduce violence in emergency department

With violence toward health care workers from patients and visitors on the rise inside emergency departments, personnel with Vanderbilt's Adult Emergency Department are learning a new set of skills to keep them - and those they care for - safe. A training program called Handle with Care is the latest initiative in Vanderbilt's ongoing effort to reduce violence in the emergency department and protect staff, patients and guests.

17 Aug 2011

Health Care News and Research

Philadelphia program promotes health services and insurance across cultural barriers

Medicare Advantage plans may be counter-productive for the elderly

Making sense of maternal mortality statistics

UnitedHealthcare, 4-H to launch new nutrition and wellness program for young people

Timing for Supreme Court's health law review unclear

Powder-free gloves linked to reduced latex allergy in health care workers

Humanitarian agencies stand by in Pakistan as floods kill 25, displace estimated 50,000 others

Researchers isolate 17 novel antibodies against HIV

UNHCR reports 10 children dying daily and women facing risk of rape in Ethiopian refugee camps

While most docs are sued few pay up: Study

States move forward with creating health exchanges

Skin infection admissions are now the seventh-most-common reason for hospitalizations

GOP presidential hopefuls — at least the ones who were or are governors — have clear health care positions

Viewpoints: Perry's Texas 'miracle' or 'sad fact'?; Reich on Medicare for all; Orszag on health IT boom

Roundup: Rx discounts for Medicaid programs are increasing; deadline extended for Mich. Medigap verifications

Zelboraf receives FDA approval for treatment of metastatic melanoma

First Edition: August 17, 2011

The Washington Post explores comparative effectiveness research

Debate emerges regarding benefit of CT scans for lung cancer

Vanderbilt's Handle with Care initiative aims to reduce violence in emergency department

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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