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Accommodating patients may help reduce racial health disparities, improve patient satisfaction: Study

What if an emergency room patient wants a different doctor than the one who reports to their examination room? If the patient is a woman or a racial minority, emergency physicians are more likely to honor their request to see a doctor of their same gender, race or religious background.

22 Jul 2010

Hospital updates: ERs try to shorten waits, Florida Children's Hospital to join with Johns Hopkins

To attract patients, hospitals are increasingly posting wait times for their emergency rooms "on billboards, websites, social media outlets like Twitter and in text messages," The Salt Lake Tribune reports. "It's a competitive strategy, but also a tool for bending the wait-time curve and, hopefully, improving patient care, said Mary Joe Jones, chief clinical nursing officer at St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City."

22 Jul 2010

Current myths vs. realities in global AIDS funding

Activists at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna are charging developed and developing country governments with writing checques that bounce to the millions of people in need of lifesaving HIV treatment. Despite the gains in treatment numbers reported by WHO, the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition's (ITPC), latest report, Rationing Funds, Risking Lives, documents early warnings of the global pullback on AIDS commitment and funding.

22 Jul 2010

Severe state budget shortfalls trigger Medicaid program cuts

As states face severe budget shortfalls, many have cut home-care services for the elderly or the disabled, programs that have been shown to save states money in the long run because they keep people out of nursing homes. Since the start of the recession, at least 25 states and the District of Columbia have curtailed programs that include meal deliveries, housekeeping aid and assistance for family caregivers, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research organization.

22 Jul 2010

Enrollment jump helps UnitedHealth Group profits soar 31 percent

Health insurer UnitedHealth Group reported a second quarter profit jump of 31 percent as enrollment in the insurer's plans went up, The Associated Press/The New York Times reports. "The company's total enrollment grew about 1 percent, to 32.5 million compared with last year, with gains in Medicare and Medicaid businesses offsetting commercial health insurance losses." The company's commercial enrollment fell 440,000 as the sector deals with job cuts and the recession (7/20).

22 Jul 2010

Study identifies treatment strategies that can slow progression of eye disease associated with diabetes

The VA Maryland Health Care System participated in a landmark national study of more than 10,251 high-risk diabetic adults across the nation, testing if three complementary treatment strategies can reduce the high rate of heart disease and stroke associated with type 2 diabetes and if these treatment strategies can also slow the progression of eye disease associated with diabetes, the leading cause of blindness in working-age Americans.

22 Jul 2010

Justice Department officials ask for more time to reply to USCA's lawsuit against Obama's health care overhaul

Lawyers for Barack Obama and other defendants in the U.S. Citizens Association's lawsuit against Obama's health care overhaul have asked a federal judge in Akron, Ohio for more time to respond to the lawsuit suit because "this case presents claims not yet addressed in other litigation."

22 Jul 2010

AIDS 2010 opinions: U.S. AIDS funding; Human rights and HIV; Invest in primary care; Microbicide gel's possibilities

"Having met President [Barack] Obama, I'm confident that he's a man of conscience who shares my commitment to bringing hope and care to the world's poor. But I am saddened by his decision to spend less than he promised to treat AIDS patients in Africa," Desmond Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Cape Town and honorary chairman of the Global AIDS Alliance, writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

22 Jul 2010

Today's OpEds: U.S. and AIDS; Mass. example on health reform?; Unions and health costs

George W. Bush made an impressive commitment to the international fight against AIDS when he formed the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program. … Thanks to these efforts — and similar initiatives ... the number of African patients with access to AIDS drugs jumped tenfold from 2003 to 2008. Since 2004, the AIDS-related mortality rate in sub-Saharan Africa has dropped 18 percent. Yet President Obama added only $366 million to the program this year — well below the $1 billion per year he promised to add when he was on the campaign trail (Desmond Tutu, 7/20).

22 Jul 2010

Genzyme second-quarter revenue decreases to $1.08 billion

Genzyme Corp. today reported that second-quarter revenue was $1.08 billion, compared with $1.23 billion in the same period last year, reflecting limited shipments of Cerezyme® (imiglucerase for injection) and Fabrazyme® (agalsidase beta) due to product supply constraints in 2010. The company expects to be able to increase shipments of Cerezyme and Fabrazyme during the second half of the year.

21 Jul 2010

Abbott second-quarter global sales increase 17.8% to $8.8 billion

Abbott today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010.

21 Jul 2010

First Edition: July 21, 2010

Today's headlines include news regarding specific examples of what could happen at the state level if Congress doesn't extend enhanced federal Medicaid funding.

21 Jul 2010

Jericho Systems selected to provide key components of NHIN

Jericho Systems Corporation, a leader in distributed enterprise identity and access management solutions for evolving SOA environments, is one of only eight civilian companies selected to provide key components of the new Nationwide Health Information Network that facilitates the exchange of clinical data between the Department of Defense, Veterans Administration, and private healthcare providers.

21 Jul 2010

Target Health, LifeOnKey partner to offer web-based information platform to optimize clinical trials

Target Health Inc. and LifeOnKey, Inc. today announced they have joined forces to offer an innovative, web-based information platform that will allow the bio-pharmaceutical and medical device industries to optimize clinical trials, help researchers capture, analyze and assess trial data more efficiently, and bring innovative new medicines and devices to patients.

21 Jul 2010

Study: Americans with stand-alone vision insurance plans more likely to receive annual eye examination

According to a new study conducted for the National Association of Vision Care Plans by an independent research firm, health care consumers who participate in full service, stand-alone vision insurance plans are two times (33.3 percent) more likely to receive an annual comprehensive eye examination than those consumers that have vision care coverage "bundled" with their major medical plan (16.3 percent).

21 Jul 2010

Clinical research updates on interventional cardiology techniques that affect patient care

TCT 2010 will provide significant clinical research updates to technologies and practices in interventional cardiology that will directly affect patient care.

21 Jul 2010

Study finds sepsis 10 times more common and lethal than heart attacks, blood clots

New research from The Methodist Hospital in Houston shows that sepsis is 10 times more common and more lethal than other more well-known surgical complications including heart attacks and blood clots. These results, published today in the Archives of General Surgery, show a greater need for sepsis awareness and early recognition during and after surgery.

21 Jul 2010

Researchers block central pathway for prostate cancer progression

Prostate cancer advances when tumors become resistant to hormone therapy, which is the standard treatment for patients, and begin producing their own androgens.

21 Jul 2010

Study examines UK's NICE as model producer of HTA

GfK HealthCare, one the largest providers of fully integrated custom health care marketing research in the world, announced today the undertaking of a first-ever research study aimed at examining the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence as a model producer of Health Technology Appraisals, and its impact on decision making in ex-UK health care systems.

21 Jul 2010

WHO, UNAIDS and PSI call for scale up of male circumcision in Eastern, Southern Africa

The U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby and the World Health Organization's Director of HIV, TB, and Malaria, Africa Regional Office, Dr. David Okello, joined PSI (Population Services International) today in calling for greater efforts to rapidly and efficiently scale up male circumcision service delivery in Eastern and Southern Africa.

21 Jul 2010

Health Care News and Research

Accommodating patients may help reduce racial health disparities, improve patient satisfaction: Study

Hospital updates: ERs try to shorten waits, Florida Children's Hospital to join with Johns Hopkins

Current myths vs. realities in global AIDS funding

Severe state budget shortfalls trigger Medicaid program cuts

Enrollment jump helps UnitedHealth Group profits soar 31 percent

Study identifies treatment strategies that can slow progression of eye disease associated with diabetes

Justice Department officials ask for more time to reply to USCA's lawsuit against Obama's health care overhaul

AIDS 2010 opinions: U.S. AIDS funding; Human rights and HIV; Invest in primary care; Microbicide gel's possibilities

Today's OpEds: U.S. and AIDS; Mass. example on health reform?; Unions and health costs

Genzyme second-quarter revenue decreases to $1.08 billion

Abbott second-quarter global sales increase 17.8% to $8.8 billion

First Edition: July 21, 2010

Jericho Systems selected to provide key components of NHIN

Target Health, LifeOnKey partner to offer web-based information platform to optimize clinical trials

Study: Americans with stand-alone vision insurance plans more likely to receive annual eye examination

Clinical research updates on interventional cardiology techniques that affect patient care

Study finds sepsis 10 times more common and lethal than heart attacks, blood clots

Researchers block central pathway for prostate cancer progression

Study examines UK's NICE as model producer of HTA

WHO, UNAIDS and PSI call for scale up of male circumcision in Eastern, Southern Africa

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