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Anti-tobacco laws can reduce smoking habits in Europe

The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases has announced its intention to release a Request for Applications on Implementation Research on Hypertension in Low and Middle Income Countries.

5 Jan 2011

CIGNA announces introduction of Dental Network Savings Program

CIGNA today announced the introduction of the Dental Network Savings Program, designed to provide Dental PPO and Dental Indemnity clients and customers additional savings opportunities when receiving covered dental plan services from a participating program dentist.

5 Jan 2011

Obama to sign food safety law today

The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to enact provisions of the new food-safety bill that was passed by Congress in the waning days of 2010 and is expected to be signed into law Tuesday (Tomson, 1/4).

5 Jan 2011

AvMed receives NCQA's Excellent Accreditation status for commercial and Medicare products

Once again, AvMed Health Plans has received an Excellent Accreditation status from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for both its commercial and Medicare products, a distinction shared only by a select group of health plans in the country.

5 Jan 2011

High risk of burnout among residents and senior physicians

The January issue of the journal Anesthesiology examines the issue of burnout among anesthesiologists. Two studies provide significant burnout statistics among these highly trained medical specialists, and editorials offer personal perspective on the issue as well as advice on how best to avoid professional burnout.

5 Jan 2011

Setting the date: House scheduled to vote Jan. 12 on health law repeal

House GOP leaders have scheduled for Jan. 12 a much-awaited and politically charged vote to repeal the health law. In the background, news organizations report on the positions being taken by Democrats who may have voted against the measure the first time around and how Republicans plan to explain the budget implications of this repeal effort.

5 Jan 2011

Seattle Times looks at response to Haitian cholera outbreak on the ground

Though Haiti's cholera "epidemic continues to spread, infecting more than 125,000 people and killing more than 3,200," it seems to have "stabilized in" the town of Mirebalais, which is close to the "U.N. camp of Nepalese peacekeepers who are under investigation as a possible source" of the outbreak, the Seattle Times reports in a story outlining how aid groups and health workers are dealing with the situation.

5 Jan 2011

Republican push to undo health law will be no easy task

Even as the GOP flexes its new political muscle, news outlets offer analysis of the difficulties involved in the long-term strategy to prevent the health law's implementation — including the difficulties involved in attempts to defund it. Meanwhile, PBS explores how this debate could trigger the return of the "death panel" issue.

5 Jan 2011

Roundup: Calif. issues emergency medical care expenditure regs; High risk pools in Mich., Wis. face stumbling blocks

California's new insurance commissioner sought Monday to force health insurers to spend more of their revenue on medical care. In his first official act, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones ordered emergency regulations requiring insurance companies to devote at least 80% of their income to policyholders' claims in the state's individual insurance market (Helfand, 1/4).

5 Jan 2011

Governors take hard look at Medicaid dollars, programs

Amidst continuing state budget pressures, N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo plans to reduce Medicaid spending by a hefty sum; Missouri's new governor pledges to reverse his predecessor's cuts; and in Kansas, program reforms are part of Gov. Brownback's agenda.

5 Jan 2011

Diet low in micronutrients can contribute to metabolic syndrome

Results of an epidemiological study conducted by researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and the Corporacion Ecuatoriana de Biotecnologia showed that the metabolic syndrome, a condition that increases a person's risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, was prevalent in a low-income urban community in Ecuador and that a poor diet low in micronutrients appeared to contribute.

5 Jan 2011

Senate Dems line up against the effort to undo the health overhaul

In the Senate, Democratic leaders pledge to block any House attempt at repeal and cite the health measure's benefits for seniors as key reason.

5 Jan 2011

Opinions: U.S. International Affairs Budget; Health impacts of climate change; Role of U.N.; Drug development, free trade

Despite challenging economic times, "[t]wo areas we cannot afford to shortchange right now ... are our national security and our economic prosperity, which is why we must continue to have a strong and effective International Affairs Budget," U.S. Global Leadership Coalition Communications Director Richard Parker writes in a FoxNews.com opinion piece.

5 Jan 2011

Today's Opinions: GOP rerun; Finding bipartisanship; Pawlenty's legacy

You just can't close the door on this crowd. The party that brought us the worst economy since the Great Depression, that led us into Iraq and the worst foreign policy disaster in American history, that would like to take a hammer to Social Security and a chisel to Medicare, is back in control of the House of Representatives with the expressed mission of undermining all things Obama (Bob Herbert, 1/3).

4 Jan 2011

First Edition: January 4, 2011

The House GOP leadership sets Jan. 12 as the date for a vote on repealing the health law. Meanwhile, California's new health insurance commissioner takes action on health insurers' expenditures while New York's governor targets Medicaid spending.

4 Jan 2011

Alpha Omega International Dental Fraternity honors Henry Schein Chairman and CEO

Alpha Omega International Dental Fraternity honored Stanley M. Bergman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Henry Schein, Inc., the largest distributor of health care products and services to office-based practitioners, at the Organization's 2010 Annual Sunny Days Convention.

4 Jan 2011

Revolutions Medical reworks exclusive license with Traxyz for breast biopsy localization system

Revolutions Medical Corporation recently completed the reworking of a worldwide exclusive license with Traxyz, LLC for an image guided navigation system to convert over 50,000 conventional mammography systems for use as a high accuracy breast biopsies system (BBS). This BBS facilitates accurate and fast non-palpable lesions and micro calcification localization in the treatment of breast cancer.

4 Jan 2011

Clinical Decision Support Systems help reduce unnecessary CT and MRI scans

Researchers from Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, WA, have found that clinical decision support systems can help reduce inappropriate medical imaging, including unnecessary computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, according to a study in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (www.jacr.org).

4 Jan 2011

MBGH releases survey results of employers' reactions to health reform

Today the Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH) released the results of a recent national employer survey gauging the reactions and concerns related to health reform after the mid-term November elections. Conducted by MBGH and co-sponsored by the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH), Business Insurance and Workforce Management, the findings indicate that employers believe the law will increase their benefit costs and changes are needed in the law to improve quality, reduce expenses and reward health system performance.

4 Jan 2011

Caution over frequent use of diagnostic tests for kids

The rapid growth in use of medical diagnostic imaging, such as CT scans, has led to widespread concern about radiation exposure in adults and the potential for future cancer risk in patients undergoing these tests.

4 Jan 2011