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Screening heavy smokers for lung cancer reduces chance of death, federal study finds

The Boston Globe: "Screening heavy smokers with sophisticated medical scanners modestly reduced their chance of dying from lung cancer, according to a federal study released yesterday that provides the first convincing evidence that testing could reduce the toll from the leading cause of cancer deaths. The preliminary findings from the National Cancer Institute were based on a gold-standard study that randomly assigned 53,000 current or former smokers without symptoms to be screened with a CT scanner or standard chest X-ray.

8 Nov 2010

Industry experts speculate, strategize on what election means for business and reform

The Wall Street Journal: "Health-care companies see the Republican win as a chance to chip away at aspects of Mr. Obama's health overhaul least favorable to the industry. Insurance companies, drug manufacturers and hospitals say they will press to peel away the law's new taxes on health-care companies, pass tougher medical malpractice curbs and knock down a new board that recommends Medicare spending cuts" (Adamy, 11/3).

8 Nov 2010

Medicare announces contracts for competitive bidding on equipment while docs worry about payment cuts

News outlets offer a variety of stories about Medicare, including details of a new bidding process for medical equipment and the scheduled cut in physician reimbursement.

8 Nov 2010

Party leaders stake out individual positions for new debate on health overhaul

Individual Republicans and Democrats began staking out their positions on the health overhaul quickly after the elections.

8 Nov 2010

Scientists identify genes that enable some immune systems to halt HIV; finding could spur drug, vaccine development

Tiny variants in a protein that alerts the body to infection could explain how one in 300 HIV-infected people are able to resist the onset of AIDS for years without needing any treatment, researchers said Thursday in a study published online in the journal Science, Agence France-Presse reports

8 Nov 2010

Risk pools, drug prices and other issues in health law implementation

A health law program that directs $5 billion for coverage of otherwise uninsurable people through state-run high-risk insurance pools has attracted only 8,011 people according to health department enrollment figures, The New York Times reports. That's a paucity compared to the hundreds of thousands of people government actuaries predicted would flock to the program causing it to run out of money too early.

8 Nov 2010

Pervasis receives $920,000 in grants under QTDP program

Pervasis Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that it has been awarded over $920,000 in grants through the U.S. government's Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project, which provides tax credits and grants to projects that show significant potential to produce new therapies, reduce long-term health care costs, or significantly advance the goal of curing cancer within the next 30 years.

8 Nov 2010

ST Cardio Technologies receives $244,479 QTDP Program grant to develop Z6 Cardiac Stimulator

ST Cardio Technologies, an innovative developer of products utilized in the diagnosis and treatment of heart arrhythmias, announced today that it has been awarded a grant of $244,479 under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP) Program. The company's grant is related to the development and clinical evaluation of the Z6 Cardiac Stimulator. The amount awarded to ST Cardio Technologies represents the maximum award for a grant under this program.

8 Nov 2010

Military leaders look for way to cut health care costs

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is looking for ways to cut health care costs in the nation's military care, "an area that members of Congress have so far been reluctant to tackle," Politico reports. "Gates's drive for efficiency has run the gamut — from overhauling acquisitions to better tailoring military spending for current worldwide missions, including the war in Afghanistan and the one winding down in Iraq."

8 Nov 2010

Sandata announces patent for new caregiver location monitoring solution

Sandata Technologies, LLC, a leading national provider of information technology solutions to the home healthcare industry, today announced that on November 16, 2010, the US Patent and Trademark Office will issue US Patent Number 7835955, "Time and/or Attendance System Using Synchronized Code," an innovative new caregiver location monitoring solution aimed at reducing home healthcare fraud and abuse.

8 Nov 2010

Medicaid pooled trusts keep seniors out of nursing homes

The New York Times reports on Medicaid pooled trusts: "[T]here is a little-known way for some people in certain states to receive home care through Medicaid, without requiring them to impoverish themselves first. Here's how it works: a federal law established in 1993 allows disabled people to put their monthly income or assets — above the amounts Medicaid allows them to keep — into a special type of pooled trust.

8 Nov 2010

Tomophase to commercialize OCT Imaging System for pulmonary applications with QTDP award

Tomophase Corporation, a leading developer of minimally invasive optical coherence tomography (OCT) tissue imaging devices, announced that it has received an award from the Departments of the Treasury and Health and Human Services for the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP.)

8 Nov 2010

Home health, other Medicare providers face pay cuts

Home health providers face Medicare payment cuts next year. Gentiva Health Services and Amedisys are among the providers of at-home health care to receive lower Medicare payments next year under U.S. government changes to the program.

8 Nov 2010

Health care industries have mixed reaction to health reform

The Wall Street Journal: While many Republican campaigns this season focused on repeal of the federal health care overhaul, "even with the House changing hands, health insurers, drug companies and hospitals said they were planning as if the law will stick." However, health-care companies "say that the election results offer new opportunities to influence the way the law is implemented.

8 Nov 2010

'New framework' needed to reduce slum expansion, new UN-HABITAT head says in speech outlining priorities

Joan Clos, the newly elected executive director of the U.N. Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT), on Tuesday urged the international community to focus on improving the lives of slum dwellers worldwide and take steps to reduce the expansion of slum areas, Xinhua/People's Daily Online reports.

8 Nov 2010

Oragenics awarded $733,437 Federal Grant under PPACA Act

Florida-based biopharmaceutical company Oragenics, Inc. announced that it will receive a $733,437 Federal Grant as part of Congress's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

8 Nov 2010

Leaders discuss best practices, challenges for detecting counterfeit medications

During the opening of the 10th annual meeting of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) in Accra, Ghana, the country's "Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday called on member countries of the society to institute effective measures that would help detect fake and counterfeit drugs," Ghana News Agency reports.

8 Nov 2010

AHRQ grants $34 million to prevent healthcare-associated infections

HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today announced the award of $34 million for projects focused on preventing one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States - healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). This new funding will help improve the quality of care delivered to patients and expand the fight against HAIs in hospitals, ambulatory care settings, end-stage renal disease facilities and long-term care facilities.

8 Nov 2010

AccuVein receives QTDP grant for AV300 vein illumination system

AccuVein LLC, the developer of the first non-contact, handheld vein illumination system, announced today that it had been awarded the maximum grant amount from the Qualifying Therapeutic Discover Project (QTDP) program. This Federal grant program supports projects that show significant potential to produce new therapies, address unmet medical needs, and reduce the long-term growth of health care costs.

8 Nov 2010

How much did health care votes cause democratic defeats?

In the end, it may have mattered less whether vulnerable Democratic incumbents voted for or against the health care law than that they simply had a D by their names, The New York Times reports.

8 Nov 2010

Health Care News and Research

Screening heavy smokers for lung cancer reduces chance of death, federal study finds

Industry experts speculate, strategize on what election means for business and reform

Medicare announces contracts for competitive bidding on equipment while docs worry about payment cuts

Party leaders stake out individual positions for new debate on health overhaul

Scientists identify genes that enable some immune systems to halt HIV; finding could spur drug, vaccine development

Risk pools, drug prices and other issues in health law implementation

Pervasis receives $920,000 in grants under QTDP program

ST Cardio Technologies receives $244,479 QTDP Program grant to develop Z6 Cardiac Stimulator

Military leaders look for way to cut health care costs

Sandata announces patent for new caregiver location monitoring solution

Medicaid pooled trusts keep seniors out of nursing homes

Tomophase to commercialize OCT Imaging System for pulmonary applications with QTDP award

Home health, other Medicare providers face pay cuts

Health care industries have mixed reaction to health reform

'New framework' needed to reduce slum expansion, new UN-HABITAT head says in speech outlining priorities

Oragenics awarded $733,437 Federal Grant under PPACA Act

Leaders discuss best practices, challenges for detecting counterfeit medications

AHRQ grants $34 million to prevent healthcare-associated infections

AccuVein receives QTDP grant for AV300 vein illumination system

How much did health care votes cause democratic defeats?

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