Health Care News and Research

RSS

Political cartoon: 'Incumbent Check-Up'

Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy news with "Incumbent Checkup" by Mike Lester.

25 Oct 2010

GSA Annual Scientific Meeting to focus on up-to-date news on aging

America's premier authorities on aging will share the most up-to-date news on Social Security, health care reform, the impact of disasters on older people, evolution instruction in classrooms, and other current topics at The Gerontological Society of America's upcoming 63rd Annual Scientific Meeting.

25 Oct 2010

Intensive population management program reduces risk of death, health care costs

A new study from Kaiser Permanente Colorado is one of the first to show that an intensive population management program that matches heart disease patients to personal nurses and clinical pharmacy specialists not only reduces the risk of death but reduces health care costs as well.

25 Oct 2010

Competition for agricultural land contributes to hunger of 500M small-scale farmers, U.N. official says

Approximately 500 million small-scale farmers worldwide are going hungry because of "an explosive cocktail" of farmland speculation, environmental damages and urbanization, Olivier De Schutter, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, said on Thursday, the Associated Press/Winnipeg Free Press reports (Lederer, 10/21).

25 Oct 2010

First Edition: October 25, 2010

Today's headlines include the latest on health overhaul policies and politics as the mid-term election grows closer.

25 Oct 2010

New Canadian Cardiovascular Society guidelines support clinicians in practicing evidence-based medicine

Summaries of a number of new Canadian Cardiovascular Society guidelines and position statements offering the most up to date information to support clinicians in practicing evidence-based medicine were released at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010 this week.

25 Oct 2010

FDA warns about risk of Hyland's Teething Tablets to children

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today is warning consumers that Hyland's Teething Tablets may pose a risk to children. The FDA recommends that consumers not use this product and dispose of any in their possession. The manufacturer is issuing a recall of this product.

25 Oct 2010

New synthetic population can help computational modelers to study infectious diseases

To help computational modelers who study the spread of infectious diseases, including flu, researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health at RTI International in North Carolina created a synthetic population mirroring U.S. demographics. Now they've added another layer of realism: where the virtual citizens live.

25 Oct 2010

Research Roundup: U.S. life expectancy ratings; Medicare Advantage outlook; Should advanced cancer patients have routine screening tests?

Health Affairs: What Changes In Survival Rates Tell Us About US Health Care -- Proponents of changes in the U.S. health system have often pointed to studies that find health outcomes in this country are worse than other developed nations, even though the United States "spends well over twice the median expenditure of industrialized nations on health care, and far more than any other country as a percentage of its gross domestic product." Others point to high rates of smoking, obesity and traffic fatalities.

25 Oct 2010

Sen. Grassley asks HHS to probe doctors using excessive prescriptions

The Miami Herald: "Based on the huge numbers of prescriptions written by a Miami psychiatrist, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is continuing to pressure federal officials to investigate why some doctors write stunning numbers of scripts for tax-funded Medicare and Medicaid programs.

25 Oct 2010

Governor Rendell vetoes Senate Bill 1280

Governor Edward G. Rendell today vetoed Senate Bill 1280 noting the proposed legislation would destabilize the medical malpractice market, affecting physicians, other health care providers and ultimately the quality of care available.

25 Oct 2010

State officials adopt standards for insurers' expenses

The New York Times: "State insurance commissioners on Thursday unanimously endorsed tough new standards that would require many health insurance companies to spend more of each premium dollar for the benefit of consumers. The new federal health care law stipulates that at least 80 percent of premium revenue must be spent on medical care and 'activities that improve health care quality' for patients — not retained as profits or used to pay executive compensation and administrative expenses.

25 Oct 2010

Joint Commission: Medical errors in hospitals tied to 'handoffs' of patients

The Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals, released an update on a collaborative project with 10 health systems tragetting the frequent errors that happen in hospitals when a patient is handed off from one provider to another.

25 Oct 2010

Cholera outbreak kills 138, more than 1,500 other cases reported, Haitian health ministry officials say

Haitian Health Ministry officials have informed the World Health Organization that 138 deaths are a part of a fast-moving cholera outbreak north of Port-au-Prince, a U.N. official said, CNN reports.

25 Oct 2010

Fred Hutchinson Center offers research-based tip sheets for breast cancer survivors

Throughout October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, experts from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and its clinical care partner, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, are offering weekly research-based tip sheets regarding breast cancer prevention, screening and early detection, treatment and survivorship.

25 Oct 2010

UC San Diego researchers receive two federal grants for biomedical informatics

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, led by Lucila Ohno-Machado, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Biomedical Informatics in the Department of Medicine, have received two federal grants totaling more than $25 million to develop new ways to gather, analyze, use and share vast, ever-increasing amounts of biomedical information.

25 Oct 2010