Health Care News and Research

RSS

La. doctors work from scratch to rebuild local health system; Mich. A.G. sues Blue Cross Blue Shield over rate changes; Wis. health programs make hefty budget request

PBS Newshour: The Newshour Health Unit, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, explores how doctors in Louisiana "are dealing with the unique challenge of reshaping a health care system that was badly damaged." Dr. Karen DeSalvo, vice dean for Community Affairs and Health Policy at Tulane University, said the response was like creating "health care in the wild. There was nothing."

18 Sep 2010

Financial Times analyzes increasing pressures on aid groups to demonstrate accomplishments with donor money

Ahead of the U.N. Millennium Development Summit, the Financial Times' Alan Beattie analyzes the effects of tightening aid budgets on development program funding, emphasizing how such changes are resulting in a push for increased measures to assess the effectiveness of aid.

18 Sep 2010

POWER study: Women with diabetes have C-section, complications during pregnancy

Nearly half of women with diabetes prior to pregnancy have a potentially-avoidable C-section and their babies are twice as likely to die as those born to women without diabetes, according to the POWER study.

18 Sep 2010

Proposal by WHO to eliminate AIDS in South Africa is flawed, model shows

In 2008, Reuben Granich and his colleagues at the World Health Organization published a paper in the medical journal The Lancet that proposed a new strategy for combating HIV in South Africa, a country staggered by the virus, with as much as 18 percent of the population estimated to be infected.

18 Sep 2010

U.N., IMF release reports on how global economic crisis 'dealt critical blow' to aid for poor countries

Ahead of next week's U.N. Millennium Development Summit, "[t]he United Nations and International Monetary Fund said Thursday that the global financial crisis has dealt a critical blow to aid for poor countries with billions of dollars needed to meet shortages," Agence France-Presse reports. "Both institutions said that the world must return to sustainable growth to hope to reach global poverty and health targets" (Donnet, 9/16).

18 Sep 2010

FDA and Medicare to test joint decision-making on medical products

The FDA announced Thursday that it is beginning a pilot project with Medicare officials in an effort to get new medical products covered sooner for the nation's 45 million senior citizens. Under the proposal, the FDA would review and make approval decisions alongside the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which decides whether and how to pay for new medical products for its elderly and disabled patients once they are approved for the U.S. market," Reuters reported.

18 Sep 2010

HHS Secretary Sebelius announces $130.8 million in grants to expand health professions workforce

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced $130.8 million in grants to strengthen and expand the health professions workforce. Six areas are targeted: primary care workforce training, oral health workforce training, equipment to enhance training across the health professions, loan repayments for health professionals, health careers opportunity programs for disadvantaged students, and patient navigator outreach and chronic disease prevention in health disparity populations.

18 Sep 2010

Global child mortality declines by one-third since 1990, U.N. report says

The number of children who die before age 5 has declined by one-third since 1990, Reuters reports.

18 Sep 2010

Lawmakers debate action on stem cell research, public health bills

Sen. Arlen Specter said at a Senate hearing Thursday that Congress should move on allowing the government to fund human embryonic stem cell research "to avoid giving a final say on the issue to a conservative Supreme Court," The Associated Press reports.

18 Sep 2010

Uninsured rate soars, 50+ million Americans without overage

Kaiser Health News staff writers Phil Galewitz and Andrew Villegas report: "In a reflection of the battered economy, the number of people without health insurance rose sharply last year to 50.7 million

18 Sep 2010

Global Fund head repeats appeal for emerging countries to invest more in fight against AIDS, TB, malaria

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Director Michel Kazatchkine on Thursday repeated his appeal for emerging countries to scale up their contributions to fight the three major diseases, Agence France-Presse reports.

18 Sep 2010

Opinions: Bachelet appointment; Sanitation MDG; Women's education; Smallholder farms

The appointment of former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to head U.N. Women is an "excellent choice" that "adds stature and star power to the agenda for gender equality," according to a Los Angeles Times editorial.

18 Sep 2010

Judge releases schedule for health overhaul lawsuit proceedings; Poll finds voters indifferent to candidates' reform positions

The federal judge overseeing a lawsuit brought by 20 states against health reform released a schedule this week that lays out how the case will proceed, The Hill's Healthwatch Blog reports.

18 Sep 2010

Carter blames Ted Kennedy for delay in passing health bill

A decades old grudge between former president Jimmy Carter and the late senator Edward Kennedy was renewed again Thursday when Carter criticized Kennedy's stand on the former president's health care proposal. CBS "60 Minutes" quotes Carter as saying "that Kennedy delayed comprehensive coverage for Americans for decades.

18 Sep 2010

CBO finds generic drugs save Medicare $33 billion in 2007

A new government report finds that the use of generic medications saved the Medicare program and its beneficiaries about $33 billion in 2007, The Associated Press/BusinessWeek report. The Congressional Budget Office report "says an additional $14 billion is expected as first-time generics enter the market through 2012. Medicare Part D is Medicare's prescription drug program" (9/15).

18 Sep 2010

Health premiums rise as states consider how they'll implement reforms

Overall health insurance premiums rose 7 percent in 2009, even as the number of people with health coverage fell. "Individual premium revenues rose 15 percent while group premiums, which involve mostly employers, rose nearly 3 percent, according to the report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, an organization whose prominence has grown following passage of the new U.S. health reform law."

18 Sep 2010

Research Roundup: Assessing physician quality; Community health centers' future; Why doctors take gifts; Access to HIV treatment

Archives of Internal Medicine: Associations Between Physician Characteristics And Quality Of Care - Since "most patients do not have access to physician quality measures," they are often encouraged to use public information such as malpractice claims and board certification status to chose a doctor, according to this report that used 2004-2005 insurance claims from about 10,000 Massachusetts physicians for more than 1.13 million adults.

18 Sep 2010

FDA reviews Actos drug for bladder cancer risk

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced it has begun a safety review of the diabetes drug Actos (pioglitazone), after receiving preliminary results from a long-term observational study designed to evaluate the risk of bladder cancer associated with use of this drug.

18 Sep 2010

Today's Opinions: Recession's impact on the uninsured; Repeal of health reform? Then what?

The record number of people last year without health insurance — 50.7 million, up from 46.3 million in 2008 — provides stark evidence of why the country desperately needs the health care reforms enacted in March (9/16).

18 Sep 2010

Nemours wins HIMSS Davies Organizational Award of Excellence

Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) announced that Nemours, a premiere healthcare system for children operating in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida, is a 2010 recipient of its prestigious HIMSS Davies Organizational Award of Excellence.

17 Sep 2010

Health Care News and Research

La. doctors work from scratch to rebuild local health system; Mich. A.G. sues Blue Cross Blue Shield over rate changes; Wis. health programs make hefty budget request

Financial Times analyzes increasing pressures on aid groups to demonstrate accomplishments with donor money

POWER study: Women with diabetes have C-section, complications during pregnancy

Proposal by WHO to eliminate AIDS in South Africa is flawed, model shows

U.N., IMF release reports on how global economic crisis 'dealt critical blow' to aid for poor countries

FDA and Medicare to test joint decision-making on medical products

HHS Secretary Sebelius announces $130.8 million in grants to expand health professions workforce

Global child mortality declines by one-third since 1990, U.N. report says

Lawmakers debate action on stem cell research, public health bills

Uninsured rate soars, 50+ million Americans without overage

Global Fund head repeats appeal for emerging countries to invest more in fight against AIDS, TB, malaria

Opinions: Bachelet appointment; Sanitation MDG; Women's education; Smallholder farms

Judge releases schedule for health overhaul lawsuit proceedings; Poll finds voters indifferent to candidates' reform positions

Carter blames Ted Kennedy for delay in passing health bill

CBO finds generic drugs save Medicare $33 billion in 2007

Health premiums rise as states consider how they'll implement reforms

Research Roundup: Assessing physician quality; Community health centers' future; Why doctors take gifts; Access to HIV treatment

FDA reviews Actos drug for bladder cancer risk

Today's Opinions: Recession's impact on the uninsured; Repeal of health reform? Then what?

Nemours wins HIMSS Davies Organizational Award of Excellence

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

How ELRIG Is Helping Mid-Career Scientists Navigate Leadership, Career Change and Redundancy

Latest News