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Increasing trend seen in hospital admissions due to atrial fibrillation

A growing epidemic of the world's most common heart rhythm disorder is resulting in an alarming number of hospital admissions in Australia, according to cardiology researchers.

31 Aug 2010

Ten million face hunger in Central Africa; Niger flooding exacerbates food shortage, leaves 200,000 homeless

Flash floods have "worsened an already chronic humanitarian crisis caused by drought" in central Africa where aid agencies have warned that "10 million people are already facing severe food shortages, particularly in the landlocked countries of Chad and Niger, after a drought led to the failure of last year's crops," the Independent reports.

31 Aug 2010

SIR issues position statement to determine safety, effectiveness of interventional M.S. treatment

Recognizing that venous interventions may potentially play an important role in treating some patients who suffer from multiple sclerosis an incurable, disabling disease the Society of Interventional Radiology has issued a position statement indicating its support for high quality clinical research to determine the safety and effectiveness of interventional M.S. treatments.

31 Aug 2010

Canadian minister travels to Mali, Mozambique to start rolling out Canada's G8 Muskoka Initiative

The Canadian government started rolling out its maternal health program in Africa as Minister of International Co-operation Bev Oda embarked on a seven-day visit to Mali and Mozambique, the Globe and Mail reports (York, 8/27).

31 Aug 2010

Sutter Health collaborates with iTriage

Consumers can check health symptoms, look up health conditions and now find detailed information about doctors, hospitals, emergency rooms and medical clinics in the Sutter Health network via the free mobile health care application – iTriage.

31 Aug 2010

Uninsured Maine adults with mental illness struggle to get care; Florida continues to push to repeal reform

Kennebec (Maine) Journal: "A growing number of uninsured Mainers with mental illness are falling through the cracks of the health care system because of state budget cuts and financial strains on nonprofits, according to state officials and private agencies. Just as when someone goes without treatment for a toothache and ends up in the ER, the lack of access to regular mental health care means illnesses are getting more expensive and patients are getting sicker, officials said."

31 Aug 2010

Forensic Fluids Laboratories ranked #167th on Inc. 500 fastest growing companies list

Forensic Fluids Laboratories Inc., a leading provider of oral fluid drug testing, today announced that the company was named to the prestigious Inc. 500 list, a list of the most entrepreneurial and fastest growing companies in the United States. Forensic Fluids Lab was number 167 on the general list, number 10 in health care, number 2 in Michigan, and number 20 for women-owned.

31 Aug 2010

Liberal health reform group pushing hard to save lawmakers, Berwick won't disclose donors

Politico: The liberal health group Health Care for America Now is "fighting hard to help reelect lawmakers who voted for the [health reform] bill — even if it means not talking about it. … HCAN activists say they are not dodging their key issue; rather, they want to keep pace with voter concerns, which have markedly shifted over the past year.

31 Aug 2010

VA's liabilities grow as agency expands list of diseases linked to Agent Orange

Politico looks at a new fight brewing over Agent Orange and how it affects programs for Vietnam Veterans. "It's a world turned upside-down from decades ago when returning soldiers had to fight to get attention for deadly lymphomas linked to the herbicide. Now the frailties of men in their 60s — prostate cancer, diabetes, heart disease — lead the list of qualified Agent Orange disabilities, and the result has been an explosion in claims — and the government's liability.

31 Aug 2010

Medicare beneficiaries receive prescription drug cost relief under Affordable Care Act

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced that more than 1 million Medicare beneficiaries have received prescription drug cost relief through the Affordable Care Act.

31 Aug 2010

Many public hospitals face increasingly pressures; Nonprofit hospitals face uncertain futures

The Wall Street Journal: "Faced with mounting debt and looming costs from the new federal health-care law, many local governments are leaving the hospital business, shedding public facilities that can be the caregiver of last resort. … More than a fifth of the nation's 5,000 hospitals are owned by governments and many are drowning in debt caused by rising health-care costs, a spike in uninsured patients, cuts in Medicare and Medicaid and payments on construction bonds sold in fatter times.

30 Aug 2010

Study: Explosion of medical imaging due partly to overuse

"Part of the explosion in medical imaging over the past two decades may be attributable to overuse, and steps need to be taken to cut back," according to a study in the journal Radiology, MedPage Today/ABC News reports.

30 Aug 2010

U.N.-NGO conference on MDGs kicks off in Australia

Ahead of next month's U.N. Summit in New York, a joint U.N.-NGO conference tracking the world's progress toward reaching the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) kicked off in Melbourne, Australia, on Monday, ABC News reports (8/30).

30 Aug 2010

Record number taking anti-poverty programs, COBRA coverage alternatives examined

One in six Americans is now taking advantage of government anti-poverty programs, including more than 50 million on Medicaid, for which enrollment is up 17 percent since the recession began in December 2007, USA Today reports. "The program has grown even before the new health care law adds about 16 million people, beginning in 2014. That has strained doctors. … As caseloads for all the programs have soared, so have costs. The federal price tag for Medicaid has jumped 36% in two years, to $273 billion. Jobless benefits have soared from $43 billion to $160 billion.

30 Aug 2010

Opinions: MDG progress; Drug patents; Aid for scientific research; Avoiding food crises; Hunger in India; U.S. commitments to PEPFAR, Global Fund

"Between the catastrophes of the Haiti earthquake and the Pakistan floods, there was actually some good news this spring on the global health front, which offers hope that the United Nations' ambitious Millennium Development Goals might not be at a standstill. Though a great deal remains to be done, all of us are living longer, fewer mothers are dying in childbirth, and fewer children are dying before school age," Eli Adashi, professor of medical science at Brown University, writes in Boston Globe editorial.

30 Aug 2010

Also in Global Health News: GM mosquitoes; Iodine deficiency in Nepal; South African health workers strike; Novartis to build vaccine plant in Brazil; Population control in Niger

Malaysia is still "considering releasing" up to 3,000 mosquitoes that are genetically modified to "combat dengue fever, in a landmark field trial that has come in for criticism from environmentalists," Agence France-Presse reports. The insects are modified "so that their offspring quickly die," which researchers hope will cull the population and lessen the risk of dengue.

30 Aug 2010

KHN's weekend update: Highlights from the Saturday and Sunday headlines

Kaiser Health News tracked a variety of stories over the weekend regarding the new federal health law and getting health coverage, including reports that Congress is poised to weigh changes in the health law's business purchase requirements and more coverage of young adults lacking health coverage Coverage (8/29). Read Saturday's and Sunday's news summaries.

30 Aug 2010

BayCare Behavioral Health announces opening of Morton Plant North Bay Hospital Recovery Center in Lutz

As part of its continued commitment to meet the mental health needs of the Tampa Bay community, BayCare Behavioral Health has opened the Morton Plant North Bay Hospital Recovery Center in Lutz.

30 Aug 2010

KHN column: As reform improves the overall market, inefficient insurers could take hits

In his latest Kaiser Health News column, done in collaboration with The New Republic, Jonathan Cohn writes about how the insurance market will change as a result of the health overhaul.

30 Aug 2010

Today's Opinions and Editorials: The costs of public employees' health benefits, more on Medicare Advantage, and will reform undermine medical innovation?

We want to spend just a little less, so that we have more money for other purposes. And we want to spend just a little differently, so that we're getting a higher quality, more humane health care system (Jonathan Cohn, 8/30).

30 Aug 2010

Health Care News and Research

Increasing trend seen in hospital admissions due to atrial fibrillation

Ten million face hunger in Central Africa; Niger flooding exacerbates food shortage, leaves 200,000 homeless

SIR issues position statement to determine safety, effectiveness of interventional M.S. treatment

Canadian minister travels to Mali, Mozambique to start rolling out Canada's G8 Muskoka Initiative

Sutter Health collaborates with iTriage

Uninsured Maine adults with mental illness struggle to get care; Florida continues to push to repeal reform

Forensic Fluids Laboratories ranked #167th on Inc. 500 fastest growing companies list

Liberal health reform group pushing hard to save lawmakers, Berwick won't disclose donors

VA's liabilities grow as agency expands list of diseases linked to Agent Orange

Medicare beneficiaries receive prescription drug cost relief under Affordable Care Act

Many public hospitals face increasingly pressures; Nonprofit hospitals face uncertain futures

Study: Explosion of medical imaging due partly to overuse

U.N.-NGO conference on MDGs kicks off in Australia

Record number taking anti-poverty programs, COBRA coverage alternatives examined

Opinions: MDG progress; Drug patents; Aid for scientific research; Avoiding food crises; Hunger in India; U.S. commitments to PEPFAR, Global Fund

Also in Global Health News: GM mosquitoes; Iodine deficiency in Nepal; South African health workers strike; Novartis to build vaccine plant in Brazil; Population control in Niger

KHN's weekend update: Highlights from the Saturday and Sunday headlines

BayCare Behavioral Health announces opening of Morton Plant North Bay Hospital Recovery Center in Lutz

KHN column: As reform improves the overall market, inefficient insurers could take hits

Today's Opinions and Editorials: The costs of public employees' health benefits, more on Medicare Advantage, and will reform undermine medical innovation?

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

Advancing Neuroscience Research Through Collaboration and Patient-Centered Innovation

The impact of vibration on microscopy

How Omics Technologies Are Transforming Biological Research and Drug Discovery

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