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Health overhaul supporters plan $25 million promotion campaign

The New York Times: "Close allies of the Obama administration, seeking to rally the public behind President Obama's landmark health care bill, are planning to spend $25 million over the next five years to promote the measure and beat back mischaracterizations of it that could harm Democratic candidates. Mr. Obama's former communications director, Anita Dunn, and longtime Democratic strategist Andrew Grossman, have teamed up to form two new tax-exempt groups.

7 Jun 2010

Congress returns to controversy over COBRA, doctors' Medicare pay

CongressDaily reports that when members of Congress return to Washington Monday "they face a raft of unfinished business on tax 'extender' legislation. … The Senate will look to take up a $114.5 billion package of unemployment benefits, tax breaks, physician payments and other provisions this week amid calls from the right to scale it back, from the left to expand it and from businesses to mitigate its tax increases.

7 Jun 2010

Expansion of e-mental health necessary for better care

Assistance for mental ailments especially in the youth via internet could be a very cost effective measure say researchers. The researchers have identified the gaps between the demand and supply of mental healthcare services in Australia.

6 Jun 2010

NHLBI stops trial evaluating new approach to reduce risk of recurrent stroke in children with sickle cell anemia

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has stopped a clinical trial evaluating a new approach to reduce the risk of recurrent stroke in children with sickle cell anemia and iron overload because of evidence that the new treatment was unlikely to prove better than the existing treatment.

5 Jun 2010

Study finds 18% of pediatric patients at-risk for sleep-related breathing disorders

According to new research that will be presented on Saturday, June 5, at the 19th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, an estimated 18 percent of pediatric patients in a University of North Carolina-based study were at-risk for sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD). Importantly, pediatric risk was not associated with any demographic or craniofacial characteristics, as it is in adults, making it difficult to detect.

5 Jun 2010

Research roundup: Evidence-based medicine consumer/expert divide; Pay for performance limitations; Improving community health centers

Health Affairs: Evidence That Consumers Are Skeptical About Evidence-Based Health Care - This survey of more than 1,500 patients with employer-based insurance found "there is a fundamental disconnect between the central tenets of evidence-based health care and the knowledge, values, and beliefs held by many consumers."

5 Jun 2010

CSTE 2010 Annual Conference to focus on public health challenges

The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists 2010 Annual Conference will be held June 6-10 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. An array of experts representing federal, state, and local health departments will discuss issues ranging from last year's flu pandemic, obesity, food safety, health care reform, information technology, and the global response to disasters such as the Haiti earthquake.

5 Jun 2010

Unsatisfactory interactions with physicians affect sickle cell disease patients' trust in medical profession

Faculty at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics have published a study that shows, among adults with sickle cell disease, that unsatisfactory interactions with health-care providers in the past affect their trust in the medical profession more broadly.

5 Jun 2010

EU sends $29M in food, medical aid to combat increasing food insecurity in Africa's Sahel region

The European Union on Wednesday sent $29 million worth of food and medical aid to help "millions facing hunger" across the drought-stricken Sahel region of West Africa, Reuters reports.

5 Jun 2010

BMJ report questions WHO advisors' ties to pharmaceutical industry

"Key scientists behind World Health Organization advice on stockpiling of pandemic flu drugs had financial ties with companies which stood to profit," according to a joint investigation by BMJ in collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, BBC News reports (6/4).

5 Jun 2010

Roles for payers in HIE, uses of multi-payer portals in healthcare to be discussed at AHIP Institute 2010

NaviNet, America's largest real-time healthcare communications network, announced that two of its senior executives will join industry peers in panel discussions at America's Health Insurance Plans Institute 2010. James Bogdan, senior vice president, will speak on the roles and opportunities for payers in Health Information Exchange, and Tom Morrison, co-founder and chief strategy officer, will discuss the use of multi-payer portals to improve administrative efficiencies in healthcare.

5 Jun 2010

Bangladeshi children who lose mothers more likely to die, Lancet study finds

Children in Bangladesh whose mothers died "had about a 24 percent chance of making it to age 10," while children with mothers had an 89 percent chance of surviving, according to a Lancet study published on Friday, the Associated Press reports.

5 Jun 2010

Maryland doctors to get rewards for cheaper care; In S.D., Sue to open more doc-owned hospitals

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, the largest insurer in the Maryland, Washington and Northern Virginia market, will begin offering financial rewards to physicians who improve quality while cutting costs. Beginning on Jan. 1, the insurer plans to recruit doctors "to participate in its new initiative designed to cut down on the number of unnecessary diagnostic tests, emergency room visits and hospital re-admissions. To do so, CareFirst is putting the onus on the 5,000 doctors already in its network to revamp the care provided to their patients — particularly those with chronic diseases or at risk of contracting them — and more carefully consider where they send patients when they need to see a specialist or go to the hospital."

5 Jun 2010

St. Jude Medical to pay $3.7M to resolve allegations of illegal kickbacks

Working with an internal whistleblower, Attorney Warner Mendenhall, the Law firm of McLaughlin and McCaffrey, LLP, and Assistant United States Attorneys Alex Rokakis and Michelle Heyer have worked for four years to expose False Claims by St. Jude Medical, Inc. a cardiac device manufacturer.

5 Jun 2010

COBRA subsidy starts running out for some as Congress grapples with extension

Howard Kornblum has been watching every penny for the past 15 months and it's about to get worse. After being laid off from his job as a consulting director in Michigan, he took advantage in March 2009 of a federal subsidy to help pay for health insurance.

5 Jun 2010

South Africa prepares health systems for World Cup disaster — but could be overwhelmed

The Associated Press: South Africa is attempting to prepare its emergency services in case of a disaster at the World Cup, which begins next week. "But the public system won't have to cope alone, the chief medical officer for local tournament organizers said in an interview this week. Dr. Victor Ramathesele outlined plans for what he said would be unprecedented coordination between the public system, the military and the private sector in case of emergency during Africa's first World Cup."

5 Jun 2010

British PM calls for G8, G20 to reduce maternal mortality, announces new health worker training fund

In a Guardian opinion piece, published on Thursday, British Prime Minister David Cameron says G8 and G20 nations should reduce maternal mortality in developing countries and set "'an ambitious target' of saving three million more lives by 2015," the Guardian reports (Watt, 6/3).

5 Jun 2010

Sebelius defends Berwick for CMS post

The Wall Street Journal: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "Thursday rejected criticism of the Obama administration's nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid, saying Republicans were being unfair to Donald Berwick and she was confident he would be confirmed. Dr. Berwick, a Harvard pediatrician and health-quality advocate, has come under sharp attack from Republicans over his ties to Britain's national health system and past writings about how to make health care more efficient.

5 Jun 2010

Survey: Group insurance rates rise for employers

"Group health insurance rates for small and midsize employers are surging for 2011 renewals, according to a survey by the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers," Business Insurance reports.

5 Jun 2010

PEB's European licensee SDX completes clinical trial for prognostic gene signature for colorectal cancer

Pacific Edge (PEB), a New Zealand-based biomedical company, today announced the successful completion of the European clinical trial for their prognostic gene signature for colorectal cancer. The clinical trial results showed a successful outcome that enables patients diagnosed with UICC stage II or UICC stage III colorectal cancer and with a high risk of disease progression to be identified and treated more appropriately.

5 Jun 2010

Health Care News and Research

Health overhaul supporters plan $25 million promotion campaign

Congress returns to controversy over COBRA, doctors' Medicare pay

Expansion of e-mental health necessary for better care

NHLBI stops trial evaluating new approach to reduce risk of recurrent stroke in children with sickle cell anemia

Study finds 18% of pediatric patients at-risk for sleep-related breathing disorders

Research roundup: Evidence-based medicine consumer/expert divide; Pay for performance limitations; Improving community health centers

CSTE 2010 Annual Conference to focus on public health challenges

Unsatisfactory interactions with physicians affect sickle cell disease patients' trust in medical profession

EU sends $29M in food, medical aid to combat increasing food insecurity in Africa's Sahel region

BMJ report questions WHO advisors' ties to pharmaceutical industry

Roles for payers in HIE, uses of multi-payer portals in healthcare to be discussed at AHIP Institute 2010

Bangladeshi children who lose mothers more likely to die, Lancet study finds

Maryland doctors to get rewards for cheaper care; In S.D., Sue to open more doc-owned hospitals

St. Jude Medical to pay $3.7M to resolve allegations of illegal kickbacks

COBRA subsidy starts running out for some as Congress grapples with extension

South Africa prepares health systems for World Cup disaster — but could be overwhelmed

British PM calls for G8, G20 to reduce maternal mortality, announces new health worker training fund

Sebelius defends Berwick for CMS post

Survey: Group insurance rates rise for employers

PEB's European licensee SDX completes clinical trial for prognostic gene signature for colorectal cancer

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

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

The role of UV-Vis in biopharma QC

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