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California community health centers face potentially crippling budget cuts

North Bay (Santa Rosa, Calif.) Business Journal: "While community health centers are widely seen as winners with the passage of a sweeping health bill in late March, such centers in California face potentially crippling state budget cuts, which could offset potential gains that won't take effect until 2014, according to clinic directors throughout the North Bay.

3 May 2010

Baltimore hospitals buying, consolidating doctors' practices in bid for efficiency

Hospitals and other systems in the Baltimore area are "buying practices, forming management agreements or structuring joint ventures with primary care practices that cannot afford to buy necessary electronic health records systems, hire more support staff or add another physician" in a bid to consolidate primary care in the area and lower overhead, the Baltimore Business Journal reports. For many doctors, the cost of doing business in a small, office-based setting is becoming prohibitive.

3 May 2010

Today's Opinions and Editorials: The end of insurance rescissions, lessons from the health care rollout and the deficit panel's tough decisions

A lot of people laughed when Sue Lowden, the Nevada Republican running for the U.S. Senate, suggested last month that people start paying for their medical care with chickens. I didn't (Jonathan Cohn, 5/3).

3 May 2010

Computer-based system automatically tracks radiation dose exposure in patients receiving CT scan

Researchers have developed a computer-based system that can automatically track patient-specific radiation dose exposure (based on a patient's size and weight) on every patient that receives a computed tomography (CT) scan, providing patients with a way to start tracking their cumulative health care-related radiation exposure, according to a study to be presented at the ARRS 2010 Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA.

3 May 2010

Calif. doctors say e-health saved lives; in Mich., doctors visit patients online

Reuters/The Washington Post: An electronic medical system first introduced in 2007 has shown a 20 percent drop in hospital deaths -- the equivalent of about 36 lives saved -- over 18-months at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto California, doctors there have found. The system, a computerized physician order entry, or CPOE, allows "doctors to relay prescriptions to pharmacists without delay, and without the need for the pharmacist to decipher doctors' scrawl."

3 May 2010

States decide on risk pools as first major health law decision

Politico reports that establishing high-risk insurance pools, the first major decision after the enactment of health care reform, "has come and gone with the decisions so far made mostly along party lines." Many Democratic governors "decided to help the Department of Health and Human Services by creating the pools themselves with federal funding.

3 May 2010

As doctors frustration with Medicare payments grows, a few opt to leave the system

American Medical News reports on doctors' frustrations with the Medicare program and looks at the practice of Juliette Madrigal-Dersch, an internist in Marble Falls, Texas, who "decided to see Medicare patients only on a private-contracting basis. That means neither she nor her patients can claim any payment from Medicare. It also means she can charge what her services actually cost, not just what the government says it will pay. She also can choose not to charge anything, as is her policy for patients age 90 and older."

3 May 2010

Anesthesiologist group to-decertify physicians who help with lethal injections

The American Board of Anesthesiologists "has quietly decided to revoke the certification of any member who participates in executing a prisoner by lethal injection," according to The Washington Post. The decision "reflects its leaders' belief that 'we are healers, not executioners,' board secretary Mark A. Rockoff said. Although the American Medical Association has long opposed doctor involvement, the anesthesiologists' group is the first to say it will harshly penalize a health-care worker for abetting lethal injections.

3 May 2010

Omeros announces additional data from Phase 2 trial of OMS103HP for arthroscopic meniscectomy surgery

Omeros Corporation today announced additional data from a Phase 2 trial of OMS103HP, its PharmacoSurgery™ product candidate for arthroscopy, showing that patients treated with OMS103HP during arthroscopic meniscectomy surgery achieved statistically significant clinical benefits.

3 May 2010

Unisys sells HIM business to Molina Healthcare for $135 million

Unisys Corporation announced today that it has completed the previously announced sale of its health information management (HIM) business to Molina Healthcare, Inc. for $135 million in cash, subject to adjustment.

3 May 2010

LifePoint Hospitals to acquire Sumner Regional Health Systems

LifePoint Hospitals, Inc., a leading hospital company focused on providing quality healthcare close to home in non-urban markets, today announced that the Company has agreed to purchase Sumner Regional Health Systems (SRHS), a comprehensive three-market hospital system serving 11 counties in the northern middle Tennessee region.

3 May 2010

Intouch Health completes $10M private placement through Beringea-led financing round

InTouch Technologies®, Inc. (d.b.a. InTouch Health®), the world leader in Remote Presence Total Telemedicine solutions, announced today the completion of a private placement of $10 million. The financing round was led by Michigan-based Beringea through its InvestMichigan! Growth Capital Fund, which provides venture and expansion-stage capital to businesses with operations in Michigan.

3 May 2010

First Edition: May 3, 2010

Today's headlines include analysis of how this year's health reform debate is shaping other national policy initiatives and the upcoming mid-term elections.

3 May 2010

Decrease in hospital-wide mortality rates associated with CPOE system: Researchers

Researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine have shown for the first time that a significant decrease in hospital-wide mortality rates can be associated with implementation of a computerized physician order entry system.

3 May 2010

McNeil Consumer Healthcare implements voluntary recall of infant and children's liquid products

Working in consultation with the United States Food and Drug Administration, McNeil Consumer Healthcare is implementing a voluntary recall of infant and children's liquid products due to manufacturing deficiencies which may affect quality, purity or potency.

3 May 2010

While global adult mortality rates drop, gaps between countries grow, Lancet study finds

"The global mortality rate for adults [ages 15-59] has fallen by about 1 percent a year for the past 40 years, with women making greater gains than men and huge differences opening up between countries and regions over that period, according to a new study" published online Friday in the journal Lancet, the Washington Post reports, noting the study offers "the most detailed nation-by-nation trends in adult mortality" to date.

3 May 2010

Medical education becomes reality at new Mayo Clinic Multidisciplinary Simulation Center in Arizona

How medical education will be delivered in the 21st Century is now a reality at the new Mayo Clinic Multidisciplinary Simulation Center in Arizona. The 3,000 square-foot facility, embedded within Mayo Clinic Hospital in northeast Phoenix, simulates real-life patient care situations, allowing learners to practice on sophisticated mannequins in a no-risk environment.

3 May 2010

Report highlights lack of humanitarian access to Cyclone Nargis survivors in Myanmar

"Almost two years after Cyclone Nargis killed nearly 140,000 people in Myanmar, the repression of rights in areas hit by the cyclone continues and the humanitarian space in the country is shrinking instead of growing as originally hoped, a [Human Rights Watch] report released on Thursday said," Reuters AlertNet reports.

3 May 2010

Parents can play important role in preventing children from becoming bullies: Research

Communities across the United States are developing programs to address child bullying. New research shows that parents can play an important role in preventing their children from becoming bullies in the first place.

3 May 2010

Officials' plan to enforce rescission ban still unclear

WellPoint, UnitedHealth and other major insurers have said they will end the practice of terminating policies when policyholder become sick except in cases of fraud, earlier than the September deadline the health overhaul set, Reuters reports. But, it may be difficult for government officials to enforce the new prohibition on rescission, as the practice is called.

3 May 2010

Health Care News and Research

California community health centers face potentially crippling budget cuts

Baltimore hospitals buying, consolidating doctors' practices in bid for efficiency

Today's Opinions and Editorials: The end of insurance rescissions, lessons from the health care rollout and the deficit panel's tough decisions

Computer-based system automatically tracks radiation dose exposure in patients receiving CT scan

Calif. doctors say e-health saved lives; in Mich., doctors visit patients online

States decide on risk pools as first major health law decision

As doctors frustration with Medicare payments grows, a few opt to leave the system

Anesthesiologist group to-decertify physicians who help with lethal injections

Omeros announces additional data from Phase 2 trial of OMS103HP for arthroscopic meniscectomy surgery

Unisys sells HIM business to Molina Healthcare for $135 million

LifePoint Hospitals to acquire Sumner Regional Health Systems

Intouch Health completes $10M private placement through Beringea-led financing round

First Edition: May 3, 2010

Decrease in hospital-wide mortality rates associated with CPOE system: Researchers

McNeil Consumer Healthcare implements voluntary recall of infant and children's liquid products

While global adult mortality rates drop, gaps between countries grow, Lancet study finds

Medical education becomes reality at new Mayo Clinic Multidisciplinary Simulation Center in Arizona

Report highlights lack of humanitarian access to Cyclone Nargis survivors in Myanmar

Parents can play important role in preventing children from becoming bullies: Research

Officials' plan to enforce rescission ban still unclear

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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