Health Care News and Research

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Today's selection of opinions and editorials

For now it appears that Washington's polarizing ways, and public anxiety about change, have again left Americans with the most expensive, least reliable health care system in the developed world. No matter who you are, that's hardly cause to celebrate (1/21).

21 Jan 2010

Stem Cell Assurance, MDwerks announce financing and marketing partnership

Stem Cell Assurance, Inc. and MDwerks, Inc. announced today a financing and marketing partnership today wherein MDwerks, through it's Xeni Finance subsidiary, has provided the first tranche of financing to Stem Cell for the purchase of various medical devices from Cytori Therapeutics, Inc.

21 Jan 2010

ResCare chooses GuardianEdge to assist in HIPAA compliance

GuardianEdge, the leader in endpoint data protection, today announced that ResCare, one of the nation's leading providers of services to people with disabilities and the elderly, has selected GuardianEdge to secure the company's more than 6,000 endpoint devices and to assist in Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance. To ensure that sensitive patient data is secure, ResCare has deployed GuardianEdge Hard Disk Encryption, GuardianEdge Removable Storage Encryption and GuardianEdge Device Control.

21 Jan 2010

Rules for patient data security remain widely unenforced

"As the federal government prepares to spend up to $27 billion in stimulus funds to promote electronic medical records, a health technology industry survey suggests that a number of hospitals, health clinics, and insurance firms are violating federal security rules on patient data and putting sensitive health information at risk," The Center for Public Integrity reports.

21 Jan 2010

Health IT news: Grassley queries hospitals, Microsoft's CEO sees need to boost tech for doctors, hospitals

Modern Healthcare: "Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has sent a letter asking 31 hospitals to report on their relationships with healthcare IT vendors, focusing on errors caused by IT systems and on so-called 'gag order or non-disclosure clauses' in vendor contracts that might prohibit the hospitals from disclosing information about system flaws." Grassley made a similar request to the IT vendors themselves last fall, and said his new letter was prompted by concern about taxpayers' investment in health IT as part of the economic stimulus (Conn, 1/20).

21 Jan 2010

Health care companies assess where they stand on health reform after election

The Wall Street Journal reports that several firms reiterated support for a health care reform bill Wednesday, a day after the overhaul's viability was called into question by the victory of Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown in Massachusetts. "PhRMA, the drug industry association, as well as companies including Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson, WellPoint Inc. and Humana Inc., voiced support for an overhaul of some kind, despite objections among insurers about the efforts to date."

21 Jan 2010

First Edition: January 21, 2010

Today's headlines reflect the idea that health reform stakeholders -- be it the White House, congressional Democrats or others -- are all trying to figure out how to proceed in this changed political landscape.

21 Jan 2010

FRC's statement on Massachusetts Senate election results

"President Obama's defeat yesterday is the culmination of the town halls, tea parties, and other efforts of the millions of Americans who continue speaking out against the takeover of our health care system.

21 Jan 2010

Benefits of NIH funding through the Recovery Act

In advance of the one-year anniversary of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act's enactment on February 17, twenty of the nation's leading research institutions, patient advocates and biomedical industry have released a detailed report on how Recovery Act funding of medical research through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is at work across the country in the service of better health and a healthier economy.

21 Jan 2010

UnitedHealth Group announces its revenues and net earnings in 2009

UnitedHealth Group today reported growth in revenues and net earnings per share in 2009. The Company earned $0.81 per share in the fourth quarter, bringing full year 2009 net earnings to $3.24 per share.

21 Jan 2010

International Medical Corps sets up mobile medical unit at epicenter of Haiti earthquake

A 6.1-magnitude aftershock hit Haiti at 6:03 am Eastern Time. All International Medical Corps staff and medical teams are unharmed and are now working to assess the damage left by the strongest aftershock since the 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti eight days ago.

21 Jan 2010

Unpopularity of health care reform led to Republican win in Massachusetts: Hoover study

How could a little-known Republican possibly have won a competitive U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, the bluest of blue states? A new study by a team of Hoover researchers indicates that the culprit is the unpopularity of health care reform, and it likely means that Democrats will face even greater challenges later this year in less liberal states than Massachusetts.

21 Jan 2010

Showing scan images to motivate healthy behaviors in patients provides mixed results

Can showing patients ultrasounds and X-rays of their bodies to point out existing health damage make patients change their risky behavior?

21 Jan 2010

Special report on A-Fib to be premiered in RLTV's Healthline series

Retirement Living TV's (RLTV) award-winning series, Healthline will premiere a special report on Atrial Fibrillation. This half-hour episode explores the possible symptoms, risk factors and treatments to successfully live with this chronic illness.

21 Jan 2010

NABJ to hold annual conference on Health Disparities

The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) will hold its annual conference on Health Disparities, March 4-6, 2010 at the Barbara Jordan Conference Center at Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, D.C. The conference will provide journalists the tools to effectively report on the impact of health, health policy and health care reform on communities of color.

21 Jan 2010

HQCA supports recommended new Alberta Health Act

The Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) supports recommendations stemming from the report issued today by the Minister's Advisory Committee on Health. The report, entitled A Foundation for Alberta's Health System, recommends a new Alberta Health Act built around core principles and calls for a patient charter and strong support for evidence-based decision making.

21 Jan 2010

CARNA responds to the release of Advisory Committee on Health report

The College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CARNA) responded to the release of the report from the Minister's Advisory Committee on Health. Mary-Anne Robinson, executive director of CARNA, was a member of the committee.

21 Jan 2010

Grassley says bugs in health IT software endangering patients, other HIT news

RadioIowa reports that Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says hospital officials around the country are seeing bugs in new health information technology software that are putting patients at risk. "'Over the last few months, concerns have been brought to my attention including administrative complications, formatting and usability issues, errors in interoperability,' Grassley says. 'Some health care providers have said the software is producing incorrect medication dosages because it miscalculated body weights by interchanging kilograms and pounds.'" Grassley is asking 32 hospitals for statements on the problem (Kelley, 1/19).

21 Jan 2010

Twenty-five percent of Americans surveyed favor health care reform legislation

Twenty-five percent of Americans surveyed favor the health care reform legislation proposed by Congress, according to a survey just conducted by LIMRA.

21 Jan 2010

Medizone International files second patent application for AsepticSure

Following the recently announced success achieved during the third round of trials at its research facility at Queen's University (Kingston Ontario, Canada) Medizone International, Inc. announces that a second patent application has been filed which in combination with its previous patent application for AsepticSure™ filed in July of 2009, affords the Company greatly enhanced protection for both the hospital version of AsepticSure™ and the government variant intended for bio-terrorism countermeasures.

21 Jan 2010