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State roundup: Model insurance brings 'modest' savings

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts' alternative quality contract, which Governor Deval Patrick has held up as a potential model for controlling health care costs, produced "modest" savings in its first year while yielding improved quality of care in some areas, according to a new study in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

15 Jul 2011

Outreach Services receives Riverview Hospital Association contract

Outreach Services, a leading provider of patient eligibility and healthcare financial services to U.S. hospitals, announced today a new contract to provide Riverview Hospital Association in Wisconsin Rapids with Medical Assistance Advocacy for uninsured patients.

15 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: Teaching hospital cuts; Medicare & debt deal politics; end-of-life care

Teaching hospitals educate the next generation of physicians—who are clearly essential for our future. But the importance of academic medical centers and teaching hospitals goes far beyond delivering care.

15 Jul 2011

NHS facing heavier loads as waiting times rise

According to Sir Richard Thompson, President of the Royal College of Physicians, health service providers are struggling to cope with rising demand especially among the elderly, with the result that planned tests and operations are being delayed. He made his statement as Department of Health statistics showed the proportion of inpatients waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment has risen by 29 per cent since the general election, with those needing orthopedic or brain surgery experiencing the worst delays.

14 Jul 2011

Medical community welcomes $30 million funding to fast track cancer research

The medical research community can only be encouraged by the level of commitment demonstrated by the NSW government’s $30 million funding to fast track cancer research, the Dean of Medicine at the University of New South Wales, Professor Peter Smith, said today.

14 Jul 2011

FDA grants Novian Health IDE approval for Novilase ILT System to treat breast cancer

Novian Health, developer of Novilase® Breast Therapy, announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted investigational device exemption (IDE) approval for the company to start a multi-center study of its Novilase® Interstitial Laser Therapy (ILT) System. Novian developed the ILT System for the ablation of small (up to 20 mm) malignant breast tumors.

14 Jul 2011

Mary Ann Liebert launches new journal on games, human health

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. announces the launch of Games for Health: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications (G4H), a new, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the development, use, and applications of game technology for improving physical and mental health and well-being.

14 Jul 2011

European Respiratory Society Congress to take place on September 24, 2011

The 2011 European Respiratory Society Congress will take place at the Amsterdam RAI congress centre from Saturday 24 September to Wednesday 28 September 2011.

14 Jul 2011

Sebelius takes to the Hill to defend IPAB

During a Capitol Hill hearing, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius criticized the House-passed budget plan and its Medicare provisions and also defended the potential effectiveness and constitutionality of the health law's Independent Payment Advisory Board.

14 Jul 2011

Children's Hospital of Alabama purchases iRISecure tissue tracking system from Mobile Aspects

In an effort to insure JCAHO compliance and continue its tradition of providing the highest quality of care to its young patients, the Children's Hospital of Alabama has purchased the iRISecure tissue tracking system from Mobile Aspects.

14 Jul 2011

Wenzel Spine surpasses 26,000 implantation of VariLift System

Wenzel Spine, Inc., a medical device company focused on providing less invasive, stand-alone alternatives to traditional spinal fusion, today announced that it has successfully surpassed the 26,000th implantation of its Stand-Alone VariLift Expandable Interbody Fusion Device.

14 Jul 2011

IMM researcher wins prestigious Early Career Bayer Hemophilia Award

Vanessa Oliveira, researcher at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular in Portugal won a prestigious and competitive Early Career Bayer Hemophilia Award. Oliveira will develop a strategy to reprogramme the immune system of hemophilia patients to avoid immune targeting of the most used clotting therapeutics.

14 Jul 2011

Religion, spirituality boost hospital patients' satisfaction

Hospitalized patients who had conversations about religion and spirituality with the healthcare team were the most satisfied with their overall care. However, 20 percent of patients who would have valued these discussions say their desires went unmet, according to a new study by Joshua Williams from the University of Chicago and his colleagues.

14 Jul 2011

Study examines teaching hospitals' so-called 'July Effect'

A new study reports that more patients receive worse-quality care or die at teaching hospitals during July because experienced residents shuffle off to greener pastures, leaving untrained "newbies" to take their spots and learn the ropes.

14 Jul 2011

Study demonstrates how unconscious brain continues to process information

Brain damage can cause significant changes in behaviour, such as loss of cognitive skills, but also reveals much about how the nervous system deals with consciousness. New findings reported in the July 2011 issue of Elsevier's Cortex demonstrate how the unconscious brain continues to process information even when the conscious brain is incapacitated.

14 Jul 2011

Men with early-stage prostate cancer can benefit from short-term ADT, radiation therapy

Short-term hormone therapy given in combination with radiation therapy for men with early-stage prostate cancer increases their chance of living longer and not dying from the disease, compared with that of those who receive the same radiation therapy alone, according to a Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) study published in the July 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

14 Jul 2011

Provision to eliminate lifetime benefit caps in medical insurance allows life-saving heart-lung transplant

The Affordable Care Act was signed into law March 23, 2010, with the aim of extending medical coverage to more Americans. The law has been a political football, and arguments continue to rage over whether it's good or bad for the country. This, however, is simply the story of how it affected one person.

14 Jul 2011

BIOTRONIK begins comparative study of ORSIRO stent with Abbott's XIENCE PRIME stent

BIOTRONIK announced today the start of an international study comparing the company's ORSIRO sirolimus-eluting coronary stent with Abbott Laboratory's XIENCE PRIME everolimus-eluting coronary stent. The first implantations in the study, called BIOFLOW-II, took place in Europe last week.

14 Jul 2011

Scientists discover new mechanism of drug resistance in hospital microbes

Hospitals struggle to prevent the infections that complicate treatment for cancer, joint replacement, heart surgery and other conditions. Hospital-acquired infections are often resistant to multiple antibiotics, leading to approximately 100,000 deaths and more than $30 billion in additional health care costs yearly.

14 Jul 2011

HMS receives Maine contract to perform hospital, long term care financial reviews

HMS, a wholly owned subsidiary of HMS Holdings Corp., today announced that it has been awarded a contract by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to perform hospital and long term care credit balance reviews and cost of care recoveries on behalf of the state's MaineCare program.

14 Jul 2011