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At health care town halls, lawmakers try to cope with very opinionated citizens

Town hall meeting fracases continue, as members of Congress 'feel the heat' of very strong opinions on health reform.

10 Aug 2009

New poll exploring reform opinions shows Americans divided in complex ways

Public opinion on Congress' attempt at reforming America's health care system is split in nonpartisan, complex ways on many of the issues, USA Today reports.

10 Aug 2009

Americans divided on government involvement in health insurance

Researchers from Indiana University's Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research (CHPPR) have found that support for government-sponsored health insurance for individuals under age 65 remains virtually the same regardless of how the plan is described or how involved the government would be.

10 Aug 2009

Separating fact from fiction in health care debate

The battle over health care is sparking claims on both sides, but many of the assertions being made twist the facts and others are outright false, says the editor of a Web site that tracks the claims.

10 Aug 2009

Need to rethink pros and cons of limb-sparing surgery and amputation

Limb-sparing surgery, which has been taking the place of amputation for bone and soft tissue sarcomas of the lower limb in recent years, may not provide much or even any additional benefit to patients according to a new review. The analysis, published in the September 15, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, indicates that patients and physicians should rethink the pros and cons of limb-sparing surgery and amputation.

10 Aug 2009

Advocate Health Care leads Thomson Reuters' list of top 10 U.S. hospitals

Thomson Reuters today released an unprecedented study identifying the top 10 U.S. health systems based on their hospitals' clinical performance.

10 Aug 2009

New state-by-state reports show how health insurance reform will benefit all Americans

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released Stable and Secure Health Care for America, a series of new state-by-state reports outlining how health insurance reform will improve health care for all Americans.

10 Aug 2009

Electronic health records cut cardiac deaths by 73 percent

An innovative program that cut cardiac deaths by 73 percent by linking coronary artery disease patients and teams of pharmacists, nurses, primary care doctors, and cardiologists with an electronic health record also kept the patients healthy two years after they left the program by keeping them in touch with their care givers electronically, according to a randomized study by Kaiser Permanente published in The American Journal of Managed Care this month.

9 Aug 2009

Obama: Opposition health claims 'simply not true'

Wasington Post: "President Obama decried Saturday what he called the 'outlandish' claims by critics of his plans for health-care reform as he continued to ratchet up his personal rhetoric in support of the changes he hopes to make. In his weekly Internet and radio address, the president pushed back against claims 'that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid, or bring about a government takeover of health care. That's simply not true.'" (Shear 8/8).

9 Aug 2009

Schwarzenegger’s ‘catastrophic’ AIDS funding cuts to be protested Tuesday

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the nation’s largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare provider, is joining a broad-based coalition of AIDS advocates and patients to protest draconian budget cuts that were blue lined out of the budget by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and that will jeopardize the public health by eliminating the vast majority of funding for AIDS prevention, care and treatment.

9 Aug 2009

Cost-effectiveness of Cetuximab in metastatic colorectal cancer

From a health-care system perspective, it may be more efficient to use the drug cetuximab only in colorectal cancer patients whose tumors have a wild-type KRAS gene, according to a study published online August 7 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

9 Aug 2009

Democrats get an earful on health care

Marsha Trotter from Pike County, Ala., expresses her concerns to Alabama freshman Rep. Bobby Bright at a town hall meeting. The retired teacher said she fears that new health care plans would require her to meet with a government board to discuss end-of-life options. "Now that's my life and my business, and I don't want the government in it," she said. (Debbie Elliott/NPR)

9 Aug 2009

Sebelius: protesters trying to 'silence debate'

The Obama administration is recruiting union members to counter recent conservative attacks on health reform proposals.

9 Aug 2009

New journal integrates the science of medicine with the art of music

In response to a recent surge in studies that integrate medicine and music, SAGE, the world's leading independent academic and professional publisher, is pleased to launch Music and Medicine in July, a new interdisciplinary journal that will incorporate the research that combines the two disciplines.

9 Aug 2009

Merge Healthcare to acquire Confirma

In order to combine forces on expanding CAD technology, Merge Healthcare Incorporated, a leading health IT solutions provider, and Confirma, Inc., the largest privately-held developer of computer assisted detection (CAD) software for medical imaging, announce that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Merge to acquire Confirma in an all-stock transaction. This acquisition brings Confirma’s patented and proven technologies to Merge’s multiple market channels and international markets, and provides a mechanism to expand adoption of this important technology.

9 Aug 2009

Defendants in $10.9 million Medicare fraud HIV infusion scheme sentenced to 63 months in prison

Miami physician Keith Russell, 65, and physician's assistant Jorge Luis Pacheco, 50, were each sentenced to 97 months in prison, and physician's assistant Eda Marietta Milanes, 43, was sentenced to 63 months in prison, for their roles in fraud schemes that involved billing Medicare for $10,903,509 worth of unnecessary HIV infusion treatments, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey H. Sloman of the Southern District of Florida; and Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced today.

9 Aug 2009

Time examines how zinc supplements may help save children worldwide

TIME examines the "quiet revolution [now] under way" to treat diarrhea using zinc supplements. The magazine reports that globally the disease "kills an astonishing 1.6 million children under 5 every year," according to the WHO.

9 Aug 2009

Drug industry to spend $150 million to support Obama in health overhaul efforts

According to Associated Press sources, "The nation's drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail his chief domestic priority ...

9 Aug 2009

Facts and tactics under fire in health care debate

ox News: "Lawmakers battled Sunday over whether demonstrations against health care reform legislation at town hall meetings across the country are real or contrived ... Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Ky., told 'FOX News Sunday' that it's not clear who's organized and who's not but that Democrats' efforts to 'demonize' the protesters reflect weak spots in the substance of their plan."

9 Aug 2009

State Governments join push for health IT

State governments around the country are working to facilitate, and in some cases, enhance, Washington's stimulus-funded incentives for doctors and hospitals that adopt new health information technology.

7 Aug 2009