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Number of Alzheimer's cases growing annually, increasing costs, report finds

The number of U.S. residents with Alzheimer's disease is increasing annually, putting more pressure on the health care system, according to a report issued on Tuesday by the Alzheimer's Association, USA Today reports (Brophy Marcus, USA Today, 3/24).

25 Mar 2009

Los Algodones, Mexico has become a popular destination for dental medical tourism

Los Algodones, Mexico, has become "the latest boomtown for medical tourism," with about 350 dentists providing care for prices that are up to 70% less than what U.S. residents typically pay, the Chicago Tribune reports.

25 Mar 2009

More physicians performing house calls

The Washington Post on Tuesday examined how a "small but growing tribe of doctors, nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners ... are reviving [the] once-common practice" of performing house calls.

25 Mar 2009

Employers increase use of eligibility audits for workers' dependents to reduce health care costs, survey finds

Employers are becoming more aggressive about checking the health coverage eligibility of workers' dependents as a way to reduce health care costs, according to a recent Watson Wyatt survey, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

25 Mar 2009

AHIP, BCBS say insurers willing to stop basing premiums on members' health status if all U.S. residents are required to obtain coverage

In a letter to leaders of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committees on Tuesday, America's Health Insurance Plans and the BlueCross BlueShield Association said that their memberships would be willing to end the practice of charging different premiums based on individuals' health status if all U.S. residents were required to obtain coverage, CongressDaily reports (Edney, CongressDaily, 3/25).

25 Mar 2009

Sebelius, DeParle discuss health care reform with congressional lawmakers

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), President Obama's nominee for HHS secretary, and Nancy-Ann DeParle, the director of the White House Office for Health Reform, each met with congressional lawmakers on Tuesday to discuss plans for health care overhaul, CQ Today reports. Sebelius said she met with nearly 40 senators who expressed "a lot of interest in health reform."

25 Mar 2009

Obama says balancing budget without addressing health care is 'impossible'

President Obama on Tuesday during a prime-time news conference linked issues within the U.S. budget in part to high health care costs, stating that "almost every single person" who has examined the nation's budget has concluded that the government must find a way to reduce health care costs, the Washington Post reports (Shear/Wilson, Washington Post, 3/25).

25 Mar 2009

Health official releases HIV, STI data for Maryland County

Prince George's County in Maryland has the second-highest rate of reported HIV/AIDS cases statewide, County Health Officer Donald Shell announced on Tuesday, the Washington Post reports.

25 Mar 2009

Latin American HIV/AIDS advocacy group launches magazine for women

The Inter Press Service on Monday examined a new magazine published by the Latin American branch of the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS.

25 Mar 2009

Southern African development community should do more to fight HIV/AIDS, official says

Parliamentarians across the Southern African Development Community should do more to address HIV/AIDS in the region, Kasuko Mutukwa, SADC Parliamentary Forum secretary-general, said recently at a media briefing in Zambia's capital of Lusaka, the Inter Press Service reports.

25 Mar 2009

About 25% of tuberculosis deaths occur among HIV-positive people

About one-quarter of tuberculosis-related deaths involve an HIV-positive person, twice as high as previous estimates, according to the Global Tuberculosis Control Report 2009, which the World Health Organization released Tuesday to coincide with World TB Day, the Wall Street Journal reports.

25 Mar 2009

Rockefeller neuroscientist applies basic science to health care reform

A self-described "molecular sociologist" is extending his basic research to the national policy debate on health care reform. Bruce McEwen, head of the Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, led a panel of scientific experts last month at the Institute of Medicine's Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public. The Institute is the most prominent independent medical advisory board in the country and will release a report from the conference in November, as Congress is likely to be considering major health care legislation.

25 Mar 2009

Diabetic retinopathy more prevalent in South Asians and occurs earlier

South Asians with type 2 diabetes are significantly more at risk of losing their eyesight and losing it at an earlier age, compared to White Europeans with the same condition.

24 Mar 2009

Collaborative care intervention helps improve management of chronic pain

Patients with chronic pain who took part in a collaborative care intervention that included patient and clinician education and symptom monitoring and feedback to the primary care physician had improvements in pain-related disability and intensity, compared to usual care, according to a study in the March 25 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

24 Mar 2009

Fit women much less likely to die from breast cancer

Physically fit women are less likely to die from breast cancer, according to a study by researchers at the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health.

24 Mar 2009

Africa's ongoing cholera epidemic "unconscionable"

Although illness rates and mortality from cholera have been drastically reduced in a vast majority of the world, Africa remains plagued by soaring cases and deaths from the waterborne intestinal disease.

24 Mar 2009

Ethnic minorities more likely than whites to develop type 2 diabetes regardless of weight

Native Hawaiians, Hispanics, blacks and Japanese-Americans are significantly more likely than whites to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes regardless of weight, even though the disease is closely linked with obesity, according to a recent study in Ethnicity and Disease, Reuters Health reports. The findings suggest that genetics might play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes.

24 Mar 2009

Global map identifying areas at high risk of malaria transmission could help efforts to control disease

It might be easier than previously thought to eradicate malaria in some high-risk areas worldwide, according to a study published Tuesday in PLoS Medicine, Reuters India reports. For the study, led by Simon Hay of Oxford University, researchers created a global map that identifies areas at high risk of malaria.

24 Mar 2009

Canadian researchers to launch clinical trial to determine efficacy of treating latent TB with four-month course of Rifampin

Researchers at McGill University in Montreal on Tuesday announced they will soon launch an international clinical trial to determine if latent tuberculosis can be treated successfully with a four-month treatment course of the TB drug rifampin rather than the standard nine-month treatment with the TB drug isoniazid, the CP/Toronto Sun reports.

24 Mar 2009

Phase II clinical trial of tuberculosis vaccine candidate to begin next month in South Africa

The Areas Global TB Vaccine Foundation next month will begin a Phase II clinical trial of a new tuberculosis vaccine candidate that aims to improve on the existing BCG vaccine, Bloomberg reports.

24 Mar 2009

Health Care News and Research

Number of Alzheimer's cases growing annually, increasing costs, report finds

Los Algodones, Mexico has become a popular destination for dental medical tourism

More physicians performing house calls

Employers increase use of eligibility audits for workers' dependents to reduce health care costs, survey finds

AHIP, BCBS say insurers willing to stop basing premiums on members' health status if all U.S. residents are required to obtain coverage

Sebelius, DeParle discuss health care reform with congressional lawmakers

Obama says balancing budget without addressing health care is 'impossible'

Health official releases HIV, STI data for Maryland County

Latin American HIV/AIDS advocacy group launches magazine for women

Southern African development community should do more to fight HIV/AIDS, official says

About 25% of tuberculosis deaths occur among HIV-positive people

Rockefeller neuroscientist applies basic science to health care reform

Diabetic retinopathy more prevalent in South Asians and occurs earlier

Collaborative care intervention helps improve management of chronic pain

Fit women much less likely to die from breast cancer

Africa's ongoing cholera epidemic "unconscionable"

Ethnic minorities more likely than whites to develop type 2 diabetes regardless of weight

Global map identifying areas at high risk of malaria transmission could help efforts to control disease

Canadian researchers to launch clinical trial to determine efficacy of treating latent TB with four-month course of Rifampin

Phase II clinical trial of tuberculosis vaccine candidate to begin next month in South Africa

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

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