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Federal jury in Miami convicts company owner of Direct Nursing Assistance Inc

A federal jury in Miami has convicted the owner and operator of Direct Nursing Assistance Inc. of Medicare fraud, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida announced today.

4 Oct 2007

$4 million nursing grant for premature infants

The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing has received a $4.1 million federal grant to develop ways to improve the early growth and development of premature infants who have two or more social-environmental risks such as poverty or minority status.

4 Oct 2007

$1.2 million grant for Geropsychiatric Nursing Collaborative

The Hartford Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence in the University of Iowa College of Nursing, and two other Hartford centers in the nation, have been funded for a four-year $1.2 million grant to ensure that nurses have the most recent evidence-based guidelines for caring for elders with mental health issues.

4 Oct 2007

FDA boss questions move for agency to regulate tobacco industry

Andrew von Eschenbach, the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, has questioned efforts by Congress to have the agency regulate the tobacco industry.

4 Oct 2007

When it comes to treatment for heart attacks white men get a better deal

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center (DCRI) in the United States say there is disparity in the treatment men and women receive for heart failure in hospitals.

4 Oct 2007

Infant mortality rates decline in New York City

New York City's infant mortality rate - widely regarded as a barometer of a population's general health - fell slightly in 2006, the Health Department reported today.

4 Oct 2007

Cancer trial combines multiple drugs to attack blood vessel formation in patients with kidney cancer

In the first clinical trial of its kind, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center will lead a nationwide test of anti-cancer drug combinations that target blood vessel growth in patients with advanced kidney cancer.

4 Oct 2007

Choosing the best treatment for disease

The diagnosis has come in, and it's not good. Worse, the patient has to choose from treatment options that are sometimes contradictory and risky.

4 Oct 2007

FDA tightens potency specifications to ensure thyroid drugs last

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is tightening the potency specifications for levothyroxine sodium, used to treat underactive thyroid glands and other thyroid conditions, to ensure the drug retains its potency over its entire shelf life.

4 Oct 2007

Learning from the Toronto SARS outbreak

Locked doors, full masks and gowns, questionnaires and line-ups at the hand washing stations - getting health-care services during SARS wasn't easy.

4 Oct 2007

American College of Physicians recommends annual influenza vaccine for health-care workers

The American College of Physicians (ACP) recommends that an annual influenza vaccine should be required for every health care worker with direct patient care activities.

4 Oct 2007

AACAP reaction to S-CHIP Veto

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry strongly urges Congress to override President Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (H.R. 976) act.

4 Oct 2007

Americans strongly desire a well-coordinated trauma system

Americans may be sharply divided in their views on many aspects of health care in the United States, but they are in strong agreement when it comes to one of the most important but overlooked elements - a nationwide trauma system.

4 Oct 2007

Behind-the-counter drugs could be on sale in U.S. pharmacies

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United states is considering creating a new category of drugs.

3 Oct 2007

Default options for medicine, healthcare

Anyone who has ever tried to set up an internet account or wants to make a purchase on a company's website, has experienced the ‘default option,' an event or condition that will be set in place if no alternative is actively chosen.

3 Oct 2007

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators underused in women, minorities with heart failure

Many Americans hospitalized for heart failure are coming up short when it comes to getting the therapy they need - especially women and minorities, say researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

3 Oct 2007

HPV testing and vaccinations may change scope of training for lab professionals

By now we have all heard or seen commercials promoting testing and vaccination of human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus with more than 100 strains, 30 of which are sexually transmitted.

3 Oct 2007

Doctor involved in HIV infusion therapy scam sentenced to 18 months

A doctor involved in a $7 million HIV infusion therapy scheme to defraud Medicare has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, seven months home confinement, and three years supervised release, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida announced today.

3 Oct 2007

Supreme Court declines to consider challenge to New York contraceptive coverage law

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it will not consider a challenge to a New York law that requires employers who offer prescription drug plans to provide coverage for FDA-approved contraceptives for women, the New York Times reports (Greenhouse, New York Times, 10/2).

2 Oct 2007

Government failed to disclose information about risks of formula-feeding because of political, economic reasons

The decision to halt an HHS public service campaign that promoted breast-feeding "seems to be a matter of politics and economics," Wendy Orent, author of the book "Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most Dangerous Disease," writes in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece (Orent, Los Angeles Times, 9/30).

2 Oct 2007