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Drugmakers get more time to record gifts to doctors

U.S. drugmakers and device companies got an extension on the deadline to record all payments and gifts to doctors because of a delay in a proposed rule from health officials.

16 Dec 2011

Kessler scientists monitor Ekso device in six patients with traumatic SCI

Monitored by scientists at Kessler Foundation, six people with traumatic spinal cord injuries tested Ekso, the robotic exoskeleton from Ekso Bionics that enables wheelchair users to stand and walk.

16 Dec 2011

New MRI method can track progression of multiple sclerosis

Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a new way to track the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) in those living with the disease, by using a powerful, triple strength MRI to track increasing levels of iron found in brain tissue.

16 Dec 2011

Wyden and Ryan join forces on new Medicare overhaul plan

The plan, which is being advanced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., involves a framework that would offer traditional, government-run Medicare as an option for future retirees along with a variety of private plans. They are billing their approach as a means to prevent Medicare spending from swamping the federal budget. Meanwhile, early analyses indicate it could potentially create higher out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries.

16 Dec 2011

Health literacy linked with proper daily care and management for heart failure patients

A patient's education level is not a fail-safe predictor of how well they will manage symptoms related to complicated chronic diseases, such as heart failure, according to a Purdue University study.

16 Dec 2011

GOP presidential candidates promise limits on abortion

Republican presidential contenders Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum appeared at the screening of an abortion documentary hosted by former candidate Mike Huckabee. They each spoke for about 10 minutes, and offered descriptions of the steps they'd take to limit abortion if elected president.

16 Dec 2011

F. nucleatum alters endothelial integrity and allows other bacteria to invade human body

A common oral bacteria, Fusobacterium nucleatum, acts like a key to open a door in human blood vessels and leads the way for it and other bacteria like Escherichia coli to invade the body through the blood and make people sick, according to dental researchers at Case Western Reserve University.

16 Dec 2011

Researchers discover how the brain merges sights and sounds

In order to get a better picture of our surroundings, the brain has to integrate information from different senses, but how does it know which signals to combine? New research involving scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience T-bingen, the University of Oxford, and the University of Bielefeld has demonstrated that humans exploit the correlation between the temporal structures of signals to decide which of them to combine and which to keep segregated.

16 Dec 2011

Young adults make insurance coverage gains under health law

Data from the Department of Health and Human Services estimate that 2.5 million young adults have remained on their parents' health insurance plans as a result of the 2010 health law.

16 Dec 2011

Raising salaries helped reduce health worker migration in Malawi

Mary O'Neil, a principal program associate at Management Sciences for Health (MSH), examines how Malawi has reduced health care worker migration through a program to raise salaries, "with support from the U.K.'s Department for International Development (DFID) and other development partners," in this post in the Global Health Council's Global Health Magazine blog.

16 Dec 2011

Role of local advocates, NGOs important in Malawi's health system

In this post in the Health Affairs blog, Martha Kwataine, executive director for the Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) and head of the Access to Medicines Campaign in Malawi, examines the role of local advocates and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country's health system.

16 Dec 2011

Historical context: The intersection of politics and Medicare policy

The 1920s-era charge that national health insurance was socialist eventually begat Ronald Reagan's 1961 anti-Medicare record album. A 1972 carve-out won special Medicare treatment for patients with end-stage renal disease.

16 Dec 2011

Report about protection of human subjects

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues today issued its report concerning federally-sponsored research involving human volunteers, concluding that current rules and regulations provide adequate safeguards to mitigate risk. In its report, "Moral Science: Protecting Participants in Human Subjects Research," the Commission also recommended 14 changes to current practices to better protect research subjects, and called on the federal government to improve its tracking of research programs supported with taxpayer dollars.

16 Dec 2011

Health law implementation efforts drawing praise from some critics

The LA Times reports that the Obama administration is taking steps to ease some of the requirements of the health law in an effort to "prevent further backlash." Also in the news, the latest on the essential benefits rule and more on the early retiree program.

16 Dec 2011

Protecting displaced women and children from gender-based violence

In this post in the State Department's "Dipnote" blog, David Robinson, acting assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, reports on gender-based violence (GBV) among refugee populations, writing, "Displaced women and children are especially vulnerable to gender-based violence. ... Without legal status or the protection of any government, stateless women and girls are also vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, including trafficking in persons.

16 Dec 2011

Readmission rates and hospitalization use linked

A new study finds that efforts to keep patients from being readmitted to the hospital might involve efforts to keep them out in the first place.

16 Dec 2011

Global health aid continues to grow despite recession, report indicates

"Spending to improve health in developing countries has continued to grow during the three-year economic downturn, although at only half the blistering pace it did a decade ago," according to a report by researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the Washington Post reports.

16 Dec 2011

EPA rule to help protect kids' brain from autism

SafeMinds sees a brighter future after the implementation of long-overdue EPA regulation of hazardous air pollution from coal-fired power plants. Less mercury means its potent neurotoxic effects are less likely to harm childhood development.

16 Dec 2011

As shutdown looms, differences persist on payroll tax cut, spending bills

Among the items held up in the end-of-year negotiations is the Medicare physician reimbursement fix, which would prevent a 27 percent cut in doctors' payments from taking effect. A House Republican plan to pay for the "doc fix" with dollars from the health law's prevention fund is opposed by some Democratic senators.

16 Dec 2011

Researchers identify gene responsible for EMT transformation

Researchers at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) have identified the gene GATA 6 as responsible for epithelial cells -which group together and are static- losing adhesion and moving towards a new site.

16 Dec 2011