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Medicare reimbursement cuts threaten access to care

Physicians and patients alike are feeling the impact of Medicare reimbursement cuts that went into effect on January 1, 2013. With an additional 2% sequestration cut to roll out on April 1, it's likely that physicians who treat Medicare patients will be faced with difficult decisions as operating margins continue to shrink.

29 Mar 2013

Shriners Hospitals for Children -- Twin Cities become the newest member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network

Mayo Clinic today announced that Shriners Hospitals for Children -- Twin Cities (Shriners) will build on the decades-long collaboration between physicians in both organizations and become part of the Mayo Clinic Care Network.

29 Mar 2013

Pinnaclemed purchases Mazor Robotics' Renaissance system

Mazor Robotics Ltd., the developer of Renaissance, an innovative surgical guidance system and its complementary products, today announced that Pinnaclemed Co., Ltd., the Company's distribution partner in Taiwan, purchased its first Renaissance system.

28 Mar 2013

Federal agency issues 'fraud alert' about physician-owned distributorships

The Health and Human Services Inpector General said these commercial ventures, which are widespread in the fields of orthepedic and spine surgery, are "inherently suspect."

28 Mar 2013

VENADO bone graft systems launched by K2M

K2M, Inc., the largest privately held spinal device company in the world focused on developing innovative solutions for the treatment of complex spinal pathologies and minimally invasive procedures, today announced a major expansion of the company’s U.S. biologics offering with the launch of the VENADO® Foam Strips and VENADO Granules Bone Graft Systems.

27 Mar 2013

Researchers recommend radiosurgery for treating unruptured arteriovenous malformations

Researchers at the University of Virginia (UVA) Health System recommend radiosurgery for treating unruptured arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), because the procedure has a reasonable benefit-to-risk profile.

27 Mar 2013

First Edition: March 26, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about a new study estimating how the health law will impact medical claims costs.

27 Mar 2013

Adding lubricin to fluid in our joints may prevent osteoarthritis, researchers find

Think new discoveries are the bee's knees? This one is even better -- this research out of Rhode Island Hospital is the mice's knees. Researchers have found that adding lubricin, a protein that our bodies naturally produce, to the fluid in our joints may reduce the risk of or even prevent osteoarthritis.

25 Mar 2013

$Exercise interventions in childhood are associated with lower fracture risks in old age$

Exercise interventions in childhood are associated with lower fracture risks in old age

Get out there and regularly kick that soccer ball around with your kids, you may be helping them prevent a broken hip when they are older, say researchers presenting their work at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Specialty Day in Chicago, IL.

25 Mar 2013

AANS, CNS urge Congress to restore Medicare payments for stereotactic radiosurgery

he American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons are urging Congress to restore Medicare hospital outpatient payment rates for Cobalt-60-based stereotactic radiosurgery to those in place prior to the enactment of the American Taxpayer Relief Act.

21 Mar 2013

Dotarem gets FDA approval for use in patients undergoing CNS MRI

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Dotarem (gadoterate meglumine) for use in magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, spine and associated tissues of patients ages 2 years and older.

21 Mar 2013

Hatch Medical receives two US patents for percutaneous spinal stabilization system

Medical device incubator and technology brokerage firm, Hatch Medical, L.L.C. today announced the issuance of US Patent No. 8,357,197 and US Patent No. 8,357,198 related to their percutaneous spinal stabilization system.

20 Mar 2013

Physician-researchers develop anatomically-based classification for detecting spinal stenosis

Physician-researchers at the Rothman Institute at Jefferson have developed a new, clinically meaningful scale of severity for diagnosing patients with cervical spinal stenosis.

20 Mar 2013

Smoking is a risk factor for back pain and disc disease

Smoking is a known risk factor for back pain and disc disease. In a new study presented today at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), researchers reviewed smoking cessation rates and related pain in 6,779 patients undergoing treatment for spinal disorders with severe axial (spine) or radicular (leg) pain.

19 Mar 2013

Brown fat cells protective against obesity and diabetes

Brown fat is a hot topic, pardon the pun. Brown fats cells, as opposed to white fat cells, make heat for the body, and are thought to have evolved to help mammals cope with the cold. But, their role in generating warmth might also be applied to coping with obesity and diabetes.

15 Mar 2013

Low T3 syndrome predicts adverse clinical outcomes and depressive symptoms

In a study of 90 patients undergoing surgery for brain tumor, researchers in Lithuania and the United States have discovered that the finding of low T3 (triiodothyronine) syndrome is predictive of unfavorable clinical outcomes and depressive symptoms.

14 Mar 2013

UH Case Medical Center joins elite group of providers focused on complex stroke care

University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center has become the first hospital in Northeast Ohio and 19th in the nation to achieve The Joint Commission's standards for Comprehensive Stroke Center Certification, joining an elite group of providers focused on complex stroke care.

14 Mar 2013

New procedure to treat pseudotumor cerebri

A team of interventional neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins reports wide success with a new procedure to treat pseudotumor cerebri, a rare but potentially blinding condition marked by excessive pressure inside the skull, caused by a dangerous narrowing of a vein located at the base of the brain.

13 Mar 2013

Patients with neck injuries incur increased health and social costs

Patients with neck injuries incur increased health and social costs-which also affect their spouses and may begin years before the initial injury, reports a study in the March 1 issue of Spine.

12 Mar 2013

Researchers uncover cellular-level detail of what happens when bone bears stress over time

From athletes to individuals suffering from osteoporosis, bone fractures are usually the result of tiny cracks accumulating over time -- invisible rivulets of damage that, when coalesced, lead to that painful break.

8 Mar 2013

Spine News and Research

Medicare reimbursement cuts threaten access to care

Shriners Hospitals for Children -- Twin Cities become the newest member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network

Pinnaclemed purchases Mazor Robotics' Renaissance system

Federal agency issues 'fraud alert' about physician-owned distributorships

VENADO bone graft systems launched by K2M

Researchers recommend radiosurgery for treating unruptured arteriovenous malformations

First Edition: March 26, 2013

Adding lubricin to fluid in our joints may prevent osteoarthritis, researchers find

Exercise interventions in childhood are associated with lower fracture risks in old age

AANS, CNS urge Congress to restore Medicare payments for stereotactic radiosurgery

Dotarem gets FDA approval for use in patients undergoing CNS MRI

Hatch Medical receives two US patents for percutaneous spinal stabilization system

Physician-researchers develop anatomically-based classification for detecting spinal stenosis

Smoking is a risk factor for back pain and disc disease

Brown fat cells protective against obesity and diabetes

Low T3 syndrome predicts adverse clinical outcomes and depressive symptoms

UH Case Medical Center joins elite group of providers focused on complex stroke care

New procedure to treat pseudotumor cerebri

Patients with neck injuries incur increased health and social costs

Researchers uncover cellular-level detail of what happens when bone bears stress over time

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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