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Viewpoints: While health care demand rises, medical schools turn away thousands; Jeb Bush on state-based Medicaid changes

Despite high unemployment, there is one bright spot in the economy: while nearly all other sectors shrank during the recession, jobs in health care increased by more than 1.2 million, with most paying salaries of over $60,000. And demand for those workers will keep improving. ... But for American health workers, this is hardly good news. Despite a labor shortage, our crowded medical professional schools are turning away hundreds of thousands of qualified applicants; to fill the gap, we are importing tens of thousands of foreign workers.

15 Sep 2012

Longer looks: The smells to treat PTSD; Nudging healthy choices; When a disabled daughter was shunned

On an Orlando college campus, veterans and active duty soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder inhale the unmistakable smell of burning tires, rotting garbage and Middle Eastern spices as part of a virtual reality treatment for the psychological wounds of war. Participants sit in a chair wearing a head-mounted display and video goggles connected to a computer system and a scent machine that puffs out the odors, recreating their memories of war.

14 Sep 2012

FDA clears Tangent Medical’s NovaCath Secure IV Catheter System

Tangent Medical, an innovator in IV therapy products, today announced it has received FDA 510(k) clearance for the NovaCath Secure IV Catheter System, a product designed to set new standards in peripheral IV catheter design, functionality and performance.

14 Sep 2012

Children's Hospital Oakland to celebrate 100th birthday

Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland is celebrating its 100th birthday. The free-standing, not-for-profit pediatric medical center was founded in 1912 and opened for business in 1914. Children's Hospital Oakland will celebrate the landmark birthday for two years and kicked off festivities with a birthday party at Children's Fairyland in Oakland on September 8.

12 Sep 2012

Viewpoints: Home health workers need better pay; Is there a better solution than Medicaid to cover seniors' long-term care?

[F]or the stay-at-home elderly to have so-called "independent living" they must be highly dependent on the home care aides who look after medication schedules, cook meals, assist with bathing and generally keep them happy and healthy. And yet these workers are anything but well cared for. The vast majority are dreadfully overworked and woefully underpaid. The average hourly wage of a home care worker in the United States is less than $10.

11 Sep 2012

Pesticide-related illnesses to cost up to $90B between 2005-2020 in sub-Saharan Africa, UNEP report says

"The potential cost of pesticide-related illnesses in sub-Saharan African between 2005 and 2020 could reach $90 billion, according to a U.N. report released on Wednesday highlighting the growing health and environmental hazards from chemicals," the Associated Press/Guardian reports.

7 Sep 2012

Ugandan parliamentarians threaten to hold up national budget unless more funding committed to health care

In Uganda, where "there are fewer than two health workers for every 1,000 people -- a level the World Health Organization defines as a severe shortage" -- the nation's parliamentary "social services committee, which has initial oversight of the country's health budget, pushed a resolution through parliament last week threatening to hold up approval of the entire budget unless funding to recruit and retain new health workers is increased," VOA News reports.

7 Sep 2012

Convention news: Dems embrace health law

In speeches from the podium and in the buzz from the convention floor, it was apparent on the first day of the Democratic National Convention that delegates and speakers aimed to reclaim the health law as an important accomplishment of the Obama administration.

6 Sep 2012

ACOEM awareness campaign helps employers identify and respond to chronic diseases

The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) today announced a yearlong awareness-building campaign intended to help employers identify and respond to chronic diseases that commonly impact worker health and productivity.

6 Sep 2012

PDAs could help autistic people perform better at work

Personal digital assistants, such as the Apple iPod Touch, can provide invaluable assistance to adults with autism by helping them to function well in the workplace, show results from a small case series.

4 Sep 2012

Roundup: Brown's pension plan no panacea for Calif.; Personhood amendment won't make Colo. ballot

Even by the most ambitious forecasts, the plan Gov. Jerry Brown and fellow Democrats are championing to contain government worker pensions in California could leave state taxpayers awash in debt to public employees.

31 Aug 2012

First Edition: August 30, 2012

In this updated FAQ, Kaiser Health News staff writer Marilyn Werber Serafini reports: "It may come as a surprise that President Barack Obama and GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan are pushing the same target rate for controlling federal spending on Medicare.

30 Aug 2012

Hand-held CO2 monitors could improve school air quality

A new hand-held sensor may be the answer to improving air quality in schools, say researchers.

23 Aug 2012

Newly discovered on/off switch in enzymes may help battle fat-related disease

Enzymes involved in breaking down fat can now be manipulated to work three times harder by turning on a molecular switch recently observed by chemists at the University of Copenhagen. Being able to control this chemical on/off button could have massive implications for curing diseases related to obesity including diabetes, cardio vascular disease, stroke and even skin problems like acne. But the implications may be wider.

23 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: The importance of hepatitis C testing; Medicaid needs to provide coverage for circumcision

I consider myself to be a fortunate person. I have a good education, a great job and excellent health insurance. I am a baby boomer who has aged reasonably well and can look forward to a fairly comfortable retirement. I am also fortunate because I was diagnosed with hepatitis C by a proactive and knowledgeable doctor in the late 1990s and had the opportunity to be treated and cured. The odds are that if I had not been diagnosed and treated, I would be on a liver transplant list right now, have liver cancer or even be dead from this disease.

22 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: Insuring medical treatments are well researched; GOP Govs reluctance on exchanges may backfire

By 1990, many doctors were recommending hormone replacement therapy to healthy middle-aged women and P.S.A. screening for prostate cancer to older men. Both interventions had become standard medical practice. But in 2002, a randomized trial showed that preventive hormone replacement caused more problems (more heart disease and breast cancer) than it solved. ... Then, in 2009, trials showed that P.S.A. screening led to many unnecessary surgeries and had a dubious effect on prostate cancer deaths.

21 Aug 2012

Longer looks: A jack-of-all-trades surgeon takes care of Nantucket; Psychiatrist's controversial effort to use brain scans to diagnose mental problems

Dr. Tim Lepore, 67, is a jack-of-all-trades general surgeon, tending to the 10,000 full-time residents of the Massachusetts island of Nantucket and to the many thousand more rich and famous summer-dwellers. Dr. Lepore has dealt with everything from poison ivy and tick-borne illnesses to narcolepsy and toe tourniquet syndrome (when a mother's hair wraps around a baby's toe, cutting off circulation). He counsels alcoholics, and allows patients to barter for health care. He once accepted oatmeal cookies from an immigrant worker who had no money for treatment.

17 Aug 2012

Protein folding: Nobel laureate Ahmed H. Zewail summarizes his insights

Living subjects are very complex systems and, at the same time, stunningly robust and accommodative. The secret of success are their proteins which build up the cells of the organisms, act as cleaners, messengers, transporter, motors, and fulfill much more jobs. How proteins are genetically coded and how their linear chains of amino acids are put together, is in principle well known.

14 Aug 2012

U.S. visa policies kept sex workers, drug users from participating in AIDS 2012

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog examines how the "U.S. travel bans on people involved in sex work and people who have used illegal drugs ... kept many of the people at highest risk from coming to the [XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012)]" in Washington, D.C., last month. "

10 Aug 2012

As flap continues over pro-Obama PAC's ad, Romney aide praises Mass. health law

The ad, which highlights the death of a steelworker's wife after Bain closed his plant, triggered criticism from Republicans. But a Romney aide's comments about how that family would have benefited from the Massachusetts health reforms signed into law by then-Gov. Mitt Romney was not well received in conservative circles.