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State News: N.Y. billing for disabled patients questioned

While the nation's attention has been focused on state worker battles in union strongholds such as Ohio and Wisconsin, quiet but consequential labor battles are breaking out in Kansas, Texas and other states where collective bargaining rights for public workers were weak or non-existent to begin with. The outcome of these confrontations will have a big impact.

8 Apr 2011

Viewpoints abound on impact of Ryan plan, government showdown

If the federal government shuts down at midnight on Friday — which seems likely unless negotiations take a sudden turn toward rationality — it will not be because of disagreements over spending. It will be because Republicans are refusing to budge on these ideological demands: No federal financing for Planned Parenthood. ... No local financing for abortion services in the District of Columbia. ... No funds for health care reform.

8 Apr 2011

States mull Medicaid grants

Republicans talk a lot about how Medicaid block grants could help governors bring down their costs, but they don't talk as much about what, exactly, the states would do with them. It's not that they have no answers. Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi has said he'd like to provide home-based care for children with special medical needs, rather than resort to more expensive hospital care, but federal rules get in the way.

8 Apr 2011

Watson confirms patent challenge by Alcon for generic Vigamox

Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today confirmed that its subsidiary, Watson Laboratories, Inc., filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking approval to market Moxifloxacin Hydrochloride Ophthalmic Solution USP, 0.5%. Watson's Moxifloxacin Hydrochloride Ophthalmic Solution USP, 0.5% is a generic version of Alcon, Inc.'s Vigamox®, an antibiotic solution that is indicated for the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis.

8 Apr 2011

Survivors of severe critical illness requiring intensive care do not regain physical or psychological health

A unique and richly detailed long-term study of survivors of severe critical illness requiring intensive care found that even those who were previously healthy, young and working did not regain the physical or psychological health they had before their illness.

8 Apr 2011

Current 'metrics' don't paint clear picture of health care quality

With a push to make hospitals and doctors more accountable for health care quality, more attention must be paid to the accuracy and reliability of measures used to evaluate caregivers, says a prominent Johns Hopkins patient safety expert.

8 Apr 2011

First Edition: April 8, 2011

Today's headlines include stories tracking the partisan negotiations surrounding a current-year spending bill. Currently at an impasse, the differences between the GOP and Democrats as well as the White House surrounds more than just the total dollar figure attached to spending cuts. It also involves controversial "policy riders." Meanwhile, without resolution, a government shutdown is just hours away.

8 Apr 2011

Researchers identify new gene that predisposes people to both autism, epilepsy

Researchers from the CHUM Research Centre have identified a new gene that predisposes people to both autism and epilepsy.

8 Apr 2011

Gene expression changes in prostate tissue surrounding cancer lesions may allow prostate cancer diagnosis

Researchers have found that gene expression changes in prostate tissue surrounding cancer lesions may allow diagnosis of prostate cancer even if no cancer cells are present in biopsy tissue, according to study results published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

8 Apr 2011

New report finds 13,000 cancer cases per year in the UK due to alcohol consumption

Alcohol causes at least 13,000 cases of cancer a year in the UK, according to a new report published in the British Medical Journal today.

8 Apr 2011

Researchers test plants used in traditional African medicine against malaria

The malaria parasite has gradually developed resistance to the most commonly used medicines. To make matters worse, several mosquito species that host and transmit the parasite have become resistant to insecticides, making it difficult to eliminate them from populated areas.

8 Apr 2011

Marking World Health Day, WHO warns misuse of antibiotics undermining global fight against infectious diseases

U.N. officials on Thursday marked World Health Day with a warning that "the misuse and irrational use of antibiotics has undermined the global fight against tuberculosis and malaria, warning of a possible return to the days before the drugs were developed," and called for urgent action to control the spread of drug resistance, Reuters reports.

8 Apr 2011

Brain 'talks' to computer by saying/thinking of a particular sound

Patients with a temporary surgical implant have used regions of the brain that control speech to "talk" to a computer for the first time, manipulating a cursor on a computer screen simply by saying or thinking of a particular sound.

8 Apr 2011

Small businesses can benefit from high-quality employee wellness programs

A new study published today supports the premise that high-quality employee wellness programs in small businesses improve employee health and well-being, which drives improvements in organizational outcomes such as absenteeism, healthcare costs and disability claims.

8 Apr 2011

German government, Gates Foundation sign agreement to provide funding for GAVI Alliance

The German government on Wednesday said it would provide an extra 14 million euros or about $19.9 million "for child immunization in the developing world as part of an agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation," the Associated Press reports (4/6).

8 Apr 2011

Lecture to explain science behind modern pharmaceutical products

The science behind the creation of medicines is the subject of a lecture at the University of Greenwich's Medway Campus on Wednesday, April 13.

8 Apr 2011

ASBMB honors Stanford professor with DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences

Stanford University professor Axel T. Brunger has been named the winner of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology's inaugural DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences. Brunger will present his award lecture, titled "Towards Structural Biology with Single Molecules" at 9:03 a.m. on Wednesday, April 13, at the Experimental Biology 2011 conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

8 Apr 2011

Experimental Biology 2011 to be held April 9-13 in Washington, D.C.

The meeting Experimental Biology 2011 (EB 2011) begins April 9 and runs through April 13 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

8 Apr 2011

Two new studies on Veterans Affairs health care system

As recently as the 1990s, the Veterans Affairs health care system had a subpar reputation for quality, but two new studies of standard quality metrics, both led by Amal Trivedi, assistant professor of community health at Brown University and a physician at the Providence VA Medical Center, show that the system that cares for more than 5 million patients has improved markedly in the last decade.

8 Apr 2011

Diversity MBA Magazine ranks Kaiser Permanente as No. 1 consortium

For the third consecutive year, Kaiser Permanente ranks No. 1 on Diversity MBA Magazine's "50 Out Front for Diversity Leadership: Best Places for Diverse Managers to Work."

8 Apr 2011