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Hospitals respond to feds' warning about electronic records, billing fraud

Hospital industry groups responded Tuesday to the warning issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder, saying that the federal government shares part of the blame, because it hasn't provided hospitals adequate guidance on billing for common services.

27 Sep 2012

Study finds increase in number of total knee replacements among U.S. Medicare population

Total knee replacement is a very common and safe surgery that's used to relieve severe pain and disability caused by knee osteoarthritis, and to improve patients' quality of life. However, it's also very expensive at approximately $15,000 per procedure. With an estimated 600,000 total knee replacements performed annually in the United States, the aggregate annual cost for total knee replacement (also known as total knee arthroplasty or TKA) is $9 billion.

27 Sep 2012

First Edition: September 26, 2012

Today's headlines include a reports about a round of new polls sizing up the status of the presidential campaign as well as one from The Associated Press measuring public opinion about the implementation of the health law.

26 Sep 2012

Topical NSAIDs as effective as oral NSAIDs for knee, hand arthritis

For those suffering from osteoarthritis of the knees or hands, applying topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) — in the form of creams, gels and patches — can bring weeks of pain relief, finds a new review by The Cochrane Library.

21 Sep 2012

Ultrasound boosts rheumatology clinical examination findings

Musculoskeletal ultrasound improves rheumatology diagnosis and guides treatment, say researchers who believe imaging should be performed alongside clinical examination.

21 Sep 2012

Arthroplasty wound complications linked to oral anticoagulant use

Multicenter research suggests that recovery from hip or knee arthroplasty may be significantly affected by choice of pharmaceutical thromboprophylaxis.

21 Sep 2012

Bionic legs: an interview with Rob Cripe, SVP of Marketing from Tibion

The Bionic Leg is a wearable robotic trainer that is used on mobility impaired patients who need to relearn how to use their affected limb. It is used by clinicians as a tool that is designed to help strengthen stance, improve gait and enhance active motor learning.

19 Sep 2012

Apixaban offers minor added benefit for adult patients after hip replacement

The clot-inhibiting drug apixaban was approved in May 2011 for the prevention of thrombosis (blood clots) after operations to replace a hip or knee joint.

18 Sep 2012

Factors linked to cruciate injury in ski racers uncovered

Low core strength and female gender are both associated with increased risk for anterior cruciate ligament injury in adolescent competitive ski racers, show study results.

17 Sep 2012

Mitochondrial variations unlikely cause of osteoarthritis

Researchers have been unable to confirm a link between the development of osteoarthritis and maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA variants.

17 Sep 2012

Why are health care costs increasing at a slower rate?

Health care spending increased by just 3.9 percent in 2010 and 3.8 percent in 2009. And within Medicare, the spending slowdown has been even more dramatic: Instead of the program's average 6 percent annual increase per beneficiary in recent years, 2010's rate was 0.2 percent. In 2011, it was 2.8 percent.

15 Sep 2012

Serious gaming can enhance surgical skills

Serious gaming can be used to enhance surgical skills, but games developed or used to train medical professionals need to be validated before they are integrated into teaching methods, according to a paper in the October issue of the surgical journal BJS.

12 Sep 2012

Rhode Island receives NIH grant to study cartilage and joint health

Rhode Island Hospital's Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in Skeletal Health and Repair has been awarded a $10.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of the largest grants in Rhode Island Hospital history. This grant, to be paid over five years, will fund studies of cartilage and joint health.

11 Sep 2012

More patients gain weight after joint replacement surgery

Hip and knee replacements are now a common surgical procedure with more than 700,000 total joint arthroplasties (TJAs) performed in the US every year. Due to the reduction in pain and increases in mobility experienced after having a TJA, it could be expected that weight loss may occur as a by-product of the surgery.

10 Sep 2012

Obesity no barrier to knee replacement surgery

Health policy should not withhold total knee arthroplasty from patients on the basis of obesity, say UK researchers.

3 Sep 2012

Some smaller clots may not require potentially risky treatment

Men and women who undergo joint replacement procedures, as well as those who have significant fractures, tend to be at an increased risk of developing pulmonary emboli (PE), blood clots that travel to the lungs where they may cause serious complications and even death.

1 Sep 2012

MRI detects high prevalence of abnormalities associated with knee osteoarthritis

A study conducted by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) shows that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) detected a high prevalence of abnormalities associated with knee osteoarthritis in middle-aged and elderly patients that had no evidence of knee osteoarthritis in X-ray images.

1 Sep 2012

Community-based pharmacists could provide added resource in identifying knee OA

Canadian researchers have determined that community-based pharmacists could provide an added resource in identifying knee osteoarthritis (OA). The study, published in Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), represents the first evidence supporting a collaborative approach to managing knee OA.

28 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: Health law will leave some poor families 'in lurch'; Mich. Gov.'s effort to get health exchange

Confusing language in the health care reform law has raised the possibility that millions of Americans living on modest incomes may be unable to afford their employers' family policies and yet fail to qualify for government subsidies to buy their own insurance. This is a bizarre development that undercuts the basic goal of health care reform - to expand the number of insured people and make their coverage affordable.

28 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: Cantaloupes and food safety; Diversity in health incentives

People don't ordinarily think of cantaloupes as killers, but over the last two summers 32 Americans have died after eating contaminated pieces of the popular fruit. ... Government is hyper-vigilant about terror attacks and problem airliners, which is good, but not so much about food - at least if you judge by the time it's taking the Obama administration to release new rules intended to prevent exactly the sort of food-borne outbreaks cantaloupes have caused.

24 Aug 2012