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Deloitte Survey: Consumers still profess to know very little about health care system in the U.S.

Following widespread media coverage of health care reform, political debates and legislative initiatives over the past year, consumers still profess to know very little about the health care system in the United States, according to the 3rd Annual Deloitte Center for Health Solutions Survey of Health Care Consumers.

5 May 2010

Health IT Roundup: Many obstacles, much promise

The Boston Globe: There is a lingering "professional resistance to electronic records systems that computerization advocates say threatens the goals of the new health care overhaul law. These advocates argue that using computers to track what care patients receive, for instance, is vital to deciding what medications and treatments work best."

5 May 2010

First Edition: May 4, 2010

Today's headlines include stories about parts of the new health reform law dealing with long-term care, high risk insurance pools and early retiree health insurance.

4 May 2010

Personalized vaccine processed using tumor tissue promising for brain tumor treatment

Each day in the United States, 482 people are diagnosed with a brain tumor. For these 482 people, not many treatments exist. With the current treatments available, only 5% of those diagnosed with a Glioblastoma Multiform will survive more than 5 years. Only two new treatments have been approved by the FDA in the past two decades.

4 May 2010

Children of parents with hypertension, larger waist and hip circumference exhibit masked hypertension

Data unveiled today at the American Society of Hypertension Inc.'s 25th Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition (ASH 2010) suggest children and adolescents of parents with hypertension and larger waist (WC) and hip circumference (HC) should be evaluated for hypertension even if they exhibit normal blood pressure (BP) levels in the doctor's office.

4 May 2010

Moving story of a Parkinson's patient

Over 1.5 million people in the U.S. suffer from Parkinson's disease, a degenerative neurological disorder most recently brought attention to by Michael J. Fox. In his new release, "Move On with Parkinson's: An Inspirational True Story as Told by a PD Patient" (published by LuLu), author Michael Stanfield shares his struggle with Parkinson's and the medical treatments and exercise that helped reverse his symptoms.

4 May 2010

LA BioMed receives $1.5M in grant to study contraceptive for men

As the birth control pill marks its 50th birthday this month, Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute announced today that it has received $1.5 million in grant funding to study a contraceptive for men that uses a combination of two hormonal gels applied to the skin of the arm and abdomen.

4 May 2010

Trajectory Health, HeartMath partner to deliver clinical stress management solutions to corporates

Dallas-based Trajectory Health, LLC has announced a partnership with HeartMath® to deliver clinical stress management solutions to the corporate marketplace.

4 May 2010

Study indicates a strong link between socio-economic status and asthma

New research shows Inuit populations in the Canadian Arctic have asthma rates far below Aboriginal people in other parts of Canada, especially those in urban centres.

4 May 2010

Rush Center for Urban Health Equity to focus on disparities in heart and lung disease

Rush University Medical Center has been awarded a $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish the Rush Center for Urban Health Equity. The aim of the Center is to find ways to promote changes to eliminate the disparities in heart and lung disease affecting inner city residents, in particular those who are low-income persons of color.

4 May 2010

NYBC urges community to donate blood in recognition of Mother's Day

New York Blood Center and its divisions serving the 20 million people of New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and New Jersey call upon the community to please donate blood in recognition of Mother's Day and families everywhere who are brought together by lives saved through the selfless gifts given by blood donors.

4 May 2010

KHN column: Playing chicken

In his latest Kaiser Health News column, Jonathan Cohn writes: "A lot of people laughed when Sue Lowden, the Nevada Republican running for the U.S. Senate, suggested last month that people start paying for their medical care with chickens. I didn't. I thought about my late grandfather Kurt, a family doctor who practiced in Brooklyn starting in the 1940s.

3 May 2010

Health care practitioners call for national database to crack down on prescription drug abuse

The Associated Press reports on efforts in California, where "a state online drug database went into effect last year to thwart addicts who bounce from doctor to doctor to feed a habit or make a small fortune peddling meds" and efforts to set up a national program "to snare so-called doctor shoppers and curb drug abuse.

3 May 2010

Calif. doctors say e-health saved lives; in Mich., doctors visit patients online

Reuters/The Washington Post: An electronic medical system first introduced in 2007 has shown a 20 percent drop in hospital deaths -- the equivalent of about 36 lives saved -- over 18-months at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto California, doctors there have found. The system, a computerized physician order entry, or CPOE, allows "doctors to relay prescriptions to pharmacists without delay, and without the need for the pharmacist to decipher doctors' scrawl."

3 May 2010

As doctors frustration with Medicare payments grows, a few opt to leave the system

American Medical News reports on doctors' frustrations with the Medicare program and looks at the practice of Juliette Madrigal-Dersch, an internist in Marble Falls, Texas, who "decided to see Medicare patients only on a private-contracting basis. That means neither she nor her patients can claim any payment from Medicare. It also means she can charge what her services actually cost, not just what the government says it will pay. She also can choose not to charge anything, as is her policy for patients age 90 and older."

3 May 2010

Anesthesiologist group to-decertify physicians who help with lethal injections

The American Board of Anesthesiologists "has quietly decided to revoke the certification of any member who participates in executing a prisoner by lethal injection," according to The Washington Post. The decision "reflects its leaders' belief that 'we are healers, not executioners,' board secretary Mark A. Rockoff said. Although the American Medical Association has long opposed doctor involvement, the anesthesiologists' group is the first to say it will harshly penalize a health-care worker for abetting lethal injections.

3 May 2010

First Edition: May 3, 2010

Today's headlines include analysis of how this year's health reform debate is shaping other national policy initiatives and the upcoming mid-term elections.

3 May 2010

Decrease in hospital-wide mortality rates associated with CPOE system: Researchers

Researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine have shown for the first time that a significant decrease in hospital-wide mortality rates can be associated with implementation of a computerized physician order entry system.

3 May 2010

Pay-for-performance policies may create financial disincentives for doctors to treat obese patients

Pay-for-performance reimbursement of surgeons, intended to reward doctors and hospitals for good patient outcomes, may instead be creating financial incentives for discriminating against obese patients, who are much more likely to suffer expensive complications after even the most routine surgeries, according to new Johns Hopkins research.

3 May 2010

Parents administering highly complex medication regimens require additional supports

Parents of children with chronic conditions make many mistakes when giving lifesaving medicines, according to a study being presented Monday, May 3 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

3 May 2010

Doctor News and Research

Deloitte Survey: Consumers still profess to know very little about health care system in the U.S.

Health IT Roundup: Many obstacles, much promise

First Edition: May 4, 2010

Personalized vaccine processed using tumor tissue promising for brain tumor treatment

Children of parents with hypertension, larger waist and hip circumference exhibit masked hypertension

Moving story of a Parkinson's patient

LA BioMed receives $1.5M in grant to study contraceptive for men

Trajectory Health, HeartMath partner to deliver clinical stress management solutions to corporates

Study indicates a strong link between socio-economic status and asthma

Rush Center for Urban Health Equity to focus on disparities in heart and lung disease

NYBC urges community to donate blood in recognition of Mother's Day

KHN column: Playing chicken

Health care practitioners call for national database to crack down on prescription drug abuse

Calif. doctors say e-health saved lives; in Mich., doctors visit patients online

As doctors frustration with Medicare payments grows, a few opt to leave the system

Anesthesiologist group to-decertify physicians who help with lethal injections

First Edition: May 3, 2010

Decrease in hospital-wide mortality rates associated with CPOE system: Researchers

Pay-for-performance policies may create financial disincentives for doctors to treat obese patients

Parents administering highly complex medication regimens require additional supports

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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