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While Congress debates, health costs continue steep rise

The New York Times' "Week in Review" section features a story that begins: "Suppose Congress and President Obama fail to overhaul the system now, or just tinker around the edges, or start over, as the Republicans propose. ... Then 'my health care' stays the same, right? Far from it, health policy analysts and economists of nearly every ideological persuasion agree. The unrelenting rise in medical costs is likely to wreak havoc within the system and beyond it. ... Even those families that enjoy generous insurance now are likely to see the cost of those benefits escalate.

1 Mar 2010

Amerigroup introduces long-term care program to address complex health concerns

Amerigroup Corporation today announced that its Tennessee health plan began offering long-term care (LTC) services to approximately 4,000 existing middle Tennessee members through the state's TennCare CHOICES in LTC program.

1 Mar 2010

First Edition: March 1, 2010

Today's headlines focus on Democratic vote-counting and what plans the future will hold for advancing health reform.

1 Mar 2010

Axolotl celebrates 15 years of software development and HIE implementation

Axolotl Corp., the nationwide leader in health information exchange (HIE) services and solutions, celebrates fifteen successful years of software development and HIE implementation. Since its founding in 1995, Axolotl has been providing advanced Clinical Networking™ solutions to meet the diverse and changing needs of physicians, hospitals, regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and statewide HIEs to achieve interoperability across entire medical trading areas.

1 Mar 2010

Resurrected ParticipACTION initiative in Canada still has potential to succeed

Despite a six-year hiatus, a resurrected national physical activity initiative in Canada, ParticipACTION, still has the potential to succeed thanks to a "sticky" brand fostered over thirty successful years, and support from organizations with health promotion and physical activity as their mandates, University of Alberta researchers have found.

1 Mar 2010

Axolotl to demonstrate Elysium Open Access platform during HIMSS 2010

Axolotl Corp., the most experienced health information exchange (HIE) solutions and services company, today announced that it will be demonstrating its standards-based service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform — Elysium Open Access, with live third party applications – in operation today. Elysium Open Access is a core part of Axolotl’s Elysium® Exchange HIE suite.

1 Mar 2010

Aurora BayCare to host statewide meeting to promote development of medical technology businesses

Aurora BayCare will host a statewide meeting Friday, March 5, to promote the development of medical technology businesses in northeastern Wisconsin. The "Medical Device Collaboration Gathering" will take place at Aurora BayCare Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Center, 1160 Kepler Drive in Green Bay.

1 Mar 2010

Government has yet to confirm funding for ADI

With the sunset date for the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative (ADI) rapidly approaching, the government has yet to confirm whether or not funding will continue after March 31st.

1 Mar 2010

Continua Health Alliance, ETSI, IHE-Europe announce receipt of funding from EC for Smart Personal Health project

Continua Health Alliance, an international organization of leading health care and technology companies, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), responsible for standardization of ICT within Europe, and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Europe (IHE-Europe) today announced receipt of funding from the European Commission (EC) for a 12-month project called Smart Personal Health.

1 Mar 2010

Outpatient referrals from primary care physicians for CT, MRI studies inappropriate: Academic medical center

A large academic medical center has found that a significant percentage of outpatient referrals they receive from primary care physicians for computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies are inappropriate (based upon evidence-based appropriateness criteria developed by a radiology benefits management company), according to a study in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (www.jacr.org).

1 Mar 2010

Ashton and Georgieva visit Haiti to evaluate development of European humanitarian aid

Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, and Kristalina Georgieva, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, will visit Haiti to evaluate the development of European humanitarian aid and assess future needs.

1 Mar 2010

Childhood obesity prevention: Prenatal and infancy period upto age 5 crucial

Efforts to prevent childhood obesity should begin far earlier than currently thought-perhaps even before birth-especially for minority children, according to a new study that tracked 1,826 women from pregnancy through their children's first five years of life.

1 Mar 2010

Growth rate among non-radiologists who own/lease PET equipment is on the rise: Study

Just as with computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the growth rate among non-radiologists who own or lease positron emission tomography (PET) equipment is also on the rise, contributing significantly to the ongoing issues surrounding self-referral and unnecessary utilization of imaging in the United States, according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (www.jacr.org)

1 Mar 2010

Seven healthcare providers implement API Healthcare's solutions to increase staff productivity

API Healthcare, the leading provider of human capital management solutions to the healthcare industry, today announced that seven healthcare providers have implemented its solutions to better manage labor costs, increase staff productivity and streamline workflow throughout their organizations

1 Mar 2010

Hartford Hospital, NextGate collaborate in HIE implementation and work-flow integration project

Hartford Hospital, one of the nation’s “Most Wired” hospitals, is collaborating with NextGate in a Health Information Exchange (HIE) implementation and a separate work-flow integration project. With an aim to improve patient care, both initiatives rely on NextGate's MatchMetrix indexing solution to uniquely identify a patient across multiple encounters and locations within the Hartford healthcare system and beyond.

28 Feb 2010

Republicans press campaign against reconciliation; Mccain seek to strip Medicare out of health bill

Republicans and Democrat hit the Sunday talk shows today to debate whether a complex congressional process called 'reconciliation' should be used to consider a major overhaul of the U.S. health care system. Reconciliation is normally used for 'taxing and spending and reducing deficits,' said Sen.

28 Feb 2010

Open public comment period for URAC's revised IRO Accreditation

URAC, a leading healthcare accreditation and education organization, today announced the open public comment period for its revised Independent Review Organization Accreditation, version 5.0, which includes a new accreditation track for Healthcare Peer Review.

27 Feb 2010

NPAF's message to White House Summit participants: Policy agreement must triumph over partisan politics

The National Patient Advocate Foundation -- the sister organization to the Patient Advocate Foundation -- a direct patient services organization that assists patients throughout the country – delivered a message to all White House Summit participants that policy agreement must triumph over partisan politics during the bipartisan health care reform meeting.

27 Feb 2010

Cotton thread as core material in 'lab-on-chip' devices to detect kidney failure and diabetes

A discovery by Monash University scientists could see humble cotton thread emerge as a core material in low-cost 'lab-on-chip' devices capable of detecting diseases such as kidney failure and diabetes.

27 Feb 2010

Of the 2.3M inmates, only 1.5M meet DSM IV medical criteria for substance abuse: CASA

Of the 2.3 million inmates crowding our nation's prisons and jails, 1.5 million meet the DSM IV medical criteria for substance abuse or addiction, and another 458,000, while not meeting the strict DSM IV criteria, had histories of substance abuse; were under the influence of alcohol or other drugs at the time of their crime; committed their offense to get money to buy drugs; were incarcerated for an alcohol or drug law violation; or shared some combination of these characteristics, according to Behind Bars II: Substance Abuse and America's Prison Population. Combined these two groups constitute 85 percent of the U.S. prison population.

27 Feb 2010

Health Care News and Research

While Congress debates, health costs continue steep rise

Amerigroup introduces long-term care program to address complex health concerns

First Edition: March 1, 2010

Axolotl celebrates 15 years of software development and HIE implementation

Resurrected ParticipACTION initiative in Canada still has potential to succeed

Axolotl to demonstrate Elysium Open Access platform during HIMSS 2010

Aurora BayCare to host statewide meeting to promote development of medical technology businesses

Government has yet to confirm funding for ADI

Continua Health Alliance, ETSI, IHE-Europe announce receipt of funding from EC for Smart Personal Health project

Outpatient referrals from primary care physicians for CT, MRI studies inappropriate: Academic medical center

Ashton and Georgieva visit Haiti to evaluate development of European humanitarian aid

Childhood obesity prevention: Prenatal and infancy period upto age 5 crucial

Growth rate among non-radiologists who own/lease PET equipment is on the rise: Study

Seven healthcare providers implement API Healthcare's solutions to increase staff productivity

Hartford Hospital, NextGate collaborate in HIE implementation and work-flow integration project

Republicans press campaign against reconciliation; Mccain seek to strip Medicare out of health bill

Open public comment period for URAC's revised IRO Accreditation

NPAF's message to White House Summit participants: Policy agreement must triumph over partisan politics

Cotton thread as core material in 'lab-on-chip' devices to detect kidney failure and diabetes

Of the 2.3M inmates, only 1.5M meet DSM IV medical criteria for substance abuse: CASA

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

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

From Puberty to Menopause: Clue’s CEO, Audrey Tsang on the Power of Femtech

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