Health Care News and Research

RSS

TGen, Geisinger Health System sign strategic research agreement

The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Geisinger Health System today announced the signing of a strategic research agreement that provides for a focused look at the gaps in clinical medicine where biomedical research can make a difference.

4 Feb 2010

Tough economy adds stress to hospitals; Community health centers help fill gaps

Hospitals get mixed marks while many suffer from the effects of the struggling economy. Meanwhile, community health centers increasingly provide more care and help fill in health care gaps.

4 Feb 2010

UBC announces the opening of new global office in Tokyo, Japan

nited BioSource Corporation (UBC) today announced the opening of its newest global office in Tokyo, Japan. The UBC office will be led by Kumpei Kobayashi, PharmD, a biopharmaceutical industry veteran with over 20 years of product development experience throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

4 Feb 2010

Poll: Health care 'damage' to Democrats 'has been done'

Politico: "Democrats will face nearly the same political environment this fall whether or not they pass health care reform legislation, according to a new poll out Tuesday." The poll, by Public Policy Polling, found that "Republicans currently have a generic ballot advantage of 43 percent to 40 percent in races for Congress. ... 'At this point, it looks like the political damage for Democrats on health care has been done,' PPP President Dean Debnam said. "The poll, conducted Jan. 29 - 31, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points" (Barr, 2/2).

3 Feb 2010

Lobbying, ads slow down on health reform

"Drugmakers, business organizations and other interest groups in the health care battle have dialed down expensive lobbying campaigns as they assess how last month's stunning Republican capture of a Senate seat from Massachusetts has altered Washington's political landscape...," The Associated Press reports.

3 Feb 2010

Obama urges Senate Dems not to give up on health legislation

The Washington Post: President Obama attended an issues conference today with the Senate Democratic Caucus and "answered questions from senators, some of them facing uphill reelection battles."

3 Feb 2010

Lawmakers sound off on President's budget and health costs

While White House Budget Director Peter Orszag testified on Capitol Hill about President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget, some members expressed concern about health costs, McClatchy reports.

3 Feb 2010

House Dems' next step in health reform: Repeal of insurance antitrust exemption

Lawmakers "hoping to revive President Barack Obama's stalled health care overhaul have started writing a compromise bill, but it's unclear when the legislation will be ready for votes, a top House Democrat said Tuesday," The Associated Press reports. "The measure would change the massive Senate-approved health bill to what bargainers from the White House, Senate and House agreed to last month, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said in a brief interview.

3 Feb 2010

First Edition: February 3, 2010

Today's headlines highlight what might be the Democrats' next health reform move in the House, where Speaker Pelosi plans to advance legislation next week to repeal insurance companies' antitrust exemption.

3 Feb 2010

Effective implementation of clinical information systems to maximize health care IT investment

Marking the launch of its newly redesigned Web site, Informatics Corporation of America (ICA; www.icainformatics.com), provider of electronic solutions to hospitals, integrated delivery networks (IDNs), and health information exchanges (HIEs), announces the availability of an informative white paper, “Health Care IT Investment Heightens Need For Effective Implementation: Introducing five key elements for successful roll-out of clinical information systems (CIS),” http://www.icainformatics.com/news-and-events/white-papers/.

3 Feb 2010

AFGE lauds proposed $57 billion funding for VA

Today, the American Federation of Government Employees and its National VA Council applauded the White House's proposed funding increases for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The White House's proposed fiscal year 2011 budget provides $57 billion in funding for the VA. For more than two decades, AFGE, which represents over 180,000 employees in the VA, has joined veterans' groups in calling for full funding of veterans' services.

3 Feb 2010

Majority of nurses experience workplace violence

Three-quarters of nurses providing private and public care experienced workplace violence, but only one in six incidents were formally reported, according to study published in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

3 Feb 2010

Apple Valley Medical Center to hold free Heart Failure Community Education Evening

A free Heart Failure Community Education Evening will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 9, 2010, at the Apple Valley Medical Center.

3 Feb 2010

ONA urges Ontario government to retain RNs and prevent negative impact on patient care

Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN is calling for the Ontario government to use limited health-care funding available where it's going to matter most: improving patients' health outcomes by preserving registered nursing positions that are being cut as hospitals struggle to balance budgets.

3 Feb 2010

Australian sports medicine experts invited to lend skills for Vancouver Winter Olympics

Two of Australia's sports medicine experts have accepted the only invitation issued to non-Canadian physiotherapists to provide physiotherapy services at the Vancouver Winter Olympics polyclinic.

3 Feb 2010

BioSpecifics Technologies' XIAFLEX receives FDA approval

BioSpecifics Technologies Corp., a biopharmaceutical company developing first in class collagenase-based products, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved XIAFLEX™, a novel, first-in-class, orphan-designated, biologic, for the treatment of adult Dupuytren's contracture patients with a palpable cord.

3 Feb 2010

Concuity wins contract to provide Revenue Recovery Services to one of East Texas' health care providers

Concuity, a Healthcare Division of Trintech, Inc., and a leading provider of Revenue Cycle Management technology and services, announced today that it has secured a contract to provide its Revenue Recovery Services to one of East Texas' preferred health care providers.

3 Feb 2010

Study finds racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in cancer incidence

A New Jersey study found that African-Americans with cancer are less likely to survive it than whites, and residents of poor neighborhoods less likely to survive than are those in wealthier areas of the state.

3 Feb 2010

Ohio changes Medicaid drug program, N.C. weighs cuts in Medicaid personal care services

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Ohio's seven Medicaid managed care plans this month will make changes in the prescription drug plans that cover about 1.5 million people, although many of those beneficiaries will not face increased costs.

3 Feb 2010

U.S. government to reimburse American hospitals that treat airlifted Haitian patients

"The federal government announced on Monday that it would reimburse American hospitals who treat Haitian earthquake victims with life-threatening injuries, making it possible for more hospitals in states outside Florida to consider taking those patients," the New York Times reports.

3 Feb 2010