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First Edition: March 1, 2013

Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey reports: "David P. Blom is one of thousands of hospital executives across the country who are bracing for a reduction in Medicare payments as part of a series of federal spending cuts that begin Friday. Blom, 58, is president and chief executive officer of OhioHealth, a Columbus, Ohio, based not-for-profit health care system that includes 18 hospitals, 23 health and surgery centers, home-health providers and other facilities."

1 Mar 2013

Amoxicillin effectiveness: an interview with Prof Paul Little, University of Southampton

Amoxicillin is a broad spectrum penicillin, and in the UK is one of the most frequently used antibiotics. It is commonly used either on its own or, where there are particular concerns about resistance, in combination as Co-amoxiclav (as Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid) which extends its anti-bacterial spectrum.

1 Mar 2013

Interview highlights Kenya's first national health conference, examines role of women in building strong health systems

In a post in Management Sciences for Health's (MSH) "Global Health Impact" blog, Jonathan Quick, president and CEO of MSH, interviews Sylvia Vriesendorp, technical lead on leadership at MSH, about Kenya's First National Conference on Health Leadership, Management and Governance, which took place in February and "demonstrated the long-term vision of the Kenyans who are running the health system."

28 Feb 2013

Efforts to copy biotech drugs face delays, obstacles

Much anticipated knockoff versions of costly biotech medicines are facing delays and obstacles that could cost patients and health systems billions in missed savings.

28 Feb 2013

First Edition: February 27, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about N.J. Gov. Christie's decision to pursue the health law's Medicaid expansion.

27 Feb 2013

Individual countries can eliminate malaria: Research

A researcher at the University of Southampton, working as part of a team from the UK and USA, believes the global eradication of malaria could be achieved by individual countries eliminating the disease within their own borders and coordinating efforts regionally.

27 Feb 2013

Bridging the Divides model can help patients with chronic heart disease

Christiana Care Health System has partnered with ColdLight and Medecision to provide more coordinated personalized care to patients with chronic heart disease with breakthrough analytics technology.

27 Feb 2013

Polio eradication strategy must be adjusted for local contexts

"It has been a particularly busy couple of months for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)," SciDev.Net Director Nick Ishmael Perkins writes in a SciDev.Net editorial. "The deadly attacks on vaccinators in Pakistan brought renewed global attention to the campaign, and then Bill Gates went public with his personal commitment to end polio," he states, adding, "The GPEI has responded with a strategy for what it calls the 'endgame.'"

26 Feb 2013

Kindred Healthcare fourth quarter consolidated revenues increase 2% to $1.55 billion

Kindred Healthcare, Inc. today announced its operating results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2012.

25 Feb 2013

Study identifies changes that could explain stability of malaria elimination

Many nations battling malaria face an economic dilemma: spend money indefinitely to control malaria transmission or commit additional resources to eliminate transmission completely. A review of malaria elimination conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute and other institutions suggests stopping malaria transmission completely has longlasting benefits for many countries and that once eliminated, the disease is unlikely to reemerge over time.

24 Feb 2013

Stopping malaria transmission has long-lasting benefits, review shows

"A review of malaria elimination conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute and other institutions and published in Science suggests stopping malaria transmission completely has long-lasting benefits for many countries and that once eliminated, the disease is unlikely to reemerge over time," a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health press release reports.

24 Feb 2013

Study measures awareness, adoption and use of informatics tools by infection preventionists

Advances in electronic medical record systems and health information exchange are shifting efforts in public health toward greater use of information systems to automate disease surveillance, but a study from the Regenstrief Institute has found that these technologies' capabilities are underutilized by those on the front lines of preventing and reporting infections.

21 Feb 2013

LifePoint Hospitals fourth quarter revenues increase 14.3% to $893.3 million

LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. today announced results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2012.

15 Feb 2013

SunLink second quarter consolidated net revenues decrease 4.0% to $27,850,000

SunLink Health Systems, Inc. today announced net earnings for its second fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2012 of $3,935,000, or $0.42 per fully diluted share, compared to a net loss of $935,000, or a loss of $0.10 per fully diluted share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2011.

14 Feb 2013

UNDP administrator calls for 'permanent' focus on NCDs

At the London launch of a Lancet series on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on Monday, U.N. Development Programme Administrator Helen Clark said if NCDs are placed "permanently on the global development agenda, people's lives, opportunities, and future prospects will improve -- thereby advancing sustainable human development overall," Devex's "Development Newswire" blog reports.

14 Feb 2013

Parenteral nutrition safety: an interview with Dr. Phil Ayers, A.S.P.E.N PN Safety Task Force Chair and Dr. Peggi Guenter, Director of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.)

Parenteral nutrition is intravenous nutrition for patients who are unable to eat or be tube fed. It is used with more than 300,000 patients per year - a quarter of whom are children and newborns.

11 Feb 2013

Hospital house calls: A way to cut costs and improve quality?

Meanwhile, a group of experts convened by the National Quality Forum has released its second annual round of recommendations on quality measures to be used in federal health programs.

6 Feb 2013

Empowered patients cost health systems less

Patients who feel confident and engaged in decisions about their health and taking care of themselves incur lower healthcare costs as a result of their improved outcomes, suggests a study in Health Affairs.

6 Feb 2013

World Cancer Day provides opportunity to challenge assumptions that prevent effective action

"For the poor, cancer remains a silent killer. Breaking this silence could save hundreds of thousands and likely even millions of lives each year -- most of them in developing, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)," Felicia Knaul, secretariat co-director of the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries, writes in the Huffington Post's "World" blog.

6 Feb 2013

Blog examines global malaria funding

In a post in his "Malaria Matters" blog, Bill Brieger, a professor in the health systems program of the department of international health at Johns Hopkins University, examines donor funding for global health and asks whether funding for malaria has hit a plateau.

1 Feb 2013