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Hypatia Research on the benefits of electronic health records systems

Hypatia Research, LLC today released a report entitled "What Healthcare CIOs Need to Know About ARRA & EHR: Healthcare Technology Solutions & Service Providers" outlining current developments, major adoption challenges, business case justification and an assessment of more than 30 EHR vendors that meet government standards for certification and funding programs.

17 Sep 2009

New CCHI for quality medical care

A solution to help healthcare practitioners and limited English proficient (LEP) speaking patients focus directly on quality healthcare rather than an inability to communicate with each other is now at hand. A new organization is now working to assure competency in language interactions in healthcare settings -- the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI).

17 Sep 2009

We are happy with SEIU-UHW: San Francisco home care workers

Home care workers demanded today that an organization created by former union officials acknowledge that it failed in its attempt to force a new union election. The San Francisco workers say they overwhelmingly want to stay with their current union, Service Employees International Union, United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW).

17 Sep 2009

Secretary Sebelius' new initiative to improve health care delivery

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, along with Vermont Governor Jim Douglas and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform Nancy-Ann DeParle today announced an initiative that will allow Medicare to join Medicaid, and private insurers in state-based efforts to improve the way health care is delivered.

17 Sep 2009

Laerdal Medical redeveloping its Emergency Preparedness Scenarios simulation packages

Laerdal Medical, in conjunction with The University of Miami's Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education, is in the final stages of re-developing the Emergency Preparedness Scenarios - Terrorism package to function on Laerdal's VitalSim-capable Simulators.

From Laerdal 17 Sep 2009

American Lung Association applauds EPA’s decision to reduce threat from dangerous air pollutant

Today the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, announced that the Agency will embark on a formal review of the national air quality standard for ozone, a decision that offers the opportunity to finally protect the health of millions of Americans from the most widespread and one of the most dangerous air pollutants.

17 Sep 2009

Northeast Pennsylvania healthcare facilities collaborate to eliminate laboratory errors

Healthcare facilities in northeast Pennsylvania have come together to reduce and eliminate laboratory errors due to specimen mislabeling. Pocono Medical Center helped to spearhead the effort when they noticed they were reporting a large number of mislabeled lab specimens at their facility that coincided with data delivered in a presentation by the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority.

17 Sep 2009

Parkway Medical Center ranks 28th in the Top 100 Hospital Value Index

Parkway Medical Center has been named a Top 100 Hospital™ by the 2009-2010 Hospital Value Index™, according to an independent national study of hospitals across the U.S., officials announced today.

17 Sep 2009

Critical Signal Technologies acquires GTL

Critical Signal Technologies, Inc. (CST) has acquired the stock and assets of GTL, Inc. dba as "Link to Life" along with Link Technologies, Inc., and will integrate its product and service offerings into CST to provide cost-effective personal emergency response, TeleHealth and medical monitoring systems, improving the independence and quality of life for older adults, the disabled and people managing health conditions.

17 Sep 2009

NIH to fund grants for epigenetic research

The National Institutes of Health announced today that it will fund 22 grants on genome-wide studies of how epigenetic changes -- chemical modifications to genes that result from diet, aging, stress, or environmental exposures -- define and contribute to specific human diseases and biological processes.

17 Sep 2009

CHUM installs CyberKnife system for effective cancer treatment in Canada

Accuray Incorporated, a global leader in the field of radiosurgery today announced that Centre Hospitalier de l'Universite de Montreal (CHUM) has installed a CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System at Hopital Notre-Dame du CHUM, in Montreal, Canada.

17 Sep 2009

Infections due to handwashing failures cause 100,000 deaths annually

At Bay Medical Center in Panama City, Florida, Compirion Healthcare Solutions, a healthcare consulting firm that was engaged to help improve ED Throughput, Finance and Core Measures compliance, found only 30% of the staff regularly washed their hands between visits with patients.

17 Sep 2009

TOWN HALL Los Angeles hosts panel discussion on H1N1 outbreak preparedness

"Hand Washing, Not Hand-Wringing: Preparing for H1N1" is the subject of a panel discussion hosted by TOWN HALL Los Angeles on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles.

17 Sep 2009

NCPA: Patients will not benefit from new mail order prescription program

When Wal-Mart launched a pilot program for mail order prescriptions in Michigan last May, we highlighted the unintended consequences of steering patients away from using community pharmacies.

17 Sep 2009

Will undocumented immigrants be covered under 'health care' or 'health coverage'?

Contending that President Barack Obama and U.S. Congressman Joe Wilson were both right and both wrong in their much noted confrontation during the President's address to Congress on Wednesday, the Foundation for Health Coverage Education (FHCE), www.coverageforall.org, points out that the issue is with the definition of health coverage versus health care for undocumented immigrants in HR3200, the House's version of healthcare reform legislation.

17 Sep 2009

Blue Mountain Hospital implements OpenVista to improve clinical outcomes

Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open source healthcare IT solutions, today announced the successful implementation of OpenVista, the company's flagship electronic health record (EHR) at the 11-bed Blue Mountain Hospital in Blanding, Utah.

17 Sep 2009

Underlying malignancies can cause rebleeding after negative angiography

Acute non-variceal gastrointestinal bleeding accounts for approximately 20% of emergency room visits and 5% of admissions. Although endoscopy has been used as a first-line treatment option in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding, angiographic intervention can be used as a safe diagnostic and treatment method in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding that is refractory to endoscopic treatment.

17 Sep 2009

Liver transplantation performed in a six-month old infant

Ila and her worried parents were referred to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, home of the busiest pediatric liver transplant team in the nation. The hospital's team performed more liver transplants in 2008 – the most recent reporting period – than any other U.S. children's hospital, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. They also did the largest number of surgeries in infants like Ila, who were younger than one year when they received a transplant.

17 Sep 2009

King's College London and FAPESP sign agreement to strengthen scientific cooperation

King's College London has signed a unique agreement with the Funda--o de Amparo - Pesquisa do Estado de S-o Paulo (FAPESP), the State of S-o Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil. With this agreement King's has become FAPESP's first and only university partner in the UK.

17 Sep 2009

Findings may lead to drugs that destroy TB in dormant stage of lifecycle

Attempts to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) are stymied by the fact that the disease-causing bacteria have a sophisticated mechanism for surviving dormant in infected cells. Now, a team of scientists led by researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College has identified compounds that inhibit that mechanism -- without damaging human cells.

17 Sep 2009