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Financially burdened patients more likely to die after coronary revascularization

Heart patients who had angioplasty or bypass surgery and felt burdened by medical costs were more than twice as likely to die within a year of their procedure as patients who didn’t have trouble paying for healthcare, according to a study presented today at the American Heart Association’s 5th annual Scientific Forum on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke.

19 May 2004

Higher volume may not guarantee higher quality angioplasty and stenting

"Practice makes perfect" seems logical, but how much practice remains uncertain, and current health care quality guidelines may be set too high. It may be time to reexamine the standard recommending hospitals perform at least 400 angioplasty and stent procedures per year, according to a new study in the May 19, 2004 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

19 May 2004

Canadian Statement to the World Health Assembly focuses on AIDS

The WHO's leadership is particularly important in the fight to combat HIV/AIDS. Last week, Canada bolstered its financial commitment to this effort with contributions of $100 million for WHO's '3 by 5 initiative', and $70 million to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Canada and Canadians are proud to take these actions against HIV/AIDS.

19 May 2004

Dark chocolate and cocoa may help arterial stiffness

“This is the first study to investigate whether chocolate has any favorable effects on cardiovascular function in healthy subjects,” says Charalambos Vlachopoulos, MD, of the Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece. “We found dark chocolate improves endothelial function and decreases arterial stiffness in healthy young adults.”

19 May 2004

Regional review boards improve liver transplant allocation

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) currently utilizes scores based on the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) or Pediatric End-Stage Liver Disease (PELD) to prioritize patients waiting for liver transplants.

17 May 2004

The federal government should expand its role in the financing of HIV/AIDS treatment for low-income Americans

The federal government should expand its role in the financing of HIV/AIDS treatment for low-income Americans to ensure that the thousands of HIV-infected people currently not receiving care through existing programs gain access to the services they need, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

16 May 2004

Largest annual rise of birth rates in Britain since 1979

There were 621,469 live births in England and Wales in 2003 - an increase of 4.3 per cent on 2002, when there were 596,122.

14 May 2004

Screening for liver diseases benefits outweigh costs for some, but not all, conditions

Screening programs for liver diseases can detect asymptomatic conditions which might have better outcomes if diagnosed and treated earlier.

14 May 2004

Should drug users and their families be trained in basic resuscitation methods?

Should drug users and their families be trained in basic resuscitation methods, and be allowed to administer interim emergency naloxone to prevent overdose deaths whilst awaiting emergency medical help? If so why are the drug regulators so resistant to implementing these obvious harm reduction measures?

14 May 2004

Americans spend more on health care but feel worse

Americans spend twice as much on health care as their European and Canadian counterparts, yet are more likely to rate their own quality of health as poor, says a new report, “Spending more, feeling worse: medical care expenditures and self-rated health,” forthcoming in the June 2004 edition of the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

14 May 2004

People with malaria who are too ill to take oral medication can benefit from rectal artesunate as initial treatment

People with moderate to severe malaria who are too ill to take oral medication can benefit from a single dose of rectal artesunate as initial treatment, conclude authors of a study in this week's issue of THE LANCET.

14 May 2004

Minority women are disproportionately impacted by the autoimmune disease lupus

There is an urgent need for more education and research to address the fact that minority women are disproportionately impacted by the autoimmune disease lupus

14 May 2004

What's the fourth biggest killer in America? Over 51% of Americans don't know either

More than half of Americans (51 percent) have never even heard of a disease that is the fourth leading killer in this country, according to results of a nationwide survey released today by the National Women’s Health Resource Center (NWHRC).

11 May 2004

Australia's aged population is increasing faster than the government realises

Forecasting expert Professor Rob Hyndman, from the Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics, said the number of elderly people was increasing faster than official estimates and warned that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) was underestimating the future number of people aged over 85.

10 May 2004

Research finds feeding ewes well impacts on future generations

Research that has found a two-fold difference in the amount of epithelial tissue in the mammary glands of foetal lambs whose dams were well fed throughout pregnancy compared to dams fed at maintenance levels could have important implications for sheep farm management in New Zealand – and perhaps human nutrition.

10 May 2004

Measurable improvements in productivity throughout the NHS

NHS Chief Executive, Sir Nigel Crisp today reported that sustained improvements to services for patients were being accelerated, with measurable improvements in productivity throughout the NHS.

8 May 2004

Burundi population deprived of healthcare

Since February 2002, nearly five million Burundians out of a total population of 6.9 million have had to cover the costs of their medical care. The government, which devotes the great majority of its budget to its war effort, intervenes only for salaries of medical personnel and financing of infrastructures.

8 May 2004

Disease control strategies in Africa could help to halve deaths from malaria by 2010

Linking malaria programmes to other disease control strategies in Africa could help to halve deaths from malaria by 2010, say researchers in this week's BMJ.

6 May 2004

Afro-Americans with high blood pressure have double the risk of enlarged heart

American blacks with high blood pressure have nearly double the risk for left ventricular hypertrophy (enlarged heart) compared to hypertensive whites, researchers report in today’s rapid access issue of Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

6 May 2004

Despite spending more for health care, Americans do not have the best medical care in the world

Despite spending more for health care, Americans do not have the best medical care in the world, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions.

6 May 2004