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FDA announces final rule for UDI system to identify medical devices

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a final rule for the unique device identification system that, once implemented, will provide a consistent way to identify medical devices.

21 Sep 2013

Alzheimer Society of Canada requests for Canadian Alzheimer's disease and dementia partnership

On the eve of World Alzheimer's Day, the Alzheimer Society of Canada has called on the Federal Government to immediately establish a Canadian Alzheimer's disease and dementia partnership to lead and facilitate the development and implementation of a national dementia strategy.

21 Sep 2013

New research may help in regulation of tobacco products to protect public health

UC San Francisco will receive a five-year, $20 million grant as part of a first-of-its-kind tobacco science regulatory program by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

21 Sep 2013

Personality traits can be correlated to health care consumption, study finds

Psychiatrists and psychologists have long understood that an individual's personality can define how he or she views the world around them, reacts to situations, and interacts with others. It now appears that personality traits can be linked to the frequency with which older adults use expensive health care services.

21 Sep 2013

Equatorial Guinea presents design for malaria vaccine trial

Equatorial Guinea's Ministry of Health and Social Security recently presented a design for a malaria vaccine trial as part of the government's efforts to improve the country's public health.

21 Sep 2013

FDA, NIH awarded $53 million to create 14 Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health today, as part of an on-going interagency partnership, have awarded a total of up to $53 million to fund tobacco-related research in fiscal year 2013 to create 14 Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science.

20 Sep 2013

Regulatory reform needed to protect consumers from caffeine-induced harm

Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive substance and is part of the daily diet of most people, whether they know it or not. Caffeine is being added to more products, including energy drinks and snack foods, with no regulations requiring the amount of caffeine to be included on the product label.

20 Sep 2013

Genetics in Medicine's October 2013 issue details solutions for integrating genomic data into EHR

Genetic tests can now tell us whether we are at increased risk of various cancers, heart or kidney disease, asthma and a number of other conditions.

20 Sep 2013

Scientists aim at protecting adults from virulent strain of avian influenza virus

Scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Center for Vaccine Development are part of nationwide vaccine research aimed at protecting adults from a new and virulent strain of avian (bird) influenza (flu) virus.

20 Sep 2013

Dog food preservative may prevent nerve damage in patients taking chemotherapy

Working with cells in test tubes and in mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that a chemical commonly used as a dog food preservative may prevent the kind of painful nerve damage found in the hands and feet of four out of five cancer patients taking the chemotherapy drug Taxol.

20 Sep 2013

GPs urged to give up independent contractor status, become NHS employees

General practitioners should give up their independent contractor status and become NHS employees. This is the most radical alternative method of primary care funding considered by Professor Azeem Majeed, Head of the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College London, in an editorial published today in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

20 Sep 2013

States hammering out Medicaid decisions on qualifications, expansion

In news about state Medicaid expansions, a hospital association in Missouri explores the state's place nationally and globally in caring for its poor. Elsewhere, Pennsylvania could require those out-of-work and on Medicaid to look for a job, and South Dakota mulls expanding the program.

20 Sep 2013

Mental health questions re-emerge after shooting deaths in Washington

Mental health is again front and center in the gun control debate with some consensus on Capitol Hill that more resources are needed to treat the mentally ill. A new study also examines the relationship between gun ownership and mental illness in several countries.

20 Sep 2013

Scientists are preparing for possible pandemic spread of new bird flu strain

Scientists at Saint Louis University are preparing for the potential pandemic spread of a new bird flu strain that caused severe disease in China last spring, joining researchers from seven other Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to test vaccines to protect against the illness in adults.

20 Sep 2013

Experts discuss ways to improve preoperative surgical site cleaning to minimize risk of infection

Infection is the most common complication of surgery and occurs at a rate of 1-15%. A group of experts from the Surgical Infection Society recently convened to discuss how to optimize the preoperative surgical site cleaning done by the patient to minimize the risk of infection.

20 Sep 2013

State highlights: Penn State ends health plan penalty

After weeks of vociferous objections by faculty members, Pennsylvania State University said on Wednesday it was suspending part of a new employee wellness program that some professors had criticized as coercive and financially punitive (Singer, 9/18).

20 Sep 2013

Uthealth receives funds to establish Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science

The University of Texas School of Public Health has received $20 million in funding from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) today as part of an ongoing interagency partnership.

20 Sep 2013

SuccessEHS's EHR software products certified by Drummond Group under ONC-ACB program

SuccessEHS's SuccessEHS 7.0, as well as SuccessEHS's MediaDent 9.0, have been tested and certified under the Drummond Group's Electronic Health Records Office of the National Coordinator Authorized Certification Body program.

19 Sep 2013

First Edition: September 19, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about future health spending projections from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Actuaries as well as the latest on the upcoming House vote on a stopgap funding measure that would also defund the health law.

19 Sep 2013

Federal judge passes consent order against Shamrock Medical for distributing mislabeled drugs

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that federal judge Algenon L. Marbley of the Southern District of Ohio has approved a consent decree of permanent injunction against Shamrock Medical Solutions Group, LLC, of Lewis Center, Ohio, and four of its corporate officers and employees for continued drug manufacturing and labeling violations that resulted in the distribution of mislabeled drugs.

19 Sep 2013