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Study identifies 12 important postoperative complication signs in colorectal surgical patients

Colorectal surgical patients are often discharged from the hospital with vague guidance on how to recognize complications, but researchers at the Michael DeBakey Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, aim to change that scenario.

11 Feb 2013

Shanshi, Tensys Medical enter commercial agreement to distribute T-Line technology

Tensys Medical, Inc., a leader in the development and commercialization of continuous, non-invasive hemodynamic patient monitoring systems, has entered into a commercial agreement with Zhejiang Shanshi Medical Device CO., LTD (Shanshi) for distribution of the company's T-Line technology.

11 Feb 2013

Bishops reject HHS plan for contraception coverage

The Catholic leaders say the compromise doesn't offer enough safeguards for religious institutions, and that they will continue to fight the administration on the mandate.

11 Feb 2013

Optum's LHI receives DoD contract to serve health needs of the U.S. Armed Forces members

Optum's Logistics Health Inc. (LHI) has been awarded a U.S. Department of Defense contract to serve the health needs of members of the U.S. Armed Forces through the Reserve Health Readiness Program.

11 Feb 2013

Bipartisan duo introduces Medicare 'doc fix' bill in House

The effort, by Reps. Schwartz and Heck, would change the system known as the sustainable growth rate for Medicare physician payments.

10 Feb 2013

Trust in markets essential to creating more food-secure world

"Far too often we are seeing national governments overreact to market fluctuations to the extent that they are making pledges about and taking measures toward food self-sufficiency," Emery Koenig, executive vice president and chief risk officer of Cargill, writes in the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' "Global Food For Thought" blog.

10 Feb 2013

Senators offer plan to improve mental health coverage

The bipartisan group's plan would require community behavioral health centers to provide substance abuse treatment and 24-hour crisis care. In return, the centers could bill Medicaid for the services.

10 Feb 2013

India holds national summit on child survival, development

"[M]ore than 200 delegates ranging from policymakers and representatives of development agencies to global health practitioners and civil society members" are gathering in India this week for a national summit on the "Call to Action for Child Survival and Development," IIP Digital reports.

10 Feb 2013

Fighting NTDs has greater effect of empowering women

"As Melinda Gates captured through her blog piece by envisioning the conversation of women's role in the year 2030, I would also like to offer my voice in the spirit of conversation," Mawish Raza, a communications intern with the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), writes in the network's "End the Neglect" blog, adding, "My hope is that by 2030, women are not only given the advantage to circumvent neglected and un-neglected diseases, but that they are able to make better use of their restored health to drive their communities out of poverty and forward into progress."

10 Feb 2013

Examining the closure, revival of the Global Health Council

Writing in the Humanosphere blog, development blogger Tom Murphy discusses the closure in April 2012 of the Global Health Council [GHC] and the recreation of the organization, "with a new board, a slightly new name (Global Health Coalition) and with purportedly a new and more relevant strategy."

10 Feb 2013

Christie tries to make light of his weight but then gets serious

All it took was a late-night, nationally televised bite of a doughnut for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to set off an uncomfortable three-day conversation about his weight. A host of media questions and a warning from a former White House doctor this week represent a small sample of what could follow Mr. Christie both into a second term if he wins re-election in November and on a presidential campaign in 2016, should he choose to pursue one.

10 Feb 2013

House GOP seeks to change Medicare doctor payment formula

The chairmen of the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees want a permanent change to the current system that repeatedly threatens to cut doctor payments unless Congress steps in.

10 Feb 2013

Lawmaker advances bill to create FDA Office of Wireless Health

Congressman Michael Honda (D., Calif.), who has been representing Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives for the past 12 years, recently submitted a bill asking for Congress to create and fund a new office at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which would be called the Office of Wireless Health.

10 Feb 2013

State and federal officials find way to preserve MinnesotaCare

Officials have been working to preserve -- after the federal health law takes effect -- this health insurance program for lower-income residents who lack coverage through their jobs.

10 Feb 2013

Parity delays, payment snafus, frustrate mental health providers

News outlets anticipate the release of rules regarding the types of mental health care insurers must provide under the federal health care law, as well as the payment fallout from new treatment codes.

10 Feb 2013

Northwestern Medicine expert offers tips to battle seasonal affective disorder

Winter is in full force. With short days and less exposure to sunlight, everyone feels less energetic and more people are vulnerable to depression. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), or winter depression, is a mood disorder related to seasonal variations of light. Symptoms start in late fall and oftentimes last until April or early spring. It affects between 10 to 20 percent of Americans, primarily younger adults and women.

10 Feb 2013

Considering mental health care changes in aftermath of shootings

Missouri and Wisconsin officials suggest moves to expand state mental health services while a Georgia Senate panel approves changes in procedures for involuntary commitments to psychiatric care.

10 Feb 2013

WHO-sponsored meeting discusses post-2015 goals for tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) experts gathered in Geneva on Wednesday for a WHO-sponsored two-day meeting "to discuss a consensus on the appropriate post-2015 tuberculosis goals," Nature reports.

10 Feb 2013

HHS turns down Miss. Insurance Commissioner's bid for exchange

Commissioner Mike Chaney wanted to set up a state-based marketplace for insurance to open next year as part of the health overhaul, but federal officials said the Mississippi governor's opposition made it impossible for the exchange to function as required by law.

10 Feb 2013

Chiefs play important role in decreasing maternal mortality in Malawi

If Malawi President Joyce Banda's mission to decrease the country's high maternal mortality rate is to succeed, "it will depend, in part, on her government's ability to harness the country's true power brokers, Malawi's 20,000 village chiefs -- and sensitize them to the dangers of women giving birth with unskilled attendants, while still respecting tribal traditions," author Courtney Martin writes in the New York Times' "Opinionator" blog.

10 Feb 2013