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Heart disease awareness still lags in minorities and younger women

The number of women aware that heart disease is the leading cause of death has nearly doubled in the last 15 years, but that knowledge still lags in minorities and younger women, according to a new study in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

21 Feb 2013

Younger parents more likely to say online scores for physicians are very important

Numerous websites are available to rate just about any service or product: restaurant food, hotel service and even a pediatrician's care. However, a new poll from the University of Michigan shows that only 25 percent of parents say they consider doctor rating websites very important in their search for a child's physician.

21 Feb 2013

Eliminating insurance co-payments can improve medication adherence and management of diabetes

Reducing financial barriers to medication access—a strategy known as value-based insurance design (VBID)—can improve medication adherence and management of chronic diseases such as diabetes.

21 Feb 2013

Bariatric surgery does not lower overall health care costs linked with obesity

Bariatric surgery is a well-documented treatment for obesity that leads to considerable weight loss and health improvement, but is the surgery successful in the long run in reducing costs associated with medical care for obesity? A team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine recently undertook a multi-year analysis of health insurance claims data to examine this question and found that although the procedure's success rate is well documented, it does not have a similar impact on health care costs.

21 Feb 2013

Sixth death from novel coronavirus recorded in Britain

"A British man infected with a new virus from the same family as SARS has died, health officials said on Tuesday, bringing the worldwide death toll from the previously unknown disease to six," Reuters reports.

21 Feb 2013

Administration sets new rule on essential health benefits

The Obama administration has released the final rule on essential health benefits, which sets the parameters for the types of benefits that must be offered by insurers starting in 2014.

21 Feb 2013

'Cap-and-trade system' proposal for global health funding

In a PLoS Medicine "Policy Forum" article, Luis Carrasco, Richard Coker, and Alex Cook of the National University of Singapore propose "a cap-and-trade system" for global health funding that is based on "global carbon permit markets to mitigate climate change."

21 Feb 2013

Opinion pieces address Save the Children breastfeeding report

Save the Children on Monday released a report examining "the four major barriers that prevent mothers from breastfeeding" -- community and cultural pressures, the shortage of health workers, a lack of maternity legislation, and inappropriate promotion of breast-milk substitutes."

21 Feb 2013

Tips to help reduce dry eyes

Some of the last days of winter can be among the worst for your eyes. Winter may be slowly giving way to spring, but the remaining cold days of the season can cause plenty of trouble for the eyes—trouble that is largely avoidable, says a Vanderbilt Eye Institute ophthalmologist.

21 Feb 2013

Reviewing progress on inclusion of NCDs in development goals

In a post in the BMJ Group Blogs, Katy Cooper, senior project manager at C3 Collaborating for Health, describes "what is happening around the global framework on non-communicable diseases, and how NCDs link into discussions on the successors to the Millennium Development Goals (due to expire in 2015) and the proposed new set of Sustainable Development Goals (as proposed at the Rio+20 conference in 2012)."

21 Feb 2013

Antipsychotic drug dispensing on the rise among older people

A study by Queen's University Belfast has found that the dispensing of psychotropic drugs to older people in Northern Ireland increases on entry to care homes.

21 Feb 2013

States continue mulling Medicaid expansion's costs and benefits

After conducting a review of the two choices California officials are considering for optional Medi-Cal expansion, the state Legislative Analyst's Office yesterday strongly recommended the state-based option, rather than a county-based plan.

21 Feb 2013

Supreme Court gives FTC more power to police hospital mergers

The decision is a win for the federal government as it seeks to monitor the trend toward consolidations around the country.

21 Feb 2013

Blog examines potential impact of sequestration on global health

Noting "several federal agencies released new details about the impact of sequestration on their budgets and programs," the Global Health Technologies Coalition's Communications Officer Kim Lufkin writes in the group's "Breakthroughs" blog.

21 Feb 2013

Pa., Wis. governors face scrutiny, decisions on Medicaid programs

Governors in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are facing questions from their legislatures over plans to expand or limit Medicaid enrollment.

21 Feb 2013

Calif. insurance official pans rate map proposal, warns of 20% hikes

California's insurance commissioner says that residents in some areas of the state could see premiums rise 20 percent if a proposal in the state legislature to split California into six insurance rates zones is approved. He urges an 18-region plan.

21 Feb 2013

Simple interventions could reduce delirium and improve patient perceptions about sleep quality

A hospital is not the best place to get a good night's sleep, especially in a noisy intensive care unit. It's a cause for concern because studies have shown that a lack of sleep can cause patients to experience delirium-an altered mental state that may delay their recovery and lead to short and long-term confusion and memory problems.

21 Feb 2013

Proposals, partisan rhetoric fly in countdown to March 1 spending cuts

News outlets report how spending reductions will impact health care programs. Meanwhile, in hopes of creating momentum toward a compromise, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles on Tuesday unveiled a $2.4 trillion proposal that includes $600 billion in spending reductions to health-care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

21 Feb 2013

Progress on reducing maternal mortality in Nigeria requires cooperation

Referencing the phrase "impatient optimists," coined by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Aminu Magashi, an adviser for the USAID-funded Targeted States High Impact Project, writes in Nigeria's Daily Trust, "Although in many developing countries, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 of improving maternal health by 2015 will not be achieved, we should all be optimistic and impatient to continue doing what we can to reduce the burden of maternal death which will positively reduce the burden of newborn and child mortality."

21 Feb 2013

Researchers determine normative data for hopping or running

Motor development in children under five years of age can now be tested reliably: Together with colleagues from Lausanne, researchers from the University Children's Hospital Zurich and the University of Zurich have determined normative data for different exercises such as hopping or running. This enables parents and experts to gage the motor skills of young children for the first time objectively and thus identify abnormalities at an early stage.

21 Feb 2013