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Nordic project to coordinate initiatives to combat dramatic increase in tick-borne diseases

Last year, more than 40,000 people in Western Scandinavia may have been affected by infections caused by ticks. SEK 17 million has now been invested in a joint Nordic project to coordinate initiatives to combat the dramatic increase in tick-borne diseases.

7 Dec 2012

Weekly telephone contact with nurses reduces hospital re-admissions for high-risk patients

Weekly telephone contact with a nurse substantially reduced hospital re-admissions for high-risk patients, according to results of a University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) study.

7 Dec 2012

Neonaticides have fallen significantly over the last 10 years in Austria

Since 2002, the number of new-born babies who have suffered a violent death has more than halved in Austria. This encouraging development is due to the introduction of the Anonymous Birth scheme in 2001. Scientists at the MedUni Vienna have now been able to provide proof of the scheme's effectiveness.

7 Dec 2012

University of Michigan to create National Kidney Disease Registry

The University of Michigan Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center will create a National Kidney Disease Registry to monitor kidney disease among America's veterans.

7 Dec 2012

Roundup: Fla. judge rules legislature must decide on prison care privatization; Skepticism over Ore. medical liability reform proposal

A Tallahassee judge ruled Tuesday that a legislative committee did not have the authority to approve a contract regarding prison health care services. According to Businessweek, the plan would privatize health care services in three of Florida's four prison system regions. Circuit Judge John Cooper, who made the decision, said the policy changes must be approved by the full Legislature, rather than just a panel of 14 select legislators.

6 Dec 2012

Viewpoints: Lame duck Congress shouldn't take on entitlement changes; New legal challenge to health law; 'Irrational vote' on disability pact

What we need in order to address this fiscal abyss is a Grand Bargain that addresses the two main drivers of our structural deficits: unsustainable social insurance programs, especially health care programs, and a complex, unfair, uncompetitive and inadequate tax system. But a lame duck Congress cannot and should not tackle comprehensive tax and social insurance reforms.

6 Dec 2012

Political cartoon: '3-2-1 Liftoff?'

Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with '3-2-1 Liftoff?' By Lisa Benson.

6 Dec 2012

UC San Diego Health System receives Comprehensive Stroke Center designation

UC San Diego Medical Center-Hillcrest is one of five facilities in the country, and the only center in San Diego County, to be recognized as one of the first Comprehensive Stroke Centers (CSC), the newest level of certification for advanced stroke care awarded by The Joint Commission.

6 Dec 2012

First Edition: December 6, 2012

Today's headlines include a report that some in the GOP are urging lawmakers to support the idea of trading tax breaks for changes in safety-net programs.

6 Dec 2012

Few new doctors choose primary care

Less than a quarter of new doctors are choosing primary care as their specialty, even after finishing residency programs focused on internal medicine, a new study reports.

6 Dec 2012

Examining the definition of neglected diseases

"There's no generally accepted definition" for what characterizes a neglected disease, Kaitlin Christenson, coalition director for the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), writes in the Results for Development Institute's "Center for Global Health R&D Policy Assessment" blog.

6 Dec 2012

North Shore-LIJ, VA open Unified Behavioral Health Center for Military Veterans and Their Families

Representatives from the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the North Shore-LIJ Health System and local veterans today celebrated the opening of the Unified Behavioral Health Center for Military Veterans and Their Families, a first-of-its-kind facility designed to help military families cope with the emotional burdens veterans frequently face after returning home from combat.

6 Dec 2012

Health stocks embraced amid market uncertainty

The Wall Street Journal reports that following President Barack Obama's re-election, health stocks are viewed as a port in the storm. Other news outlets explore how the markets have remained stable during the 'fiscal cliff' negotiations as investors count on an eleventh-hour deal.

6 Dec 2012

Scientific exploration important on earth, in space

In the New York Times' "Scientist At Work" blog, Alexander Kumar, a physician and researcher at Concordia Station in Antarctica, examines the question of "why humans should venture out to other planets, and perhaps in the process create new problems, when we have so many problems on our own planet," including HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and other "largely preventable and treatable" conditions.

6 Dec 2012

UnitedHealth report examines how doctors get paid

A new report from UnitedHealth Group Inc. takes aim at the way U.S. doctors get paid, saying the nation could save up to $1 trillion over the next decade in health care costs if it were possible to "unleash the potential of payment reform initiatives."

6 Dec 2012

WHO establishes global monitoring framework for NCDs

"The World Health Organization (WHO) established a global monitoring framework for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) at a Geneva meeting on November 9, 2012 -- a little over a year after the U.N. General Assembly adopted a political declaration on NCDs," Management Sciences for Health's "Global Health Impact" blog reports, noting Ambassador Betty King, permanent representative of the U.S. to the U.N. and other international organizations in Geneva, announced the framework in November.

6 Dec 2012

Alcoholics Anonymous helps men and women maintain sobriety in different ways

A new study finds differences in the ways that participation in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) helps men and women maintain sobriety. Two Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators found that, while many factors are helpful to all AA participants, some were stronger in men and some in women.

6 Dec 2012

PEPFAR to buy additional 150 rapid TB testing devices

PEPFAR will purchase up to 150 rapid tuberculosis (TB) Xpert testing devices and cartridges to test about 450,000 people for TB, "addressing a need to improve diagnoses of drug-resistant strains of disease, and to identify the disease in HIV-positive people in sub-Saharan Africa and Myanmar, the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator announced" Tuesday, the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports.

6 Dec 2012

CINJ urologic oncology chief completes 1,000th robotic prostatectomy at RWJUH

Marking a major milestone in what has become a fast-growing standard of care in prostate cancer surgery, the chief of urologic oncology at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey has completed his 1,000th robotic prostatectomy at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), the Flagship Hospital of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, which is a Center of Excellence of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

6 Dec 2012

Report examines partnership between PEPFAR, Botswana

This report from the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), titled "Competing Pressures for U.S. PEPFAR In Botswana: Rising Ambitions, Declining Resources," examines how the "partnership will be tested as the United States and Botswana negotiate a complex, multiyear handoff of PEPFAR-supported HIV/AIDS activities and as U.S. financial assistance is reduced," the report summary states.

6 Dec 2012