Healthcare News

RSS

Simple ways to reduce risk of lung cancer

More than an estimated 160,000 people in the United States will die from lung cancer this year, making it the country's leading cause of cancer death. According to the National Cancer Institute, it surpassed breast cancer as the number one killer in women back in 1987. It causes more deaths than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined, according to the American Lung Association. Bruce Johnson, MD, the director of the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, sorts out the facts about lung cancer and offers simple ways to reduce risk.

15 Nov 2012

Joint U.N. assessment finds better harvests in DPR Korea but warns undernutrition persists among 2.8M vulnerable people

"There has been an increase in staple food production in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for the second year running, but undernutrition persists for nearly three million people, according to a new United Nations assessment released" Monday, the U.N. News Centre reports.

15 Nov 2012

Female athletes more likely to suffer serious ACL knee injuries than males

Female athletes are far more likely than males to suffer serious ACL knee injuries.

15 Nov 2012

Roundup: Disparity in states' fiscal health; Ark. Medicaid shortfall threatens care; Mich. Blue Cross pushes to become nonprofit

Factors such as growing unfunded pension liabilities and burgeoning fixed costs related to programs like Medicaid are weighing down weaker states, while stronger states are benefiting from improved business conditions and strong employment growth, he said. A closer look at some specific metrics shows this fiscal disparity.

15 Nov 2012

Viewpoints: Voters want Medicare protected in 'grand bargain;' Increases in taxes can't cover the 'fiscal cliff'; Kids' health needs more attention

As the ranking member on the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology, let me simply state the hard truth. To avoid the fiscal cliff and to get our budget deficit and the national debt under control, we need to do three things simultaneously: cut spending, increase revenue and have the courage to put everything on the table in a responsible, bipartisan manner.

15 Nov 2012

Vanessa Kerry discusses Global Health Service Corps in AllAfrica interview

AllAfrica correspondent Cindy Shiner recently interviewed Vanessa Kerry, CEO of the Global Health Service Corps, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene taking place in Atlanta this week.

15 Nov 2012

Poll: Health care not main motivation for voters choosing president

Voters cited the health law as the third most important topic they considered last week -- behind the economy and the candidates' personal characteristics -- according to a new poll.

15 Nov 2012

Yellow fever kills more than 100 people in Darfur; WHO, health ministry to provide immunizations

"More than two million people in Sudan's Darfur region will be vaccinated against a rare yellow fever outbreak suspected of killing 107 people since late September, health officials said on Tuesday," Agence France-Presse/France 24 reports (11/13). In a joint statement, the WHO and the Sudanese Ministry of Health said the mosquito-borne disease has spread throughout the western territory, which "has been plagued by conflict since rebels took up arms in 2003," Reuters notes.

15 Nov 2012

Greece faces return of malaria, other public health issues since 2009 economic crash

The Wall Street Journal examines how "Greece has seen decades of advances in public health rolled back, as a flood of illegal immigrants, a dysfunctional government and budget cuts ravage a once proud health-care system."

15 Nov 2012

Pharmaceutical compounding problems spread under lax regulation

News outlets report that congressional oversight was lacking and the Boston Globe uncovers documents about the company that started the meningitis outbreak.

15 Nov 2012

Triclosan can contribute to increased risk of allergies in children

Triclosan - an antibacterial chemical found in toothpaste and other products - can contribute to an increased risk of allergy development in children. This comes from the Norwegian Environment and Childhood Asthma Study, in which the Norwegian Institute of Public Health is involved. Similar results are reported in the USA.

15 Nov 2012

Obama, congressional leaders stake out positions in 'fiscal cliff' face-off

President Barack Obama and GOP congressional leaders signal what they're looking for in a budget deal to avert the looming "fiscal cliff," offering their respective takes on tax increases, spending cuts and changes to entitlement programs.

15 Nov 2012

Hospitals directed to step up protections for kidney donors

Addressing long-held concerns about whether organ donors have adequate protections, the country's transplant regulators acted late Monday to require that hospitals thoroughly inform living kidney donors of the risks they face, fully evaluate their medical and psychological suitability, and then track their health for two years after donation.

15 Nov 2012

New motivations to serve vegetables to kids

Parents may have some new motivations to serve their kids vegetables. A new study, funded by Pinnacle Foods' Birds Eye brand and published in Public Health Nutrition, found that adding vegetables to the plate led to more positive evaluations of both the main entr-e and the cook. By simply serving vegetables with dinner, participants believed the main course would taste better and thought the server was more thoughtful and attentive.

15 Nov 2012

UTHealth awarded $1.9M AHRQ grant to enhance care in hospital emergency departments

Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have been awarded a four-year, $1.9 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to enhance the care in hospital emergency departments.

15 Nov 2012

Colorado's new element in exchange plan: Certainty

Colorado Public Radio's Eric Whitney, working in partnership with Kaiser Health News and NPR, reports: "Most states - especially those with Republican governors and legislatures - have opted to have the federal government create and run their exchanges, which are supposed to start enrolling customers in October 2013 for policies that kick in January 2014.

15 Nov 2012

Fevers can be helpful as a child battles an illness

For many parents discovering their child has a fever can be unnerving. It's one of the most common reasons parents call their doctor or bring their child in for medical care. Fevers are just a natural part of many illnesses and, in fact, can be helpful as a child battles an illness.

15 Nov 2012

Global health community should save AMFm because it saves lives

The Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria began as a pilot program in 2010 to "provide a 'co-payment' to the manufacturers of [artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs)], thereby allowing commercial wholesalers and private or government health services to purchase the drugs at a fraction of the already low negotiated price," Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel laureate in economic sciences in 1972 and an emeritus professor of economics at Stanford University, writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

15 Nov 2012

Disclosure of PEPFAR data would improve program's efficiency, quality, accountability

The U.S. government, and in particular U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby, the head of PEPFAR, "have a unique opportunity to make [the program's] money stretch farther and do more good, at very little cost to U.S. taxpayers: release the reams of data that PEPFAR and its contractors have already collected, at substantial cost -- perhaps as much as $500 million each year," Mead Over, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in the Center's "Global Health Policy" blog.

15 Nov 2012

As health law's fate becomes more clear, insurers, medical device makers try to stem new taxes

Insurers and medical device makers are planning ad campaigns and intense lobbying to try to stop taxes in the health law from cutting at their bottom lines.

15 Nov 2012

Healthcare News

Simple ways to reduce risk of lung cancer

Joint U.N. assessment finds better harvests in DPR Korea but warns undernutrition persists among 2.8M vulnerable people

Female athletes more likely to suffer serious ACL knee injuries than males

Roundup: Disparity in states' fiscal health; Ark. Medicaid shortfall threatens care; Mich. Blue Cross pushes to become nonprofit

Viewpoints: Voters want Medicare protected in 'grand bargain;' Increases in taxes can't cover the 'fiscal cliff'; Kids' health needs more attention

Vanessa Kerry discusses Global Health Service Corps in AllAfrica interview

Poll: Health care not main motivation for voters choosing president

Yellow fever kills more than 100 people in Darfur; WHO, health ministry to provide immunizations

Greece faces return of malaria, other public health issues since 2009 economic crash

Pharmaceutical compounding problems spread under lax regulation

Triclosan can contribute to increased risk of allergies in children

Obama, congressional leaders stake out positions in 'fiscal cliff' face-off

Hospitals directed to step up protections for kidney donors

New motivations to serve vegetables to kids

UTHealth awarded $1.9M AHRQ grant to enhance care in hospital emergency departments

Colorado's new element in exchange plan: Certainty

Fevers can be helpful as a child battles an illness

Global health community should save AMFm because it saves lives

Disclosure of PEPFAR data would improve program's efficiency, quality, accountability

As health law's fate becomes more clear, insurers, medical device makers try to stem new taxes

Building quality into drug development for safer, faster medicines

How Pulp Fixin Is Turning Paper into High-Performance Sustainable Labware

A new method to measure intracellular water in biological systems

Latest News