Healthcare News

RSS

AHF: U.S. defends Obama no-show at AIDS conference

On the heels of a White House defense of President Barack Obama's decision to skip the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. (Agence France-Presse: "US defends Obama no-show at AIDS Conference," By Kerry Sheridan, July 18, 2012) AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) released a TV ad featuring Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa warning of the consequences of a "global abandonment of AIDS."

19 Jul 2012

AOA honors Medical College of Georgia student with Kuckein Fellowship

A student at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University is among 47 recipients of the 2012 Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship from the national medical honor society Alpha Omega Alpha.

19 Jul 2012

USA Today examines recent HIV breakthroughs

USA Today examines several scientific breakthroughs that researchers say "could be key to reducing new HIV infections." "Doctors are hopeful not because of a single discovery, but because of a string of breakthroughs over the past two or three years, says Diane Havlir, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco," the news service writes.

19 Jul 2012

Elsevier introduces Respiratory Medicine Case Reports journal

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and solutions, is pleased to announce the launch of Respiratory Medicine Case Reports, a new online open access journal on general respiratory medicine that is dedicated to publishing case reports.

19 Jul 2012

PATH Blog highlights efforts to reduce HIV in DRC

The PATH Blog reports on the organization's efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) "to reduce transmission of HIV, deliver integrated care and services for people affected by HIV/AIDS, and build up the country's health system to expand and improve services."

19 Jul 2012

U.S. faces problems tracking cadaver tissue donation

In the United States, almost 1.5 million medical products are used each year for surgeries made with tissue taken from cadavers. For tissue to be safe, the donor must be carefully screened.

19 Jul 2012

A quarter of patients admitted to Scottish ICUs have alcohol problems

A quarter of patients admitted to Scottish intensive care units have alcohol problems and the majority of those have chronic alcohol disease, with particular problems among men and younger people.

19 Jul 2012

State officials stake out positions on implementing health law

Virginia's Republican attorney general, the first to file suit against the health law, takes a hardline position against expanding Medicaid, while Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican, signals his state will pass on setting up a state-based health exchange. In Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, issues an executive order to authorize such an exchange.

19 Jul 2012

Opponents see possible avenues to send health law back to court

But in related news, a federal judge in Nebraska rejected a suit filed by seven states to block the measure's contraception coverage mandate, saying the states did not have standing to file it because they failed to prove they would suffer "immediate harm."

19 Jul 2012

Adolescents and young adult cancer patients more likely to report unmet need

A cancer diagnosis for adolescents and young adults can be especially challenging, and new research shows the social, psychological and informational support these patients need might be going unmet.

19 Jul 2012

Better methods needed to diagnose and treat HIV, TB in children

Jennifer Furin, an infectious diseases physician and medical anthropologist who specializes in the management of tuberculosis (TB) and HIV in resource-poor settings, writes in a post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog that "when it comes to the great advancements made in global HIV and TB care, children are being left behind."

19 Jul 2012

Geographic adjustments not optimal tools to tackle larger national policy goals

Changing the way that Medicare payments are adjusted to account for regional variations in the cost of providing care as recommended by a previous report from the Institute of Medicine would result in payment increases for some hospitals and practitioners and decreases for others, concludes the Phase II report from the IOM study.

19 Jul 2012

Escalating Miss. abortion fight could be blueprint for similar challenges

State health inspectors inspect Mississippi's only abortion clinic -- the first step towards shutting it down-- while a judge considers whether to let the law stand. Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists hone in on other states with single abortion providers to see if they can use similar approaches to shut them down, Politico Pro reports.

19 Jul 2012

Targets reached in Haiti's pilot cholera vaccination program, NPR reports

NPR's "Shots" blog reports on the results of a "high-visibility pilot project to vaccinate 100,000 Haitians against cholera." The blog writes, "Almost 90 percent of the target population -- half in Port-au-Prince and the other half in a remote rural area -- got fully protected against cholera, meaning they got two doses of the oral vaccine."

19 Jul 2012

Africa's new partnership for sustainable health development 'makes sense'

With Africa's "emerging position in the global order, ... astute African leaders are striving to ensure that this realignment delivers a new paradigm of partnership for sustainable health development -- a partnership that is led by Africa, for Africans, through African-sourced solutions," UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe writes in a Huffington Post "Impact Blog" opinion piece.

19 Jul 2012

Dementia patients allowed to live at home thanks to new research program

A Johns Hopkins research program that brought resources and counselors to elderly Baltimore residents with memory disorders such as dementia significantly increased the chance they could continue to live successfully at home, a preference for most of them.

19 Jul 2012

States opting-out of health law's Medicaid expansion likely to see downside

After several state officials announced their intention to reject the expansion -- and the federal funds that come with it -- news outlets report on possible implications, including costs to county taxpayers, businesses and people who would go without health benefits.

19 Jul 2012

IOM: Paying providers more in some parts of county won't solve access problems

In a new report, the Institute of Medicine concludes that raising Medicare reimbursements for some areas of the country will not necessarily address the physician shortage.

19 Jul 2012

House GOP advances Labor-HHS appropriations bill that blocks health law funding

The proposed spending bill includes language preventing the use of federal dollars to "implement, administer or further" the Affordable Care Act. A number of other programs and agencies -- including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality -- are targeted for termination.

19 Jul 2012

Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht to establish Virtual Institute

In collaboration with the university hospitals of Hamburg, Hannover and Graz, as well as further partners, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht will establish a Virtual Institute, whose focus will be set on degradable magnesium implants. One aim of the research association coordinated from Geesthacht is to develop first prototypes of orthopedic implants.

19 Jul 2012