Healthcare News

RSS

U.N. report shows significant progress toward reaching MDGs, but mixed results in some areas

Significant progress is being made toward reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the 2015 deadline, but the poorest countries are not progressing as quickly and more must be done to improve health and development outcomes in those nations, according to this year's MDG report (.pdf), VOA News reports.

8 Jul 2011

Generics as a way to lower health care costs

As the nation seeks to expand health care coverage to more citizens without adding burdensome costs, researchers from Harvard University, Brigham and Women's Hospital and CVS Caremark reported that preventative health care may be significantly less costly than previously thought, due to expanded use of cost-effective generic medications for the treatment and prevention of chronic disease.

8 Jul 2011

Research roundup: Rural hospitals have poorer quality; Cost-effective migraine relief; Doctors still take Medicare

Quality Of Care And Patient Outcomes In Critical Access Rural Hospitals -- This study looks at the quality of care provided by patterns of care at "critical access hospitals," a federal designation for hospitals that serve rural populations and thus have been granted special incentives under Medicare.

8 Jul 2011

Panel formed by Mondale and Carlson offers plan to end Minnesota shutdown

A political stalemate between Minnesota's Democratic governor and Republican legislators shows little signs of abating after seven days.

8 Jul 2011

More action to fight tobacco use needed worldwide, WHO report says

Laws that require graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging affect more than one billion people in 19 countries, but more needs to be done to cut smoking rates worldwide, the WHO said Thursday in its third report on the global tobacco epidemic, Reuters reports.

8 Jul 2011

Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin establishes MagForce NanoTherm therapy center for treatment of tumors

Nanostart subsidiary MagForce Nanotechnologies AG, a leading medical technology company focusing on nanomedicine in oncology, announced that the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin published the establishment of its NanoTherm therapy center for the treatment of recurrent brain tumors.

8 Jul 2011

Medicaid pricing, volume varies across states

A new study in the July issue of Health Affairs finds significant regional differences in program spending. Researchers suggest understanding these differences could lead to improved quality and efficiency of care.

8 Jul 2011

Guinea including nutrition component for first time in agricultural plan

For the first time, Guinea is including a nutrition component in its agricultural investment strategy, a move that experts "say … stems from an increasing recognition that agriculture must be harnessed to improve nutrition and health," IRIN reports.

8 Jul 2011

Critical principles to preserve patient access and reduce health care spending

"A debt ceiling agreement must be reached in time to avert an unprecedented suspension of funding for the millions of patients who rely on Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health programs," Virginia Hood, MBBS, MPH, FACP, president of the American College of Physicians (ACP) told the president, vice president and Congressional leaders today.

8 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: Debt ceiling & entitlements; Pharmaceutical dilemmas; Bishops 'misunderstand' death with dignity

Democrats have already proposed a 3-1 formula that would allow for $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in new revenue. So we have met our Republican colleagues more than half-way in this painful process. We are even willing to discuss significant savings in Medicare and Medicaid — as long as essential benefits for seniors and the most vulnerable are preserved (Rep. William Lacy Clay, 7/7).

8 Jul 2011

ActiveCare includes medication compliance technology in ActiveHome Monitoring System

ActiveCare, Inc. a leader in senior care technology, today announced the addition of breakthrough technology for medication compliance as part of its comprehensive ActiveHome Monitoring System. According to a study by the Center for Health Transformation, 1 in 4 nursing home admissions is the result of not properly taking your medications.

8 Jul 2011

Donors need to give to fight hunger in East Africa

"[T]he problem is not just assessing the size of the current crisis" of drought and hunger in East Africa, "[i]t is also the fact that the droughts in this region have become an almost annual occurrence," a Guardian editorial states.

8 Jul 2011

Is GOP rhetoric putting IPAB repeal effort at risk?

As Republicans prepare to turn up the heat next week on health care reform's controversial independent Medicare advisory board, some provider groups are worried that the GOP's harsh rhetoric could ruin the chances that Democrats will help the repeal effort.

8 Jul 2011

Roundup: Ineffective malpractice suits; Medicare hospital funding error; D.C. abortion report

A study published today in the journal Health Affairs looked at the outcomes of 3,695 malpractice claims filed in Massachusetts courts against hospitals, doctors, and other medical providers between 2006 and 2010.

8 Jul 2011

Negotiators set sights on 'grand debt deal'

At stake are trillions of dollars in government spending and taxes. One of the proposals in play is an increase in payments by upper-income seniors for Medicare. Sweeping reductions in domestic spending are also on the table. After a Thursday meeting, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders agreed to reconvene Sunday.

8 Jul 2011

Congress should take the lead in foreign aid reform

Citing PEPFAR, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the President's Malaria Initiative as pieces of the "remarkable success story" of U.S. foreign aid over the past decade, former Congress member and Ambassador to Tanzania Mark Green writes in a post on the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network's "ModernizeAid" blog.

8 Jul 2011

Greater autonomy for hospitals may not enhance productivity and performance

Giving hospitals greater autonomy may not lead to enhanced productivity and performance, according to new research from the University of York.

8 Jul 2011

Calif. hospital system pays $865,500 to settle celebrity allegations of privacy breaches

The complaints were generated between 2005 to 2009, a time during which hospital employees were, in various instances, caught and fired for sneaking looks at celebrity medical records.

8 Jul 2011

Democrats fear political pain from entitlement cuts

Though some Democrats view the Obama's strategy to reach a budget deal as a positive development, others are making pleas to take Medicare and Social Security cuts off of the bargaining table — fearing that changes to these programs would make them vulnerable in the upcoming election cycle.

8 Jul 2011

U.N. set to highlight challenges of growing global population

As the United Nations prepares to recognize World Population Day on July 11, with the global population is expected to reach seven billion by October, U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin told Inter Press Service that "seven billion represents a challenge, an opportunity and a call to action."

8 Jul 2011