Healthcare News

RSS

Viewpoints: Censoring flu research; Assailing Komen's move to cut Planned Parenthood funding

In December, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity made an unprecedented request: it asked the editors of the journals Nature and Science not to publish certain details in two papers describing experiments in which scientists created a highly transmissible form of the deadly H5N1 influenza virus. ... Such caution, though well intentioned, is misplaced.

3 Feb 2012

CNA/NNU announce support for Millionaires Tax of 2012 initiative

With ongoing cuts to healthcare, education, and other basic services, and greater national income disparity than during the Depression, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United today announced its support for the Millionaires Tax of 2012 initiative.

3 Feb 2012

Medicaid managed care takes hold in Louisiana; Florida report notes problems in longer waits for long-term care help

The first-stage of Gov. Jindal's Medicaid restructing begins today. In Florida, the legislative report casts doubt on some efforts there to revamp the system. Meanwhile, Illinois' governor is urging changes to Medicaid to help fix the state's budget.

3 Feb 2012

Media outlets examine Global Fund's future as it enters second decade

The Guardian examines the future of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as it enters its second decade, writing, "Despite its staggering successes -- including helping put 3.3 million people on AIDS treatment, 8.6 million on anti-tuberculosis treatment and providing 230 million insecticide-treated nets for the prevention of malaria -- the fund's recent troubles had threatened to overshadow its accomplishments as it prepared to mark a decade as the world's main financier of programs to fight these three global epidemics."

3 Feb 2012

Uproar follows Komen-Planned Parenthood rift

Anti-abortion activists applaud the move, but many other women's health advocates are angered the well-known breast cancer advocacy group has opted against helping another prominent women's health organization.

3 Feb 2012

PLoS editorial examines inequities in global disease burden

In this PLoS Medicine editorial, the editors review progress toward the journal's goal of reflecting and addressing inequity in the burden of ill-health around the world as part of the Global Burden of Disease project -- a "comprehensive work studying the burden of ill-health and death resulting from specific conditions, injuries, and risk factors," a PLoS press release writes.

3 Feb 2012

CSIS report examines changing role of private sector in global health

This report, published by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) on Tuesday and titled "The Private-Sector Role in Public Health," reflects on an evolution in the roles and responsibilities of business in global health over the recent decades.

3 Feb 2012

Employing freedom-restraining measures correctly can prevent fatal consequences

Being confined to bed can have fatal consequences. Incorrect fastening of restraints and inadequate monitoring led to the death of 19 people in care. Andrea M. Berzianovich and her colleagues, forensic medicine specialists from Munich and Vienna, investigated these fatalities in patients subjected to freedom-restraining measures.

3 Feb 2012

Fallout continues over Obama administration birth-control coverage rule

President Barack Obama's decision on this issue may offer insights into his approach to policy making. Meanwhile, kudos and criticism come from different sides of the issue.

3 Feb 2012

VA purchase of $1.2 billion in pharmaceutics termed a 'team failure'

These comments came during a Wednesday House Veterans Affairs Committee Hearing. Meanwhile, in other news related to veterans' health, USA Today reports that the return of combat troops is driving a medical-care backlog.

3 Feb 2012

GE Healthcare introduces configurable patient portal, Centricity Patient Online 13

In response to customer demand for a better way to interact with patients in an increasingly self-service climate, GE Healthcare today introduced Centricity Patient Online 13. Centricity Patient Online is a flexible, scalable, and highly configurable patient portal designed for large healthcare organizations.

3 Feb 2012

Capitol Hill briefing examines PEPFAR work

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog describes a Capitol Hill briefing that was held Wednesday "to discuss the various evidence-based approaches to prevent HIV infection that the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program is implementing on the ground in the countries hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic."

3 Feb 2012

Home-based dialysis treatments appear to decline in developed countries

Home-based dialysis treatments are on the rise in both the developing and developed worlds, but developed countries appear to be turning to them less often, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology.

3 Feb 2012

Cedars-Sinai experts to present research updates at International Stroke Conference

Stroke experts from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center will present research updates at the International Stroke Conference of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Feb. 1 through Feb. 3 in New Orleans.

3 Feb 2012

State roundup: Iowa Senate provides $5M for mental health; UMass health to cut 6% of workforce; Judge considers making Wash. pharmacies sell Plan B

The bill also allocates $5 million more from what is known as the Mental Health Risk Pool. The pool was created about a decade ago to keep counties with financial shortfalls from denying care to people with mental disorders or retardation. Linn County, for example, will receive $1.2 million of the extra money.

3 Feb 2012

Insurance news: Sen. Feinstein supports state review of rate increases; Anthem plans in Colo. and Conn. to pay extra for coordinated care

Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced she is supporting a ballot measure to give California regulators the power to approve health insurance rates. In other news, Blue Shield in California says it will cover an autism behavioral therapy and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Colorado and Connecticut announce plans to pay doctors for coordinating care.

3 Feb 2012

CSIS report examines protection of health care in armed, civil conflict

This report from the Center for Strategic & International Studies' Global Health Policy Center, titled "Protection of Health Care in Armed and Civil Conflict," examines how "action [last year] at the U.N. Security Council, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Department of State, combined with a new campaign by the International Committee of the Red Cross and civil society mobilization, led to potential breakthroughs in three key dimensions of protection -- documentation, prevention, and accountability."

3 Feb 2012

Aging America creates demand for health professionals, strategies to meet it emerge

News outlets report on efforts to meet the nation's demand for health professionals -- whether in rural areas or in primary care specialties.

3 Feb 2012

Websites advertising statins for sale contain poor levels of safety information

A new study published in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety reveals that internet sites selling prescription statins directly to consumers are widespread, and that most websites advertising statins for sale to the general public contain very poor levels of information relevant to safe use of the medicine and side effects.

3 Feb 2012

HHS essential benefits 'bulletin' draws tide of comments

As the official window of time allowed for groups to react to the Department of Health and Human Services essential benefits proposal closed, a variety of objections, concerns and common themes became clear.

3 Feb 2012