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JAMA highlights Oregon's Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment program

Oregon's groundbreaking Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment program (POLST) is featured in the latest edition of the Journal of The American Medical Association.

4 Jan 2012

CMS delays two anti-fraud projects

Modern Healthcare reports that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has put on hold its initiative targeting fraud related to power wheelchairs and its expansion of the Recovery Audit Contractors. Georgia Health News reports on how health care fraud has taken root in Georgia.

4 Jan 2012

Effective treatment for CI can reduce school-related behavioral problems in children

For children with convergence insufficiency (CI)—who have difficulty focusing on objects close up—effective treatments can help to reduce problems at school, reports a study in the January issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry.

4 Jan 2012

Johns Hopkins Hospital to open new $1.1B patient care building

A new era will begin at the nation's top hospital in April 2012, when The Johns Hopkins Hospital opens its new $1.1 billion patient care building.

4 Jan 2012

States find flexibility with essential benefits

Stateline offers an explanation of how the Obama administration's approach to the health law's essential benefits package will work. In California, a push to extend health coverage to people with preexisting medical conditions has led to more than 6,000 patients gaining insurance. Also, some new health regulations take effect.

4 Jan 2012

IRIN, GlobalPost examine malnutrition in Yemen

IRIN reports that "aid workers hope 'shocking' new malnutrition figures from a survey conducted in western Yemen will help highlight the serious humanitarian situation in the country and prompt donors to act immediately."

4 Jan 2012

PlusNews highlights 10 major HIV headlines of 2011

In a year-end recap of 10 major HIV-related headlines, PlusNews writes, "It's been a roller coaster of a year in HIV and AIDS. AIDS turned 30 in 2011, and with new evidence of the effectiveness of HIV treatment as prevention, experts are increasingly talking about 'the end of AIDS.'

4 Jan 2012

Study: In-hospital mortality rates questioned as measure of quality

Tracking the number of patients who die in the hospital might not be the best way to gauge a hospital's quality, researchers reported on Monday.

4 Jan 2012

GOP plan to reclaim White House will turn Obama's words against him

The Washington Post reports on the Republican battle plan, which will undoubtedly include Obama's past claims about lowering the cost of insurance premiums. The Associated Press reports on how the GOP primary race has yet to "fully test" candidate Mitt Romney's health care record. Also, The Hill reports that the Republican presidential field appears to be "moving to the right" on abortion issues.

4 Jan 2012

Foreign aid to MICs needs 'more sophisticated approach' instead of cuts

"[T]he E.U., the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the World Bank's International Development Association ... want to save money during a fiscal crunch by cutting off aid to middle-income countries (MIC)," Andy Sumner and Amanda Glassman of the Center for Global Development write in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

4 Jan 2012

WHO issues warning about risks of research on human engineered bird flu

"The World Health Organization issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled," Reuters reports.

4 Jan 2012

ASE/EAE issue recommendations on image acquisition using 3DE

For the first time, a joint committee of the European Association for Echocardiography and the American Society of Echocardiography have issued recommendations on image acquisition using three-dimensional echocardiography.

4 Jan 2012

Moving forward: The Medicare debate in 2012

Baby boomers take note: Medicare as your parents have known it is headed for big changes no matter who wins the White House in 2012. You may not like it, but you might have to accept it. Dial down the partisan rhetoric and surprising similarities emerge from competing policy prescriptions by President Barack Obama and leading Republicans such as Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

4 Jan 2012

Big picture: ACO progress report; Evaluating new laws based on job creation

Modern Healthcare takes a look at the 32 medical groups that were named late last year to be the accountable care organization "pioneers" and how their planning is taking shape. Meanwhile, The New York Times examines how job creation has become the buzz word for lobbyists.

4 Jan 2012

India's successful polio vaccination campaign could bring first disease-free year

"In India, a mass vaccination campaign involving more than a million volunteers reduced cases nationally by 94 percent between 2009 and 2010, from 741 to 42, and down to the single case last year," the Guardian reports, adding, "If in India as a whole there are no more confirmed cases before 13 January, the country will have completed its first year without a new victim.

4 Jan 2012

State Department fact sheets examine cholera, food security, health progress in Haiti

The State Department has released a series of fact sheets examining the U.S. government's two-year progress in Haiti. One fact sheet examines government efforts to "lessen the severity of the cholera outbreak" in Haiti.

4 Jan 2012

Medicaid news: Texas to limit dual eligible reimbursements, Wis. to lift cap on long-term care

It may soon become harder for the neediest Texans to receive medical treatment. That's because statewide regulations scheduled to go into effect Sunday would limit reimbursements paid to medical providers for patients covered by both Medicare and Medicaid. The change would impact approximately 333,000 patients, mostly elderly, low-income residents, but also younger patients who are disabled. Slashing the Medicaid co-pay was part of the plan approved by state lawmakers earlier this year to help balance the state's budget.

4 Jan 2012

Global health issues allow for reporting on broad spectrum of challenges, journalists say at seminar

GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog describes a December seminar, titled "Global Health and Story Telling in the Digital Age" and sponsored by GlobalPost and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, at which "journalists discussed challenges they faced in covering global health during a time of shrinking budgets and within an industry struggling to balance hard-hitting coverage with the need to continually update websites and attract readers."

4 Jan 2012

In-your-face advertisements target childhood obesity

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta is hearing strong criticism from some camps for its in-your-face advertising campaign designed to attack Georgia's childhood obesity epidemic. But the pediatric health system stands firmly by its approach, saying the grim advertisements featuring overweight kids are necessary to get families to recognize the widespread public health problem.

4 Jan 2012

Bingo enhances cognitive performance in people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease

Bingo, a popular activity in nursing homes, senior centers and assisted-living facilities, has benefits that extend well beyond socializing. Researchers found high-contrast, large bingo cards boost thinking and playing skills for people with cognitive difficulties and visual perception problems produced by Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD).

4 Jan 2012