Healthcare News

RSS

Care for Asian-American heart attack patients gets better

Care for Asian-American heart attack patients improved between 2003 and 2008, according to a study published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal.

11 Jan 2012

Turku University Hospital selects Ascom Miratel's IP-based Innova Nurse Call System

According to an agreement made with Turku University Hospital (TYKS), Ascom Miratel Oy will deliver the IP-based Innova Nurse Call System to the new Turku University Hospital extension during 2012. The deal consists of equipment to almost 200 patient beds in 24 wards and other care facilities. This order is the single largest in Ascom Miratel Oy's history to date, with a total value exceeding €700,000.

11 Jan 2012

Political cartoon: 'Treatment Plan'

Kaiser Health News provides a fresh perspective on health policy news with "Treatment Plan."

11 Jan 2012

Canadians aren't consuming sufficient fruits and vegetables, Concordia study finds

Adults from 30 to 60 years old, especially those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, aren't consuming the daily recommended levels of fruits and vegetables. Quebecers, however, eat more of nature's produce than their fellow Canadians.

11 Jan 2012

India on verge of recording polio-free year

If India does not record a new polio case through January 13, "produc[ing] 12 straight months of polio-free surveillance data, it will be removed from the list of countries where polio is considered endemic, leaving only the other three," Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, Scientific American reports.

11 Jan 2012

2010 health spending grew slowly

This slowing of health spending brought the rate of growth in line with that of the U.S. economy. The Obama administration pointed to the new figures as evidence that the health law isn't making health care more expensive.

11 Jan 2012

Blog posts respond to legislation enacted in Brazil requiring registration of all pregnancies

The following summarizes two blog posts published in response to Provisionary Measure 557 (PM 557), legislation enacted by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on December 27 that will require all pregnancies to be registered with the government.

11 Jan 2012

Special training for fewer injuries while playing handball

Handball is one of the top four sports, at least as far as the risk of injury is concerned. In particular, the jump shot frequently causes sprained ankles, tears to the ligaments connecting the bones of the foot and the lower leg.

11 Jan 2012

Aid group tracks down likely first case in Haiti's cholera outbreak

"A mentally ill man who bathed in and drank from a contaminated river most likely was the first person to be infected" with cholera in the outbreak that began in Haiti in October 2010, researchers from Partners in Health said in a study published Monday in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports (1/9).

11 Jan 2012

Majority of middle-income Americans are extremely satisfied with Medicare

A vast majority (82 percent) of our nation's middle-income Americans on Medicare say that they are extremely or very satisfied with Medicare's access and quality of healthcare, according to a new study conducted by the Bankers Life and Casualty Company Center for a Secure Retirement.

10 Jan 2012

END7 campaign aims to combat seven major NTDs by 2020

Launched today, the END7 campaign is dedicated to eliminating seven major neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) as a public health threat to poor communities by the end of 2020.

10 Jan 2012

EHR adoption may efficiently improve nursing care, patient safety

With the prodding of new federal legislation, electronic health records (EHRs) are rapidly becoming part of the daily practice of hospital nurses - the frontline providers of care. In the first large study of its kind, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing determined that nurses working with EHRs consistently reported more improvements to nursing care and better health outcomes for patients than nurses working in hospitals without this technology.

10 Jan 2012

Report on the value of 'Google Flu Trends' for emergency departments

Monitoring Internet search traffic about influenza may prove to be a better way for hospital emergency rooms to prepare for a surge in sick patients compared to waiting for outdated government flu case reports. A report on the value of the Internet search tool for emergency departments, studied by a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine over a 21-month period, is published in the January 9 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

10 Jan 2012

'ConTxt' study to evaluate whether cell phone technology can help with weight loss

Cell phones aren't just for talking any more. Surfing the web, storing music and posting to Facebook have all contributed to the near-mandatory use of a cell phone. How about using that cell phone to lose weight? Researchers with Calit2's Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems (CWPHS) and the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, at University of California, San Diego are expanding a previous study aimed at finding out if cell phone technology can help with weight loss.

10 Jan 2012

DOJ lays out health law defense in SCOTUS brief

Just as the Justice Department reiterated its main argument supporting the health law's individual mandate, briefs offering an opposing view were filed by the case's plaintiffs and by 36 Republican senators.

10 Jan 2012

Personalized medicine could offer a valuable tool to help combat the diabetic epidemic

With the trend in healthcare moving toward an era of personalized medicine, there is much anticipation and hope that customized approaches to prevention and treatment based on a person's genetic make-up will result in better health outcomes. Some advances, most notably with prevention and treatment of breast and colon cancer, have been widely heralded, raising questions about the potential for personalized medicine for other common diseases, such as diabetes.

10 Jan 2012

Health IT spending set to grow

With money tight, congressional appropriators rarely insist that agencies spend money. Yet the omnibus spending bill passed Dec. 17 approved $100 million for a joint Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs effort to develop digital medical records - even though they missed deadlines for requesting the money.

10 Jan 2012

VOA News examines maternal mortality in Somalia

"The World Health Organization says Somalia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world," VOA News reports, adding, "In southern Somalia, the situation is grave, and the recent famine has made the health crisis for mothers and infants even worse."

10 Jan 2012

Nigerian leaders sign onto Gates immunization challenge

"Nigeria's 36 Executive Governors and the Federal Capital Territory have signed up to the Nigeria Immunization Challenge launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last year," a Gates Foundation press release states.

10 Jan 2012

Concerns over using ARV therapy as prevention strategy

PSI's "Healthy Lives" blog reviews a recent Science magazine article written by James Shelton of USAID's Bureau of Global Health in which he raises concerns about the use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) as a prevention strategy.

10 Jan 2012