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Community Medical Center to merge and integrate with Geisinger Health System

Geisinger Health System (GHS) and Community Medical Center (CMC) in Scranton announced today the signing of a definitive, comprehensive agreement to fully merge and integrate CMC and all of its entities into Geisinger Health System. Finalization of this arrangement is pending regulatory approval.

20 Jul 2011

FDA seeks input on proposed oversight approach for mobile medical apps

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced it is seeking input on its proposed oversight approach for certain mobile applications specific to medicine or health care called mobile medical applications that are designed for use on smartphones and other mobile computing devices.

20 Jul 2011

Papua New Guinea government stepping down as Global Fund grant principal recipient

Following an audit last year by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that found Papua New Guinea's National Department of Health (NDOH) "had not complied with grant guidelines and some $7 million had been misdirected," the government is stepping down as the principal recipient (PR) of Global Fund grants in order to "improve its response," IRIN reports.

20 Jul 2011

Raw eggs are not safe for consumption under any circumstances

A flurry of Internet sites are touting raw egg drinks or shakes as "primal and powerful," with others suggesting uncooked eggs be blended with vanilla or avocado for a tasty, healthy snack and insisting that the connection between raw eggs and salmonella is a myth.

20 Jul 2011

GAVI begins rotavirus immunization campaign

KPLU's "Humanosphere" blog describes the rollout on Monday of a rotavirus immunization campaign sponsored by the GAVI Alliance "that aims to reach millions of vulnerable children in 40 low- or middle-income countries."

20 Jul 2011

State roundup: Maine, Minn. GOP want insurance changes

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) told an enthusiastic crowd at the Heritage Foundation on Monday that his Republican administration thinks "taking off the shackles" from insurers is the way to keep healthcare costs low for rural residents.

20 Jul 2011

Tips for preventing heat-related illness

With "feels-like" temperatures approaching or exceeding 100 degrees forecast for parts of Pennsylvania this week, the Department of Health is reminding all Pennsylvanians of important steps they can take to protect their health.

20 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: Suggestions for reducing Medicare spending; Medicaid cuts hurt; personal health responsibility

Over the past months, Republicans enjoyed enormous advantages. Opinion polls showed that voters are eager to reduce the federal debt, and they want to do it mostly but not entirely through spending cuts. There was a Democratic president eager to move to the center. He floated certain ideas that would be normally unheard of from a Democrat.

20 Jul 2011

Surgeons' behavior in operating room affects patient outcomes, healthcare costs

A surgeon's behavior in the operating room affects patient outcomes, healthcare costs, medical errors and patient- and staff-satisfaction, says a commentary in the July issue of Archives of Surgery.

19 Jul 2011

First Edition: July 19, 2011

Kaiser Health News staff writer Christopher Weaver reports: "New consumer-controlled health insurance plans could get seed money from the government to increase competition - and maybe cut prices -- under new rules announced Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services".

19 Jul 2011

Study: Married people seek medical care sooner for chest pain

Men who are married or in common-law relationships seek medical care sooner for heart attacks compared with single, divorced or widowed men, found a new study in CMAJ.

19 Jul 2011

Family members, dementia patients can benefit from adult day care services

Adult day care services significantly reduce the stress levels of family caregivers of older adults with dementia, according to a team of Penn State and Virginia Tech researchers.

19 Jul 2011

Medical Office Compliance Toolkit for physician practices

AAPC Physician Services recently announced its Medical Office Compliance Toolkit to help busy medical practices simplify adherence to increasingly complicated compliance requirements.

19 Jul 2011

First comprehensive European patient education programme for women with HIV

"SHE" - Strong, HIV Positive, Empowered Women - the first comprehensive European patient education programme to address the growing challenges faced by women living with HIV, was launched at the 6th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Rome, Italy.

19 Jul 2011

'Global Leap for Life 2011' gives people chance to raise money for cancer charities

This September, in honor of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, people worldwide have the opportunity to skydive with a collective purpose — helping to raise money for the thousands of children, and their families, living with cancer.

19 Jul 2011

USAID must overcome legal hurdle to providing humanitarian aid in Somalia

Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's office said the U.S. is willing to provide humanitarian aid to Somalia, where the militant group al-Shabab controls parts of the country, but "in reality, her hands are tied by paperwork," Eliza Griswold, author and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, writes in a Daily Beast opinion piece.

19 Jul 2011

First U.N. emergency airlift arrives in Nairobi to provide drought aid

"The first U.N. emergency airlift flight arrived in" Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Sunday, "to assist the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have fled the drought and famine afflicting their homeland," ABC News reports.

19 Jul 2011

DNDi's new drug development programme for children with HIV/AIDS

Today at the 6th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) announced the launch of a new drug development programme to address critical unmet treatment needs of children with HIV/AIDS.

19 Jul 2011

Swaziland's King Mswati urges men to get circumcised to prevent HIV infection

Swaziland's King Mswati III on Friday called on men in the kingdom to get circumcised to help reduce their risk of contracting HIV, Agence France-Presse reports. "Urging his nation to 'take care of your lives - stay away from activities that could give you the disease,' the king struck a very different note from his pronouncement to parliament a decade ago that HIV-positive people should be 'branded and sterilized,'" the news agency writes.

19 Jul 2011

USAID working with international community to respond to drought in East Africa

"Since October 2010, the U.S. Government has provided more than $383 million worth of assistance, including 314,000 metric tons of food," to countries in the eastern Horn of Africa region, where "more than 4.1 million people have benefitted from this help," Donald Steinberg, USAID deputy administrator, writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece.

19 Jul 2011