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Viewpoints: Will Gang of Six compromise work?; endorsing birth control recommendations; Minn. budget deal

Not surprisingly, the plan has drawn complaints from the left about cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and from the right about defense cuts and tax increases. But the senators are right about the need to simplify and broaden the tax code and to put entitlements on a sustainable footing without slashing aid to the most vulnerable.

22 Jul 2011

Flying is riskier than hospital says World Health Organization

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) announcement this Tuesday, millions of people die each year from medical errors and infections linked to health care and going into hospital is far riskier than flying.

21 Jul 2011

Sound Physicians offers Value-Based Purchasing Performance Assessment Tool to hospitals at no cost

Sound Physicians, a leading hospitalist organization focused on measurably improving the quality, satisfaction, efficiency and financial performance of healthcare delivery, today announced the availability of its Value-Based Purchasing Performance Assessment Tool to all hospitals at no cost.

21 Jul 2011

UMA introduces Healthcare Management and Health Information Technology degrees

To meet the growing demand for allied health professionals, Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA) has expanded its array of healthcare training programs with two new associate degrees. Prospective students throughout the U.S. can now enroll in online healthcare degree programs leading to an Associate of Science in Healthcare Management or an Associate of Science in Health Information Technology.

21 Jul 2011

Spacelabs Healthcare adds ICS Xprezz iPad application to Xprezzon monitoring line

Spacelabs Healthcare, a pioneer of patient monitoring and connectivity solutions, today announced the newest addition to the Xprezzon™ monitoring line - ICS Xprezz - a mobile application for the iPad. Building on Spacelabs' commitment to clinical partners, ICS Xprezz adds a new dimension in providing the best care experience for patients and their families.

21 Jul 2011

Parkview Health enters agreement to upgrade to Streamline Health's accessANYware v1.9

Streamline Health Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of document workflow solutions for hospitals, announced today that Parkview Health has signed an agreement to upgrade to accessANYware v1.9. Under the terms of the agreement, the healthcare system will upgrade to accessANYware v1.9 in six of the healthcare system's hospitals.

21 Jul 2011

First Edition: July 21, 2011

Today's headlines include reports about some of the specific cuts included in the "Gang of Six" deficit-reduction plan.

21 Jul 2011

Pharmaceutical waste forms a whole new range of contaminants

The health implications of polluting the environment weigh increasingly on our public consciousness, and pharmaceutical wastes continue to be a main culprit. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher says that current testing for these dangerous contaminants isn't going far enough.

21 Jul 2011

Komen for the Cure applauds new mammography guidelines

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' new recommendation that women begin getting mammograms annually beginning at the age of 40 is a victory for women's health that opens a door to early detection of breast cancer for millions, officials with Susan G. Komen for the Cure said today.

21 Jul 2011

State Department, USAID briefing on Horn of Africa

On Tuesday, Ambassador Johnnie Carson, assistant secretary for African Affairs; Reuben Brigety, principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration; Ambassador Donald Steinberg, USAID deputy administrator; and USAID Assistant Administrator Nancy Lindborg held a special press briefing to discuss the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa, according to this post on the State Department's "DipNote" blog.

21 Jul 2011

CCHIT certifies Nightingale On Demand V10.0 as Complete EHR

Nightingale announced today that Nightingale On Demand V10.0, is 2011/2012 compliant and was certified as a Complete EHR on July 19, 2011 by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®), an ONC-ATCB, in accordance with the applicable eligible provider certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

21 Jul 2011

Attention must be paid to famine early warning systems

Early warnings about rising malnutrition, drought and possible famine in the Horn of Africa "went unheeded" for the past year, but "[w]hat is the point of an early warning system if nobody is listening?" a Globe and Mail editorial asks.

21 Jul 2011

Senate Commission compiles new threshold limit values for dusts

The 2011 MAK and BAT Values List compiled by the Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, a Senate Commission of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), recommends reducing the general threshold limit value for dust for the alveolar fraction in light of recent studies and classifies such dusts as carcinogenic when these thresholds are exceeded.

21 Jul 2011

U.S. physicians to receive nearly $10M from Humana's Provider Quality Rewards Program

Humana Inc. has begun distributing nearly $10 million to physicians across the U.S. who participate in Humana's Provider Quality Rewards Program. Approximately 2,800 physician practices will receive payments of as much as $175,000 in recognition of performance improvements their practices made during 2010 related to improved outcomes for Humana's Medicare members.

21 Jul 2011

U.N. declares famine in two regions of Somalia; U.S. pledges $28M in additional aid

Speaking in Nairobi on Wednesday, Mark Bowden, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said the U.N. had officially declared a famine in the southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of Somalia, VOA News reports.

21 Jul 2011

Gates Foundation announces sanitation grants, calls for toilet innovation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Tuesday that it plans to invest millions of dollars in projects aimed at improving sanitation in the developing world, the Guardian reports.

21 Jul 2011

Anesthesiologists introduce Enhance Healthcare to provide peri-operative solutions

As more hospitals seek to align with physicians in response to health care reform, a pair of South Florida board-certified anesthesiologists has launched Enhance Healthcare, a national consulting practice that designs innovative peri-operative solutions for hospitals and anesthesiologists.

21 Jul 2011

New public opinion polls highlight debt-ceiling concerns, attitude shifts

The Wall Street Journal reports on a "dramatic shift in attitudes" as the majority of those polled support President Barack Obama's 10-year plan, which includes federal spending reductions that would touch Medicare and other entitlement programs.

21 Jul 2011

Conn., Calif. facing adult day care, respite center closures

Facing enormous budget constraints, lawmakers in California have sought to find a way to keep day-care services for adults to help keep them out of nursing homes. Conn. residents face a similar situation because the state is slated to close respite centers that help families get a break from caregiving.

21 Jul 2011

RCSI introduces 30 minute magazine style surgical podcast

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has launched 'Surgery Now', a magazine style surgical podcast which allows surgeons to easily access the latest information about clinical practice and surgical technology at the touch of a button.

21 Jul 2011