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Simulation training helps students to score more on final examinations

Medical students who practiced on a patient simulator before assisting in real-life vaginal deliveries scored significantly higher on their final examinations than did students receiving a lecture only at the start of an obstetric clerkship.

3 Sep 2011

Family planning should be 'cornerstone' of U.S. policy in Afghanistan

"Without attention to population, countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan stand a good chance of staying mired in poverty, conflict, and corrupt, repressive government. That is why sustained investment in family planning by the United States and other countries would do more to stabilize the political climate there than any other foreign-policy initiative," Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba, former Defense Department consultant and the Mellon Environmental Fellow in the department of international studies at Rhodes College, writes in a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion piece.

3 Sep 2011

New rules require insurers to justify rate increases over 10%

Federal rules mandate that companies explain the hikes and submit them to regulators. Also, HHS announced that association health plans must meet the same rate scrutiny as other types of insurance.

3 Sep 2011

Immigrant dialysis patients in Atlanta again face treatment crisis

After the collapse of negotiations between Atlanta's public hospital and the world's largest dialysis provider, a dozen immigrants suffering from renal failure were refused treatment at an Atlanta clinic on Thursday and advised to wait until their conditions deteriorated enough to justify life-saving care in an emergency room. Unless the deadlock is broken, 22 patients, most of them illegal immigrants, face a debilitating cycle.

3 Sep 2011

Pathology Visions Conference to be held at Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego

Mahul B. Amin, MD, chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, will offer his perspectives and expertise on personalized medicine and digital pathology at the 2011 Pathology Visions Conference.

3 Sep 2011

SmokingPaST Framework tool calculates impact of investments in tobacco treatment programs

The newly released Smoking Prevalence, Savings, and Treatment (SmokingPaST) Framework is a tool designed to calculate the impact of investments in tobacco treatment programs on health and medical cost savings.

3 Sep 2011

Feds hold off on decision about yanking Medicare funding to Parkland

The CMS has extended the possible date of Parkland Health and Hospital System's termination from the Medicare program to Sept. 30 from Sept. 2 in order to give state surveyors more time to complete their reports. The 672-bed Parkland received word Aug. 9 that it was under threat of losing its status as a Medicare provider, and after submitting its plan of action (PDF) on how it would correct the problems by an Aug. 20 deadline.

3 Sep 2011

VA chief outlines computer system to cut disability backlog

The Department of Veterans Affairs is installing a computer system that should help reduce a huge backlog of disability claims from wounded soldiers, but it's impossible to say when the problem will be cleared up, the agency's chief said Thursday in Des Moines.

3 Sep 2011

The pressing need to save the lives of women and newborns in India

In this post on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, the second in a multi-week series, Joy Lawn, director of Evidence and Policy for the Saving Newborn Lives program of Save the Children, and Kate Kerber, the Africa regional specialist with Saving Newborn Lives at Save the Children U.S., "explore the pressing need -- and what our partners are doing to address the need -- to save the lives of women and newborns in India,".

3 Sep 2011

Combination of resistance training, AT does not benefit cardiac patients

For patients undergoing rehabilitation following cardiac events, aerobic exercise training (AT) is widely recommended. Resistance training (RT) has also been shown to be beneficial because it enhances muscular strength and endurance, functional capacity and independence, and quality of life, while reducing disability.

3 Sep 2011

Hospital executives should consider value-added services of radiology groups

Hospital executives should consider the value-added services of hospital-based radiology groups before allowing radiology departments to be taken over by teleradiologists or other specialists, according to an article in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

3 Sep 2011

Options for 'super committee' could include IPAB, Tricare, nothing at all

Rep. Phil Roe said Thursday that the deficit-cutting super committee should repeal one of the healthcare reform law's chief cost-control measures. Roe is a leading opponent of the Independent Payments Advisory Board (IPAB), a 15-member board with the power to cut Medicare payments almost unilaterally. .

3 Sep 2011

Refugee self-settlement may provide 'lasting' solutions to humanitarian crises

In this New York Times' "Opinionator" blog post, journalist and author Tina Rosenberg examines the contrasts between refugee situations in rural camps -- such as Dadaab in Kenya, where tens of thousands have sought relief from drought and famine in Somalia -- and more urban areas, such as cities in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, where approximately 1.6 million Iraqi refugees are living.

3 Sep 2011

Businesses working hard to disgest health law changes

Health care reform has put some businesses that provide health insurance-related services into marketing and education overdrive. Health care benefits brokers, law firms and insurance carriers are among the chief entities digesting legislative rules to help employers track health insurance-related changes that impact costs.

3 Sep 2011

Officials in Detroit seek Medicare fraud suspects, charge some in Puerto Rico

Thirteen people including three doctors have been indicted for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, according to a statement Thursday from the U.S. Attorney's Office. The first indictment accuses Jose Lopez Diaz of charging Medicare more than half a million dollars for services never rendered at a medical center where he never worked. Lopez also is accused of billing Medicare for a procedure he claimed he performed on female patients that can only be done on men, prosecutors say.

3 Sep 2011

IQWiG publishes results of literature search on DMP for diabetes mellitus type 1

On 22 August 2011, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) published the results of a literature search for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on the treatment of people with diabetes mellitus type 1.

3 Sep 2011

Information and communications technology revolution in the developing world

Charles Ebikeme, a writer who "has worked for many years as a research scientist on African sleeping sickness" examines a health revolution in information and communications technology (ICT) taking place across the developing world in this "End the Neglect" blog post, writing, "The initial concept of telemedicine now spans a wide spectrum of applications, labels, contexts, and platforms."

3 Sep 2011

OMB projects slower growth in Medicare, Medicaid spending, but with a caveat

Federal spending on the nation's two main health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid, is projected to grow less than expected over the next decade, according to new estimates released Thursday by the White House. That's because the federal government has been paying less than expected in benefits - but the new estimates also assume cuts in doctors' payments that probably aren't going to happen.

3 Sep 2011

State roundup: Texas disability fight; rights of fetus asserted in Neb.

For Milla Powell, a 12-year-old from Austin with cerebral palsy, the little things make all the difference. Massage therapy to ease her tightened muscles. Recreational programs, in which therapists take her into the community to help her build her social skills. Music therapy to help Milla, who cannot speak, connect without words. But services like these are on the chopping block for thousands of Texans with disabilities - another casualty of the significant budget cuts that state lawmakers passed in May.

3 Sep 2011

SAMHSA to unveil results of 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will unveil the results of the latest (2010) National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) at a press conference on Thursday, September 8.

3 Sep 2011