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Study finds improvement in quality of health care for minority stroke patients

After years of research have shown that minorities do not receive the same quality of health care as whites do, a new study suggests there has been some improvement in reducing the gap, at least for stroke patients.

21 Jun 2011

Strengthen monitoring and surveillance of malaria in pregnancy interventions

"The time of neglecting malaria in pregnancy (MIP) should be over," Bill Brieger, senior malaria specialist at JHPIEGO, writes in a Malaria Matters blog post summarizing a session on malaria and maternal health at the recently concluded Global Health Council annual conference.

21 Jun 2011

Pakistan facing challenging TB epidemic

Pakistan has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis (TB) in the world, with nearly 70,000 TB-related deaths each year, Al-Jazeera English reports.

21 Jun 2011

Government and private sector must work together on HIV vaccine

The success of antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS "has fooled us into believing HIV is under control. It is not. … The fact remains that no sexually acquired infection has ever been controlled in democratic societies except by vaccines," Lawrence Corey, president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and principal investigator of the international HIV Vaccine Trials Network, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

21 Jun 2011

Hybrid model for hospital supply chains

University of Cincinnati analysis of hospital supply chains - how hospitals stock nursing stations with the hundreds of medicines, materials and even office supplies needed - holds promise in helping to make supply and re-supply efforts leaner and more cost effective.

21 Jun 2011

Experts discuss NCDs ahead of U.N. meeting

In a post on the State Department's "DipNote" blog, Krysten Carrera, a Presidential Management Fellow in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, discusses why non-communicable diseases "represent an urgent and growing threat to global public health".

21 Jun 2011

Neuroscientists to discuss future of mental health treatments at NCDEU meeting

More than 1,000 of the world's leading neuroscientists gathered this week at the 51st Annual NCDEU Meeting to discuss the future of mental health treatments.

21 Jun 2011

Little-noticed change could cause higher costs for out-of-network care

Consumers know they will have to pay out of their pockets if they use medical providers outside their insurers' networks. But because of a little-noticed change, they may find themselves with even bigger bills than they expect.

21 Jun 2011

Michelle Obama heads to Africa

"U.S. first lady Michelle Obama left for Africa on Sunday, embarking on her second official solo journey abroad with a goal of advancing U.S. policies on education, health, and democracy," Reuters reports. Obama is due to arrive in South Africa on Monday, "where she will make stops in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Later in the week she will visit Botswana," the news service notes.

21 Jun 2011

Black patients with heart attack wait longer at hospitals to get life-saving procedures

Black patients having a heart attack wait longer at hospitals than white patients to get advanced procedures that will restore blood flow to their hearts, according to a University of Michigan Health System study.

21 Jun 2011

Commercial health insurers have increased rate of inaccurate claims payments: AMA

The overall rate of inaccurate claims payments increased since last year among leading commercial health insurers, according to American Medical Association's (AMA) fourth annual National Health Insurer Report Card. Claims-processing errors by health insurance companies waste billions of dollars and frustrate patients and physicians.

21 Jun 2011

Consumer focus on health and well-being drive demand for L-carnitine market

Consumer focus on health and well-being have driven demand for the L-carnitine market, an amino acid understood to provide distinct health benefits, according to a new report on companiesandmarkets.com. By 2017, it is expected that the L-carnitine market will achieve a value of $127.7 million.

21 Jun 2011

Study: 1 in 13 children suffer from food allergies

A national study of food allergies in the US, the largest of its kind, finds that more children have food allergies than previously reported.

21 Jun 2011

Study: Portable pools may be more dangerous for children than many parents realize

As the weather gets warmer, many parents will turn to pools to keep their family cool. Due to their low cost and ease of use, portable pools - which include wading pools, inflatable pools and soft-sided, self-rising pools - have become an increasingly popular alternative to expensive in-ground pools or water park visits.

21 Jun 2011

Tony Blair visits Sierra Leone, calls for increased investment, better governance

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for increased investment in Sierra Leone during a trip to the country over the weekend, VOA News reports.

21 Jun 2011

Adult-focused programs also reduce smoking among adolescents

When governments use comprehensive, well-funded tobacco control programs to reduce adult smoking, they also reduce smoking among adolescents. This bonus effect is an important factor to consider as policymakers face pressure to reduce spending on anti-smoking programs.

21 Jun 2011

Inducing labor does not increase risk of emergency cesarean section

A new study published in the international Nordic journal Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica (AOGS) reveals that inducing labor in the weeks around term, or from week 39 to week 41, is not connected with higher rates of cesarean section compared with waiting for a later spontaneous or induced labor.

21 Jun 2011

Quality home learning experiences may help prepare children for kindergarten

Previous research says on average, children living in poverty are less well prepared to start school than children from middle-income homes. Now, new research says home learning experiences may help low-income children's school readiness.

21 Jun 2011

Public-private partnerships leading to successes in HIV treatment and prevention

The recent achievements in studies looking at treatment as prevention "were only made possible by the partnership between publicly funded scientists and private drug companies," Ward Cates, president of research at FHI; Salim Abdool Karim, director of the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa; and Myron Cohen, director of the UNC Division of Infectious Disease and the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Disease, write in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post.

21 Jun 2011

Additional, better-trained midwives needed to save millions of women and newborns worldwide, report says

"According to a United Nations Population Fund study released Monday, more and better trained midwives could help save millions of lives in" 58 countries "identified as 'suffering from a crisis in human resources for health,'" the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

21 Jun 2011