Healthcare News

RSS

Intensive exercise can help improve facial nerve damage

A research study conducted at Washington State University Spokane offers hope to those suffering from facial nerve damage. According to the study, which was published online this week in the journal Developmental Neurohabilitation, muscle weakness resulting from facial nerve damage incurred during childhood can improve with intensive facial exercise, years after injury.

11 May 2011

Scientists to develop 'eTraining' system for doctors and healthcare providers

Many people use fitness studios to get back into shape after an injury. Fraunhofer researchers are now developing a system that will provide doctors with data on the exercises people do on the various machines. This should help them plan better training programs.

11 May 2011

GlobalPost examines Pres. Obama's Global Health Initiative

GlobalPost has published two articles on President Barack Obama's Global Health Initiative. "In a series of reports over the coming months from Washington and in capitals around the world, GlobalPost will examine the behind-the-scenes decisions in the Obama administration as well as what diplomats and health experts are doing now in several countries to try to bring to life this new, but what some say is a stumbling approach in global health," the publication writes.

11 May 2011

Press Ganey creates comprehensive new tool for hospitalists

Approximately half of all hospitals in the U.S. employ hospitalists, and according to the Society of Hospital Medicine, the number of hospitalists increased by 10,000 from 2007 to 2010.

11 May 2011

Safety tips for athletes with asthma and allergies

As athletes of all ages take the field this summer, the most fearsome opponents for those with asthma and allergies might be triggers that can sideline even the toughest competitors.

11 May 2011

Govt. audit finds antipsychotic drugs often overused in nursing homes

More than half of the antipsychotics paid for by Medicare in the first half of 2007 were "erroneous," the audit found, costing the program $116 million during those six months.

11 May 2011

Washington Post examines Iraq's Baghdad Hospital

In an article looking at Baghdad Hospital, the Washington Post reports that "[i]t is difficult to overstate how far [the hospital] has come since the worst days of the war, when supplies were so scarce that doctors sometimes performed open heart surgery without gloves. ... Arriving at work was a small miracle: The hospital has lost at least 40 doctors to assassins since 2004 - they are still occasionally targeted - and their photos stare down from walls."

11 May 2011

$Study: Only 15% of heart failure patients with spinal fractures are being treated for osteoporosis$

Study: Only 15% of heart failure patients with spinal fractures are being treated for osteoporosis

One in 10 heart failure patients had compression fractures in the spine that could have been detected by a chest X-ray, but few are receiving treatment to help prevent such fractures according to a Canadian study published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Heart Failure.

11 May 2011

Chicago Magazine selects three Gottlieb physicians as region's 'medical MVPs'

Three Gottlieb Memorial Hospital physicians have been selected as the region's "medical MVPs" by Chicago Magazine in their "Best Sports Medicine Doctors in Chicago and the Suburbs."

11 May 2011

Tenet rejects Community Health's 'best and final' offer

Hospital operator Tenet Healthcare Corp. on Monday rejected Community Health Systems Inc.'s latest buyout offer, which had been increased by about 21 percent. Community's latest offer had been set to expire Monday and had said the latest proposal represented its final offer. Tenet says the offer still undervalues the company.

11 May 2011

Couples having marital difficulties may have infants with sleep problems

Couples having marital difficulties may have infants who are losing sleep, according to a new study - and that may have a continuing impact on the children.

11 May 2011

New health reform law to make insurance more affordable for women by 2014

The new health reform law will expand health insurance coverage to nearly all uninsured women and will make health care more affordable for millions of women through premium subsidies beginning in 2014 and new rules, some already in place, that will protect women from high costs, according to a Commonwealth Fund report released today.

11 May 2011

Single-payer bill slated for introduction

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., plans to introduce legislation to establish a single-payer health care system. His measure comes on the heels of a successful push within his state to implement single-payer. This step, however, adds to federal-level interest in allowing states waivers to pursue their own reforms.

11 May 2011

NCL launches new public education campaign on medication adherence

Today the National Consumers League launches a new public education campaign, Script Your Future, to raise awareness among patients about the consequences of not taking medication as directed.

11 May 2011

Roundup: Calif.'s Central Valley facing health problems; Baltimore launches campaign to attack causes of preventable deaths

A health care crisis is sweeping the Central Valley, devastating middle-class and poor families and threatening to overwhelm the region's fragile safety net. The deep recession has pushed the ranks of the uninsured here to unprecedented levels. At the same time, a dire state budget deficit has forced lawmakers to drastically scale back or eliminate key health care programs for the state's poorest residents.

11 May 2011

Repeated case-based medical training for physicians can save lives of heart patients

Repeated, case-based medical training for primary care physicians can save lives of heart patients, according to a novel randomized case-control study from Karolinska Institutet.

11 May 2011

Unscrupulous GP loses case to renew license

An accused Doctor who had sex with five vulnerable patients and thought his actions were allowed has lost a bid to return to medical practice by finally losing his appeal to regain his license.

11 May 2011

Boehner draws line in sand on debt-limit vote

One of his main themes was the need for "honest conversations" about how to control the costs of the Medicare program — a statement some viewed as a signal that the GOP is still committed to restructuring at least some elements of the health insurance program for the elderly.

11 May 2011

Viewpoints: NY Times warning on women's rights; WSJ on 'Romneycare'; Dutch model for Medicare

The ObamaCare preview that Massachusetts has been conducting for the last several years grows more ominous by the month, not that anyone in Washington is paying attention. A new survey released yesterday by the Massachusetts Medical Society reveals that fewer than half of the state's primary care practices are accepting new patients, down from 70% in 2007, before former Governor Mitt Romney's health-care plan came online.

11 May 2011

Opinions: U.S. child survival programs; global family planning; impact of nuclear fallout; success in global health

"Over my 22 years in Congress, programs that support child survival around the world have enjoyed bipartisan support and have saved millions of young lives worldwide. Unfortunately, funding for these lifesaving programs is at risk now. ... We should not give up now on a great American achievement: helping more of the world's mothers and children survive," Rep. Donald Payne writes in Star-Ledger opinion piece that highlights the successes of U.S. global health programs.

11 May 2011