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Outlook dims for GOP-backed malpractice reform

When it comes to health care policy, there isn't much that brings the two parties together. But at the outset of the 112th Congress, it seemed like medical malpractice reform was one area ripe for bipartisan compromise.

20 May 2011

Monitoring adherence to mandatory hand-washing protocols can help stop outbreaks of C. diff bacteria

Just like intelligence agents watching for the real terrorists threatening to attack, monitoring healthcare worker adherence to mandatory hand-washing protocols via hand-washing squads in hospitals can go a long way to stop outbreaks of the opportunistic C. diff bacteria, says Irena Kenneley, an infection prevention and control expert and assistant professor of nursing from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

20 May 2011

Roundup: Private prison costs; GOP lawmakers in Wis. break with Governor on cuts to senior services

The conviction that private prisons save money helped drive more than 30 states to turn to them for housing inmates. But Arizona shows that popular wisdom might be wrong: Data there suggest that privately operated prisons can cost more to operate than state-run prisons — even though they often steer clear of the sickest, costliest inmates (Oppel, 5/18).

20 May 2011

Health Endeavors releases ACO WebCenter 1.0 and Physician Alignment WebCenter 2.0

ACO WebCenter Version 1.0 is a web-based product developed to assist hospitals, IPAs and physicians with the implementation of a Medicare or Non-Medicare Accountable Care Organization. Physician Alignment WebCenter 2.0 is a web-based product utilized by hospitals to enhance physician alignment with medical staff members. The 2.0 version includes a communications portal and Meaningful Use/EMR Center.

20 May 2011

Reid seizes political opportunity, readies Senate vote on Ryan budget plan

Seizing on a political opportunity, the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid, told USA TODAY on Wednesday that he will schedule a vote next week in an effort to tie Senate Republicans to a House GOP plan to dramatically revamp the popular Medicare health care program.

20 May 2011

The Chartis Group and HPMG partner to help providers improve outpatient care delivery systems

HealthPartners Medical Group and Clinics and The Chartis Group today announce a unique collaboration to help hospitals and health systems achieve superior performance in health care quality and patient service, while simultaneously lowering costs.

20 May 2011

Dominican Republic health officials raise alerts about possible cholera outbreaks

Health authorities have raised alerts in 17 "mainly poor" neighborhoods in the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo after 16 people were hospitalized with suspected cholera, BBC News reports.

20 May 2011

Bill to expand reproductive health services in the Philippines introduced in country's Congress

A reproductive health bill introduced Tuesday in the House of Representatives in the Philippines "would require the government to provide information on family planning methods, make contraceptives available free of charge and introduce reproductive health and sexuality classes in schools," the Associated Press/Seattle Times reports, noting the scope of controversy surrounding this issue.

20 May 2011

Fla. officials facing tight timeframe for Medicaid overhaul; Advocates in Ariz. threaten lawsuit on cuts

Needing federal approval to overhaul the Medicaid program, Florida health officials have less than three months to develop a detailed plan to sell to the Obama administration.

20 May 2011

Study reports 20% increase in U.S. home births between 2004 and 2008

After a gradual decline from 1990 to 2004, a new study published online in Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care finds that United States births occurring at home increased by 20 percent between 2004 and 2008.

20 May 2011

Court documents offer details of administration's legal defense of individual mandate

The federal government offered an aggressive defense of the new health law in a reply brief filed Wednesday in the multi-state challenge to the overhaul.

20 May 2011

Osteoarthritis directly linked to low-fat, high-carb food

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease and the most common cause of disability today. It was once considered a problem of the old but it is now commonly diagnosed in those as young as the mid-twenties and early thirties. According to the Arthritis Foundation, about four million, quality-adjusted life years are lost due to knee osteoarthritis alone.

20 May 2011

Analysis of 'Gang of Six' tensions: What will the impact be on deficit-reduction and entitlement reform plans?

News outlets examine what led to the exit of Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., from this group of negotiators and what the new outlook is for the group to have a positive impact on congressional efforts to develop long-term deficit reduction strategies.

20 May 2011

New York Times examines DDT use in Uganda

"In the Apac region of Uganda, the United States focused on two conflicting agendas: developing organic farming and eradicating malaria, ultimately affecting the livelihoods of tens of thousands of farmers.

20 May 2011

AIDS mortality in China drops by nearly two thirds since 2002 when country began free treatment program

China's HIV/AIDS-related mortality has dropped from 39.3 per 100 person-years in 2002 to 14.2 in 2009, or 64 percent, since the nation began providing free antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2002, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and published online Wednesday in Lancet Infectious Diseases, the New York Times reports (McNeil, 5/18).

20 May 2011

African LGBT advocates warn against cutting multilateral aid to Uganda

At a World Bank panel discussion in Washington, D.C., on homophobia in developing countries, LGBT advocates from Africa expressed concern that if multilateral development organizations cut aid to Uganda in protest of attempts to make homosexual acts crimes punishable by death, the human rights situation for them could worsen, the Washington Blade reports.

20 May 2011

9/11 Health fund administrator chosen

The Justice Department on Wednesday chose a special master to administer a multibillion-dollar fund created to provide compensation to rescue workers and others sickened from exposure to toxic fumes, dust and smoke from ground zero after the 2001 terrorist attack.

20 May 2011

Study: Costs get in way of cancer patients refilling their prescriptions

About 10 percent of cancer patients aren't taking the oral medicines they need either because of the cost or they feel they are already taking too many other drugs, according to a study released by health-care consulting company Avalere Health late Wednesday.

20 May 2011

HealthGrades identifies major flaws in hospital ratings study

The findings of a journal article published in the May issue of the Archives of Surgery are fundamentally flawed and could undermine patients ability to find high quality hospital care, according to HealthGrades. The article, Evaluating Popular Media and Internet-Based Hospital Quality Ratings for Cancer Surgery, compared outcomes for gastrointestinal cancer patients who underwent surgery at hospitals on HealthGrades' "America's 50 Best Hospitals" and US News and World Report's "America's Best Hospitals" lists.

20 May 2011

Longer looks: Tough health care questions for GOP presidential contenders; Robotics help spike use of prostate treatment

For my money, the most interesting thing about Mitt Romney's health-care speech last week wasn't his struggle to defend Romneycare and distance it from Obamacare, but the largely hostile reception of the speech from the right.

20 May 2011

Healthcare News

Outlook dims for GOP-backed malpractice reform

Monitoring adherence to mandatory hand-washing protocols can help stop outbreaks of C. diff bacteria

Roundup: Private prison costs; GOP lawmakers in Wis. break with Governor on cuts to senior services

Health Endeavors releases ACO WebCenter 1.0 and Physician Alignment WebCenter 2.0

Reid seizes political opportunity, readies Senate vote on Ryan budget plan

The Chartis Group and HPMG partner to help providers improve outpatient care delivery systems

Dominican Republic health officials raise alerts about possible cholera outbreaks

Bill to expand reproductive health services in the Philippines introduced in country's Congress

Fla. officials facing tight timeframe for Medicaid overhaul; Advocates in Ariz. threaten lawsuit on cuts

Study reports 20% increase in U.S. home births between 2004 and 2008

Court documents offer details of administration's legal defense of individual mandate

Osteoarthritis directly linked to low-fat, high-carb food

Analysis of 'Gang of Six' tensions: What will the impact be on deficit-reduction and entitlement reform plans?

New York Times examines DDT use in Uganda

AIDS mortality in China drops by nearly two thirds since 2002 when country began free treatment program

African LGBT advocates warn against cutting multilateral aid to Uganda

9/11 Health fund administrator chosen

Study: Costs get in way of cancer patients refilling their prescriptions

HealthGrades identifies major flaws in hospital ratings study

Longer looks: Tough health care questions for GOP presidential contenders; Robotics help spike use of prostate treatment

Advancing Motor Neuron Disease Diagnosis with Non-Invasive Ultrasound and AI

How agentic AI is reshaping laboratory workflows

Fourier 80: bringing benchtop NMR systems to the laboratory

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