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Heart docs dismiss bias claims stemming from industry support of meeting

Doctors said the heart society meeting was an important opportunity to learn about new research in their field and see new products on the market. Unlike in many other areas of medicine, they said, electrophysiologists work hand-in-hand with device company representatives to program implantable defibrillators and diagnose problems.

11 May 2011

Study: Many patients screened for colon cancer more often than recommended

Many patients are getting screened for colorectal cancer more often than guidelines recommend, hints a new study.

11 May 2011

Medicare, entitlement reform continue to trigger political rifts

The AP reports that, as unlikely as it may seem, the Obama administration and congressional Republicans may share some common ideas regarding Medicare costs. Still, the issue of how to address the programs — and the related proposals — still are causing rifts within the GOP.

11 May 2011

Georgia to review Medicaid changes; Calif. judge rules against freeze on payments for disability services

In any other year, a historic overhaul of the Medicaid system would have overshadowed every health issue in the Legislature. But when lawmakers went home early Saturday morning, Medicaid might not have even been the noisiest health-related debate of the 2011 legislative session. Lawmakers passed a nearly $70 billion budget that included deep cuts to hospitals, nursing homes and dozens of other health programs.

11 May 2011

Majority of urban NYC women with hepatitis B do not receive education, subsequent care

According to new research at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, high rates of chronic hepatitis B infection are found in pregnant minority and immigrant women in the New York City area, and most of them do not receive education, appropriate follow-up testing or referral, which is considered the standard of care for all persons newly identified as HBV carriers.

11 May 2011

USA Today: Uninsured hospitalizations result in a hefty unpaid tab

Uninsured Americans — including those with incomes well above the poverty line — leave hospitals with unpaid tabs of up to $49 billion a year, according to a government study released today. On average, uninsured families pay only about 12 percent of their hospital bills in full.

11 May 2011

Adherence to disease-modifying drugs is low in patients with multiple sclerosis

Disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) are injected medications used to slow the progression of multiple sclerosis, and have been shown to reduce the frequency and severity of relapses. But according to a new study led by St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, adherence to all DMDs is low, with less than half of patients, or 44 per cent, continually adherent after two years.

11 May 2011

U.K. parliamentary committee report says U.N. response to Pakistan floods was 'patchy'

The U.N.'s response to severe flooding in Pakistan was "patchy," according to a report from the U.K.'s International Development Committee, which also said leadership and humanitarian coordination since the flooding started has been poor, AlertNet reports. As of February, about $1.2 billion of the U.N.'s $1.9 billion appeal had been received, according to the report, Reuters writes.

11 May 2011

Reducing hearing aid cost does not improve device purchase

Lowering the cost of hearing aids isn't enough to motivate adults with mild hearing loss to purchase a device at a younger age or before their hearing worsens, according to researchers at Henry Ford Hospital.

11 May 2011

Study stresses importance of rapid intervention to prevent Self-Embedding Behavior in adolescents

While the disturbing act of self-injury is nothing new to adolescents, researchers and physicians at Nationwide Children's Hospital have identified a more severe type of behavior that is raising some concern among medical professionals.

11 May 2011

Chances of dying in natural disaster decreasing, economic costs increasing worldwide, U.N. report says

The risk of dying in a natural disaster is decreasing worldwide, but the economic toll weather-related catastrophes inflict is rising "often due to a lack of investment," according to a new U.N. report released in Geneva on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

11 May 2011

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