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Kaiser Permanente funds 700 grants targeting critical health issues in communities

Kaiser Permanente, one of the country's largest not-for-profit health care organizations, funded 700 grants nationwide totaling approximately $13 million in the second quarter of 2010. The grants this quarter focused on expanding access to healthy food, reducing childhood obesity, and increasing care for the underinsured.

5 Aug 2010

Healthcare professionals to share therapeutic hypothermia knowledge at 'Cool It' program

Healthcare professionals are invited to 'Miracle on Ice: Therapeutic Hypothermia for Cardiac Arrest Patients' September 9 and 10 in Minneapolis. The conference is devoted to the fundamentals of establishing and developing a cooling program and features Minneapolis physicians and other national experts.“We are sharing what we've learned with physicians and hospitals who are just beginning therapeutic hypothermia programs and with those who want to expand existing programs.”

5 Aug 2010

Penn. effort fades to override cuts to family planning; Ill. faces budget cuts to health care; Mich. focuses on high cost of chronic disease

The Philadelphia Inquirer: "As two Democratic state lawmakers initiated a campaign to override the governor's veto of $7.5 million for family-planning health centers, six Republican state senators who previously voted to restore the funding reversed course, most likely ending any hopes of restoring the money. Democrats would need at least four Republican votes for an override in the Senate, which now appears unlikely.

5 Aug 2010

Senate Democrats hang hopes for state Medicaid money on Maine Republican votes

On Wednesday morning, the Senate took up a state aid package, which includes Medicaid assistance. What follows are summaries of the news coverage in advance of a vote scheduled to begin at 10:40 a.m.

5 Aug 2010

West Michigan Business Review names DCC as 2010 Michigan Innovator

Dynamic Computer Corporation was named a 2010 Michigan Innovator by the West Michigan Business Review on July 28th for their Hand-Hygiene Compliant solution using Radio Frequency Identification. This HHC solution was developed in an effort to reduce the number of healthcare-associated infections that the US healthcare industry is pained with annually.

5 Aug 2010

Amputation can be prevented when patients are treated by podiatric physicians: Study

Amputation, one of the most devastating and costly consequences of diabetes, can be prevented when patients are treated by podiatric physicians. That's the finding of a national, large-scale study co-authored by Dr. James Wrobel, DPM, MS, Associate Professor of Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.

5 Aug 2010

Harden Healthcare acquires Voyager HospiceCare, combined company to provide healthcare services in 13 states

Harden Healthcare announced today the purchase of Voyager HospiceCare. Headquartered in Austin, the combined company will provide healthcare services in 13 states and will employ approximately 32,000 full-time and part-time associates in nearly 200 locations.

5 Aug 2010

Missouri voters reject health reform law's 'individual mandate' to buy insurance

"Missouri law now contains a direct challenge to the federal health care law passed earlier this year. Primary voters approved Proposition C by a wide margin Tuesday. ... The measure is intended to invalidate in Missouri a key element of the federal health care law passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama in March. That law requires individuals to purchase health insurance beginning in 2014."

5 Aug 2010

Pakistan floods prompt food shortages, devastate farmland

Pakistanis in the northwest part of the country face "life-threatening shortages" of food after flooding has killed 1,400 and "devastated the lives of more than three million people," Reuters reports. World Food Programme spokesman Amjad Jamal said, "People have lost their food stocks. The markets are not up and running. Shops have collapsed. People are definitely in the greatest need of food" (Ali, 8/4).

5 Aug 2010

ECRI Institute and Silverchair relaunch AHRQ's updated NGC, NQMC Web sites

ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit that researches the best approaches to improving patient care, and its technology subcontractor, Silverchair, today announce the relaunch of two key healthcare Web sites they have developed for the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The National Guideline Clearinghouse™ (NGC™), www.guideline.gov, and the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse™ (NQMC™), www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov, now feature updated design elements, enhanced search functionality, and easier access to all content.

5 Aug 2010

HGC publishes guidelines to protect people using DIY genetic tests

A set of guidelines has been published to protect people using DIY genetic tests for inherited diseases, such as certain types of breast cancer.The guidelines have been drawn up by the Human Genetics Commission (HGC), which hopes to provide the public with greater confidence in genetic testing kits.Companies - many of which are based in the US - have started to sell DIY testing kits over the internet, providing users with an estimate of their risk of inheriting diseases.

5 Aug 2010

Study says quality not hurt when nurse anesthetists work without doc guidance

A new study published Tuesday in Health Affairs suggests that nurse anesthetists' quality of work is not lower when they aren't supervised by a doctor, The Wall Street Journal Health Blog reports. "The background for this is that Medicare won't reimburse for anesthesia services unless a physician is supervising what's going on.

5 Aug 2010

Canadian physician organization: Country's health system needs to be 'massively transformed'

The Toronto Star: Canada's largest physician group released a report Tuesday saying that Canada's health system needs to be changed to allow "universal access to prescription drugs and improved outpatient services." The Canadian Medical Association called for the changes because it says the system is insufficient to meet the needs of Canada's aging population.

5 Aug 2010

Consumer, insurers prepare as more health law provisions will take effect next month

Associated Press: Health care reform hits another milestone next month, with new provisions that include a coverage expansion for young adults and restrictions on an insurer's ability to impose annual coverage limits or to reject children with pre-existing medical conditions. Insurance coverage that starts on or after Sept. 23 will have to comply with these changes and others that were put in place when President Barack Obama signed the health overhaul into law March 23." Many plans won't renew until later on (Murphy, 8/3).

5 Aug 2010

FDA to crack down on devices; Big pharma places riskier bets on biologics

The Associated Press: "Makers of X-ray machines, drug pumps and other medical devices would have to submit more safety information to win federal approval under a proposal designed to tighten regulation of thousands of products reviewed each year. The Food and Drug Administration released recommendations Tuesday night designed to improve oversight of the U.S. device industry, including the government's ability to revoke approval for products that prove unsafe or ineffective" (Perrone, 8/3).

5 Aug 2010

One of health care's remaining frontiers: Health information exchange

The Peoria Journal Star highlights a problem the health care industry has been slow to confront: Exchanging health information. "In the computer age, the ability to share health information would appear to be the least of the reform challenges facing the nation's medical industry. 'But different hospitals don't speak to each other.

5 Aug 2010

Florida orders company to stop selling unauthorized health insurance

The Association for Independent Managers may have already sold 1,800 unauthorized policies in Florida that "could leave Floridians who buy the coverage without insurance when they need medical care," The Miami Herald reports. "The Department of Financial Services has received complaints from about 100 consumers involving 49 agents selling health benefits provided by AIM" (Shah, 8/3).

5 Aug 2010

Andy Griffith Medicare ad prompts showdown with GOP

Veteran television star Andy Griffith appeared in a new commercial for Medicare that promotes health law changes the administration says should help seniors, such as free wellness visits and lower drug costs, U.S. News & World Report writes. "The commercial, launched on the 45th anniversary of Medicare last week, is part of a public education campaign about changes to Medicare benefits. Retirees' knowledge about the health reform law's impact on Medicare remains mixed.

5 Aug 2010

Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern attains National Cancer Institute designation

The Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center has attained National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation, an elite distinction held by only the top-tier cancer centers nationwide.

5 Aug 2010

Tips for healthy eating at college

For college students, the campus dining hall offers a tantalizing feast: ice-cream sundaes every night, thirty varieties of cereal and a limitless supply of french fries."It's like a smorgasborg on a cruise ship," said Cynthia Bulik, PhD, director of the Eating Disorders Program at the UNC School of Medicine. All-you-can-eat dining halls, along with changes in exercise habits, have been blamed for the "freshman 15," in which first-year students gain weight.

5 Aug 2010

Healthcare News

Kaiser Permanente funds 700 grants targeting critical health issues in communities

Healthcare professionals to share therapeutic hypothermia knowledge at 'Cool It' program

Penn. effort fades to override cuts to family planning; Ill. faces budget cuts to health care; Mich. focuses on high cost of chronic disease

Senate Democrats hang hopes for state Medicaid money on Maine Republican votes

West Michigan Business Review names DCC as 2010 Michigan Innovator

Amputation can be prevented when patients are treated by podiatric physicians: Study

Harden Healthcare acquires Voyager HospiceCare, combined company to provide healthcare services in 13 states

Missouri voters reject health reform law's 'individual mandate' to buy insurance

Pakistan floods prompt food shortages, devastate farmland

ECRI Institute and Silverchair relaunch AHRQ's updated NGC, NQMC Web sites

HGC publishes guidelines to protect people using DIY genetic tests

Study says quality not hurt when nurse anesthetists work without doc guidance

Canadian physician organization: Country's health system needs to be 'massively transformed'

Consumer, insurers prepare as more health law provisions will take effect next month

FDA to crack down on devices; Big pharma places riskier bets on biologics

One of health care's remaining frontiers: Health information exchange

Florida orders company to stop selling unauthorized health insurance

Andy Griffith Medicare ad prompts showdown with GOP

Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern attains National Cancer Institute designation

Tips for healthy eating at college

Synthetic Psychedelics: A Growing Public Health Concern

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How cohesin mechanics and nanotracker tech are redefining DNA research

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