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Advances in health IT

The New York Times: A "broad transformation in health care underway" is "fueled in good part by technology" that "promises to shift a lot of the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of disease from hospitals and specialized clinics, where treatment is expensive, to primary care physicians and patients themselves — at far less cost."

25 May 2010

Obama's health IT leader says doctors will embrace change

25 May 2010

AMA's code of conduct helps ensure greater transparency and accountability from health insurers

The American Medical Association (AMA) today released its Health Insurer Code of Conduct Principles and called on all U.S. health insurance companies to adopt consistent corporate practices that will bring transparency and accountability to the multibillion-dollar health insurance industry

25 May 2010

STOP Obesity Alliance researchers receive $250,000 donation to research on health impact of obesity

The research team of The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services' Department of Health Policy's Strategies to Overcome and Prevent Obesity Alliance received a $250,000 donation from Allergan, Inc. to support public health, policy analysis and research about the economic and health impact of obesity and related chronic diseases.

25 May 2010

DU receives $17.5M as gift to establish Knoebel Center for the Study of Aging

Betty Knoebel, widow of Denver food services pioneer Ferdinand "Fritz" Knoebel, has given the University of Denver $17.5 million, among the largest gifts in its history. DU will use the gift to establish the Knoebel Center for the Study of Aging and to support the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management in DU's Daniels College of Business.

25 May 2010

Florida health care providers offer language services, medical homes

As "the region continues to attract residents from all over the country and the world, local health care providers and educators are searching for ways to better serve them." Some use "cultural toolkits," and have guides to help providers relate to patients' cultural and religious preferences. "'From a business perspective, it makes a lot of sense,' said Bernardo Ramirez, assistant professor of health services administration at the University of Central Florida.

24 May 2010

Research work holds promise for biological substitute for dental implants

A technique pioneered in the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory of Dr. Jeremy Mao, the Edward V. Zegarelli Professor of Dental Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, can orchestrate stem cells to migrate to a three-dimensional scaffold infused with growth factor, holding the translational potential to yield an anatomically correct tooth in as soon as nine weeks once implanted.

24 May 2010

Hospitals facing new payment squeezes

News outlets report on payment issues for hospitals, including those stemming from the new health law.

24 May 2010

2010 Southeast Michigan Mid-Market Group Benefits Survey released

McGraw Wentworth, Michigan's largest employee group benefit brokerage/consulting firm, today released the results of its 2010 Southeast Michigan Mid-Market Group Benefits Survey. The annual survey, now in its seventh year, tracks health benefits and trends for 2010 among 414 southeast Michigan organizations with 100-10,000 employees.

24 May 2010

Today's OpEds: Taxing health plans, a health care 'loophole,' NY Times on medical loss ratio

Few Americans know what a "medical loss ratio" is, but a fierce struggle over how to calculate it under the new health care reform law will determine how much insurers must spend on patient care and how much they can retain for administration and profits. This is but one of many battles that will emerge as federal and state regulators develop regulations to implement reform (5/23).

24 May 2010

Dialog Medical becomes newest Affinity Program Partner of AUA

Dialog Medical, the leading provider of informed consent and patient education systems for physician practices and hospitals, today announced that it has become the newest Affinity Program Partner of the American Urological Association.

24 May 2010

Lawmakers could vote this week on three-year 'doc fix,' COBRA subsidy extension

Before they leave for the Memorial Day recess, lawmakers face legislation which includes a provision on Medicare payments to physicians and an extension of the COBRA subsidy to newly laid-off workers.

24 May 2010

Study: Health law could mean penalties for one in three employers

News outlets covered analyses of health law provisions affecting businesses. "About one-third of employers subject to major requirements of the new health care law may face tax penalties because they offer health insurance that could be considered unaffordable to some employees, a new study says," The New York Times reports.

24 May 2010

Toshiba launches new Web site for patients receiving diagnostic imaging exams

To help patients work with their physicians to better understand medical imaging, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. has launched myimagingexam.com, an educational resource Web site for patients receiving diagnostic imaging exams. The new site provides educational tools for patients to download and use with their physician before undergoing a medical imaging exam to better understand the imaging process and manage their own health.

24 May 2010

First Edition: May 24, 2010

Irene Wielawski writes for Kaiser Health News that electronic medical records may be as important as stethoscopes. "Dr. David Blumenthal was not happy to find a new computer installed on his desk when he showed up for work one morning eight years ago at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He knew the hospital had been hard at work on developing an electronic medical record system, but Blumenthal wasn't keen on changing practices that had served him and his patients just fine over the years.

24 May 2010

Spectrum Health receives MEDSEEK's 2010 eHealth Excellence Award

MEDSEEK, the industry's only provider of the eHealth ecoSystemTM, announced today that Spectrum Health was awarded MEDSEEK's 2010 eHealth Excellence Award for outstanding vision, innovation and performance in using eHealth technology to enhance care delivery, information access and service. The award was presented at MEDSEEK's 10th Annual eHealth Client Congress in San Diego, Calif., on May 5, 2010.

24 May 2010

Majority parents feel they should decide on vaccination for their children, not the government : Harris Interactive poll

A new Harris Interactive poll shows a majority of American parents believe they, rather than the government, should have the final say in which vaccines their children receive.

24 May 2010

DCA implements Demandforce D3 to improve patient communications

Demandforce, the leader in consumer demand creation for small-businesses, has been chosen by Dental Care Alliance, a Dental Service Organization, as their patient communication software system. Dental Care Alliance has 76 affiliated dental practices in seven states throughout the East Coast and is continuing to expand into new regions.

24 May 2010

Researchers call for changes to the UK residential home care system

Researchers from the University of the West England, Bristol and the University of Warwick are calling for changes to the UK residential home care system to ensure older people have a 'home for life' and are not pushed out to hospitals or nursing homes unnecessarily.

24 May 2010

State roundup: Genetic testing on campus, Texas docs in Mass., and more

"A plan by the University of California, Berkeley to voluntarily test the DNA of incoming freshman has come under fire from critics who said the school was pushing an unproven technology on impressionable students. The university has said it will send test kits to 5,500 new students to analyze genes that help control the body's responses to alcohol, dairy products and folic acid" (Wohlsen, 5/21).

24 May 2010