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NYBC urges community to donate blood in recognition of Mother's Day

New York Blood Center and its divisions serving the 20 million people of New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and New Jersey call upon the community to please donate blood in recognition of Mother's Day and families everywhere who are brought together by lives saved through the selfless gifts given by blood donors.

4 May 2010

Baxter Healthcare's COLLEAGUE infusion pumps to be recalled

Baxter Healthcare Corporation today announced that it will recall COLLEAGUE infusion pumps from the U.S. market pursuant to an order under its existing June 2006 consent decree with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Baxter will work with the FDA to ensure that the recall process provides customers appropriate alternatives for supporting patients' needs.

4 May 2010

NIH awards UIC $10M grant to study health disparities among underserved, minority women with breast cancer

A $9.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health has been awarded to the University of Illinois at Chicago to study access to care and health disparities among underserved and minority women with breast cancer in Chicago.

4 May 2010

Funds needed for prevention of needle stick injuries to nurses

According to the Australian Nurses Federation (ANF) there are more than 18,000 reports of accidental needle stick injuries to nurses caused by syringes or other sharp items in Australia each year. This increases their risk of contracting deadly blood borne diseases like HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C etc. The authorities believe that these figures although alarming are not reflective of the true figures with many nurses choosing to keep their exposure under wraps.

3 May 2010

KHN column: Playing chicken

In his latest Kaiser Health News column, Jonathan Cohn writes: "A lot of people laughed when Sue Lowden, the Nevada Republican running for the U.S. Senate, suggested last month that people start paying for their medical care with chickens. I didn't. I thought about my late grandfather Kurt, a family doctor who practiced in Brooklyn starting in the 1940s.

3 May 2010

ACTS Retirement-Life Communities announces affiliation with PUMH, Heron Point

ACTS Retirement-Life Communities, one of the nation's largest not-for-profit senior living organizations, today announced that it has completed an affiliation with the Peninsula United Methodist Homes, Inc. (PUMH) and Heron Point of Chestertown (Heron Point), and will assume management and operation of four continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) in Delaware and Maryland.

3 May 2010

WHO, UNICEF issue guide, call for more research into medicines for children

Along with the release of a WHO-UNICEF guide on medicines for children, the U.N. agencies on Friday said the guide "exposed dangerous shortfalls" in medicines designed for children and called for more research into treating children, Reuters reports. "While effective medicines exist to fight disease and treat life-threatening conditions like malnutrition, formulations suitable for children are often difficult to source," Francisco Blanco, UNICEF's chief of medicines and nutrition, said, according to the news service.

3 May 2010

Health care practitioners call for national database to crack down on prescription drug abuse

The Associated Press reports on efforts in California, where "a state online drug database went into effect last year to thwart addicts who bounce from doctor to doctor to feed a habit or make a small fortune peddling meds" and efforts to set up a national program "to snare so-called doctor shoppers and curb drug abuse.

3 May 2010

PlusNews/IRIN examines HIV/AIDS elements of new adult mortality data

PlusNews/IRIN examines what the global adult mortality data, released Friday in the journal Lancet, suggests about HIV/AIDS. According to the news service, the study, based on an analysis of adult mortality rates between 1970 and 2010 in 187 countries, revealed: "HIV was key to reversing the worldwide decline in mortality from 1970 to 1990. Even though worldwide mortality is still about 26 percent lower than it was 40 years ago, there are regional imbalances.

3 May 2010

GOP, Democrats increasingly use health reform lessons to shape other policies

The Associated Press: Politics within the Republican Party are having a profound affect on sweeping policy issues "such as immigration, health care and deficit spending." The reason behind this development is that many incumbent Republicans are moving to the right to protect themselves against primary election challenges.

3 May 2010

Congress and the VA deal with complications of veterans' health care

The Associated Press/The Washington Post: Pressure from Congress telling the Department of Veterans Affairs that it should make it easier for veterans to settle their disability claims is seeing some controversy. "The system is dysfunctional, an open invitation to fraud. And the VA has proposed changes that could make deception even easier."

3 May 2010

Kids' health can suffer when parents must choose between health care and basic necessities

"The health of children is harmed when families are forced to choose between medical care and basic household necessities such as food, rent and utilities, a new study found," HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report writes. "The study included 6,447 low-income caregivers with children ranging in age from newborn to 3 years.

3 May 2010

Health law brings a 'host of new taxes' and billions in tax credits

The Washington Post/Fiscal Times: Tax credits and other breaks -- including $50 billion a year in subsidies for low-income people to buy insurance under the new health law -- were "worth more than $1 trillion to recipients last year. That's more than the government spent on Social Security, and nearly enough to balance the federal budget." These and other so-called "tax expenditures" could total $3 trillion by 2020.

3 May 2010

Ecolab launches new OptiPro Instrument Reprocessing Program

Ecolab Inc. today announced the launch of its new OptiPro™ Instrument Reprocessing Program, a comprehensive approach to instrument reprocessing that features Ecolab's solid technology and advanced formulations. The program is supported by Ecolab's service and training on industry best practices to achieve improved patient outcomes and process standardization. The announcement was made at the 2010 International Association of Healthcare Central Service Material Management Annual Meeting in San Diego.

3 May 2010

CQ examines foreign aid budget

CQ examines the challenges involved with passing the Obama administration's FY 2011 "budget request for the State Department and foreign operations." Though eight former secretaries of state recently urged Congress not to cut foreign aid, "lawmakers and aides involved in the appropriations process say that getting President [Barack] Obama all the money he wants will be a really tough sell."

3 May 2010

California community health centers face potentially crippling budget cuts

North Bay (Santa Rosa, Calif.) Business Journal: "While community health centers are widely seen as winners with the passage of a sweeping health bill in late March, such centers in California face potentially crippling state budget cuts, which could offset potential gains that won't take effect until 2014, according to clinic directors throughout the North Bay.

3 May 2010

Baltimore hospitals buying, consolidating doctors' practices in bid for efficiency

Hospitals and other systems in the Baltimore area are "buying practices, forming management agreements or structuring joint ventures with primary care practices that cannot afford to buy necessary electronic health records systems, hire more support staff or add another physician" in a bid to consolidate primary care in the area and lower overhead, the Baltimore Business Journal reports. For many doctors, the cost of doing business in a small, office-based setting is becoming prohibitive.

3 May 2010

Today's Opinions and Editorials: The end of insurance rescissions, lessons from the health care rollout and the deficit panel's tough decisions

A lot of people laughed when Sue Lowden, the Nevada Republican running for the U.S. Senate, suggested last month that people start paying for their medical care with chickens. I didn't (Jonathan Cohn, 5/3).

3 May 2010

eMix establishes first European distributor agreement with DFC Systems

eMix, the new business venture incubated by DR Systems, announced it has established its first European distributor agreement, with DFC Systems (Munich, Germany). Together with DFC, eMix will exhibit its cloud-based technology for sharing medical imaging studies and reports at the 91st German Radiology Congress.

3 May 2010

Calif. doctors say e-health saved lives; in Mich., doctors visit patients online

Reuters/The Washington Post: An electronic medical system first introduced in 2007 has shown a 20 percent drop in hospital deaths -- the equivalent of about 36 lives saved -- over 18-months at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto California, doctors there have found. The system, a computerized physician order entry, or CPOE, allows "doctors to relay prescriptions to pharmacists without delay, and without the need for the pharmacist to decipher doctors' scrawl."

3 May 2010