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$3.7 million to improve high blood pressure control

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has launched a $3.7 million, three-year educational effort to improve high blood pressure control nationwide.

5 Feb 2006

Share of pharmaceutical spending in total healthcare expenditure remains high across most EU countries

Most EU member states have publicly funded healthcare systems and the proportion of pharmaceutical expenditure, as a portion of GDP remains high, particularly in countries such as Italy, Portugal, France, Spain and Greece.

2 Feb 2006

NHS shake up will see hospital consultants working in the community

As part of the huge shake up of the nations health service in Britain, hospital consultants are facing the prospect of government ministers forcing them to work out in the community as part of a crackdown on the "wasted hours" of outpatient appointments.

29 Jan 2006

Depression in the elderly is under-reported

New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene this week announced that depression in senior citizens is "a serious and under diagnosed condition."

27 Jan 2006

British Health Secretary lists top hospital losers

As part of the shake up of the National Health Service in Britain the health secretary Patricia Hewitt has named the top worse managers.

26 Jan 2006

No more sickies - see the doc on the way to work!

This week will see the opening of the first two walk in medical centres in Britain.

24 Jan 2006

Breast cancer patients wrongly given the all-clear

In what is clearly an awful medical blunder, twenty-two women with breast cancer were wrongly given the all-clear after misdiagnoses by a radiologist at two hospitals in Manchester, UK.

24 Jan 2006

How to be an "expert patient" and save your hospital money

British health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, in an attempt to resolve the financial quagmire the National Health service has got itself into, is demanding that in future financial management be put ahead of clinical objectives.

23 Jan 2006

Do medical specialties reflect the current clinical needs of patients?

In an editorial opening the 2006 Jan issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics Giovanni A. fava (University of Bologna) criticizes the current subdivision of clinical medicine in subspecialties.

23 Jan 2006

Clearer framework needed to deal with the use of personal health data

Overly strict interpretation of the data protection law is hampering epidemiological research (the study of the causes, distribution, and control of disease in populations), argue researchers in this week's British Medical Journal.

23 Jan 2006

New initiative to transform US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today announced an initiative to transform the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps, which will enable this critical emergency response resource to address public health challenges more quickly and efficiently.

18 Jan 2006

Re-forming relationships in health care

Relationships among members of a medical team, between a patient and his caregivers, and between a medical team and a patient's family and social support network are crucial to the delivery of health care and to patient satisfaction with that care.

18 Jan 2006

New "reality" program will help those close to lung cancer victims quit smoking

Doctors in the U.S. have come up with a program which they hope will encourage the relatives and friends of lung cancer victims to quit smoking.

17 Jan 2006

Ontario challenges opening of private health clinics

The announcement by Copeman Healthcare Inc. that it intends to open private health clinics in some parts of Canada is being challenged by the Ontario Health Coalition.

16 Jan 2006

More nurses improves the quality of hospital care

A study in the January/February 2006 issue of the journal Health Affairsconcludes that increasing the number of registered nurses and hours of nursing care per patient would save 6,700 lives and 4 million days of patient care in hospitals each year.

10 Jan 2006

Psychiatric patients who smoke

An editorial in the January 2006 issue of the Psychiatric Bulletin reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of gene-based smoking cessation packages, and asks whether they are appropriate for psychiatric patients.

10 Jan 2006

Earlier access decline levels off; nearly 3 in 4 doctors accept all Medicare patients in 2004-05

Despite an earlier payment cut, the proportion of U.S. physicians willing to treat Medicare patients stabilized in 2004-05, with nearly three-quarters reporting their practices were open to all new Medicare patients, according to a national study released by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).

10 Jan 2006