Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

JAMA column outlines need for frozen, larger specimens in DNA-sequencing era

Genetic sequencing technology is altering the way cancer is diagnosed and treated, but traditional specimen handling methods threaten to slow that progress.

7 Jan 2013

California Nurses Association, National Union Of Healthcare Workers join forces

The move could change the scope of labor battles statewide and renew a rivalry between the nurses organization and the Service Employees International Union, according to media reports.

7 Jan 2013

Research roundup: Gearing children's hospitals for future patients; Inappropriate care decreases, but not 'enough'; What patients think about testing

Researchers in this study examined the use of children's hospitals by relatively healthy children and those "with chronic conditions of varying medical complexity" from 2004 to 2009.

6 Jan 2013

Training can improve inpatient record documentation

The accuracy and completeness of inpatient medical records can be significantly improved with clinical interventions designed to develop quality record keeping, research shows.

4 Jan 2013

Cost-effectiveness findings for naloxone revealed

Researchers have found that naloxone distribution to heroin users could reduce the number of deaths from overdose while being cost-effective.

4 Jan 2013

ReadSoft reaches agreement with global healthcare manufacturing company

ReadSoft North America has reached an agreement with a global manufacturing company in the healthcare sector.

4 Jan 2013

A closer look at latest 'doc fix'

As part of the fiscal deal, a scheduled cut in Medicare physician payment rates was postponed -- but its 10-year price tag is being borne by other health care players, especially hospitals.

4 Jan 2013

ThromboGenics to launch JETREA in the U.S. on Jan. 14

ThromboGenics NV, an integrated biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative ophthalmic medicines, confirms its JETREA US launch date of Monday January 14th, 2013.

4 Jan 2013

Despite uncertainty, 2012 was good year for hospital stocks

Hospital stocks ended 2012 posting big gains despite a year that was filled with uncertainty regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. When the closing bell rang Dec. 31, HCA, Nashville, the largest investor-owned chain, was trading 37% higher than it was on the last trading day of 2011.

4 Jan 2013

State restrictions on abortions slow in 2012, but still second most ever

A new Guttmacher Institute report finds that the number of new abortion restrictions passed by states in 2012 was down from 2011, but that the year still saw the second most new rules on the procedure ever.

4 Jan 2013

Fiscal deal political fallout will likely shape future Medicare, entitlement spending battles

News outlets continue to analyze how the fiscal deal will set the table for future deficit debates and when some of the difficult spending issues could again take center stage.

4 Jan 2013

Viewpoints: McConnell says spending cuts are coming; Plea to Kan. governor to rethink insurance exchange

Predictably, the President is already claiming that his tax hike on the "rich" isn't enough. I have news for him: the moment that he and virtually every elected Democrat in Washington signed off on the terms of the current arrangement, it was the last word on taxes.

4 Jan 2013

Hobby Lobby won't offer contraception coverage, defying health law and rulings; States face implementation battles

After losing a last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court, craft stores chain Hobby Lobby said it would defy a federal health care mandate requiring employers to provide their workers with insurance that covers emergency contraceptives.

4 Jan 2013

Roundup: Ill. to scrutinize Medicaid eligibility; 20% of Fla. nursing homes on 'watch' list; Conn.'s 'inadequate' mental health care system

Fort Pierce resident Cathi Odom recently learned that her mother's nursing home is one of 140 on the state's "Watch List." Families for Better Care, a citizen advocacy organization, found that one in five facilities in Florida are on that list for not meeting state standards, or for not making corrections quickly enough. Twelve of the homes have been on the watch list for more than 100 days. Brian Lee, executive director for Families for Better Care, says that is unacceptable.

4 Jan 2013

Alcohol-impregnated disinfection caps would prevent 21 CLABSIs and four deaths each year

Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) dropped by 52 percent when an alcohol-impregnated disinfection cap was used instead of standard scrubbing protocol, according to a new study published in the January issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

3 Jan 2013

Service integration promotes viable outpatient palliative care

Healthcare reforms that promote integration of care across treatment settings facilitate feasible and cost-effective outpatient palliative care, suggest findings from a sustainable community-based model of care.

3 Jan 2013

Racial disparities in hospital care of US children

The US healthcare system needs to undergo further reform if racial disparities in pediatric surgical care are to be addressed, report researchers.

3 Jan 2013

$Bayer, Onyx announce data from Nexavar Phase 3 trial on RAI-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer$

Bayer, Onyx announce data from Nexavar Phase 3 trial on RAI-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that a Phase 3 trial of Nexavar (sorafenib) tablets in patients with locally advanced or metastatic radioactive iodine-refractory (RAI) differentiated thyroid cancer has met its primary endpoint of a statistically significant improvement of progression-free survival.

3 Jan 2013

Congressional accord preserves Medicare doctor pay

The deal averts for one year a 26.5 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients. It also repeals the long-term care provision of the 2010 health overhaul.

3 Jan 2013