Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Diabetes tests: an interview with Dr. Danielle Stowasser

Diabetes is a serious condition that causes high levels of glucose (a type of sugar) in the blood. There are three main types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2 diabetes, which are lifelong conditions, and gestational diabetes, which only occurs in women during pregnancy.

3 Dec 2012

Hospice Compassus publicly reveals patient quality data

Hospice Compassus, a Nashville, Tenn.-based company that operates a nationwide network of hospice programs, has become the first hospice provider in the U.S. to publicly reveal patient quality data.

3 Dec 2012

Ansell introduces GAMMEX N95 Respirator and Surgical Mask

Ansell, a global leader in protection solutions today announced the latest addition to its Active Infection Protection (AIP) portfolio, the GAMMEX N95 Respirator and Surgical Mask, extending the AIP range beyond surgical gloves.

3 Dec 2012

Administrative data quantify hospital infection risk

Administrative hospital data can successfully quantify the incidence of healthcare-associated urinary tract infection, indicating the data's potential use for risk monitoring and surveillance of this frequent occurrence, show systematic review results.

3 Dec 2012

First Edition: December 3, 2012

For years, King/Drew provided emergency, trauma and inpatient care to residents from throughout South Los Angeles. After a series of medical errors resulted in patient deaths, Los Angeles County closed it in 2007. County officials promised the community a better, safer new medical center in a few years.

3 Dec 2012

BVM Capital makes seed round investment in Fitness Interactive Experience

BVM Capital today announced that it has made a seed round investment in health and fitness gaming innovator Fitness Interactive Experience (FIX). FIX is dedicated to helping people achieve enhanced levels of fitness and health by making fitness fun, accessible and socially connected through harnessing the power of massively multiplayer on-line games. FIX is developing an interactive social media platform designed to make the pursuit of fitness an engaging and enjoyable game.

3 Dec 2012

Heart attack centres: an interview with Dr Sayan Sen

Heart attack networks are designed to facilitate the rapid transfer of heart attack patients to centres with facilities that allow the manual unblocking of the coronary artery with angioplasty.

3 Dec 2012

HHS releases new insurance exchange rules, includes controversial surcharges

Health insurance companies will have to pay to play in new health insurance markets coming under President Barack Obama's health care law, the administration said in a regulatory notice issued Friday. The Health and Human Services department is proposing a "user fee" amounting to 3.5 percent of premiums for health insurers who want to offer policies in new federal exchanges coming in 2014.

2 Dec 2012

Cedars-Sinai surgeons use evidence-based protocols to reduce post-operative infections

Surgical teams at Cedars-Sinai have reduced surgical site infections by more than 60 percent for patients who undergo colorectal procedures by introducing evidence-based protocols that are easy to follow and relatively low in cost.

1 Dec 2012

Fiscal crisis, thoughts of sequestration cause provider angst

If the "fiscal cliff's" scheduled cuts take effect, physicians will face a 2 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursements. Separately, however, they also are confronting a 27 percent pay cut as a result of the failure to fix the Medicare physician payment formula.

1 Dec 2012

Tour DaVita helps raise $0.9M to support 2012 Bridge of Life

DaVita, a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners, Inc. and a leading provider of kidney care services announced that its annual charity bike ride, Tour DaVita, raised $900,000 to support Bridge of Life—DaVita Medical MissionsTM in 2012.

1 Dec 2012

Studies show possibility of improving healthcare by tackling problem in standardized way

Given the right equipment, training and skill, an individual surgeon can expect to provide the best possible care on a consistent basis.

1 Dec 2012

Students from ASU graduate programs visit Africa to study health care and building design

Students from four of Arizona State University's graduate programs traveled to a country known as the Land of 1,000 Hills to study health care and building design in one of Africa's most impoverished areas.

1 Dec 2012

New Weill Cornell campaign to improve hypertension prevention, detection and control

The Weill Cornell Physician Organization at Weill Cornell Medical College has joined more than 120 medical groups and health systems nationwide to launch the new health campaign Measure Up, Pressure Down aimed to improve high blood pressure prevention, detection and control.

1 Dec 2012

New national healthcare campaign aims at controlling high blood pressure

A majority of patients can't recall whether their physician mentioned their blood pressure numbers and among patients with high blood pressure, only 56 percent say they talked with their doctor about ways to reduce their high blood pressure, according to a new survey released today by the American Medical Group Foundation, the nonprofit education and research arm of the American Medical Group Association.

1 Dec 2012

Current hospital cleaning protocol may be inadequate to rid MDR A. baumannii

Current hospital cleaning protocol may be inadequate to rid patient rooms of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii, according to a study in the December issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

1 Dec 2012

Researchers study antimicrobial peptides in fish gills to find solution for blocking human infections

Living in an environment teaming with bacteria and fungi, fish have evolved powerful defenses against waterborne pathogens, including antimicrobial peptides located in their gills. Undergraduate researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are studying the biology and the mechanics of one of those peptides with the hope they can use that knowledge to create engineered surfaces that kill bacteria responsible for foodborne illnesses and hospital-acquired infections.

1 Dec 2012

Mo. governor wants Medicaid expansion; Other states consider health exchanges

After mulling the controversial decision, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said Thursday he wants the state to expand Medicaid, a key part of the health law, but he faces substantial opposition from Republicans who control the legislature. Meanwhile, some states continue to wrestle with issues related to health exchanges.

30 Nov 2012

Deficiencies in sensory information processing can explain complex symptoms of schizophrenia

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the VA San Diego Healthcare System have found that deficiencies in the neural processing of simple auditory tones can evolve into a cascade of dysfunctional information processing across wide swaths of the brain in patients with schizophrenia.

30 Nov 2012

Clinical trial shows effectiveness of ponatinib in patients with leukemia and lymphoma

Huntsman Cancer Institute researchers Michael Deininger, M.D., Ph.D., and Thomas O'Hare, Ph.D., were part of a team that found a potent oral drug, ponatinib, effective in patients who have developed resistance to standard treatments for chronic myeloid leukemia and Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic lymphoma.

30 Nov 2012