Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Billion-dollar Davita deal highlights movement toward mergers, accountable care organizations

This particular deal, in which DaVita will acquire HealthCare Partners, will enable the dialysis services provider to offer a more integrated group of services that fall under the ACO model that the government is trying to encourage.

23 May 2012

Progress report on health law's risk adjustment rule; Status check on state-based exchanges

News outlets offer updates regarding state progress related to developing the health law's insurance exchanges, the timing for risk adjustment rules and the release of the final federal rule on the health insurance premium tax credit.

23 May 2012

MDxHealth announces availability of ConfirmMDx for Prostate Cancer test

MDxHealth SA, a leading molecular diagnostic company that develops and commercializes epigenetic tests to support cancer treatment, today announced it has presented data demonstrating that its epigenetic ConfirmMDx for Prostate Cancer test can aid urologists in identifying patients who may avoid a repeat prostate biopsy.

23 May 2012

Women and their loved ones are affected by gout: Survey

An online survey conducted by Red Hot Mamas North America, Inc. found that women and their loved ones are significantly affected by very painful bouts of gout, which they consider to be chronic and severe. Respondents indicated that although the debilitating pain associated with the condition affects quality of life, many individuals are prescribed medications meant to control the condition which they are not taking.

23 May 2012

Enrollment complete in Baxano’s iO-Flex System study

Baxano, Inc., a Silicon Valley based medical device company and manufacturer of the iO-Flex System used in spinal decompression surgery, today announced it has completed enrollment in its iO-Flex Study.

23 May 2012

Cooper Green installs Medsphere's OpenVista EHR

MedsphereSystems Corporation and Cooper Green Mercy Hospital today announced that Cooper Green has gone live on Medsphere's OpenVista open source electronic health record (EHR).

22 May 2012

Medtronic fourth quarter revenue increases 4% to $4.297 billion

Medtronic, Inc. today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended April 27, 2012.

From Medtronic 22 May 2012

First Edition: May 22, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about a lawsuit brought by Catholic organizations against the Obama administration's contraception coverage rule and a new recommendation on PSA screening by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

22 May 2012

GE Healthcare, KUH partner to drive advances in cell therapy technologies

Karolinska University Hospital Sweden and GE Healthcare Life Sciences today announced a joint research collaboration to drive advances in technologies and workflows for use in the rapidly emerging field of cell therapy.

22 May 2012

Study explores what factors drive health care spending

A report out today from the Health Care Cost Institute analyzed what insurers and households paid for medical care from 2007 to 2010.

22 May 2012

AAPA honors Portsmouth physician assistant with Humanitarian PA of the Year Award

When Jack Gardner, PA-C, of Portsmouth, N.H., left a successful business career 12 years ago to become a physician assistant, he did not anticipate the number of lives he would touch as he pursued his dream to provide medical care to those in need.

22 May 2012

CTCA wins 2012 HealthGrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award

Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at Midwestern Regional Medical Center (Midwestern) proudly announced today that it has received the 2012 HealthGrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award -- one of only four recipients in all of Chicagoland, one of 13 in Illinois, and one of 332 nationwide to receive the prestigious award. This is the third consecutive year that CTCA at Midwestern has been recognized with the honor.

22 May 2012

AAPA honors Touro University founder with PA Service to the Underserved Award

Three years ago, Vicki Chan-Padgett, PA-C, of Las Vegas, Nev., stumbled upon a troubling reality within the city's healthcare sector. Thousands of women and their children who were homeless or survivors of domestic abuse could not afford much-needed healthcare. Inspired to take action, Chan-Padgett opened a first-of-its-kind clinic to provide free, high-quality healthcare to Las Vegas women and children who need it most.

22 May 2012

Bayer’s Nexavar Phase 3 trial on NSCLC does not meet primary endpoint

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that a Phase 3 trial evaluating Nexavar (sorafenib) tablets in patients with advanced relapsed or refractory non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed after two or three previous treatments, did not meet its primary endpoint of improving overall survival.

22 May 2012

USPSTF issues final recommendation statement against PSA testing

The Prostate Cancer Roundtable expressed deep disappointment today as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued its final recommendation statement against the use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing in the detection of prostate cancer.

22 May 2012

Socioeconomic factors associated with skin cancer screening

When it comes to getting screened for skin cancer, only one in 14 U.S. Hispanic adults is shown to have ever gone through the process, compared to one in four non-Hispanic white adults. Research from The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) shows socioeconomic factors such as lack of health insurance and poorer access to healthcare serve as barriers for Hispanics who might otherwise receive this potentially lifesaving check-up.

22 May 2012

Airway inflammation linked with asthma-related mortality rates in older adults

Higher mortality rates among older adult asthma patients compared to their younger counterparts may be due, at least in part, to an increase in airway inflammation, according to a study conducted by researchers in Canada, who note that their results imply that elderly patients are either less likely to follow asthma medication dosing instructions, or that the underlying airway inflammation in elderly patients is relatively resistant to current anti-inflammatory therapies.

22 May 2012

Noninvasive test can reduce feeding-related complications among premature infants

Tufts Medical Center researchers have shown that presence of a gene strongly linked to appetite regulation is highly predictive of a premature infant's readiness to feed orally. An analysis of just a drop of an infant's saliva could be the key to preventing many feeding problems and the expensive medical complications that can occur when infants are fed by mouth too early.

22 May 2012

Intermountain signs collaborative research agreement with Myriad

Intermountain Healthcare and Myriad Genetics today announced they have signed a collaborative research agreement. The purpose of this agreement is to perform research and validation studies on transformative molecular diagnostic tests being developed by Myriad in an effort to improve the care and treatments for patients at Intermountain and around the world.

22 May 2012