Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

New MRSA ‘superbug’ worries experts

A deadly mutant bug could be spreading among the public warn experts. The deadly strain of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) called USA300 passes easily through skin-to-skin contact. It can also survive on surfaces and so has the potential to be picked up on crowded buses and tubes. The first cases were seen in the US but cases are now being reported in the community and not just hospitals in Britain.

3 Feb 2012

Setting the scene for the Supreme Court’s consideration of the health law

Two state attorneys general will face off at the National Press Club on the constitutionality of the health overhaul. In other news, a Mississippi district court judge has agreed to hear a different legal challenge to the measure.

3 Feb 2012

With clock ticking, negotiators seek ways to pay for payroll tax, 'doc fix'

Lawmakers have different ideas about financing the payroll tax break extension and the Medicare physician payment fix. One proposal getting a lot of attention is using war savings.

3 Feb 2012

MD Anderson study defines value in health care

A team from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is receiving a national award for a research article tackling a question vital to the future of health care with reform regulations looming, competition growing and costs rising.

3 Feb 2012

Pertuzumab plus trastuzumab and docetaxel has advantages over current clinical gold-standard treatment

Roche/Genentech/Chugai's pertuzumab plus trastuzumab (Roche/Genentech/Chugai's Herceptin) and docetaxel (Sanofi's Taxotere, generics) will become Decision Resources' proprietary clinical gold-standard treatment for metastatic first-line HER2-positive breast cancer in 2015.

3 Feb 2012

House votes to repeal CLASS Act — A part of the 2010 health law

The GOP-led push to repeal this long-term care insurance program, which the Obama administration already made clear it would not implement, drew some Democratic votes. During floor speeches, Republican lawmakers cast it as a barrier to achieving a real reform.

3 Feb 2012

AHF calls for top to bottom shake-up of management at FDA

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today called for a top to bottom shake-up of the management at the Food and Drug Administration as well as a Congressional investigation following the publication of a Washington Post news article (1/31/12) that reported, "…the Food and Drug Administration secretly monitored the personal e-mail of a group of its own scientists and doctors after they warned Congress that the agency was approving medical devices that they believed posed unacceptable risks to patients."

3 Feb 2012

QR-code real-time care experience feedback technology wins 2012 REACH Developer Challenge

"Real-Time Care Experience Feedback Using QR Codes," a Penn State project that allows hospital patients to inform hospital personnel of their experiences -- good or bad -- in real time, is the winner of the 2012 REACH Developer Challenge, sponsored by AcademyHealth and part of the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge.

3 Feb 2012

CNA/NNU announce support for Millionaires Tax of 2012 initiative

With ongoing cuts to healthcare, education, and other basic services, and greater national income disparity than during the Depression, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United today announced its support for the Millionaires Tax of 2012 initiative.

3 Feb 2012

Enrollment opens in sorafenib vs. radioembolization in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma trial

'SARAH' - a French national collaborative randomized controlled trial of radioembolization with yttrium-90 resin microspheres versus sorafenib in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma is now open for recruitment

3 Feb 2012

Uproar follows Komen-Planned Parenthood rift

Anti-abortion activists applaud the move, but many other women's health advocates are angered the well-known breast cancer advocacy group has opted against helping another prominent women's health organization.

3 Feb 2012

GE Healthcare introduces configurable patient portal, Centricity Patient Online 13

In response to customer demand for a better way to interact with patients in an increasingly self-service climate, GE Healthcare today introduced Centricity Patient Online 13. Centricity Patient Online is a flexible, scalable, and highly configurable patient portal designed for large healthcare organizations.

3 Feb 2012

Concussions linked with number of hits received by football players

A two-year study of high school football players suggests that concussions are likely caused by many hits over time and not from a single blow to the head, as commonly believed.

3 Feb 2012

State roundup: Iowa Senate provides $5M for mental health; UMass health to cut 6% of workforce; Judge considers making Wash. pharmacies sell Plan B

The bill also allocates $5 million more from what is known as the Mental Health Risk Pool. The pool was created about a decade ago to keep counties with financial shortfalls from denying care to people with mental disorders or retardation. Linn County, for example, will receive $1.2 million of the extra money.

3 Feb 2012

Merck receives FDA approval for JANUMET XR to treat type 2 diabetes

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved JANUMET XR (sitagliptin and metformin hydrochloride extended-release) tablets, a new treatment for type 2 diabetes that combines sitagliptin, which is the active component of JANUVIA (sitagliptin), with extended-release metformin.

3 Feb 2012

Websites advertising statins for sale contain poor levels of safety information

A new study published in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety reveals that internet sites selling prescription statins directly to consumers are widespread, and that most websites advertising statins for sale to the general public contain very poor levels of information relevant to safe use of the medicine and side effects.

3 Feb 2012

HHS essential benefits 'bulletin' draws tide of comments

As the official window of time allowed for groups to react to the Department of Health and Human Services essential benefits proposal closed, a variety of objections, concerns and common themes became clear.

3 Feb 2012

Medicare Advantage enrollment climbs, premiums fall

Medicare Advantage enrollments have risen a bigger-than-expected 10 percent since this time last year as average premiums have fallen 7 percent, the Department of Health and Human Services disclosed Wednesday.

3 Feb 2012

Hinchingbrooke Hospital privatization – a first in UK healthcare

Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire becomes the first NHS hospital to be run entirely by a private company called Circle. This new company is co-owned by its employees. The new administration has taken on the previous debt and it intends to make the hospital into one of the top ten in the country.

2 Feb 2012

$Heart burn drugs and hip fractures in postmenopausal women smokers: Study establishes link$

Heart burn drugs and hip fractures in postmenopausal women smokers: Study establishes link

A new study shows that postmenopausal women with a history of smoking who take heartburn drugs called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for two years or longer may be more likely to sustain a hip fracture. The risk rises with longer use say researchers. But the risk does disappear after women stop taking these drugs for two years. Further women who never smoked were not at increased risk for hip fracture even if they took PPIs regularly, the study showed. The new findings appear in the journal BMJ.

2 Feb 2012