Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

New Regenstrief initiative to encourage and propel innovation

Integrating some of the best new practices of industry into the strengths of the academic research process, the Regenstrief Institute is launching an initiative to encourage and propel innovation. The Institute has over 40 years of experience as an international leader in improving healthcare delivery.

18 Oct 2011

Stochastic frontier estimation can identify problem of bias in self-reporting

Most people are rather vague when reporting on food and drink consumption, smoking and exercise habits. General practitioners, however, are skilled at interpreting phrases such as "I only have a few drinks rarely...each week" and "I get to the gym regularly" and can estimate based on symptoms and a person's physical appearance just how precise those claims are. However, it is crucial for healthcare research and epidemiology that relies on patient self-reporting that we find a more objective, rather than intuitive, way to identify bias in self-reporting.

18 Oct 2011

Takeda commences TAK-875 Phase 3 clinical trial program for type 2 diabetes

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Takeda Global Research & Development Center, Inc., and Takeda Global Research & Development Centre (Europe), Ltd., announced today the initiation of the Company's Phase 3 clinical trial program for TAK-875, an investigational therapy for type 2 diabetes.

18 Oct 2011

AHRQ: Asthma drug usage among children doubles

The proportion of children who used a prescribed controller drug to treat their asthma doubled from 29 percent in 1997-1998 to 58 percent in 2007-2008, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

18 Oct 2011

vRad announces premier radiology partnership with ICON

Virtual Radiologic (vRad), a technology-enabled national radiology practice, has announced a premier radiology partnership with ICON Medical Imaging (ICON), the medical imaging division of ICON plc.

18 Oct 2011

Viewpoints: Class Act's effect on health law; new prescriptions for Medicare; food marketing to kids

Now that one of ObamaCare's major new benefit programs has been scrapped, liberals are trying to make stone soup by claiming that the Obama Administration merely committed an act of "good government." They claim that when this long-term care insurance program proved to be unworkable, the Administration conceded as much, and now it's gone. So let's review the evidence, not least because it so perfectly illustrates the recklessness that produced the Affordable Care Act.

18 Oct 2011

Scientists discover enzyme that acts as a 'fertility switch'

Scientists have discovered an enzyme that acts as a 'fertility switch', in a study published in Nature Medicine today. High levels of the protein are associated with infertility, while low levels make a woman more likely to have a miscarriage, the research has shown.

18 Oct 2011

BGS journal highlights lack of designated service provision for older addicts

There is an increasing prevalence of substance problems in older people but a lack of designated service provision to help treat older addicts highlights an editorial published today in Age & Ageing, the official journal of the British Geriatrics Society.

18 Oct 2011

UEA scientists to assess future impact of global warming on allergic diseases

A new study by an international team of scientists including the University of East Anglia (UEA) will assess the future impact of global warming on allergic diseases.

18 Oct 2011

Roundup: Many who swarmed LA free clinic last year are still without health care; Texas Planned Parenthood clinic struggles

They came with rotting teeth, shattered glasses and broken bodies. In the predawn darkness outside the Los Angeles Sports Arena, they lined up last year by the thousands, waiting as the sun burned their backs for healthcare they could not afford. Many needed more than the volunteer doctors and dentists at the Remote Area Medical clinic could give. When the glasses ran out, they settled for eye exams. Instead of root canals, they got teeth pulled. They pointed to the holes in their smiles with relief. At least the pain had stopped.

18 Oct 2011

National award encourages bio-science student researchers

A key challenge for the bio-sciences sector is to keep its best research graduates in science and in Australia. The national student awards recognise and encourage promising research students and raise awareness of biosciences research translation and applications.

17 Oct 2011

New series on child abuse on UBM Medica's Pediatrics Consultant Live

UBM Medica's Pediatrics Consultant Live has a new series called "Child Abuse–or Mimic?" which helps clinicians distinguish cases of child abuse from pediatric disease or mere accidents.

15 Oct 2011

Founder of Every Mother Counts to address AAP National Conference

Fashion model and Global Maternal Health Advocate Christy Turlington Burns will speak at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on International Child Health meeting at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition in Boston on Saturday, Oct. 15, from 4:15-5 p.m. ET.

15 Oct 2011

Prevention training critical to reduction of hospital infection rates

Infections picked up in hospital affect almost a third of patients in intensive care, and kill 44% of those people. Given that some infectious agents can linger for weeks or months it is increasingly important that staff awareness of the problem is improved and that training in infection prevention across the National Health Service and in private healthcare is expanded, according to researchers at the University of Northampton.

15 Oct 2011

Omron's home monitors can help control high blood pressure

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), recent estimates project that as many as one in three American adults will have diabetes in 2050. The ADA has named the month of November American Diabetes Month to help educate people on simple ways they can help manage, control and even prevent early signs of the disease - such as high blood pressure.

15 Oct 2011

National Health Service Corp. nearly triples in size, according to HHS

Funding from the health care law and the 2009 stimulus bill helped drive the increase in the loan-repayment and scholarship program, which grew from about 3,600 clinicians in 2008 to more than 10,000 this year.

15 Oct 2011

Sebelius on the CLASS Act: 'I do not see a viable path forward'

The Obama administration has decided to halt plans to implement the long-term care program in the 2010 health care law after determining that financing mechanisms were not sufficient.

15 Oct 2011

Blue Shield of Calif. adds additional $283 million to policyholder 'giveback'

Blue Shield of California says it will give customers in the state a $283-million credit on their insurance premiums, saying it is fulfilling a promise to return money to policyholders when its net income exceeds 2 percent of revenue.

15 Oct 2011

Panel gets earful of advice on taming the federal deficit

Among the messages to the super committee members: caution. Meanwhile, Democratic governors expressed fears about deep cuts in federal aid to their states, especially regarding Medicaid and other entitlement programs. Hospital advocacy groups also carried a similar message about treading lightly in regard to trimming Medicaid funding.

15 Oct 2011

Six new Bristol-Myers Squibb grants to reduce cancer disparities in CEE

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation today announced six new grants totaling more than $900,000 that focus on improving cancer awareness, prevention and care by developing cancer nursing skills and building nurse-community partnerships in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Russia.

15 Oct 2011