Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Neptune launches Onemia medical food

Neptune Technologies & Bioressources Inc. enters the pharmaceutical market with the launch of Onemia™, the first medical food of Neptune's subsidiary Acasti Pharma Inc.. Only two years since its foundation, Acasti has completed the development and launch of "Onemia™" on October 21, 2010 at the Cardiometabolic Health Congress meeting in Boston.

25 Oct 2010

Biomerix enters distribution agreement with Medline

Biomerix Corporation, a medical technology company developing and manufacturing innovative hernia repair products, today announced that it has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Medline Industries, Inc., the nation's largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of medical and surgical products in the United States.

25 Oct 2010

Sorin announces full and final settlement of Department of Justice's Ela Medical investigation

Sorin Group, a global medical device company and a leader in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, announced today that it has concluded a full and final settlement of the United States Department of Justice investigation into sales and marketing practices of its subsidiary Ela Medical, Inc. and of former independent sales representatives. Tentative settlement had been previously announced by the Group on March 12th, 2010.

25 Oct 2010

Canon to showcase imageFORMULA document scanning portfolio at MGMA Annual Conference

Reflecting the increased need for medical practices and healthcare facilities to streamline patient record processes in order to increase efficiency across a range of insurance and billing functions, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, will showcase an array of workflow simplifying solutions from its innovative imageFORMULA document scanning portfolio, including the new ScanFront 300P network scanner, at the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) 2010 Annual Conference, October 24-27, 2010 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

25 Oct 2010

O2h to provide ADME services to Sentinel Oncology under new extended contract

Executives from Sentinel Oncology Limited (Cambridge,UK) signed an agreement with O2h (Ahmedabad, India) to extend the number of FTEs working for Sentinel Oncology. Under this new contract, O2h will also provide ADME services to Sentinel Oncology.

25 Oct 2010

Saint Francis HealthCare Partners and Phytel partner to achieve NCQA recognition

Saint Francis HealthCare Partners announced today that it has selected Phytel to help achieve NCQA recognition as a patient-centered medical home and will be rolling out Phytel's unique care coordination and population health management solution, Proactive Patient Outreach, in November.

25 Oct 2010

Experts identify efficient way to increase minority access to colorectal cancer screening

Minority patients have a significantly decreased survival from colon cancer compared to white patients, most often as a result of a late diagnosis. To help address this problem, a team of healthcare professionals at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has identified an efficient way to increase minority access to lifesaving colorectal cancer screening (CRCS) in communities where multiple barriers to preventive care exist.

25 Oct 2010

State officials adopt standards for insurers' expenses

The New York Times: "State insurance commissioners on Thursday unanimously endorsed tough new standards that would require many health insurance companies to spend more of each premium dollar for the benefit of consumers. The new federal health care law stipulates that at least 80 percent of premium revenue must be spent on medical care and 'activities that improve health care quality' for patients — not retained as profits or used to pay executive compensation and administrative expenses.

25 Oct 2010

Incidence of KPC-producing bacteria is rising in Chicago

In a survey of Chicago-area healthcare facilities, researchers at Rush University Medical Center and the Cook County Department of Public Health have found that the incidence of KPC-producing bacteria is rising. These bugs cause infections with high mortality rates and are resistant to the most commonly used antibiotics.

25 Oct 2010

Joint Commission: Medical errors in hospitals tied to 'handoffs' of patients

The Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals, released an update on a collaborative project with 10 health systems tragetting the frequent errors that happen in hospitals when a patient is handed off from one provider to another.

25 Oct 2010

CPSC and child safety organizations release new crib safety video

Today, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) joined three child safety organizations at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital to release "Safe Sleep for Babies," a new crib safety video aimed at helping all new parents avoid suffocation, strangulation and entrapment risks in the sleep environment. CPSC also is announcing three new recalls of dangerous drop-side cribs.

25 Oct 2010

UC San Diego researchers receive two federal grants for biomedical informatics

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, led by Lucila Ohno-Machado, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Biomedical Informatics in the Department of Medicine, have received two federal grants totaling more than $25 million to develop new ways to gather, analyze, use and share vast, ever-increasing amounts of biomedical information.

25 Oct 2010

Daschle says GOP might defund health plan, and other overhaul news

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, tells Kaiser Health News that a Republican strategy to defund the health law may be an effective way for the plan's opponents to unravel it.

25 Oct 2010

State Watch: N.Y. approves rate hikes; Arizona referendum on health insurance mandate; Md. insurer cuts broker fees

The Sacramento Bee: "A Sacramento federal judge has ordered the state to keep providing adult dental, podiatric and chiropractic services to poor people in underserved rural areas until it gets permission from federal health authorities to discontinue the benefits. U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. ruled Wednesday that, while the services are not mandatory under the federal Medicaid program (Medi-Cal in California), the Legislature's decision to end them last year as a cost-saving measure was unlawful without federal approval.

25 Oct 2010

GE Healthcare signs definitive agreement to acquire Clarient

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company and Clarient, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement for GE Healthcare to acquire Clarient, a leading player in the fast-growing molecular diagnostics sector.

25 Oct 2010

ISTSS to honor Vietnam veteran with Lifetime Achievement Award

Joseph Boscarino, Ph.D, M.P.H.,will be recognized by the International Society of Traumatic Stress (ISTSS) with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the research of traumatic stress.

25 Oct 2010

72% of patients misdiagnosed with pneumonia upon readmission : Study

Patients were misdiagnosed with pneumonia at an alarming rate when they were readmitted to the hospital shortly after a previous hospitalization for the same illness, according to two Henry Ford Hospital companion studies.

25 Oct 2010

FDA approves LO LOESTRIN FE tablets for oral contraception

Warner Chilcott plc (Nasdaq: WCRX) today announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved LO LOESTRIN FE (norethindrone acetate and ethinyl estradiol tablets, ethinyl estradiol tablets and ferrous fumarate tablets) for the prevention of pregnancy.

25 Oct 2010

FDA approves REMS for NUVIGIL and PROVIGIL tablets

Cephalon, Inc. today announced that Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) for its medications NUVIGIL (armodafinil) Tablets [C-IV] and PROVIGIL (modafinil) Tablets [C-IV] have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

25 Oct 2010

Transcend announces acquisition of Spryance

TRANSCEND SERVICES, INC. a leading provider of clinical documentation services to the U.S. healthcare market, announced today that it has acquired Spryance, Inc. and its subsidiaries on October 21, 2010.

22 Oct 2010