Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

First Edition: October 18, 2010

Today's news includes continuing coverage of the run-up to the mid-term elections and how health reform is playing in the discourse.

18 Oct 2010

New emergency care guidelines simplify CPR

New emergency care guidelines simplify performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and highlight the need for high quality CPR by addressing some of the barriers to performing CPR. The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, co-author of the 2010 Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC), released the guidelines today.

18 Oct 2010

African-American children have higher risk of hypertension

Persistently high blood pressure, or hypertension, may spell worse heart trouble for black children under the age of 13 than for other children of the same ages, according to research led by scientists at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and published in the November issue of Pediatrics.

18 Oct 2010

OSU's Personalized Health Care National Conference focuses on P4 Medicine

Healthcare consumers took center stage at today's annual Ohio State University Medical Center Personalized Health Care National Conference. Speakers focused on ways that P4 Medicine – which is predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory – can revolutionize healthcare by engaging and empowering patients.

18 Oct 2010

UK College of Medicine celebrates 50th anniversary

The year 2010 marks a significant date in the history of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. The festivities culminate on Oct. 15 with the Signature Event, held at the Keeneland Sales Pavilion. This year commemorates individuals who have been a part of the accomplishments of the past five decades and for those who will be a part of its bright future.

18 Oct 2010

Researchers to develop technologies that can mask horrid taste of children's medicines

A spoonful of sugar is the traditional way to help medicines 'go down'. But getting young children to take foul-tasting medicines - even if their lives depend on it - requires more than a bit of added sweetener. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), each year over eight million children die of diseases that could be avoided if essential medicines were available in appropriate formulations for children.

18 Oct 2010

ABCs of cardiopulmonary resuscitation re-arranged

The American Heart Association is re-arranging the ABCs of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in its 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

18 Oct 2010

ASTRO honors founder of The Oral Cancer Foundation

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has named Brian Hill of Newport Beach, Calif., as its 2010 Survivor Circle Award winner. Hill will be recognized with a trophy and a $1,000 prize during the Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, during ASTRO's 52nd Annual Meeting in San Diego. He has chosen to donate the funds from the award to benefit The Oral Cancer Foundation, the nonprofit he started a decade ago.

18 Oct 2010

FDA plans to revoke knee implant approval following intense political pressure for its approval

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said it planned to revoke a medical-device company's right to sell a knee implant called Menaflex after an unprecedented yearlong review concluded the agency erred in allowing it on the market

18 Oct 2010

The MedTech Conference highlights latest medical technologies

AdvaMed 2010 The MedTech Conference opens on Monday, October 18 with a series of free educational Executive Workshops focused on bringing products to the US markets, a 1/2 day entrepreneur bootcamp, and minimizing risk and global harmonization.

18 Oct 2010

Malpractice claims against hospitals pick up

The pace of malpractice claims against hospitals is picking up, according to a recent report from Aon Risk Solutions and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management.

18 Oct 2010

Today's Op-Eds: Critiques of 'Obamacare,' Skyrocketing brand name drug prices, pay-for-performance

People are less negative about some of the specifics than they are about the package as a whole. But does this imply that those who understand the law like it better. Despite their political views, the well-informed share a strong opposition to the new law.

18 Oct 2010

AMA selects Quest Diagnostics' Care360 EHR for new online physician platform

Quest Diagnostics' healthcare information (IT) technology subsidiary MedPlus and the American Medical Association (AMA), the nation's largest physician organization, today announced they are partnering to expand the adoption of health information technology by offering Care360™ EHR, a web-based electronic health record, on the AMA's new online platform for physicians.

From Quest Diagnostics 15 Oct 2010

CDC: Hispanics more likely to have HIV than whites, but live longer

The Associated Press: Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "estimate that 1 in 22 black Americans will be diagnosed with the AIDS virus in their lifetime — more than twice the risk for Hispanics and eight times that of whites. ... the lifetime risk is 1 in 52 for Hispanics, and 1 in 170 for whites. Asian-Americans had the lowest lifetime risk, at about 1 in 222" (10/14).

15 Oct 2010

GE Healthcare successfully links EMR solution with non-GE inpatient systems

GE Healthcare has successfully linked its electronic medical records (EMR) solution with several non-GE inpatient systems, providing a single view of the patient record that will go beyond the requirements of meaningful use. The interoperability solution is set to debut at beta sites Capital Region Healthcare (N.H.) and Decatur Memorial Hospital (Ill.) in early 2011 with general availability expected later that year.

15 Oct 2010

TPG Growth acquires 25% of Schiff Nutrition's fully diluted outstanding shares from WHF

Schiff Nutrition International, Inc., announced today that TPG Growth, the middle market buyout and growth platform of TPG, a global private investment firm, has purchased approximately 25% of Schiff Nutrition's fully diluted outstanding shares from Weider Health and Fitness (WHF), Schiff Nutrition's majority shareholder, for $48.8 million.

15 Oct 2010

New rates and benefits for 2011 from APWU Health Plan

APWU Health Plan announces new rates and benefits for 2011. APWU Health Plan continues to offer comprehensive health care to America's Workforce at a competitive premium. The average rate increase for the FEHB Program in 2011 is 7.2 percent. For the tenth straight year, the APWU Health Plan's rate increase was below the FEHB average.

15 Oct 2010

Questcor's H.P. Acthar Gel sNDA for infantile spasms receives FDA approval

Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Questcor's supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for H.P. Acthar® Gel (repository corticotropin injection) in the treatment of infantile spasms (IS), an ultra-rare orphan disorder affecting approximately 2,000 American children annually. IS is a devastating and potentially life-threatening form of epilepsy seen in infancy and early childhood.

15 Oct 2010

VBA awards DOMA contract for Pilot Study into Private Medical Records

The Department of Veterans Affairs through the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) has awarded DOMA Technologies (DOMA) the contract for a Pilot Study into the Centralized Retrieval, Assembly, and Secure Transmission of Private Medical Records to expedite claims processes.

15 Oct 2010

Crosstex International introduces customized surgical masks

Cantel Medical Corp., announced today the launch of a new, unique design of medical face masks - the SecureFit™ series by Crosstex International, a Cantel subsidiary and a leading U.S. manufacturer of medical face masks. The SecureFit™ series of masks addresses scientific research that points to poorly fitting masks as a major hindrance to their effectiveness.

15 Oct 2010