Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Researchers use SAS software to analyze medical records and healthcare claims

University of Louisville researchers are uncovering better ways for insurers and health care providers to comply with the US health care bill President Obama signed into law.

28 Sep 2010

Conmed Healthcare signs full-service agreement with City of Virginia Beach

Conmed Healthcare Management, Inc, a leading full service provider of correctional facility healthcare services to county and municipal detention centers, today announced that it has signed a full-service agreement with the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia, for an initial three-year term with options for two one-year extensions at the City's option.

28 Sep 2010

Americans' confidence in healthcare ability increases: Thomson Reuters

Americans' confidence in their ability to access and pay for healthcare rose in August, reversing a more pessimistic outlook that had prevailed all year, according to a consumer sentiment index produced by Thomson Reuters.

28 Sep 2010

GSK supports AHA policy statement on smokeless tobacco products

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare, a leader in helping smokers quit and the marketer of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products, including Nicorette and NicoDerm CQ, supports the findings of the American Heart Association (AHA) policy statement regarding smokeless tobacco products.

28 Sep 2010

State Roundup: N.Y. small businesses protest health insurance premium hikes; Arizona Medicaid crisis; a new payment system for Massachusetts?

Massachusetts officials are reviving the state's ambitious plan to change how doctors and hospitals are paid, aiming to hand the Legislature a specific proposal by Jan. 1 to end disagreement over controlling health spending.

28 Sep 2010

Bayer’s new oral contraceptive receives FDA approval

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new oral contraceptive, Beyaz (drospirenone / ethinyl estradiol / levomefolate calcium tablets and levomefolate calcium tablets).

28 Sep 2010

NPL, Orla receives fund to improve detection methods for TB

Two UK companies have been awarded joint funding for a research project that could see significant advances in the quest to aid detection and eradication of Tuberculosis (TB), across the world.

28 Sep 2010

Viridis BioPharma receives approval to manufacture, market NIMBUS antimicrobial technology in India

Quick-Med Technologies, Inc., a life sciences company that is developing innovative technologies for the healthcare and consumer markets, announced today that its proprietary NIMBUS antimicrobial technology has been approved for manufacture, marketing and sale in India. Viridis BioPharma, an India-based manufacturer and marketer of medical devices, received approval by the Food and Drug Administration of India to manufacture and market gauze wound dressings that incorporate NIMBUS antimicrobial technology.

28 Sep 2010

HHS pumps up rhetoric but eases rules on health insurance for kids

Politico reports that the administration "is taking health insurers to task again, this time for choosing to no longer sell plans intended to cover sick children." Insurers "have said in recent weeks that they would stop selling 'child only' insurance plans because the overhaul requires them to accept all applicants, even if they apply for coverage at the last minute before treatment." In a letter to industry groups, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius highlighted the "plight of millions of parents who desperately want to provide health coverage and critical treatments" in the face of insurer decisions.

28 Sep 2010

Michael J. Fox Foundation launches PPMI clinical study to identify Parkinson's disease biomarkers

The Michael J. Fox Foundation has launched the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), the first ever large scale clinical study exclusively focused on identifying and validating Parkinson's disease biomarkers.

28 Sep 2010

Premier Purchasing Partners announces new agreements for radiation oncology portfolio

Premier Purchasing Partners, LP, today announced that contracts have been awarded to suppliers in its new radiation oncology portfolio.

From Elekta 28 Sep 2010

Survey: 43% of employees think health benefits are more important than higher wages

Forty-three percent of employees think health benefits are more important than higher wages, according to the recent "Getting Paid In America" survey conducted by the American Payroll Association.

28 Sep 2010

Doctors face more unpaid bills during recession; Maine MDs rebel against AMA

Some patients, struggling in the bad economy, aren't paying their doctors. "The problems are especially acute for primary care doctors, but specialists are not immune," the Pittsburgh Business Times reports.

28 Sep 2010

Novel therapies for HCV treatment can precipitate several changes: Report

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the launch of novel therapies for the treatment of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), including Vertex/Johnson & Johnson/Mitsubishi Tanabe's telaprevir and Merck's boceprevir, will precipitate several changes in HCV treatment.

28 Sep 2010

Catalent Pharma to deliver Digimarc's Media Enhanced Packing solutions

Digimarc Corporation has licensed its mobile visual search software to New Jersey-based Catalent Pharma Solutions, a leading provider of innovative packaging solutions to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and consumer healthcare industries.

28 Sep 2010

DecImmune Therapeutics receives funds to improve ischemia reperfusion injury outcomes

DecImmune Therapeutics announced today that it has received a $1 million equity investment from Astellas Venture Management and has additionally been awarded $2.2 million in Phase II SBIR funding from the National Institutes of Health.

28 Sep 2010

AP poll: Americans who think health law should do more outnumber those who think government should stay out of it

As Republicans seek to use the health law as a major talking point to help them win more seats in Congress, a "new AP poll finds that Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1." The poll found four in 10 adults think the law didn't go far enough to change the system "regardless of whether they support the law, oppose it or remain neutral. On the other side, about one in five say they oppose the law because they think the federal government should not be involved in health care at all."

28 Sep 2010

Guided Therapeutics files PMA for LightTouch Cervical Scanner

Guided Therapeutics, Inc. announced that it filed its completed premarket approval application (PMA) for the LightTouch Cervical Scanner with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients at risk for cervical cancer.

28 Sep 2010

KeyVive provides Simplatype mHealth SMS technology to improve healthcare

KeyVive, Inc., a healthcare technology company that uses social media and self management tools to help individuals with chronic illnesses, is dialing up a ground-breaking, HIPAA compliant mHealth technology for people not only affected by diabetes, but also with other diseases.

28 Sep 2010

OrSense introduces NBM200 system for anemia screening, hemorrhage detection

OrSense Ltd., developer of monitors for non-invasive measurements of various blood parameters, introduced at the Global Forum of Maternal and Infant Health, at Barcelona, Spain, NBM200, a non-invasive hemoglobin measurement system for anemia screening and hemorrhage detection. The Company presented results showing that Hb measurements obtained by the NBM200 showed accurate performance compared with invasive point of care devices.

27 Sep 2010