Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Study suggests athletes suffer a form of injury that is difficult to diagnose

A study by researchers at Purdue University suggests that some high school football players suffer undiagnosed changes in brain function and continue playing even though they are impaired.

8 Oct 2010

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center receives $7.6M ARRA stimulus grant for prostate cancer research

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center has received a $7.6 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 stimulus grant to coordinate a study comparing the effectiveness of various treatments for prostate cancer. David Penson, M.D., M.P.H., professor of Urologic Surgery, will serve as Principal Investigator for the Comparative Effectiveness Analysis of Surgery and Radiation study on prostate cancer.

8 Oct 2010

Royal Philips Electronics introduces IntelliVue MX800 patient monitoring system

Royal Philips Electronics today introduced the IntelliVue MX800 patient monitoring system, a new dimension in patient care that provides immediate access to comprehensive patient information directly at the monitor. In addition to displaying and recording traditional data such as patient vital signs, the IntelliVue MX800 offers direct access to patient information from almost any system on a hospital's IT infrastructure.

From Philips Healthcare 8 Oct 2010

Michigan judge rules individual mandate in health law is constitutional

"A U.S. judge on Thursday upheld a key part of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law that requires Americans to obtain coverage, rejecting a challenge by a conservative interest group. The Thomas More Law Center filed a lawsuit in Michigan the day Obama signed it into law. It argued that the provision requiring Americans buy coverage by 2014 under threat of penalty was beyond Congress' authority and an unconstitutional tax" (Pelofsky, 10/7).

8 Oct 2010

AHRQ awards $1.2M grant to evaluate effectiveness of primary care transformation efforts

The Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has awarded a $1.2 million grant to Michigan State University to evaluate the effectiveness of primary care transformation efforts at Priority Health and Independent Health, a New York plan.

8 Oct 2010

HHS offers waivers as firms, insurers threaten to abandon markets

The Obama administration has granted "dozens" of waivers that will allow insurers and companies - most notably McDonald's - to continue offering health benefits that do not meet new health law requirements in an effort "to stave off threats by some health insurers to abandon markets, drop out of the business altogether or refuse to sell certain policies," The New York Times reports.

8 Oct 2010

Device maker study: Hospital middlemen arrangement wastes billions

The payment arrangements of group purchasing organizations waste billions of dollars each year, according to a new study funded by the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, a trade group that represents device makers.

8 Oct 2010

Prostate cancer updates

Scientists have found that genetic variations for an enzyme involved in cell energy metabolism may increase the risk of prostate cancer. This variation in genes may impair the enzyme phosphodiesterase 11A (PDE11A), which helps regulate cells' responses to hormones and other signals, according to the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development researchers and colleagues.

8 Oct 2010

Mass. attorney general recommends approval of Caritas sale; Calif. will require students to get whooping cough vaccine

Attorney General Martha Coakley yesterday recommended approval of the proposed sale of Caritas Christi Health Care to a New York private equity firm, a deal that would bring for-profit health care on a large scale to a state long dominated by nonprofit hospitals.

8 Oct 2010

Doctors say practices disrupted by piecemeal Medicare payment fixes

Doctor groups are warning congressional leaders that a series of short-term measures lawmakers passed earlier this year to block Medicare payment cuts were too disruptive to medical practices," CQ HealthBeat reports.

8 Oct 2010

Cepheid collaborates with Novartis to commercialize BCR-ABL monitoring test

Cepheid today announced an exclusive collaboration with Novartis for the commercialization of a test for monitoring the BCR-ABL gene transcript in peripheral blood specimens from patients diagnosed with Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myelogenous leukemia (Ph+ CML). Together with other lab tests, monitoring levels of BCR-ABL transcripts in Ph+ CML patients will aid in patient management.

7 Oct 2010

Bayer HealthCare, Onyx to present data on Nexavar tablets at ESMO Congress

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONXX) today announced that more than 20 studies evaluating the use of Nexavar® (sorafenib) tablets will be presented at the 35th European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, October 8-12, 2010 in Milan, Italy.

7 Oct 2010

First Edition: October 7, 2010

Today's headlines include stories on waivers given some companies that offer only minimal health insurance coverage, insurers' political efforts during this campaign season and efforts in New York to bar the use of food stamps to buy soda.

7 Oct 2010

AnalizaDx SIA technology, Nanosphere Verisens assay effective for prostate cancer diagnosis

At the annual meeting of the North-Central American Urological Association, Mark Stovsky, MD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Case Medical Center, and principal investigator, presented positive data combining the AnalizaDx SIA technology with the Nanosphere Verisens ultra-sensitive PSA assay.

7 Oct 2010

IDEV Technologies completes $46 million Series D round of financing with PJC Capital

IDEV Technologies, Incorporated, an emerging leader in the development and commercialization of minimally invasive medical technologies, today announced that it has completed a $46 million Series D round of financing, with Piper Jaffray & Co.'s Merchant Banking Fund and a leading strategic global healthcare company as the two new investors.

7 Oct 2010

Vivaglobin therapy effective for patients with primary immunodeficiency

Vivaglobin (subcutaneous immunoglobulin [IgG]) (SCIg) is an effective and safe initial therapy for treatment-naive patients with primary immunodeficiency (PI) and may offer an attractive alternative to intravenous IgG (IVIg) therapy in the newly diagnosed, according to data presented today at the XIVth Meeting of the European Society for Immunodeficiencies.

7 Oct 2010

Should Medicare consider cost-effectiveness when setting reimbursement rates?

Medicare reimbursement rates should be based on how cost effective the treatment is for a particular illness, according to a piece by two policy experts in the October edition of Health Affairs.

7 Oct 2010

IMS launches new Recommendations to manage postmenopausal vaginal atrophy

To mark World Menopause Day on 18th October 2010, the International Menopause Society (IMS) is launching new Recommendations for the management of postmenopausal vaginal atrophy, a distressing condition that will affect up to half of women after menopause.

7 Oct 2010

Semi-synthetic opioid may improve withdrawal symptoms in infants

Thousands of infants each year have exposure to opioids before they are born. Over half of these infants are born with withdrawal symptoms severe enough to require opioid replacement treatment in the nursery. Such treatment is associated with long hospital stays which interferes with maternal/infant bonding. Now, a team of researchers at Thomas Jefferson University has tested a semi-synthetic opioid they say has the potential to improve the treatment of these newborns, which could save hundreds of millions in healthcare costs annually if future tests continue to show benefit.

7 Oct 2010

DSM project on carbon dioxide footprint reduction receives European Outsourcing Awards

DSM Pharmaceutical Products, the custom manufacturing organization of Royal DSM NV, is pleased to announce that their submission for the European Outsourcing Awards, organized by Via Media UK Ltd, entitled Achieving substantial carbon dioxide footprint reduction for the scale up of a drug intermediate was an award recipient at the 6th October ceremony held in Paris, France.

7 Oct 2010