Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Kaiser Permanente employees calls for new election

One year and seven months ago, an absolute majority of 43,500 Kaiser Permanente employees in California presented petitions to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), asking for a vote to leave the incumbent union SEIU and form their own union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). When ballots were counted today, 11,364 were for NUHW, and 18,290 were for SEIU and workers are calling for a new election

8 Oct 2010

GE Healthcare announces successful completion of vendor neutral DI-r

GE Healthcare announced today the successful completion of a vendor neutral Digital Imaging Repository that connects hospitals and medical centers throughout Southwestern Ontario, Canada, enabling the sharing of patient health data across the region. For the first time in Ontario's history, 26 hospital organizations in the Erie St. Clair and South West Local Health Integration Networks are able to share filmless diagnostic image exams between their facilities.

8 Oct 2010

Health-TIES consortium aims to accelerate innovation in healthcare

On Thursday 7 October, Europe's top regions in healthcare technology will launch the Health-TIES consortium that aims to accelerate innovation in healthcare. The consortium is backed by a three-year grant from the European Commission and is set up to strengthen the research potential of European regions through research-driven clusters of universities, research centres, enterprises and regional authorities.

8 Oct 2010

Spanish mothers more concerned about the safety of childhood vaccines

Researchers from the University of Alicante (UA) taking part in the European VACSATC project have studied mothers' and fathers' opinions on vaccinating their children in five countries. The results of the survey show that Spanish mothers are more resistant than those in other countries to the idea of paying for vaccines, while 20.9% expressed some concern about the safety of vaccines.

8 Oct 2010

GeneGo integrates SDM platform with MetaCore and MetaDrug

GeneGo, Inc., a leading provider of databases, software and services in systems biology and chemistry, announced today that they have integrated GenomeQuest's Sequence Data Management (SDM) platform with GeneGo's MetaCore and MetaDrug.

8 Oct 2010

POCP recognized for its role as project manager for SEMI

Point-of-Care Partners—a national health information technology strategy and management consulting firm—was recognized on September 21 for its role in helping Michigan attain the nation's second highest rate of ePrescribing in 2009. The commendation came as part of Surescripts' fifth annual Safe-Rx Awards, which are based on several factors including each state's overall ePrescribing volume.

8 Oct 2010

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