Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

CSC's HealthSpace Advisor selected by GHHS to optimize revenue generation

CSC today announced that the Georgia Hospital Health Services (GHHS), a subsidiary of the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA), has selected CSC's HealthSpace Advisor, a Web-based benchmarking tool introduced earlier this year, to help member hospitals analyze how effectively they use space in key revenue generating areas.

19 Oct 2009

Amarin raises $70 million through private placement

Amarin Corporation plc today announced it has closed its $70 million private placement. The transaction was led by existing investor, Fountain Healthcare Partners, on behalf of funds affiliated with other existing investors Sofinnova Ventures, Orbimed Advisors and Longitude Capital. The new investor group was led by funds affiliated with Abingworth LLP and included APG Asset Management, Great Point Partners, Tavistock Life Sciences Company and RA Capital. Cowen and Company, LLC acted as the exclusive placement agent for the transaction.

19 Oct 2009

The Beryl Companies in Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies

The Beryl Companies, the nation's leading provider of outsourced call center services to healthcare organizations, has achieved a growth rate of 41 percent in the last three years, earning it a place in the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the country for the third straight year.

19 Oct 2009

Yissum scientists invent new design of TeraHertz-ray

Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the University, today announced that Professor L.D. Shvartsman and Professor B. Laikhtman, from the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, have invented a novel design of TeraHertz-ray, or T-ray, lasers.

19 Oct 2009

SequelMed Patient Portal launched by Sequel Systems

Sequel Systems, Inc., a dynamic, service-oriented healthcare technology company, today announced the launch and general availability of SequelMed Patient Portal™, a new, Web-based tool that improves and speeds up communication between physicians and patients, giving patients instant access to their personal health information, and allowing physicians and other healthcare providers more time to focus on delivering the best possible care. SequelMed Patient Portal is the latest addition to Sequel Systems’ suite of healthcare solutions, which includes an electronic health record (EHR), practice and document management software, and e-prescribing technology. More than 12,000 physicians in all 50 states and representing all major specialties currently use the company’s solutions.

19 Oct 2009

Sonomax Hearing Healthcare, Hearing Coach Africa sign five-year licensing agreement

Sonomax Hearing Healthcare Inc. is pleased to announce that it has signed a five year license agreement with Hearing Coach Africa (Pty). The agreement for V3 hearing protectors specifies quarterly commitments over five years, totaling a minimum of $1,000,000. The agreement is renewable for an additional 5 years if all contractual conditions and minimum quarterly commitments are met.

19 Oct 2009

Vaccinations and preventative hygiene routines can help protect families from H1N1

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 37 states in the U.S. now report widespread influenza activity - and nearly all influenza cases reported to the health authority are 2009 H1N1, also known as swine flu. However, with the release of a 2009 H1N1 vaccine this week, parents have a new preventative tool to help keep their families safe from illness.

19 Oct 2009

First Edition: October 19, 2009

Five Rivers Medical Center in Pocahontas, Ark., needs help to get a highly coveted "critical access" hospital designation - and the extra Medicare funding that comes with it. Sen. Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat, intends to provide it.

19 Oct 2009

$Online education programs for medical professionals at a fraction of the cost of travel-based programs$

Online education programs for medical professionals at a fraction of the cost of travel-based programs

With business travel budgets expected to remain tight through 2010, online clinical best practice programs may offer the healthcare industry its best educational value, according to Sara McMannus, Program Manager of GE Healthcare’s Global Clinical Best Practice Education. “Vendor-neutral, online programs provide education on-demand at a fraction of the cost of travel-based programs,” she said.

19 Oct 2009

Pelosi has tough words for insurers as she pushes public plan

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is joining liberal Democrats in the House on warning insurers that health care reform could mean lower profit, more fees and new competition from government.

19 Oct 2009

Healthcare systems integrator Evolutionary Systems awarded Oracle's Certified Advantage Partner status

Evolutionary Systems, (Evosys) a leading systems integrator for the healthcare and public sector industry, has been awarded Oracle's Certified Advantage Partner status by Oracle. To achieve this accreditation Evosys underwent a number of rigorous assessments, covering technical excellence, commercial capability and customer satisfaction.

19 Oct 2009

Majority of girls and young women well aware of HPV vaccine's benefits and limitations

Contrary to concerns that the human papillomavirus vaccine might promote promiscuity, a national survey of girls and young women found that the majority of respondents did not believe the HPV vaccine protected them against other sexually transmitted infections.

19 Oct 2009

Senate Democratic leaders say party will unite on health reform vote

Sens. Max Baucus and Harry Reid are predicting that a health care overhaul in the Senate will attract the votes of all Democrats in the Senate — and maybe even more than one Republican.

19 Oct 2009

TheraDoc commences beta testing of new computerized patient surveillance tool

TheraDoc®, the leading provider of clinical decision support technology in healthcare, today announced that it has started beta testing of a new computerized patient surveillance tool that will help hospitals monitor and manage screening programs for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which every year kills more people in the United States than AIDS.

19 Oct 2009

Slow start for PSOs meant to help providers learn from mistakes

A federal agency has designated 68 "Patient Safety Organizations" to offer health care providers a way "to share information and learn from problems," Modern Healthcare reports. But, a year after the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality began implementing the program, its "technology has not been finessed enough to really enable that sharing."

19 Oct 2009

H.I.G. Capital to acquire Allion Healthcare

Allion Healthcare, Inc. today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement for the Company to be acquired and taken private by an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, LLC, a leading global private investment firm, in a transaction valued at approximately $278 million, including the assumption or repayment of approximately $79 million of indebtedness.

19 Oct 2009

Pfizer announces it has combined operations with Wyeth following the closing of the acquisition

Pfizer Inc today announced that it has combined operations with Wyeth following the closing of the acquisition yesterday. Pfizer is now a more diversified health care company, with product offerings in human, animal, and consumer health, including vaccines, biologics, small molecules and nutrition across the developed and emerging markets.

19 Oct 2009

Olympus unveils new surgical instruments for single-incision procedures

Olympus, a precision technology leader, creating innovative opto-digital solutions in healthcare, life science and consumer electronics products, today introduced three new surgical instruments specifically designed for Laparo-Endoscopic Single-Site (LESS) surgery

From Evident Corporation - Life Sciences 19 Oct 2009

$FRAX online tool to help clinicians to better identify women and men at high risk of fracture$

FRAX online tool to help clinicians to better identify women and men at high risk of fracture

The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) will issue a new 16-page report on FRAX- to mark World Osteoporosis Day on October 20, 2009. The report is available at http://www.iofbonehealth.org/publications/frax.html

19 Oct 2009

GOP, Some Dems object to plan for adjusting physicians' medicare pay

Senate Democrats next week will take up a $240 billion, stand-alone bill that would stop scheduled cuts in Medicare's payments to physicians, The Hill reports. Although the action would be separate from sweeping health reform legislation, "[f]ixing the physician payments could boost Democrats' health reform efforts by providing physicians with a win on their foremost priority.

19 Oct 2009