Pain News and Research

Latest Pain News and Research

HHS will award quality bonuses to some Medicare advantage plans

In a policy shift critics see as political, the Health and Human Services department has decided to award quality bonuses to hundreds of Medicare Advantage plans rated merely average.

21 Apr 2011

Viewpoints: Would Ryan plan save or 'assault' Medicare?; Controversial Kansas abortion law

Congressional Budget Office chief Doug Elmendorf dropped a bombshell on his Director's Blog this morning: federal spending on all health care programs will exceed $1 trillion this year. But when he turned to spelling out options for trimming that figure in the years ahead, he offered a limited and not very satisfying menu of choices, all of which involved doing less or charging people more.

21 Apr 2011

America’s best loved drugs: Report

According to the latest report from consulting firm IMS Health, Americans are consuming a lot of prescription drugs. And they seem especially fond of those to lower their cholesterol, relieve heartburn, aid in depressive disorders and lessen pain. Overall, however, their spending on such drugs is slowing.

20 Apr 2011

Stepped up measures to tack rising painkiller abuse

Prescription drug abuse is one of the largest problems in the country say experts and according to White House drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, the Congress must require special training for doctors and other health care workers before they are allowed to prescribe powerful drugs such as OxyContin.

20 Apr 2011

Florida Hospital uses flexible surgery instruments from Apollo Endosurgery for stomach tumor extraction

Florida Hospital Celebration Health announced this week the use of a new class of flexible surgical instruments created by Apollo Endosurgery®, to remove a stomach tumor and extract it through the patient's mouth. Following the two-hour surgery, the patient spent one night in the hospital and was prescribed Acetaminophen for pain.

20 Apr 2011

First Edition: April 20, 2011

Today's headlines include reports about new poll results showing that Americans oppose cuts to Medicare as a means to deal with the debt problem.

20 Apr 2011

KCMC uses Toshiba's diagnostic imaging systems to treat pediatric patients

As one of the leading pediatric centers in the United States, Kosair Children's Medical Center (KCMC) treats pediatric patients with conditions ranging from congenital heart disease to abdominal pain, to emergency trauma to juvenile diabetes and pediatric cancer.

20 Apr 2011

Spanish tool measures infant pain rapidly and simply

It turns out to be difficult to find out exactly how much a child who cannot yet speak suffers after a surgical operation. Researchers at the University Hospital of La Paz, in Madrid, have validated the 'Llanto' scale, the first, and only, tool in Spanish which measures infant pain rapidly and simply.

20 Apr 2011

IBD patients at greater risk of death if infected with Clostridium difficile

Patients admitted to hospital with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) face a sixfold greater risk of death if they become infected with Clostridium difficile, a new study has found. The researchers say IBD patients should be screened on admission to protect them from serious illness.

20 Apr 2011

Advancell initiates ATH008 phase IIb study for hand-foot syndrome

ADVANCELL, an emerging Spanish biopharmaceutical company, has initiated a phase IIb clinical study of the Company's ATH008, for the treatment of the palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia syndrome, also known as hand-foot syndrome, a painful side-effect of certain chemotherapies such as capecitabine and fluoropyrimidines.

20 Apr 2011

Covidien supports FDA’s REMS for important class of pain medications

Covidien (NYSE: COV), a leading global provider of healthcare products, supports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for an important class of pain medications.

20 Apr 2011

How peppermint helps to relieve Irritable Bowel Syndrome

University of Adelaide researchers have shown for the first time how peppermint helps to relieve Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which affects up to 20% of the population.

20 Apr 2011

Acorda receives patent for AMPYRA tablets to improve walking in MS patients

Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has allowed U.S. Patent Application No. 11/010,828 entitled "Sustained Release Aminopyridine Composition."

20 Apr 2011

Tissue Genesis commences PVD clinical trials with adipose-derived adult stem cell-coated vascular grafts

Tissue Genesis, Inc., an emerging leader in adult stem cell and regenerative medicine, announced today that it has begun clinical trials for peripheral vascular disease (PVD) with adipose (fat) derived adult stem cell-coated vascular grafts at the University of Louisville Hospital. Tissue Genesis is the first to initiate a FDA-approved trial using the patient's own adipose-derived adult stem cells (ASCs) prepared at the point-of-care.

20 Apr 2011

Plans to combat painkiller abuse

This Tuesday, the Obama administration announced a plan to fight prescription drug abuse, warning that accidental fatal overdoses now exceed the combined deadly overdoses from the crack epidemic of the 1980s and black tar heroin in the 1970s.

19 Apr 2011

Forest Labs fourth quarter net sales increase 9.7% to $1,091.9 million

Forest Laboratories, Inc., an international pharmaceutical manufacturer and marketer, announced that reported earnings per share equaled $1.12 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011.

19 Apr 2011

Ryan, Obama deficit plans continue to generate OpEd heat on Medicare, Medicaid provisions

Mr. Ryan called the vote "our generation's defining moment," and indeed, nothing could more clearly define the choice that will face voters next year. His bill would end the guarantee provided by Medicare and Medicaid to the elderly and the poor, which has been provided by the federal government with society's clear assent since 1965.

19 Apr 2011