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Viewpoints: The toll of Medicare fraud; insurer's Medicare Advantage switch can confuse seniors

In a searing two-part investigative series earlier this week, the Chronicle's Terri Langford wrote about unscrupulous operators, here in Houston, who make millions of Medicare dollars exploiting the most vulnerable of our local residents through private ambulances and for-profit psychiatric clinics. Medicare, and American taxpayers, are footing the bill, which is enormous.

22 Oct 2011

AAN recognizes Loyola faculty member with nursing fellowship

Fran Vlasses, RN, PhD, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAAN, was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing on Oct. 15 at the academy's 38th Annual Meeting and Conference in Washington, DC. Dr. Vlasses is an associate professor and chair in the Department of Health Systems, Leadership and Policy at Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing.

22 Oct 2011

CHEMM-IST helps first responders to identify hazardous chemical exposure

Exposure to hazardous chemicals can cause serious illness quickly, but emergency medical providers often don't know the key piece of information that determines treatment: Which of the tens of thousands of toxic chemicals is making patients sick?

22 Oct 2011

Water shortages lead to cholera threat in Harare, government says measures in place to contain outbreak

Radio VOP reports on water shortages in the high-density suburbs of the Zimbabwean capital of Harare, writing that some "have gone for a week without water raising fears of a cholera outbreak and bringing back fresh memories of the 4,000 people across the country killed in a cholera disaster in 2008."

22 Oct 2011

Xencor commences XmAb5871 Phase 1 trial in autoimmune diseases

Xencor, Inc., a company using its proprietary Protein Design Automation (PDA) platform technology to engineer next-generation antibodies, announced today the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical trial of XmAb5871, the company's therapeutic antibody for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

22 Oct 2011

C-11 choline PET/CT scans can be utilized as prostate cancer staging tool

Recent studies have suggested that C-11 choline positron emission tomography/computerized tomography (PET/CT) scans can be utilized as a staging and potentially therapeutic tool in prostate cancer.

22 Oct 2011

WHO Director-General calls for sustainable development, investment to address social determinants of health

"Representatives from more than 100 governments around the world, health experts, civil society organizations and other stakeholders are converging in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for three days" at the WHO-convened World Conference on Social Determinants of Health "to discuss how social, economic and environmental conditions could be improved to reduce the health gaps within and between countries," a WHO press release states.

22 Oct 2011

No link between shockwave lithotripsy and diabetes: Study

A Mayo Clinic study finds no correlation between the use of shock waves to break up kidney stones and the long-term development of diabetes. The study was released Friday during a meeting of the North Central Section of the American Urological Association in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

22 Oct 2011

Loyola surgical oncologist removes high-grade liver tumor

The cancerous tumor in Marcus Muhich's liver weighed 8 pounds and was nearly a foot across. Doctors at three major academic medical centers in the Midwest told Muhich his high-grade tumor was inoperable.

22 Oct 2011

Indiana, Planned Parenthood in court on Medicaid funding; Wis. bill to prohibit abortion in private insurance

Lawyers for the state tried for a second time Thursday to convince a federal court that Indiana's law defunding Planned Parenthood should go into effect immediately and not be delayed until after a judge rules on a lawsuit challenging the law. ... Planned Parenthood is arguing that the legislature's April vote to cut off Medicaid funding to providers that offer abortions runs afoul of federal Medicaid law, which forbids the state from picking and choosing where Medicaid patients can receive services.

22 Oct 2011

AAN recognizes six nurse informaticians with nursing fellowship

Six nurse informaticians, all leaders in the area of nursing known as nursing informatics, were inducted into the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) as Fellows, Saturday evening, Oct. 15, at the annual AAN Meeting and Conference.

22 Oct 2011

Blood pressure-lowering medication appears to kick start brain recovery after stroke

A commonly prescribed blood pressure-lowering medication appears to kick start recovery in the unaffected brain hemisphere after a stroke by boosting blood vessel growth, a new University of Georgia study has found.

22 Oct 2011

Research roundup: Disparities in heart failure improvements; vets face barriers to mental health care

Hospitalization And Mortality Rates For Medicare Beneficiaries, 1998-2008 -- This report examines treatment of more than 55 million Medicare fee-for-service heart failure patients, from 1998 to 2008. The researchers found that heart failure hospitalization declined susbstantially over that time but "occurred unevenly across race-sex categories, especially for black men, who had the lowest rate of decline."

22 Oct 2011

Common risk factors for hepatocellular cancer

Among known risk factors for hepatocellular cancer, smoking, obesity, and heavy alcohol consumption, along with chronic hepatitis B and C infection, contribute to a large share of the disease burden in Europe, according to a cohort study published online October 21 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

22 Oct 2011

ACP applauds CMS' improved Medicare ACO Final rule

The American College of Physicians (ACP) today applauded CMS for making substantial improvements in its long- awaited Final Rule on Accountable Care Organizations.

22 Oct 2011

Boehringer Ingelheim announces new data from hepatitis C virus portfolio

Boehringer Ingelheim announced today that new data from its hepatitis C virus (HCV) portfolio will be presented in scientific sessions at The Liver Meeting 2011, the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), taking place November 4 - November 8 in San Francisco, CA.

22 Oct 2011

Allos terminates AMAG merger agreement with AMAG

Allos Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that the Agreement and Plan of Merger and Reorganization entered into by and among Allos, AMAG and Alamo Acquisition Sub, Inc. on July 19, 2011, as amended on August 8, 2011, has been terminated.

22 Oct 2011

Super committee: Are all the old deficit-reduction ideas new again?

As the panel considers its approach to reach deficit-reduction targets, much of the input it is getting from congressional committees and outside interest groups seems to track with existing ideas rather than innovative approaches.

22 Oct 2011

Reconstructive surgery can delay endoprosthetic joint replacement in patients with OA

Reconstructive surgical approaches can help delay endoprosthetic joint replacement in patients with osteoarthritis. Henning Madry and coauthors introduce such procedures in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International.

22 Oct 2011

FAO, IDF and IFCN develop world map of animal feeding systems in dairy sector

The International Dairy Federation (IDF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) have developed, in partnership and with support from the animal feed industry, a world map of animal feeding systems in the dairy sector. The first results will be presented at the Sustainable Feed Security Conference at the IDF World Dairy Summit, on 18 October 2011.

22 Oct 2011