Medical News

RSS

Holes appearing in some states' safety nets for disabled, seniors; Ohio referendum looms

Health care news from Georgia, Ohio, California, Wisconsin, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts and Texas.

24 Oct 2011

Cigna enters definitive agreement to acquire HealthSpring for $55 per share

Cigna Corporation and HealthSpring, Inc. today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement under which Cigna will acquire all the outstanding shares of HealthSpring for $55 per share in cash, a 37% premium over the closing stock price on Friday October 21, 2011, representing a total transaction value of approximately $3.8 billion.

24 Oct 2011

Supreme Court will choose among issues and lawsuits as it decides health law's fate

The moving parts involved in the Supreme Court's determination about whether to review challenges to the health law and which issues it wants to hear are quite complicated.

24 Oct 2011

Nexidia's Enterprise Speech Intelligence solution to be implemented at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina

Nexidia, a leading provider of customer interaction analytics solutions for business transformation, today announced that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) has selected Nexidia's Enterprise Speech Intelligence (ESI) solution to support the company in determining enhancements to its service center operations.

24 Oct 2011

Romney's next health policy challenge: Medical help for illegal immigrants

A new issue from the Massachusetts health law has surfaced and is now haunting GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. Meanwhile, other candidates - specifically Rick Perry and Herman Cain - take on abortion issues and positions.

24 Oct 2011

Blood tests and cultures may not be necessary in detecting early-onset GBS in newborns

For newborn infants at risk of infection with group B streptococcal (GBS) bacteria, screening blood tests cause extra pain and anxiety—without increasing detection of early-onset GBS disease, reports a study in the October issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

24 Oct 2011

Exploring palliative care's positives and negatives

What if a new medication for severely ill patients had no role in curing them but made them feel much better despite being sick?

24 Oct 2011

US markets for neurosurgical and neurovascular devices to grow to $240 million by 2016

According to Millennium Research Group, the global authority on medical technology market intelligence, the market for the specialized devices used for neurosurgical and neurovascular treatments will grow to $240 million by 2016, driven largely by an aging population in the United States that will suffer an increasing incidence of conditions such as stroke, cerebral aneurysms and intracranial atherosclerosis disease.

From Medtronic 24 Oct 2011

Wal-Mart increases premium costs, cuts benefits

Costs for this employer's most popular health coverage plan will increase to about $15 per two-week pay period. It's current cost is $11 per pay period.

24 Oct 2011

Premier awards Lantheus three-year supplier agreement for nuclear imaging products

Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc., a global leader in developing, manufacturing and distributing innovative diagnostic imaging agents, today announced it has been awarded a three-year supplier contract with Premier Purchasing Partners, L.P., the group purchasing unit of the Premier healthcare alliance, for its radiopharmaceutical imaging agents.

24 Oct 2011

Study finds measuring quality does improve care

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality was founded on a simple premise: To improve the quality of health care, you must be able to measure it. ... Yet the premise that tracking the quality of care truly prods physicians to change the way they practice medicine has been more accepted than studied.

24 Oct 2011

Lundbeck's ONFI receives FDA approval for treating seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome

Lundbeck Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of H. Lundbeck A/S in Denmark, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ONFI as adjunctive therapy for seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome in patients two years and older.

24 Oct 2011

Retainers for primary care?

Given the financial and regulatory uncertainty engulfing most of the health care industry, retainer-based primary-care medical practices are doing just fine, industry executives say.

24 Oct 2011

CryoLife begins enrollment in BioFoam Surgical Matrix IDE clinical trial

CryoLife, Inc.,, a leading tissue processing and medical device Company focused on cardiac and vascular surgery, today announced that it has enrolled the first patient in its U.S. Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) clinical trial for its BioFoam® Surgical Matrix protein hydrogel technology. In connection with the trial, BioFoam will be used as an adjunct to conservative measures of achieving hemostasis on newly resected liver parenchyma.

24 Oct 2011

Earlier Medicare enrollment period brings new round of ads

Open enrollment periods for health plans also focus the spotlight on how health coverage is likely to change in 2014 when key elements of the health law take effect.

24 Oct 2011

More exposure to natural light may reduce rates of nearsightedness

A new analysis of recent eye health studies shows that more time spent outdoors is related to reduced rates of nearsightedness, also known as myopia, in children and adolescents. Myopia is much more common today in the United States and many other countries than it was in the 1970s. In parts of Asia, more than 80 percent of the population is nearsighted.

24 Oct 2011

European CHMP adopts positive opinion for Pharmaxis Bronchitol Marketing Authorisation

Pharmaceutical company Pharmaxis today announced the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has adopted a positive opinion recommending the granting of a Marketing Authorisation for Bronchitol, clearing the way for the product to be used in Europe "for the treatment of cystic fibrosis in adults as an add-on therapy to best standard of care."

24 Oct 2011

Comprehensive ADMESeq Research Screening Panel launched

RainDance Technologies, Inc., the Digital Biology Company, and Ambry Genetics, today announced the launch of a comprehensive targeted sequencing panel to screen genes involved with drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) research. The ADMESeq Research Screening Panel enables researchers to simultaneously interrogate 242 known pharmacogenetic genes using next-generation sequencing (NGS) systems.

24 Oct 2011

Zeaxanthin reduces risk for AMD

St. Louis-based ZeaVision, LLC announced that three recent groundbreaking studies demonstrate that Zeaxanthin (zee-uh-zan-thin), the predominate protective pigment in the back of the eye, reduces the risk for Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and benefits the treatment of advanced AMD, a condition that destroys central vision and affects millions of Americans.

24 Oct 2011

Zynex ranked 127th on Deloitte's 2011 Technology Fast 500 list

Zynex, Inc., a provider and developer of non-invasive medical devices for electrotherapy and stroke rehabilitation, neurological diagnosis and cardiac monitoring, announced that it has been ranked 127th on Deloitte's 2011 Technology Fast 500 list for revenue growth between 2006 and 2010.

24 Oct 2011

Medical News

Holes appearing in some states' safety nets for disabled, seniors; Ohio referendum looms

Cigna enters definitive agreement to acquire HealthSpring for $55 per share

Supreme Court will choose among issues and lawsuits as it decides health law's fate

Nexidia's Enterprise Speech Intelligence solution to be implemented at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina

Romney's next health policy challenge: Medical help for illegal immigrants

Blood tests and cultures may not be necessary in detecting early-onset GBS in newborns

Exploring palliative care's positives and negatives

US markets for neurosurgical and neurovascular devices to grow to $240 million by 2016

Wal-Mart increases premium costs, cuts benefits

Premier awards Lantheus three-year supplier agreement for nuclear imaging products

Study finds measuring quality does improve care

Lundbeck's ONFI receives FDA approval for treating seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome

Retainers for primary care?

CryoLife begins enrollment in BioFoam Surgical Matrix IDE clinical trial

Earlier Medicare enrollment period brings new round of ads

More exposure to natural light may reduce rates of nearsightedness

European CHMP adopts positive opinion for Pharmaxis Bronchitol Marketing Authorisation

Comprehensive ADMESeq Research Screening Panel launched

Zeaxanthin reduces risk for AMD

Zynex ranked 127th on Deloitte's 2011 Technology Fast 500 list

Membrane proteins in focus: Turning high-risk targets into routine workflows

How metabolic phenotyping can detect viral infections in minutes

Directed enzyme evolution and the Nobel Prize: Making enzymes evolve in the lab

Latest News