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U.S. News ranks Meridian Health among 2011-2012 Best Hospitals

Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Ocean Medical Center and Riverview Medical Center, all members of Meridian Health, are included in the 2011-2012 Best Hospitals metro area rankings released by U.S. News & World Report.

19 Oct 2011

States juggling Medicaid requirements, costs, coverage

Medicaid managed-care plans in Florida's five Medicaid "reform" counties have been granted a 10.8 percent rate increase because of ever-increasing hospital costs, the president of Florida Association of Health Plans confirmed today. Meanwhile, said Michael Garner, the managed-care plans in most counties of the state were granted an average 1.3 percent rate increase.

19 Oct 2011

Young adults born prematurely show multiple biological signs of risks to future health

Young adults who were born prematurely show multiple biological signs of risks to future health, research from Imperial College London has found. The scientists, reporting their findings tomorrow in the journal Pediatric Research, say that the research indicates that urgent work is now needed to monitor preterm babies into adulthood to improve the detection of early signs of disease.

19 Oct 2011

Canadian parents raise families with less money and time than Baby Boomer generation

Canadian parents today are raising families with less money and time than the Baby Boomer generation even though the country's economy has doubled in size since 1976, says a new study released at the University of Saskatchewan today by Paul Kershaw, a family policy expert from the University of British Columbia.

19 Oct 2011

World Bank speaks strongly but slow to act on issue of raising tobacco taxes to improve health

In this post in the Center for Global Development's "Global Health Policy" blog, William Savedoff, a senior fellow at the center, writes that while the World Bank has "spoken strongly" on the issue of raising tobacco taxes in an effort to "generate revenue, cut health costs and save lives," it "is moving forward cautiously if at all."

19 Oct 2011

UCSD unveils Center for the Future of Surgery

Every year, millions of patients undergo lifesaving surgeries. The outcome of each procedure is driven by dynamic factors such as the patient's health, drugs and instruments used, team communication, and the wisdom of the surgeon's hand. To advance safety and innovation in today's operating rooms, the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego has unveiled the Center for the Future of Surgery (CFoS) ─ the largest state-of-the art facility in the nation dedicated to catalyzing novel surgical technologies, techniques and teaching methods.

19 Oct 2011

Jersey Shore completes first procedure with Abiomed's Impella 2.5 heart pump

Jersey Shore University Medical Center announces the completion of its first procedure with Abiomed's Impella 2.5 heart pump. Jersey Shore is the first and only regional hospital to include the World's Smallest Heart Pump in their portfolio of treatment options to assist critically ill heart patients.

19 Oct 2011

Cholera outbreak in West, Central Africa accelerated by increased migration, UNICEF official says

"More than 85,000 cases of cholera in West and Central Africa are making this one of the region's most severe epidemics in recent memory," VOA News reports. "Grant Leaity, UNICEF's chief of emergency operations for West and Central Africa, says the epidemic is due, in part, to a greater movement of people across the region," VOA writes, noting, "Three simultaneous cross-border outbreaks are affecting people in two dozen countries along the coast from Guinea, and in the Lake Chad basin to the West Congo basin and around Lake Tanganyika."

19 Oct 2011

Study finds why corticosteroids do not work well for COPD patients

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) leads to persistent inflammation of the airways and is typically managed with corticosteroids, a class of anti-inflammatory medication. However, corticosteroids do not improve survival nor alter the progression of COPD and may reduce lung symptoms as little as 20 percent.

19 Oct 2011

Subjects with borderline elevated IgE levels less likely to develop glioma

A study published online Oct. 18 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute provides some new but qualified support for the idea that the immune system's response to allergies may reduce the risk of developing deadly brain tumors.

19 Oct 2011

Nearly one-third of all countries affected by malaria on course to eliminate disease, WHO report says

"Nearly a third of all countries affected by malaria are on course to eliminate the mosquito-borne disease over the next 10 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday ... in a progress report published by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partnership at the start of an international Malaria Forum conference in Seattle," Reuters reports.

19 Oct 2011

Study finds 30% decline in heart failure hospitalization rate

Being hospitalized for heart failure (HF) was about 30 percent less likely in 2008 than in 1998, according to a study by Yale physicians in the Oct. 19 issue of JAMA. The team also found that the rate of hospitalization for black men dropped at a lower rate, and that one-year mortality rates declined slightly during this period, but remained high.

19 Oct 2011

FSU biologists devise new way to watch how cells move

For better and for worse, human health depends on a cell's motility -- the ability to crawl from place to place. In every human body, millions of cells -are crawling around doing mostly good deeds --- though if any of those crawlers are cancerous, watch out.

19 Oct 2011

Roundup: Mass. contemplates 'global payments'; rural hospitals struggling; Oregon liability cost studied

Although important details remain to be negotiated, the legislative leaders and Gov. Deval Patrick, all Democrats, are working toward a plan that would encourage flat "global payments" to networks of providers for keeping patients well, replacing the fee-for-service system that creates incentives for excessive care by paying for each visit and procedure.

19 Oct 2011

Sam Houston State receives NIJ/FSF grant to investigate BKA designer drugs

In October 2011 the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Forensic Science Foundation (FSF) funded a capstone project proposal in the Master of Forensic Science Program at Sam Houston State University to investigate the designer drugs known as "Bath Salts."

19 Oct 2011

King's researchers create traditional Chinese medicine database

A comprehensive database developed by King's College London researchers that features the chemical components found in traditional Chinese medicines has been released to market this month, allowing researchers to explore age-old remedies in the search for tomorrow's new drugs.

19 Oct 2011

Viewpoints: CLASS decision ends fear of government bailout; the strengths and failings of U.S. health care

The problem, as numerous experts warned at the time, was whether the program could be run, as the law required, in a way that made it financially solvent for at least 75 years. The difficulty with the CLASS Act was ensuring that premiums could be set low enough to attract widespread participation but high enough to pay tbenefits. The risk was that the program would attract the sickest participants, who thought they might need its protections, and thereby drive premium prices ever higher in a spiral of dysfunctionhe promised.

19 Oct 2011

Learning from one's mistakes may be better than practicing to perfection

Learning from one's mistakes may be better than practicing to perfection, according to a new study appearing in the October 19 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

19 Oct 2011

Heart-failure related hospitalizations has declined substantially among Medicare patients

Between 1998 and 2008, heart-failure related hospitalizations declined substantially among Medicare patients, but at a lower rate for black men, according to a study in the October 19 issue of JAMA. Also, 1-year mortality rates declined slightly during this period, but remain high.

19 Oct 2011

RTS,S vaccine reduces risk of severe malaria in African children

First results from a large-scale Phase III trial of RTS,S, published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), show the malaria vaccine candidate to provide young African children with significant protection against clinical and severe malaria with an acceptable safety and tolerability profile.

19 Oct 2011

Medical News

U.S. News ranks Meridian Health among 2011-2012 Best Hospitals

States juggling Medicaid requirements, costs, coverage

Young adults born prematurely show multiple biological signs of risks to future health

Canadian parents raise families with less money and time than Baby Boomer generation

World Bank speaks strongly but slow to act on issue of raising tobacco taxes to improve health

UCSD unveils Center for the Future of Surgery

Jersey Shore completes first procedure with Abiomed's Impella 2.5 heart pump

Cholera outbreak in West, Central Africa accelerated by increased migration, UNICEF official says

Study finds why corticosteroids do not work well for COPD patients

Subjects with borderline elevated IgE levels less likely to develop glioma

Nearly one-third of all countries affected by malaria on course to eliminate disease, WHO report says

Study finds 30% decline in heart failure hospitalization rate

FSU biologists devise new way to watch how cells move

Roundup: Mass. contemplates 'global payments'; rural hospitals struggling; Oregon liability cost studied

Sam Houston State receives NIJ/FSF grant to investigate BKA designer drugs

King's researchers create traditional Chinese medicine database

Viewpoints: CLASS decision ends fear of government bailout; the strengths and failings of U.S. health care

Learning from one's mistakes may be better than practicing to perfection

Heart-failure related hospitalizations has declined substantially among Medicare patients

RTS,S vaccine reduces risk of severe malaria in African children

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

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