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Study: Millions of cancer survivors put off care they can't afford

The Associated Press: A new study says about 2 million of the 12 million cancer survivors in the United States put off medical care because they cannot afford it. "The study is being called the first to estimate how often current and former patients have skipped getting care because of money worries. It was led by Kathryn Weaver, a researcher at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

15 Jun 2010

Researchers establish link between air pollution and SDB

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health have established the first link between air pollution and sleep-disordered breathing, a known cause of cardiovascular diseases.

15 Jun 2010

VA Federal Supply Schedule Service approves CTT as vendor for Calmare Pain Therapy Treatment

Competitive Technologies, Inc. announced today that the Department of Veterans Affairs' Federal Supply Schedule Service has accepted CTT's application to be an approved vendor for its Calmare® Pain Therapy Treatment. This decision will enable CTT to sell Calmare Pain Therapy to physicians throughout the Federal government, with the expectation of significant sales in that market sector, which includes the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, the Indian Health Service, the Bureau of Prisons, and State Veteran Homes.

15 Jun 2010

MRSA survivors unite across the globe to raise awareness and educate public on prevention

MRSA Survivors Network with MRSA survivors, family members and other victims of healthcare-acquired infections unite across the globe and on World MRSA Day, October 2, 2010 in a grassroots movement to raise awareness and push for more mandated reporting of infections, MRSA screening laws, funds to raise awareness and educate the public on prevention, which will save lives.

15 Jun 2010

Cangene third-quarter revenues decline 39% to $41.1M

Cangene Corporation today reports financial results for the third quarter ended April 30, 2010.

15 Jun 2010

CLC-5 protein plays active part in inherited kidney disorder: Scientists

Scientists from the University of Leeds have discovered the mechanisms of a protein known to play an active part in the inherited kidney disorder, Dent's disease. The findings provide a new focus for future therapies for the disease, for which there is currently no cure.

15 Jun 2010

Radiation scans cause increased scrutiny

The Associated Press: "Americans get the most medical radiation in the world, even more than folks in other rich countries. The U.S. accounts for half of the most advanced procedures that use radiation, and the average American's dose has grown sixfold over the last couple of decades. Too much radiation raises the risk of cancer.

15 Jun 2010

HHS issues interim rules for grandfathered health plans

The government suggested that under a highly complicated interim rule released today more than half of employer-sponsored health plans could lose their special status that shields them from some aspects of the new health overhaul. The administration outlined "a number of ways health plans could lose their grandfathered status. Plans that substantially eliminate benefits to diagnose or treat a particular condition would lose the status, for instance.

15 Jun 2010

FDA grants Fast Track status for Genzyme's alemtuzumab development program for MS

Genzyme Corporation announced today that its alemtuzumab for multiple sclerosis development program has been granted Fast Track status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This designation covers patients with relapsing-remitting forms of the disease.

15 Jun 2010

Behind the Numbers report: Employers' medical costs to increase by 9% in 2011

The nation's employers can expect medical costs to increase by 9 percent in 2011, a decrease of 0.5 percent from the 2010 growth rate, according to the annual Behind the Numbers report published today by the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Health Research Institute. For the first time, the majority of the American workforce is expected to have a health insurance deductible of $400 or more, as more employers return to "indemnity style" cost-sharing by raising out-of-pocket limits, replacing co-pays with co-insurance and adding high-deductible health plans.

15 Jun 2010

Insulin-producing beta cells can proliferate in patients recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes: Researchers

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, working in collaboration with colleagues from Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the University of Brighton, have used a unique collection of pancreas specimens taken from patients who died soon after diagnosis of type 1 diabetes to show that they respond to the ongoing process of destruction by inducing their islet cells to proliferate.

15 Jun 2010

ConjuChem second-quarter net loss decreases to $3.6 million

ConjuChem Biotechnologies today announced financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2010, ended April 30, 2010.

15 Jun 2010

States, Feds look to expand ACOs and medical homes

Crain's New York Business, on ACOs in New York: "Authorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Barack Obama in March, ACOs are intended to reward providers that shift their focus to preventive care and presumably reduce the need for expensive procedures.

15 Jun 2010

ICON, PAREXEL to provide global support for execution of Bristol-Myers Squibb's clinical studies

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company today announced that it has signed agreements with ICON and PAREXEL, two leading providers of clinical development services to the biopharmaceutical industry, for joint strategic, operational and capability support of the company's clinical development program.

From Parexel 15 Jun 2010

ConvaTec presents Vitala Continence Control Device Phase 2 data at 2010 WOCN/WCET joint conference

ConvaTec, a world-leading developer of innovative medical technologies for community and hospital care, today presented data supporting the safety and efficacy of Vitala™, a novel, non-intrusive pouchless ostomy device that provides temporary continence to people with a colostomy. The clinical trial data were presented at the 2010 Joint Conference of the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society (WOCN) and World Council of Enterostomal Therapists (WCET), where the new device is being previewed to U.S. and global healthcare professionals.

15 Jun 2010

CMS to hold Medicare claims for four more days

Doctors treating Medicare patients won't be hit with a steep pay cut Tuesday, as previously scheduled, the Obama administration announced Monday. Instead, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is holding claims until Friday, anticipating that Congress will intervene this week. The move is the latest in a string of efforts to prevent Medicare doctors from receiving a 21 percent pay cut, which technically went into effect June 1."

15 Jun 2010

AMA adopts new policies to strengthen physician workforce

The American Medical Association adopted today at its Annual Meeting new policies to strengthen the physician workforce to meet the nation's growing health care needs. The United States faces a shortage of between 124,000 and 159,000 physicians by 2025. Already at least 22 states and 15 medical specialties have reported physician workforce shortages, including in medically underserved regions and front-line specialties including primary care and general surgery.

15 Jun 2010

New form of artificial human skin

Australian researchers are on the road to the discovery of a new form of artificial human skin that could be a boon to burn victims and other patients needing skin grafts. At present the available skin grafts are only 1 millimeter thick and serve only to replace the top epidermis layer.

14 Jun 2010

Parkinson’s disease linked to gene variant and pesticide: Study

Researchers from France reported in their new study that bad genes and exposure to certain banned pesticides could be blamed for development of Parkinson’s disease in men. In their study, published in the Archives of Neurology journal they show that men exposed to pesticides such as DDT and who had inherited genes for Parkinson’s disease were three and a half times more likely to develop Parkinson's than those with the normal version of the gene.

14 Jun 2010

Cheap drug that prevents bleeding may save 100,000 lives each year: Study

Researchers have shown that a cheap and easy to use drug that stops bleeding may save up to 100,000 lives each year from injuries associated with road accidents and violence. The study was published this Tuesday in the acclaimed international journal The Lancet and was conducted by doctors at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

14 Jun 2010