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Experts duel on plight of health reform and merits of specific provisions

NPR interviewed two leading health care experts - Uwe Reinhardt, a Princeton professor, and Gail Wilensky, an economist who ran Medicare under the first President Bush - to shed light on the current plight of pending health care overhaul.

27 Jan 2010

Clinton rebuffs criticism of U.S. aid to Haiti, pledges redoubling of efforts to help quake survivors

"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she resents criticism of the U.S. effort to help stricken Haiti and pledged to redouble efforts to help survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake," the Associated Press/CBSNews.com reports. "I deeply resent those who attack our country, the generosity of our people and the leadership of our president in trying to respond to historically disastrous conditions after the earthquake," she said.

27 Jan 2010

Democrats shun health reform deadlines as they await state of the union

Democrats Tuesday backed away from setting or adhering to a health overhaul timeline "saying they no longer felt pressure to move quickly on a health bill after eight months of setting deadlines and missing them," The New York Times reports.

27 Jan 2010

FDA clears Notal Vision's ForeseeHome AMD Monitor

Notal Vision's ForeseeHome™ AMD Monitor has received Section 510 (k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

27 Jan 2010

Blood system offers a potential therapeutic avenue for age-related stem cell dysfunction

As you age, your blood ages. Deep in your bone marrow, blood stem cells keep churning out your blood cells, but the mix of blood cell types goes awry, making you more prone to disease.

27 Jan 2010

Web-based records worried patients, prompting more neutral language

Kaiser Permanente's experience while providing digital records to patients highlights the potential for miscommunications -- and sometimes needless alarm, The Huffington Post Investigative Fund reports. The health care company gave patients access to the same online lab reports that went to doctors and they included warning messages, such as a capital "H" to indicate above average results. That worried enough patients that the managed-care giant changed its format.

27 Jan 2010

January is ‘Thyroid Awareness Month’

We often go to great lengths to look and feel our best. Yet many never realize that one of the keys to a healthy body and a productive life rests just below the neck.

27 Jan 2010

CBO: Stimulus more expensive than expected, Medicare costs to double by 2020

A new Congressional Budget Office report "provides more ammunition for Republicans who say the stimulus has been long on spending and short on creating promised jobs," The Associated Press/ABC News reports. The report says the stimulus will cost $75 billion more than expected, because of increased unemployment, requirements for the food stamp program and the high popularity of an infrastructure bonds program. The report comes as Democrats consider a second stimulus bill that could include another extension of unemployment benefits, job creation tax credits and further help for jobless people to buy health coverage (Taylor, 1/26).

27 Jan 2010

Abbott declares quarterly dividend of 40 cents per share

Abbott today announced financial results for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2009.

27 Jan 2010

Positive results from Supernus Pharmaceuticals' SPN 810 Phase IIa trial for ADHD

Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc., today announced that its Phase IIa U.S. clinical trial for SPN 810 in children with ADHD and persistent serious conduct problems met the primary endpoints of safety and tolerability, as well as showed statistically significant reduction versus baseline in conduct problems across all doses. The trial was initiated in 2009 and was a proof-of-concept, open-label study in children 6 to 12 years of age, assigned to one of four doses over a six-week treatment period, after 2-5 weeks' titration.

27 Jan 2010

Imagine Media signs non-binding LOI to acquire DMI Life Sciences

Imagine Media, Ltd., a Delaware corporation today announced that it has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent to acquire DMI Life Sciences, Inc., a Denver, Colorado-based biotechnology company. (“DMI”). Under the terms of the LOI, if the acquisition is completed, the shareholders of DMI will acquire approximately 90.52% of the total issued and outstanding shares of the Company, and the transaction will constitute a change in control.

27 Jan 2010

AHS announces acquisition of premier anesthesia billing company

AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions (AHS), one of the nation’s leading providers of medical billing and practice management services, today announced that it has acquired Medical Account Services (MAS), the premier anesthesia billing company throughout Ohio. This agreement will expand AHS anesthesia billing and practice management operations, and enable the Company to serve additional anesthesia clients in Ohio.

27 Jan 2010

Juvaris BioTherapeutics completes second close on its Series B equity financing

Juvaris BioTherapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing adjuvanted vaccines for infectious diseases, announced that it has completed a second close on its Series B equity financing of up to $25 million. The additional equity investment came from an undisclosed strategic corporate investor who joins SV Life Sciences and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in the round.

27 Jan 2010

VentriPoint Diagnostics to present abstract on VMS clinical validation study

VentriPoint Diagnostics Ltd. today announced the abstract of a clinical validation study of the second application of the VentriPoint Medical System (VMS) will be presented at the American College of Cardiology's 59th Annual Scientific Session, March 14 to 16 in Atlanta, Georgia. The study demonstrates the accuracy of the method used by the VentriPoint Medical System (VMS) to generate critical heart measurements in three dimensions from two-dimensional ultrasound images with significantly greater speed and accuracy and at considerably lesser cost than is otherwise possible.

27 Jan 2010

TE can be accurately performed in majority of NAFLD patients to exclude advanced fibrosis

Researchers from France and Hong Kong determined that transient elastography (TE), a noninvasive, ultrasonic imaging modality, can be accurately performed in the majority of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to exclude advanced fibrosis. Full findings of this study, funded by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, appear in the February issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

27 Jan 2010

Home health care fraud: Detroit-area physical therapist pleads guilty

Detroit-area resident Jessica Vigil pleaded guilty today for her role in a Detroit-area home health care fraud scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara L. McQuade; Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena of the FBI's Detroit Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General's (HHS-OIG) Chicago Region.

27 Jan 2010

International Stem Cell joins StockProfile.com

International Stem Cell Corporation, announced today that it has expanded its market awareness program by joining www.StockProfile.com, a customized web-based platform showcasing emerging growth stocks.

27 Jan 2010

Pediatricians need to refer children with suspected delays for further testing or treatment and follow up

Many pediatricians score high on screening their patients for developmental delays, but barely make a passing grade in referring children with suspected delays for further testing or treatment, according to a study from Johns Hopkins Children's Center and other institutions to appear in the February issue of Pediatrics.

27 Jan 2010

Conmed Healthcare Management and Pima County, Arizona sign $2.8M medical services agreement

Conmed Healthcare Management, Inc., a leading full service provider of correctional facility healthcare services to county and municipal detention centers, today announced that it has signed a medical services contract with Pima County, Arizona to provided services at their Juvenile Detention Center. The initial term of the contract is two years and five months with projected revenues of approximately $2.8 million.

27 Jan 2010