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Who do Americans want care from? Doctors or other practitioners?

Doctors who provide personalized care get organized into a new group while a new survey seems to suggest American prefer getting their care from a doctor instead of nurse practitioners or physician assistants.

24 Dec 2013

U.S. FDA grants Veloxis Orphan Drug status for Envarsus

Veloxis Pharmaceuticals A/S, today announced that Envarsus was granted Orphan Drug status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for prophylaxis of organ rejection in patients receiving allogenic kidney transplants.

24 Dec 2013

First Edition: December 24, 2013

Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby, working in collaboration with NBC News, reports: "If you buy one of the less expensive insurance plans sold through the health law's marketplaces, you may be in for a surprise. Some plans will not pay for a doctor visit before you meet your annual deductible, which could be thousands of dollars" (Appleby, 12/23).

24 Dec 2013

White House to health insurance consumers: You've got another day to sign up

The White House has decided to allow an extra 24 hours for people to sign up for insurance on HealthCare.gov, through the end of the day Tuesday, to receive coverage beginning on Jan. 1, according to a senior official familiar with the change. The official deadline for getting insurance remains 11:59 p.m. on Monday. But because of record traffic on the website Monday morning, officials wanted to reassure the public - and themselves - that people who sought coverage in good faith would be covered (Shear, 12/23).

24 Dec 2013

Viewpoints: Impact of 'meddling with' health law; antibiotics on farms; 'Let thirtysomethings' join Medicare

[A]ll of these last-minute policy shifts confuse people who were already struggling to understand a complex new system, ... The cumulative effect is that at least some people - we hope not many - will misunderstand their responsibilities under the law or be deterred from seeking coverage. The biggest danger is that the Obama administration is encouraging politicians to meddle in the health-care system every time a few vocal constituents get upset about its requirements (12/21).

24 Dec 2013

Medical consultation increases for Medicare patients before cataract surgery

Preoperative consultations before cataract surgery became more common for Medicare patients despite no clear guidelines about when to require such a service, hinting at unnecessary use of health care resources, according to a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

24 Dec 2013

Two different rulings on health law's contraceptive rule

A judge in Oklahoma ruled against the insurance coverage requirement, while a Washington judge ruled against a Catholic Church challenge.

24 Dec 2013

State highlights: Minn. to cut elderly Medicaid benefits; Calif.'s Insurance Commissioner finds fault with Obamacare, seeks re-election

Starting in January, thousands of low-income elderly Minnesotans could lose government benefits intended to help them stay in their homes and out of nursing care. In an effort to constrain runaway Medicaid spending, Minnesota is implementing stricter rules that will make it harder for senior citizens to qualify for home-based services, potentially leaving them with reduced care or no care at all (Serres, 12/21).

24 Dec 2013

Transplanting self-donated Schwann cells aids hind limb functional recovery

A study carried out at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine for "The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis" has found that transplanting self-donated Schwann cells (SCs, the principal ensheathing cells of the nervous system) that are elongated so as to bridge scar tissue in the injured spinal cord, aids hind limb functional recovery in rats modeled with spinal cord injury.

24 Dec 2013

Racial divide for breast cancer survival widens

Despite numerous advances in the screening and treatment of breast cancer, black women are still far more likely to die of the disease than white women.

24 Dec 2013

Gov. Kasich gets green light for Medicaid expansion from state Supreme Court

Elsewhere, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signs bill to postpone changes to BadgerCare, and Pennsylvania officials seek support for Gov. Tom Corbett's "Healthy Pennsylvania" plan.

24 Dec 2013

New tools for neglected diseases: an interview with Dr. BT Slingsby, CEO, GHIT Fund

Nearly 3.3 billion people, a little less than half of our world’s population, are at risk of malaria, TB and what we call “neglected tropical diseases”—diseases caused by worms, parasites, viruses and bacteria like Chagas disease, river blindness, elephantiasis, sleeping sickness, etc.

24 Dec 2013

Study finds link between genes affected by testosterone and antibody responses to influenza vaccine

A new study has identified a link between certain genes affected by testosterone and antibody responses to an influenza vaccine. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that testosterone levels may partially explain why men often have weaker responses to vaccines than women.

24 Dec 2013

Rutgers New Jersey Medical School's David Perlin explains how fungal infections can become deadly

Ask someone what the term 'fungus' brings to mind, and chances are it will be an image of something that smells or looks disgusting. Ask David Perlin, executive director of the Public Health Research Institute at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and the response will be far more somber - because he knows how deadly fungi can be.

24 Dec 2013

Physicians study mothers' breast milk to determine correct amounts of nutrients for premature infants

Physicians in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the Maxine Dunitz Children's Health Center launched a pilot study in which mothers' breast milk is analyzed to determine whether premature infants are receiving the correct amounts of nutrients they need to thrive.

24 Dec 2013

Monday's deadline to buy health law insurance coverage leaves many scrambling

People who want policies in place by Jan. 1 face a deadline today, but a series of changes in how the health law is being implemented has complicated the process for consumers and insurers.

24 Dec 2013

Changes to LZTR1 gene predispose people to develop schwannomas

Changes to a gene called LZTR1 predispose people to develop a rare disorder where multiple tumors called schwannomas form near nerve pathways, according to a study published today in the journal Nature Genetics and led by researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

24 Dec 2013

Researchers identify potential therapy for meibomian gland dysfunction

Meibomian gland dysfunction is the leading cause of dry eye disease, which affects tens of millions of Americans. However, there is no FDA-approved treatment for MGD. Researchers from the Schepens Eye Research Institute/Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School have just identified a potential therapy.

24 Dec 2013

States, feds struggle to enroll consumers in health coverage

Officials attempting to enroll people for coverage through the health law's exchanges are facing education challenges, website headaches and a deadline of today to get people signed up for Jan. 1 coverage. News outlets provide snapshots in Colorado, California, the District of Columbia, Oregon, Minnesota, Texas, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

24 Dec 2013

Native Americans fight government over hospital compensation

When the federal government reneged on its agreement to fully compensate the Shoshone-Paiute tribes for running a hospital on the Duck Valley reservation, the Washington contracting world barely noticed.

24 Dec 2013