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UnitedHealth Group attains highest total Index score in Healthcare Provider Sector

UnitedHealth Group today announced that the company has been named to both the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. UnitedHealth Group attained the highest total Index score in the Healthcare Provider Sector, and was a leader among peer companies worldwide in corporate governance, service to patients, partnerships toward sustainable health care, stakeholder engagement, and corporate citizenship and philanthropy.

13 Sep 2010

AABB to honor blood-collection professionals worldwide

Blood collection professionals are the connection between blood donors and the life-saving blood therapies people rely on every day. Blood-collection professionals will be recognized in communities worldwide September 12-18, 2010, as part of the 6th Annual Blood Collectors Week, sponsored jointly by Fenwal Inc. and AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks).

13 Sep 2010

C-section rates on the rise

According to a California Watch analysis, profit making hospitals across the state are performing Cesarean sections at higher rates than non-profit hospitals. The analysis compiled a database of state birthing records and showed that women were at least 17 percent more likely to have a Cesarean section at a for-profit hospital than at a non-profit or public hospital from 2005 to 2007.

12 Sep 2010

Quest Diagnostics on Dow Jones Sustainability World and North America indexes

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, the world's leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services, today announced that it has again been selected to be part of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Indexes and North America Indexes (DJSI World and DJSI North America). The company is in its seventh year on the World Index (since 2004) and in its sixth on the North American Index (since 2005).

From Quest Diagnostics 10 Sep 2010

FDA approves Abreu BTT 700 System for temperature monitoring

Brain Tunnelgenix Technologies Corp. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the company clearance to market its Abreu BTT 700 System for continuous temperature monitoring.

10 Sep 2010

Spirus Medical obtains Japanese marketing approval for ENDO-EASE line of endoscopy devices

Spirus Medical announced today that it has obtained marketing approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for the company's proprietary ENDO-EASE line of endoscopy devices. The Endo-Ease Endoluminal Advancement System features novel "over-tubes" that use a spiral design utilizing simple rotation to facilitate enteroscopy, colonoscopy and ileoscopy.

9 Sep 2010

OEFI selects HealthEdge's HealthRules product suite

HealthEdge, provider of the only modern, enterprise-class software platform for healthcare payors, today announced that the Pasadena, Calif.-based Operating Engineers Funds Inc. (OEFI) has selected the patented HealthRules product suite to tackle the non-profit health plan's unique and challenging service needs.

8 Sep 2010

Study finds alternative birthing room reduces Caesarian section surgery

Giving birth in an alternative setting within a hospital like a bed-free birthing room or one designed to be "homelike" is just as safe for healthy women as laboring in a traditional hospital bed and women who use these rooms are nearly twice as likely to be satisfied with their birth experiences, according to an updated Cochrane review.

8 Sep 2010

Candidates focus on health care politics

As candidates ramped up campaigning over Labor Day weekend, news outlets examined the role of the new health law in the 2010 elections.

8 Sep 2010

AHRQ releases free evidence-based guides for eight health conditions

HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today released a series of free evidence-based guides designed to help Spanish speakers understand and compare the risks, benefits and side effects of treatments for eight health conditions.

7 Sep 2010

AMN Healthcare enters MSP and RPO contract with Hendrick Medical Center

AMN Healthcare Services, Inc., the nation's largest healthcare staffing and workforce solutions company and Hendrick Medical Center, a 500-bed hospital in Abilene, TX, jointly announce a Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) contract between the two.

7 Sep 2010

FDA grants IRIS clearance for analysis of synovial fluid with iQ200, iRICELL automated microscopy analyzers

IRIS International, Inc., a leading manufacturer of automated in-vitro diagnostic systems and consumables for use in hospitals and commercial laboratories worldwide and provider of high value personalized diagnostics testing services through its CLIA certified molecular diagnostics laboratory, today announced that it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the analysis of synovial fluid as a new product application in its Body Fluids Module utilizing its iQ®200 and iRICELL® automated microscopy analyzers.

7 Sep 2010

Employees pay more for health insurance while wages remain stagnant

Despite growth in the economy, the economic climate for American workers hasn't improved much since last Labor Day, and they are significantly worse off on most measures than they were a decade ago, according to the third annual Labor Scorecard compiled by Rutgers' School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR). While August's unemployment rate was 9.6 percent, 0.1 percent lower than last August, the figure is about 2.5 times August 2000's 4.1 percent.

6 Sep 2010

Red Cross provides help and shelter from Hurricane Earl

The American Red Cross has provided help and shelter from North Carolina to New England as Hurricane Earl and its winds and rain moved up the Atlantic Coast.

6 Sep 2010

To win senior votes, some campaigns focus on Medicare fears

With Labor Day weekend the traditional start of intense campaigning, some news coverage focused on seniors' health care.

6 Sep 2010

ForteBio launches Protein G biosensor for rapid detection of mammalian IgGs

ForteBio®, Inc., a leading supplier of label-free technology that accelerates the development of biotherapeutic and pharmaceutical products, today announced the launch of its Dip and Read™ Protein G biosensor for rapid detection and quantification of numerous types of mammalian immunoglobulin (IgG), an antibody molecule, from solution. Because it runs on the company's label-free Octet instrumentation platform, the new biosensor enables such measurements with unprecedented speed, ease of use and cost-efficiency.

3 Sep 2010

NYBC calls for blood donations as Hurricane Earl approaches

New York Blood Center, serving more than 20 million people in New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley and New Jersey, calls upon our communities to please donate blood and platelets, as the East Coast braces for Hurricane Earl. While donations from Rh-negative types are especially crucial, healthy people of all blood types and ethnicities are encouraged to donate.

3 Sep 2010

Biopharmaceutical firms take steps to create greener working environments

Biopharmaceutical firms and other life science organizations are taking definitive steps toward creating greener working environments and developing more sustainable operations, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN).

3 Sep 2010

New TB diagnostic test effective in first large-scale field trial

Research assessing the effectiveness of a new diagnostic test for the detection of tuberculosis (TB) is featured in the Sept. 1 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

3 Sep 2010

MIRACLE project to develop lab-on-chip system for diagnosing cancer

Today, at the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference in Buenos Aires (Argentina), imec and its project partners announce the launch of the European Seventh Framework Project MIRACLE. The MIRACLE project aims at developing an operational lab-on-chip for the isolation and detection of circulating and disseminated tumor cells in blood.

2 Sep 2010