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Healthcare reform

Faced with a barrage of pressing issues, the Obama administration has placed health-care reform high on its agenda.

8 Feb 2009

HIPAA privacy rule fails to adequately protect patient privacy and hampers health research

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule does not adequately protect the privacy of people's personal health information and hinders important health research discoveries, concludes a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

5 Feb 2009

Seniors in Medicare's doughnut hole decrease use of meds

Beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Part D who reached a gap in health care coverage known as the "doughnut hole" were much less likely to use prescription drugs than those with an employer-based plan, according to a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health study.

3 Feb 2009

High-tech hospitals see fewer complications, lower costs

Texas hospitals using health information technologies had fewer complications, lower mortality rates and lower costs, a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher has found.

3 Feb 2009

The state of America's health care is poor

"The state of America's health care is poor," Jeffrey P. Harris, MD, FACP, president of the American College of Physicians (ACP), reported today at the annual State of the Nation's Health Care briefing.

2 Feb 2009

Top hospitals have 27 percent lower mortality: Annual HealthGrades study

Medicare patients treated at top-rated hospitals nationwide across the most common Medicare diagnoses and procedures are 27 percent less likely to die, on average, than those admitted to all other hospitals, according to a study released today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization.

29 Jan 2009

Most inactive physicians retain licenses, return to practice without competency review

One in eight physicians have been inactive in the state where they are licensed for at least a year, and most states do not require them to undergo competency tests or retraining when they return to actively practicing medicine.

29 Jan 2009

Easing regulations does not mean lower quality of cardiac care

States that dropped regulations overseeing the performance of two common heart procedures showed no increase in death rates, according to researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Rice University and Duke University Medical Center.

29 Jan 2009

Hospitals across Australia in crisis

Across Australia there appears to be a critical situation developing in some of the country's hospitals which is forcing doctors to speak out.

29 Jan 2009

Study confirms computerized automation of notes and records in hospitals best for patients

Results from a large-scale Johns Hopkins study of more than 40 hospitals and 160,000 patients show that when health information technologies replace paper forms and handwritten notes, both hospitals and patients benefit strongly.

27 Jan 2009

Second degree nurses are an efficient new solution to the current nursing shortage

As the United States continues to experience a nursing shortage that is expected to grow to one million nurses by 2016, a new research study highlights a pool of potential candidates who could alleviate the shortage in an economical way.

27 Jan 2009

Healthcare will be a headache for Obama

Among industrialised nations, the US spends well over twice the per capita average on health care and soaring health costs are expected to reach 20 per cent of Gross Domestic Product by 2015.

23 Jan 2009

Study looks at hospital at-home programs

For select patients, hospital at home treatment produces similar outcomes to inpatient care at similar or lower costs, found a study by researchers from the United Kingdom and Italy to be published in CMAJ.

19 Jan 2009

Opinion piece, editorial examine qualification of potential surgeon general nominee gupta

Two newspapers recently published an opinion piece and an editorial on the qualifications of Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and chief medical correspondent at CNN, whom President-elect Barack Obama reportedly seeks to nominate as the next U.S. surgeon general. Summaries appear below.

19 Jan 2009

Obesity centre behind major staff expansion

The University of Sydney is embarking on one of its largest ever recruitment drives in the wake of recent federal funding for an international centre of expertise in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

19 Jan 2009

Report confirms serious health system capacity challenge

The Alternate Level of Care in Canada report released yesterday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) substantiates the Ontario Hospital Association's (OHA) long-standing concerns about the seriousness of alternate level of care (ALC) challenges and lack of capacity across the patient care continuum.

19 Jan 2009

Healthcare among public's top priorities for economic stimulus

The public ranks action on health care highly as part of efforts to stem the impact of the economic recession and also views reforming health care as one of the top priorities for President-elect Obama and Congress, according to a new national survey conducted by researchers from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.

19 Jan 2009