Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Pregnant women who are lesbians are not receiving the same care as other mothers-to-be: Study

Midwives often struggle to meet the needs of pregnant women who are lesbians, with patients reporting that the focus is often on their sexuality rather than the fact that they are expecting a baby, according to research in the November issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

22 Oct 2009

Healthcare organizations meet at the third Annual Integrated Provider Management Symposium

More than 28 healthcare organizations were represented at the third Annual Integrated Provider Management (IPM) Symposium, hosted by Portico Systems. The focus of the event was how health plans are preparing for industry changes in terms of access, quality and payment reform.

22 Oct 2009

18 Los Angeles residents charged in five indictments for allegedly participating in Medicare fraud schemes

Eighteen defendants, most of them residing in the Los Angeles area, have been charged in five indictments for allegedly participating in Medicare fraud schemes that resulted in approximately $25 million in fraudulent bills to the Medicare program, announced Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California George S. Cardona and Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).

22 Oct 2009

Clinical performance study reveals the accuracy and precision of TRUE2go system

Home Diagnostics, Inc., a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of blood glucose monitoring systems, today announced the results of a TRUE2go™ clinical performance study published in the October 2009 issue of the journal Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics. The study, “Clinical Performance of the TRUE2go Blood Glucose System – A Novel Integrated System for Meter and Strips,” demonstrated the accuracy and precision of the TRUE2go system and found that it was both easy and convenient to use by patients.

22 Oct 2009

SNAP Diagnostics joins SAFE-BioPharma Association

SNAP Diagnostics, a Chicago-based leader in the development of technology for the detection of sleep apnea and the analysis of snoring patterns, has joined SAFE-BioPharma Association, the non-profit association that created and manages the global SAFE-BioPharma® digital identity and signature standard for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. SNAP Diagnostics is the first dedicated device and diagnostics company to join SAFE-BioPharma.

22 Oct 2009

AHA endorses rL Solutions' Risk MonitorPro healthcare incident management system

The American Hospital Association (AHA) today announced it has exclusively endorsed rL Solutions Risk MonitorPro® for healthcare incident management. Risk MonitorPro is a web-based incident and adverse event management system that allows users to easily submit, refine, analyze and communicate critical incident information.

22 Oct 2009

FDA uses Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions' prescription data for tracking viral treatments

Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of market data and competitive intelligence to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, announced today that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is using its prescription data to track the treatment of H1N1 and other influenza viruses.

22 Oct 2009

France Biotech announces its 5th Bioethics Forum

France Biotech, the French association of life science businesses and their partners (www.france-biotech.org) today announced that its 5th Bioethics Forum (organized in collaboration with the Eurobiomed cluster) will take place on Friday, December 11th, at the Musée du Carre d’Art venue in Nîmes.

22 Oct 2009

Halozyme Therapeutics commences patient dosing in Phase 3 Enhanze trial with Herceptin

Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. and Roche today announced dosing of the first patient in a Phase 3 registration trial using Enhanze™ technology (rHuPH20, recombinant human hyaluronidase) in a subcutaneous formulation with Roche’s anticancer biologic, Herceptin (trastuzumab).

22 Oct 2009

AHF commends Congress for its passage of the Ryan White CARE Act

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization which provides services to more than 129,000 people in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia, today commended Congress for its passage of the Ryan White CARE Act (RWCA, or the CARE Act), the federal law that provides the primary source of funding for AIDS care and services nationwide. The bill cleared the Senate on Monday by unanimous consent and passed the House earlier today by a 408 to 9 vote.

22 Oct 2009

Senate votes to shelve 'doc fix' legislation

"The Senate has sidetracked legislation raising Medicare payments for doctors by $247 billion over the next decade," The Associated Press reports. "The 47-53 vote was 13 short of the 60 needed to advance the measure, and reflected bipartisan concern that it would have raised deficits if it became law" (10/21).

22 Oct 2009

Experts discuss methods to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infections

It's a statistic that almost every healthcare facility knows: 40 percent of all healthcare-acquired infections are urinary tract infections (UTI). Since catheters -- the most common source of these infections -- are used on over four million hospital patients a year, the chances of a patient getting a UTI are pretty high. In fact, the daily risk for patients acquiring a urinary infection is as high as seven percent when indwelling urethral catheters remain in their original position.

22 Oct 2009

Senate Democrats continue pursuit of insurers' antitrust exemption

"Top Senate Democrats intend to try to strip the health insurance industry of its exemption from federal antitrust laws, according to congressional officials, the latest evidence of a deepening struggle over President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul the health care industry," the Associated Press/Boston Globe reports.

22 Oct 2009

GE and Eli Lilly develop tissue-based biomarker technology for cancer therapy

Scientists at GE Global Research, and researchers at Eli Lilly and Company today announced a significant advancement in cancer research resulting from the two companies’ collaboration formed in October 2007.

22 Oct 2009

InHealth awards Southern California, Northwestern and Stanford Universities $1.4M as research grants

The Institute for Health Technology Studies (InHealth) has awarded three new research grants totaling more than $1.4 million to investigators at the University of Southern California, Northwestern University, and Stanford University. The funding will support three separate studies that will examine the social and economic impact of therapeutic medical devices, as well as the device innovation process.

22 Oct 2009

Obama's success on reform hinges on health care team of 6

"President Obama's overhaul hinges on six crucial individuals and their skill at negotiating behind closed doors," The Los Angeles Times reports.

22 Oct 2009

Independent panel to rein in health costs gaining support

"As Congress grapples with how to rein in the high cost of healthcare in America, the option of outsourcing hard decisions to a new, independent commission is gaining momentum," the Christian Science Monitor reports.

22 Oct 2009

Funding cuts continue to plague state health programs

State health agencies and Medicaid programs continue to take hits from spending cuts. A new program in Florida may be backfiring against some health workers with criminal records, while a novel health benefits program in Houston hopes to lower the number of uninsured.

22 Oct 2009

EU policies threaten developing countries drug supplies, report says

A report, released Tuesday, from Oxfam International and Health Action International says the EU is putting big drug companies' interests ahead of "millions of people" in developing countries who do not have access to essential medicines, Agence France-Presse reports (10/20).

22 Oct 2009

OR Benchmarks Collaborative names the 2009 Top Performers

Faced with today’s unrelenting financial demands and quality of care challenges, leading hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers are turning to comparative healthcare benchmarks to help them improve operating room (OR) performance. Six of these trailblazers have been recognized by one such service, the OR Benchmarks® Collaborative (ORBC), as 2009 Top Performers that have used ORBC data to achieve significant results.

21 Oct 2009