The prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical and allied health professions.
Comprehensive immigrant and refugee health guidelines new resource for physicians – The largest, most comprehensive evidence-based guidelines to immigrant health – designed to help Canadian physicians meet the unique needs of this group – are being published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Cancer mortality rates are higher in men than women – Overall cancer mortality rates are higher for men than women in the United States. Men are more likely to die from cancer than women. For many cancers, men have poorer survival than women but the differences are slight, and this is due to the greater frequency of cancer diagnosis, rather than poorer survival once the cancer occurs.
Surprising drop in physicians’ willingness to accept patients with insurance — Despite the imminent expansion of insurance coverage under health care reform, patients’ access to care may become more restricted – There is a drop in physicians’ acceptance of health insured patients in past years in US. As a result, insured patients could face new obstacles to receiving the medical attention they need, and overall access to health care could actually contract. As required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, millions of people will soon be added to the ranks of the insured. However, this rapid expansion of coverage is colliding with a different, potentially problematic trend that could end up hampering access to health care.
FDA approves new test to help determine if breast cancer patients are candidates for Herceptin treatment – Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women. About 20 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer are HER2-positive. The Inform Dual ISH test allows lab personnel to count the number of copies of HER2 genes on chromosome 17 in a small sample of the breast tumor. Copies of the HER2 gene appear black and copies of chromosome 17 appear red. Patients with more than the normal number of copies of the HER2 gene are considered candidates for Herceptin therapy.
Number of Medicaid beneficiaries served by such plans increased by more than 4 million between 2004-2009, expected to rise further as health reform expands Medicaid coverage; provider-operated plans perform better than commercially-owned – A new Commonwealth Fund report finds that Medicaid managed care plans that are owned by publicly traded for-profit companies whose primary line of business is managing Medicaid enrollees spent an average of 14 percent of premiums on administrative costs, compared with an average of only 10 percent spent by non-publicly traded plans owned by groups of health care providers, health systems, community health centers, or clinics.
FDA announces new safety recommendations for high-dose simvastatin — Increased risk of muscle injury cited – Patients taking simvastatin 80 mg daily had an increased risk of muscle injury. The risk of muscle injury is highest during the first year of treatment with the 80 mg dose of simvastatin, and is frequently associated with a genetic predisposition for simvastatin-related muscle injury or myopathy.
Ovarian cancer screening does not appear to reduce risk of ovarian cancer death – In a clinical trial that included nearly 80,000 women, those who received ovarian cancer screening did not have a reduced risk of death from ovarian cancer compared to women who received usual care, but did have an increase in invasive medical procedures and associated harms as a result of being screened.
Reminding surgical staff of phlebotomy costs appears to affect utilization – Surgical house staff and attending physicians who are reminded about the charges for ordering daily blood drawing for routine blood work appear to reduce the amount of routine blood tests ordered and the charges for these laboratory tests.
Getting along with co-workers may prolong life, researchers find — But support from the boss has no effect on mortality – People who have a good peer support system at work may live longer than people who don’t have such a support system, according research published by the American Psychological Association.
Health reform law will insure nearly all uninsured women by 2014 – The new health reform law will expand health insurance coverage to nearly all uninsured women and will make health care more affordable for millions of women through premium subsidies beginning in 2014 and new rules, some already in place, that will protect women from high costs, according to a Commonwealth Fund report released today.
Study suggests prolonged bottle feeding increases the risk of obesity – Experts agree that obesity prevention should begin before children enter school. But due to a lack of conclusive data, health care providers often have trouble advising parents about which interventions are the most beneficial.
Many New Drugs Did Not Have Comparative Effectiveness Information Available at Time of FDA Approval – Only about half of new drugs approved in the last decade had comparative effectiveness data available at the time of their approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and approximately two-thirds of new drugs had this information available when alternative treatment options existed,.
