Medical News

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• Near-fatal asthma attacks linked to psychological morbidity
• Emphysema severity linked to HRQoL in elderly COPD patients
• VEGF levels increased in children with asthma
• Hysteroscopic septal resection improves obstetric outcome
• Spontaneous cycle superior to hCG-induced cycle for frozen-thawed embryo transfer
• ESHRE recommends lifestyle changes an IVF requirement for high-risk patients
• Dienogest as effective as leuprolide acetate for treating endometriosis pain
• HMW adiponectin reduced in PCOS independent of BMI, insulin resistance
• Aeroallergens linked to pathogenesis of eosinophilic oesophagitis
• Fibroblasts from schizophrenia patients show cell cycle abnormalities
• Bipolar II disorder patients at ‘marked’ risk for suicide attempt
• Psychosis treatment adherence unaffected by involuntary hospital admission
• Serial NT-proBNP measures give dynamic HF risk prediction in elderly
• Cognitive variables may not predict bipolar disorder functional outcomes
• Theory of Mind deficits present in first-episode schizophrenia
• Asymptomatic LV dysfunction found in half of Type 2 diabetes patients
• Vascular burden, hospitalizations related to cognitive impairment in elderly with bipolar disorder
• Serotonin_2A receptors linked to schizophrenia pathophysiology, not cognitive deficits
• Swine flu severity linked to presence of Streptococcus pneumoniae
• Newborn infants of smokers show circulatory dysfunction
• Breathlessness under-studied in chronic heart failure
• Brain changes in BD limited to paralimbic emotional regulatory structures

Near-fatal asthma attacks linked to psychological morbidity Posted: 31 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Patients who have suffered a near-fatal asthma attack have significantly higher levels of psychological morbidity for years after the event than other asthma patients, research shows.

Emphysema severity linked to HRQoL in elderly COPD patients Posted: 31 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST The severity of emphysema, but not that of airway narrowing, is significantly associated with generic and health-related quality of life in elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, researchers have found.

VEGF levels increased in children with asthma Posted: 31 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor are elevated in children with asthma, and may result in increased airway responsiveness through mechanisms related to airway inflammation or increased permeability of airway vasculature, say researchers.

Hysteroscopic septal resection improves obstetric outcome Posted: 31 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Women with infertility, a history of recurrent miscarriage, or preterm delivery show significantly improved obstetric outcomes with hysteroscopic septal resection, show researchers.

Spontaneous cycle superior to hCG-induced cycle for frozen-thawed embryo transfer Posted: 31 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Study findings suggest that women undergoing frozen-thawed embryo transfers in natural cycles are more likely to achieve an ongoing pregnancy if the cycle is not controlled with human chorionic gonadotropin .

ESHRE recommends lifestyle changes an IVF requirement for high-risk patients Posted: 31 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology has published a position statement detailing to what extent fertility treatment for patients who are obese, smoke, or drink excessively should be made conditional upon prior lifestyle changes.

Dienogest as effective as leuprolide acetate for treating endometriosis pain Posted: 31 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Dienogest is as effective as leuprolide acetate for treating endometriosis-associated pain, but has significantly less impact on bone mineral density and estradiol levels, show study findings.

HMW adiponectin reduced in PCOS independent of BMI, insulin resistance Posted: 31 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Study findings show that women with polycystic ovary syndrome have significantly lower levels of high-molecular-weight adiponectin than do women without the condition, independent of body mass index and insulin resistance.

Aeroallergens linked to pathogenesis of eosinophilic oesophagitis Posted: 31 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Aeroallergens may be involved in the pathogenesis of eosinophilic esophagitis, say researchers who found seasonal variations in diagnosis rates that correlated with pollen counts.

Fibroblasts from schizophrenia patients show cell cycle abnormalities Posted: 28 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Researchers have identified alterations in cellular proliferation and growth pathways in the fibroblasts of schizophrenia patients.

Bipolar II disorder patients at ‘marked’ risk for suicide attempt Posted: 28 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Patients with bipolar II disorder are as likely as those with bipolar I disorder to attempt suicide, study findings show.

Psychosis treatment adherence unaffected by involuntary hospital admission Posted: 27 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Patients who are voluntarily admitted for treatment of first-episode psychosis are no more likely to adhere to treatment or to have more favorable clinical and functional outcomes than patients involuntarily admitted, Norwegian researchers report.

Serial NT-proBNP measures give dynamic HF risk prediction in elderly Posted: 27 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Assessment of N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide predicts new-onset heart failure and cardiovascular death, independent of traditional factors, in community-dwelling elderly people, research shows.

Cognitive variables may not predict bipolar disorder functional outcomes Posted: 27 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Cognitive variables may not be good predictors of occupational recovery and social adjustment in patients hospitalized with bipolar disorder, study findings show.

Theory of Mind deficits present in first-episode schizophrenia Posted: 26 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST First-episode schizophrenia patients have significant Theory of Mind deficits, a German study has found.

Asymptomatic LV dysfunction found in half of Type 2 diabetes patients Posted: 26 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Early-stage heart failure is present in a significant proportion of patients with Type 2 diabetes with apparently normal cardiac function and should be looked for and treated more aggressively, Swedish researchers believe.

Vascular burden, hospitalizations related to cognitive impairment in elderly with bipolar disorder Posted: 26 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Vascular risk factors and hospital admissions are associated with cognitive impairment in elderly patients with bipolar disorder, a study in The Netherlands has found.

Serotonin<sub>2A</sub> receptors linked to schizophrenia pathophysiology, not cognitive deficits Posted: 25 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Frontal cortical serotonin2A receptors are involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia but are not responsible for the cognitive deficits seen in the early stages of the disease, suggest results of a receptor-binding study.

Swine flu severity linked to presence of Streptococcus pneumoniae Posted: 25 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST The presence of Streptococcus pneumonia is associated with increased severity of H1N1 pandemic influenza, researchers have found.

Newborn infants of smokers show circulatory dysfunction Posted: 25 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Newborn infants of women who currently smoke display impaired blood pressure control mechanisms from birth up to the age of 1 year, when compared with infants of non-smokers, study results demonstrate.

Breathlessness under-studied in chronic heart failure Posted: 25 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Researchers have called for a more consistent approach to studying breathlessness in patients with chronic heart failure, after finding no consensus on how to assess severity, little methodological research to develop tools, and a lack of focus on breathlessness as a symptom.

Brain changes in BD limited to paralimbic emotional regulatory structures Posted: 25 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST Results of a UK meta-analysis suggest that while brain changes in schizophrenia encompass limbic, paralimbic, and neocortical structures, the changes in bipolar disorder are limited to paralimbic regions involved in emotional regulation.

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Health Informatics News

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• Is offshore med school worth cost?
• Latest outrage: home-care scams
• Medicaid to launch huge data project
• Insurer rethinking rules after chat
• Ban balance-billing, advocate says
• Public option finds favor even in FL

Is offshore med school worth cost? Posted: 1/1/2010 St. Petersburg Times Many Florida doctors received their education at Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica, which accepts those who have low test scores and receives more than $150 million in U.S. education funding each year. Investigators are studying whether that expense is justified.

Latest outrage: home-care scams Posted: 12/7/2009 © Associated Press A new report says scams in Miami- Dade brought half a billion dollars in Medicare payments for home health-care into the county last year, more than the entire rest of the nation combined. Many "patients" got big-screen TVs or free maid service.

Medicaid to launch huge data project Posted: By Christine Jordan Sexton 11/13/2009 © Health News Florida  Florida is preparing to make the health histories of more than 1 million Medicaid patients accessible to 80,000 doctors, clinics and hospitals in the state on a secured-access system, the project director said Thursday. The aims: improve patient care, avoid duplication.

Insurer rethinking rules after chat Posted: By Christine Jordan Sexton 11/4/2009 © Health News Florida Following a meeting with Sen. Don Gaetz, the state’s largest health insurer is examining its policies for providing health insurance to cancer patients who undergo clinical trials.

Ban balance-billing, advocate says Posted: By Carol Gentry and Mary Jo Melone 11/3/2009 © Health News Florida  Sean Shaw, Florida's Insurance Consumer Advocate, is shopping around for a lawmaker brave enough to take on the medical lobby. He wants to outlaw balance-billing, a common practice that sticks patients with big bills their plan won't cover.

Public option finds favor even in FL Posted: 10/29/2009 © Miami Herald From the house staff at Jackson Memorial to the president-elect of the AMA, Florida doctors and nurses in quite different venues expressed support Wednesday for health-reform legislation that includes a public option, although there's disagreement on some details.

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Health Informatics News

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• N.Y. Hospital Org Partners with Staffing Vendor
• HIMSS Analytics: Hospitals Ill Prepared for Data Explosion
• MultiCare Expands HIE Deployment
• CHIME Hosts Webinar on CHCIO Program
• KLAS: Choosing Application Hosting Means Weighing Benefits
• Three Hospitals Earn Stage 7 Status
• Survey: Privacy compliance has declined
• E-book: Making E-Health Work
• Consumer tools: UCompareHealthCare Offers Free Reports on Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Physicians
• Articles: Direct to Consumer: Women are a powerful, but untapped, audience
• Consumer tools: Really Personal PHRs
• Consumer trends: Manhattan Predicts Online Health Trends
• News: Wall Street Journal Looks at Tools That Identify Low-Cost Care Options
• Consumer tools: Consumer Health Complete Now Available from EBSCO Publishing

N.Y. Hospital Org Partners with Staffing Vendor Posted: 29 Jan 2010 08:33 AM PST The Melville, N.Y-based Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council , representing 24 member hospitals, has formed an exclusive strategic partnership with LLoyd Staffing (Melville) for its healthcare technology transition goals. The Hospital Council will help its member hospitals meet current federal mandates for patient chart conversions and a shared network of data that is expected to improve the overall quality, safety and costs of treatment, the company says. LLoyd says it will offer a program to inform and educate prospective talent associates on the EMR technology process. The LLoyd Health IT curriculum will be specifically focused on current health care industry technology initiatives and it says it will increase the pool of clinical IT professionals available to Council hospitals. The partnership became effective Dec. 1, 2009 and LLoyd has already begun working with member hospitals to create clinical technology staffing implementation plans.

HIMSS Analytics: Hospitals Ill Prepared for Data Explosion Posted: 29 Jan 2010 08:32 AM PST Hospital datacenters may not be ready for the demand that more patients and digital information will create, according to a survey of hospital IT executives at small and medium hospitals in the United States, United Kingtom, Canada, China, France and Germany conducted by Chicago-based HIMSS Analytics and sponsored by Round Rock, Texas-based Dell . The survey asked hospital IT executives to assess the readiness of their hospital datacenters to support new information demands. Results, says HIMSS Analytics, suggest that there will be challenges associated with scaling small and medium hospital datacenters to meet these demands and to efficiently supporting technology at the point-of-care. The Healthcare Enterprise Survey revealed that hospital IT executives at small and medium-sized hospitals believe that EMRs, HIEs, capacity for storing digital images, needs of affiliated physicians and business intelligence will increase demand on their datacenters by an average of 20 to 50 percent over the next two years. While many small and medium hospitals anticipate they will spend more on IT next year, they also describe datacenter challenges that Dell believes will make it difficult for them to efficiently manage new information demands. These challenges, says the survey, include a lack of standards, security, extended server refresh cycles and complexity created by a large number of servers and vendors and limited use of virtualization.

MultiCare Expands HIE Deployment Posted: 28 Jan 2010 07:40 AM PST Tacoma, Wash.-based MultiCare Health System has expanded its deployment of San Jose, Calif.-based Certify ’s interoperability solution for health information exchange to its four acute care hospitals and affiliated physicians. Certify’s Gateway solution connects with its HealthDock appliances that are installed in physician clinics affiliated with MultiCare, allowing the MultiCare hospitals and physicians to exchange critical data. The Certify solution requires no additional software to be installed in MultiCare’s hospitals or affiliated physician offices, says the company. MultiCare is an 818-bed organization that includes four hospitals and numerous primary care and urgent care clinics, multi‐specialty centers, hospice and home health services. It is the largest provider of healthcare services in the Tacoma area.

CHIME Hosts Webinar on CHCIO Program Posted: 27 Jan 2010 07:15 AM PST The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is hosting a public education webinar on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 4 p.m. (EST) on its Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO) Program. The webinar — Beyond Certification: A CHIME CHCIO Program Overview — will discuss the CHCIO Program requirements, benefits of becoming a CHCIO, content areas of the examination, and explain what differentiates the CHCIO designation from other industry credentials. Speakers will include: Tim Stettheimer, Ph.D., chair of CHIME’s certification committee and CHIME Board of Trustees as well as senior vice president and regional CIO at St. Vincent’s Health System; Russell Branzell vice president and CIO at Poudre Valley Health System; George McCulloch, associate director, deputy CIO at Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Randy McCleese, vice president of information services and CIO at St. Claire Regional Medical Center; and Donna Roach, vice president of information technology and CIO at Bronson Healthcare Group. For more information or to register for the webinar, please click here .

KLAS: Choosing Application Hosting Means Weighing Benefits Posted: 27 Jan 2010 07:12 AM PST In terms of application hosting, healthcare providers are achieving greater success and satisfaction working with software vendors, but are able to host a wider selection of applications by partnering with services firms, according to new research from KLAS (Orem, Utah). The report, entitled, Application Hosting: Offloading Risk and Cost, found that services firms offer the breadth to host a variety of applications but often deliver lower customer satisfaction than software vendors, while the software vendors deliver better performance but typically host only their own solutions. For providers who want all major solutions — including clinical information systems, hospital information systems and enterprise resource planning systems — hosted by the same company, ACS, CSC, Perot and PHNS are the primary options, says KLAS. However, in most cases, the hosting clients of services firms experienced greater downtime issues than clients of software vendors, and some firms were criticized for a lack of healthcare experience. Software vendors, on the other hand, ranked in terms of focus and experience in healthcare, as 90 percent of respondents using Cerner, McKesson and Siemens hosting services say they would recommend their vendor to other providers, while fewer than half of ACS and Velocity respondents would do the same. The top-rated vendor in the report was Cerner, with a score of 84.7, followed by NaviSite (82.8) and McKesson (80.8). Other vendors highlighted in this report are ACS, CSC, Eclipsys, GE, Perot Systems, PHNS, Siemens and Velocity. For more information or to purchase the report, please visit www.KLASresearch.com/reports .

Three Hospitals Earn Stage 7 Status Posted: 26 Jan 2010 07:33 AM PST Citizens Memorial Healthcare (Boliver, Mo.), Stanford Hospital & Clinics (Palo Alto, Calif.) and University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics (Madison, Wis.) have attained Stage 7 status, the highest level of the EMR Adoption Model as awarded by HIMSS Analytics (Chicago). According to the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model, hospitals must achieve the following to earn Stage 7 recognition: Deliver patient care without the use of paper charts; Share patient information by sending secure standardized summary record transactions to other care providers; Use their database of clinical information to drive improved care delivery performance, patient safety clinical decision support, and outcomes using business intelligence solutions; Provide practice examples of how to implement sophisticated EMR environments that fully engage clinicians. Citizens Memorial is a fully-integrated healthcare system that includes a 74-bed hospital, 23 primary care and specialty care physician clinics and home care services across southwest Missouri. It serves Cedar, Dade, Dallas, Hickory, northern Greene, Polk and St. Clair Counties. Stanford Hospital & Clinics specializes in the advanced treatment of complex disorders in areas such as cardiovascular care, cancer treatment, neurosciences, surgery, and organ transplants. It is part of the Stanford University Medical Center, along with the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics is a 493-bed tertiary care hospital and regional referral center. It includes American Family Children’s Hospital, a 61-bed pediatric facility, and cancer care services in conjunction with the UW Carbone Cancer Center. The organizations will be recognized at the 2010 HIMSS conference next month in Atlanta.

Survey: Privacy compliance has declined Posted: 14 May 2006 01:56 AM PDT Three years after federal rules governing the privacy of patients' medical records went into effect, compliance seems to have declined for 6 percent, according to an annual survey conducted by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Read more about this at here.

E-book: Making E-Health Work Posted: 14 May 2006 01:53 AM PDT E-Health has become an integral part of present-day healthcare delivery. With healthcare consumers, increasingly the focus of most health systems, the widespread implementation of health information and communications technologies offers cost-effective opportunities to meet their increasingly sophisticated healthcare needs.Bankix Systems Ltd has released its latest e-book. It is a 200-page in-depth analysis of the issues involved in "Making E-Health Work," the e-book's title. Read more about this e-book at here.

Consumer tools: UCompareHealthCare Offers Free Reports on Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Physicians Posted: 11 Mar 2006 01:01 AM PST "UCompareHealthCare has just unveiled its Web site, ucomparehealthcare.com, which features free reports on the nation's nursing homes, hospitals and physicians to help consumers make informed healthcare decisions. I checked the web site and found it very informative for health consumers to help them make informed decision about their choices of doctors, hospitals and others." Read more about this at UCompareHealthCare

Articles: Direct to Consumer: Women are a powerful, but untapped, audience Posted: 03 Feb 2006 12:04 AM PST "Women influence many family decisions—from choosing what's for dinner to selecting the medications their children take. In fact, nearly two-thirds of women are responsible for family healthcare decisions, according to a 2004 national survey conducted by Plan for Your Health. Many women also assume the care-giving role outside their nuclear families. Today's middle-aged woman may also look after her parents and in-laws too, often determining how long they can live on their own and how to best care for them. In addition, she often influences the important health decisions of grandchildren, co-workers, and friends." Read more at PharmExec.

Consumer tools: Really Personal PHRs Posted: 27 Jan 2006 01:05 AM PST "If we're committed to fostering the adoption of personal health records, we should take a page out of the consumer marketing textbooks — not the primers of health IT marketers. This was my conclusion after attending a recent meeting in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Markle Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Agency for Healthcare Quality Research and Quality. " Read more about this at iHealthBeat .

Consumer trends: Manhattan Predicts Online Health Trends Posted: 27 Jan 2006 12:06 AM PST "US healthcare specialist Manhattan Research has published a summary of the major trends for health and pharmaceutical marketers to consider in 2006. The trends chart the increased use of the web and other new technologies as a health information and communication tool for both patients and physicians." Read more at Daily Research News Online.

News: Wall Street Journal Looks at Tools That Identify Low-Cost Care Options Posted: 26 Jan 2006 01:07 AM PST "The Wall Street Journal on Thursday looked at efforts by insurers to provide patients with tools - including a cell phone Web browsing service - to help them find low-cost treatment options. Lumenos, a unit of WellPoint, in February will launch the cell phone service, which lets patients type drug names into their cell phones' Web browsers and get lists of lower-cost alternatives. The program is designed so that patients can ask their physicians about cost-effective alternatives while they still are at their appointments." Read more at iHealthBeat.

Consumer tools: Consumer Health Complete Now Available from EBSCO Publishing Posted: 25 Jan 2006 12:09 AM PST "In continuing with the company's goal of providing the most comprehensive collection of online health and wellness resources, EBSCO Publishing has announced the release of Consumer Health Complete (CHC). This full text database is designed to support consumer and patients' information needs as well as foster an overall understanding of health-related topics." Read more at Managing Information News.

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