Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

House Health Bill To Include Public Plan, Insurers Resisting
On Monday, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D- N.Y., told reporters that the House bill will include a new public insurance plan, Reuters/The Boston Globe reports. "Similar to legislation being developed in the Senate, the House bill would establish an insurance exchange to help people without employer-sponsored insurance find medical coverage." The government-sponsored public insurance plan would be "one of the options available, lawmakers said." The bill would also establish a mandate that would "require individuals and businesses to obtain coverage."
generic viagra online
Some Black Women With Advanced Breast Cancer Opt Against Treatment, Study Finds
A new study has found that some black women with advanced breast cancer declined treatment with chemotherapy or radiation, though researchers did not know the reason why so many of the women opted against treatment, HealthDay/Las Vegas NOW reports. For the study, researchers examined records for 107 women with cases of advanced breast cancer that were reported at one inner-city hospital between 2000 and 2006. Eighty-seven percent of the women were black, and 29% of them had breast cancer tumors that did not respond well to new, targeted treatments. Of all women, 20.5% declined chemotherapy and 26.3% opted against radiation.Lead researcher Monica Rizzo, an assistant professor of surgery at the Division of Surgical Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine, said the reason why the women declined treatment is not clear, adding, "We looked at marital status, as well as religious background, of those women, and unfortunately, we were not able to find any clear identifier." Researchers speculated that fear of the medical system, poverty and cultural differences might play a role. Rizzo"s group has started a community outreach program through which a nurse practitioner and social worker follow up with breast cancer patients (Reinberg, HealthDay/Las Vegas NOW, 5/22). An abstract of the study is available online.
News of the day
Micromet Presents Update At ASCO 2009 On A Phase 1b Combination Study Of Adecatumumab And Docetaxel
Micromet, Inc. (Nasdaq: MITI), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel, proprietary antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases, presented data from a clinical trial investigating its anti-EpCAM human antibody adecatumumab (MT201) in combination with the chemotherapeutic docetaxel in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) held in Orlando, Florida, USA(1).
Cardiovascular

Annals Of Internal Medicine Early Online Releases

Newly Designed Comprehensive Health Care Database May Advance Medical Research and Improve Patient Care High quality randomized clinical trials are not available to guide the clinical use of many therapies, so clinicians must rely on observational research. The AHRQ recently funded the development of the Distributed Ambulatory Research in Therapeutics Network, or DARTNet, to improve observational comparative effectiveness research and examine outcomes associated with prescription medications and medical devices. DARTNet is a federated network of electronic health data from eight organizations, representing more than 500 clinicians and 400,000 patients. A federated network links geographically and organizationally separate databases so that a single query can return results from multiple databases while also maintaining patient privacy. In addition to facilitating queries among the standardized and federated databases, the DARTNet system can prompt clinicians to obtain specific information during a patient visit. This capability allows the research team to collect additional data beyond what clinicians might routinely document in electronic records. Thus, DARTNet is designed to make available better data to enable high quality observational studies evaluating and comparing the effectiveness of various therapies. Researchers Describe the Structure and Benefits of a National Health Data Network If implemented, a national distributed health data network could become an important tool in the effort to improve the quality of health care. A distributed health data network is a system that allows secure, remote analysis of different medical organization or health plan datasets. In this type of network, organizations retain physical control over their data and its uses, allowing them to avoid issues related to confidentiality, regulation, and proprietary interests. Data from a national distributed health data network would cover many millions of people, which would have implications for studies pertaining to comparative effectiveness, best practices, diffusion of medical technologies, and quality of care. According to the researchers, there are considerable advantages to building a common core network to support the needs of multiple users, such as the FDA"s planned Sentinel System, the AHRQ"s DARTNet, and others, rather than building individual networks for each of these uses. The similarities in data needs and uses, coupled with potential savings of time and effort, favor a single, multi-purpose network. In closing, the authors caution that credible governance and funding mechanisms would be critical to ensure the long-term sustainability of the network. Angela Collom American College of Physicians


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009