Executive Healthcare Management

Obama hits the road

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:21:00 +0000

In an attempt to drum up last-minute support for his healthcare bill, President Barack Obama has taken to the road to secure votes. The outcome of the vote, which Obama wants passed by the middle of next week, could determine the future of his presidency. Obama hopes to sign both additional economic stimulus plans and a comprehensive health care bill within the next two months.

White House officials are trying to rally public support for the biggest changes to US healthcare in 45 years. The effort was on the brink of failure just a few weeks ago and still faces opposition from Republicans and some Democrats.

"How much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it?" Obama said in his speech at Arcadia University. "It's time to make a decision."

The White House is seeking passage of a health overhaul that stalled after Democrats lost a US Senate race in Massachusetts in January. The administration wants the House to pass a Senate-approved measure by 18 March, but it is unclear if the bill has enough support among Democrats.

Independent commission

Many healthcare economists believe there are elements of the 2700-page healthcare bill which could make the difference between US bankruptcy and solvency in coming decades.

Of these, the creation of an independent commission to set payments for Medicare, the expensive healthcare system for pensioners, is probably the most radical. US entitlement spending is forecast to account for the entire US budget by the middle of the century. Of this, Medicare is by far the largest item. Under the bill, a new Medicare commission, known as the Independent Payments Advisory Board, would have the power to impose steep annual cuts in Medicare payments against forecast healthcare inflation, the Financial Times reports.

"History suggests that if you phase something in, it works," Peter Orszag, Obama's budget director, told the Financial Times. "The commission would have the power to propose changes to hit the growth targets for healthcare spending, which would take effect unless Congress enacts alternative proposals with equivalent savings. I don't think people have appreciated just how big a game changer this could be."

Over time, a fully empowered board could help transform a chronic fiscal challenge. Government spending accounts for half of the annual $2500 billion health spending, of which Medicare is by far the largest portion.

Obama says his bill would extend coverage to some 31 million Americans who now lack health insurance and would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to people who are sick.

Jodie Humphries

Jodie Humphries graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA Hons in Creative Writing in 2008. She has worked for GDS Publishing for the digital group since July 2009. She has previous experience with writing for the web, running her own website since April 2007.

Health spotlight for International Women's Day

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:07:00 +0000

As International Women's Day is celebrated, a coalition of campaign groups are using the day to draw attention to the fact that pregnant women in developing countries face the same risk of death as women in the UK did 100 years ago. The group are calling for action to reduce the amount of deaths during pregnancy.

They say improving mothers' health is "the most off-target" of the UN's eight Millennium Development Goals.

For every 100,000 live births in developing countries, 450 women die during pregnancy or labour.

Global figures show that approximately one woman dies every minute - mainly because of preventable causes related to pregnancy. Women in sub-Saharan African and south Asian countries are most at risk, and very little progress has been made in the past decade, Amnesty.org reports.

The coalition, which includes White Ribbon Alliance, Amnesty International and Oxfam, says that in 1910, 355 women died per 100,000 live births in England and Wales. In Scotland and the Irish Republic, the rate was higher - at 572 and 531 respectively.

In Ghana today the rate of pregnancy-related deaths is 560, while in Chad it is 1500. The rate in the UK is now 14 deaths per 100,000.

The UN says although it is difficult to get accurate figures on maternal mortality, very little progress has been made in sub-Saharan Africa - and deaths in southern Asia "remain unacceptably high," the BBC report.

Brigid McConville, the director of White Ribbon Alliance, which campaigns for safe motherhood, said: "There still remains a long way to go for the protection and security of pregnant women and their newborn children."

Improvements in women's health

In some countries, progress has been made in improving women's health. In Mongolia, reduced deaths were achieved by educating women about the signs of complications in pregnancy and by helping them travel to special homes where they could wait to give birth.

Many of the medical problems are easily preventable if, for example, women have access to skilled health workers who can treat infections and use drugs to prevent hemorrhage.

The Women Deliver conference in Washington DC in June aims to put increased pressure on world leaders to tackle the problems.

Jodie Humphries

Rising costs due to California smog

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:24:00 +0000

Who would have thought that smog could have an effect on your health, well according to a new report it's causing healthcare costs in California to rise. Air pollution is harmful to human health, but little is known about the costs of pollution-related healthcare.

A study by RAND - a non-profit research group dedicated to public policy issues, has said that the air pollution in California is causing over $193 million in hospital based medical care every year.

The study is entitled The Impact of Air Quality on Hospital Spending, and is meant to coerce the healthcare industry to join the fight against air pollution.

The medical costs are mostly related to respiratory illnesses such as asthma and pneumonia. Over two thirds of the costs are covered by government run medical programs like Medicare and Medi-Cal, inhabitat reports.

"California's failure to meet air pollution standards causes a large amount of expensive hospital care," said Professor John Romley, who led the study. "The result is that insurance programs - both those run by the government and private payers - face higher costs because of California's dirty air."

Studying hospitals

For the report, the researchers studied hospital visits between 2005 and 2007 and used data from emergency room visits and visits related to respiratory illnesses. The study highlights the fact that more people in California live in areas that do not meet EPA air quality regulations than anywhere else in the country.

During the period, as many as 30,000 people statewide sought relief in emergency rooms because of air pollution during that period, the report states.

Nearly one-third of the pollution related healthcare costs were incurred from diagnosis of acute bronchitis, pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, all costly illnesses. Emergency room visits by children 17 years and younger for asthma related issues were responsible for the most common hospital-based medical care.

The researchers said that most of the visits were due to "high levels of fine particulate pollution - tiny pieces of soot that can lodge deep in lungs."

More Californians live in areas that don't meet federal air quality standards than residents of any other state. Despite many efforts to improve air quality in the last two decades, the air remains polluted. People who live near freeways or inland have especially poor air quality, the LA Times reports.

Jodie Humphries

Rangel to step down as chairman

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:31:00 +0000

In another blow for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, US Representative Charles Rangel announced today that he sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking for a leave of absence from his post as chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee - only a day after denying he was stepping down on a temporarily basis.

Rangel has stepped down saying he didn't want to jeopardize election prospects for fellow Democrats.

The 20-term Harlem congressman held a news conference on short notice, telling reporters, "My chairmanship is bringing so much attention to the press, and in order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections, I have this morning sent a letter" asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work."

Rangel's decision is going to be a blow for Obama and majority Democrats in Congress, coming at a time when the party is scrambling to save sweeping healthcare overhaul legislation that has been pending on Capitol Hill for well over a year and still assessing a surging anti-incumbent fervor among the voters.

Rangel, a Democrat from New York, declined to give details as to what prompted his decision to relinquish leadership of the panel, which also has jurisdiction over Social Security, trade and Medicare.

Opposition to Randel

Republicans had been calling for Rangel to step aside since last year, when the House ethics panel expanded its investigation into his trips, assets and income, use of rent-controlled apartments in New York and his solicitation of contributions for university center to be named after him. After the panel released its findings last Friday on the Caribbean trips,Rangel started losing support among rank-and-file Democrats as well.

Rangel, who met privately Tuesday with Pelosi, is accused by the House ethics panel of violating gift rules.

During the press conference, which lasted only minutes, Rangel said he requested the leave of absence until the Ethics Committee has completed its work. He said staying on would "distract me from what I have to do in terms of completion of the president's health bill."

Rangel added that he had offered to step down "from the very beginning" of the inquiry. He declined to take questions from reporters.

Arcuri and many of the other Democrats who had urged Rangel to step down as committee chairman are facing tough re-election races this year.

"We have far too many critical issues to deal with right now, ranging from the economy to health care reform, and can't afford to allow this investigation to distract us," Rep. Mike Arcuri of Utica said in his press statement.

Jodie Humphries

Leading cause of death in women

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:38:00 +0000

A UN program has warned that HIV has become the leading cause of death and disease worldwide among women of reproductive age.

At the start of a 10-day conference in New York, UNAids launched a five-year action plan addressing the gender issues which put women at risk. One of the key issues, it says, is that up to 70 percent of women worldwide have been forced to have unprotected sex. UNAids says such violence against women must not be tolerated.

"By robbing them of their dignity, we are losing the opportunity to tap half the potential of mankind to achieve the Millennium Development Goals," said Executive Director Michel Sidibe to the BBC.

"Women and girls are not victims, they are the driving force that brings about social transformation," he said.

The agency says that experiencing violence hampers women's ability to negotiate safe sex.

HIV around the world

Women, UNAids said, continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV/Aids. Since the beginning of the HIV and AIDS epidemic, well over half a million people have died of AIDS in America - the equivalent of the entire population of Las Vegas. There are currently more than one million people living with HIV and AIDS in America and around a fifth of these are unaware of their infection, posing a high risk of onward transmission, AVERT reports.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 60 percent of those living with HIV are women and in Southern Africa, for example, young women are about three times as likely to be infected with HIV than young men of the same age.

The program by UNAids - which will include improving data collection and analysis of how the epidemic affects women, and ensuring the issue of violence against women is integrated into HIV prevention programs - will be rolled out in countries including Liberia. More than 90 percent of the world's 16 million injecting drug users are offered no help to avoid contracting AIDS, and governments that ignore them risk a spiraling public health crisis, drugs experts have said.

A "critical health problem" is growing in places like Russia, China, Malaysia and Thailand, they said, where drug users are a neglected population in the fight against AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes it. Of the estimated 16 million injecting drug users worldwide, three million are thought to be HIV-positive, and drug users are thought to account for 10 percent of all those living with HIV.

In Russia, for example, around a million injecting drug users are living with HIV and some 65 percent of new HIV infections there are thought to come from injections, Reuters reports.

UK data

A poll for MAC Aids Fund in the UK recently found that three-quarters of British women have never been tested for HIV, with many seeing no need to. A total of 73 percent were not checked for HIV, while 62 percent think HIV and Aids do not affect their community.

Some 82 percent of British women had sex without a condom, with 63 percent saying it was because they were in an exclusive relationship. Meanwhile, 58 percent of women do not have annual HIV tests because they do not consider themselves at risk, Press Association reported.

In 2008, almost 7300 people were diagnosed with HIV in the UK, almost three times the number a decade before. MAC Aids Fund warns that, nearly 30 years from the beginning of the epidemic, HIV services do not respond to the specific needs of women and girls.

Jodie Humphries

Will be there chaos for e-health roll-out?

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:35:00 +0000

By 2015, hospitals and physicians in the US have to have deployed comprehensive electronic health records (EHR) and the accompanying technology in order to meet federal guidelines, and qualify for billions of dollars in reimbursements through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. But as the roll-out happens, is the US set for chaos?

Numerous studies have examined the value of health IT in improving patient safety, increasing co-ordination of care and improving quality. However, despite the documented improvements available from health IT, adoption rates remain low. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2006 estimated that only 17 to 24 percent of office-based physicians use some type of EHR. And a survey, conducted in 2008 by Ashish Jha et al, found that just 1.5 percent of US hospitals had implemented a comprehensive EHR and just an additional 7.6 percent had a basic EHR in place.

Some healthcare experts are concerned that the roll-out of e-health systems might be at risk because of unrealistic deadlines, and confusion on what to implement first.

"I think we have non-technology people making decisions about technology," said Gregg Veltri, CIO at Denver Health, a healthcare group that serves some of Denver's poorest residents, to Computer World.

"The issue is the timelines. I wonder if anybody understands the reality of IT systems and how complex they are, especially when they're integrated together. You're going to sacrifice quality if you increase the speed [of the roll-out]."

Several key pieces still need to fall into place before Medicare and Medicaid, the programs handling the subsidies, will be ready to funnel about $14 billion to $27 billion in net payments into the purchase and meaningful use ofEHRs by hospitals and office-based physicians.

In late December, the federal government released a 556-page draft rule that contains specifications and certification criteria for EHRs. Those rules, now available for public comment, set a four-year goal for implementation and spell out best practices in delivering care and sharing patient information between hospitals and clinicians.

On 12 February, the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a finalized version of its Notice of Proposed Rule Making that help define what type of technology should be used and how $36 billion in incentives from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 should be paid. The money would be distributed between 2011 and 2015.

Implementing EHR's

Last year, just 10 percent of healthcare facilities in the US used EHRs; by 2014, the government wants more than half of all facilities to use them.

Physicians who implement EHR systems can get as much as $44,000 to help with technology costs; a typical 275-bed hospital would be eligible for approximately $6 million. But clinicians andhealthcare facilities must show they're using EHRs in a meaningful way beginning in the government's 2011 fiscal year to qualify for a full incentive payment. Hospitals that don't meet federal guidelines by 2015, will face Medicare reimbursement cuts.

A major disadvantage found of implementing EHR's, is the usage of them by nurses and doctors. It's automatically presumed in this day and age that people go home and use a computer - use theinternet, but that isn't the case.

"We thought everyone browsed the Internet at night and used a BlackBerry, and that a computer mouse wasn't a frightening tool," said Veltri. "What we found out was that nurses don't even answer their emails. Email applications are foreign to them. They're just used to doing everything on paper."

Computer World states that implementing EHR's in hospitals is far more complicated than for doctor's offices, because they aren't all-inclusive bundled systems. Hospitals use piecemeal technology that's rolled out department by department and requires integration. And since many hospitals won't just rip and replace their existing IT infrastructures, they'll be forced to integrate new physician and nurse documentation systems, computerized order-entry systems and relational databases with their existing systems.

Jodie Humphries

What if the healthcare system isn't reformed?

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:36:00 +0000

Many believe that if President Obama fails in his mission to reform the healthcare system, then it will stay exactly as it is - but what if they're wrong?

According to health policy analysts and economists, a rise in medical costs is likely to wreak havoc within the system and beyond it - affecting everyone directly or indirectly. "People think if we do nothing, we will have what we have now," said Karen Davis, the president of the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit healthcare research group in New York, to The New York Times. "In fact, what we will have is a substantial deterioration in what we have."

Higher premiums

Nearly every mainstream analysis calls for medical costs to continue to climb over the next decade, outpacing the growth in the overall economy and certainly increasing faster than the average paycheck.

What this means, is higher premiums, meaning fewer individuals and businesses will be able to afford insurance coverage. More of everyone's money will go towards healthcare, and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid could struggle to find the money to operate.

"It will break all of our banks if we do nothing," said Peter Lee, who oversees national health policy for the Pacific Business Group on Health, which represents employers that offer coverage to workers. "It is a course that is literally bankrupting the federal government and businesses and individuals across the country."

Families that enjoy generous insurance now are likely to see the cost of those benefits escalate. The typical price of family coverage now runs about $13,000 a year, but premiums are expected to nearly double, to $24,000, by 2020, according to the Commonwealth Fund. That equals nearly a quarter of the median family income today.

While some employers will continue to contribute the lion's share of those premiums, there will be less money for employees in the form of raises or bonuses.

The higher premiums will also persuade more businesses, especially smaller ones, to decide not to offer insurance. More people who buy coverage on their own or are asked to pay a large share of premiums will find the price too high. Itdoesn 't take too many 39-percent increases, like the recent one proposed in California that has garnered so much attention, to put insurance out of reach.

Cost of failure

While estimates vary, the number of people without insurance is expected to increase by more than a million a year, said Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families USA, a Washington consumer advocacy group that favors the Democrats' approach. The Urban Institute, in their report The cost of failure to enact health reform: implications for States, predicts that the number of uninsured individuals will increase from about 49 million today to between 57 million and 66 million by 2019. The Democrats' plan is expected to cover as many as 30 million individuals who now are uninsured.

Not only that, but it is estimated that as many as 275,000 people will die prematurely over the next 10 years because they do not have insurance.

If nothing passes now, Stuart Butler, a health policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation says he thinks Congress will tackle narrower areas, like insurance regulation, to make it easier for people with pre-existing medical conditions to find coverage, or they might try another expansion of Medicaid or the children's program.

Jodie Humphries

50 of the best hospitals

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:34:00 +0000

Each year in America - or for the last four years at least, HealthGrades has identified the 50 best hospitals, which basically, are the ones you want to be attending if something happens to you.

The hospitals on the list are there as they provide outstanding clinical quality year after year. HealthGrades America's 50 Best Hospitals are those that have ranked among the top five percent in the nation for clinical quality.

Seventeen states have at least one hospital recognized on this list - with half of the hospitals located in three states - Ohio (18 percent), Florida (18 percent) and Pennsylvania (14 percent).

Of those featured in the top 50, out of 323 hospitals in California, three of them are featured in the list - Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center in Glendale; Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles; and St. John's Hospital Health Center in Santa Monica.

Distinction

The hospitals are chosen for the distinction on the basis of a close look at the mortality rates and the complication rates that their patients suffer after getting any one of 26 procedures or diagnoses, The LA Times reports, including bowel construction, heart failure and total knee replacement. Each hospital must not only provide at least 19 of the 26 diagnoses and procedures assessed; they must also perform better than the expected average on most of those measures. And finally, they have to have a track record of having been onHealthGrades' 269-hospital list of the nation's top hospitals for the last eight years.

If all US hospitals had performed from 2006-2008 at the level that HealthGrades' 50 top hospitals do, the organization estimates that 164,964 deaths might have been averted among Medicare patients alone, and that 18,900 Medicare patients who experienced in-hospital complications could have completed their treatment and gone home uneventfully.

Patients who receive their care at one of the hospitals on this list, will more than likely have a lower risk for an adverse clinical outcome relative to all other hospitals.

Jodie Humphries

Pigs might fly

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:33:00 +0000

April 2009 saw the emergence of the H1N1 flu virus - the first new pandemic in more than 40 years. A virus which has seen more than 16,000 confirmed cases of people dying worldwide by mid-February, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) - a figure which could be drastically under-estimated though. But as people speculate that H1N1 wasn 't as serious as previously thought - despite the fact that a committee of experts have advised WHO that that pandemic has not yet peaked - comes the news that we may have a new pandemic to fear.

According to a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), there is an existing flu virus, which could cause a new long-term threat - one which many have forgotten about - H5N1 avian flu, otherwise known as bird flu.

According to WHO records, this virus has effected 478 people and killed 286 in 15 countries around the world since 2003, with Indonesia being the worst affected so far.

Working on the paper, a team of scientists from the US, Indonesia and Japan, led by virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, combined a strain of the deadly H5N1 avian virus with strains of H3N2 human seasonal flu, creating 254 new, mutated viruses. By injecting them in lab mice, researchers found that some of the hybrid viruses were both deadly (like bird flu) and transmissible (like seasonal human flu) - the kind of genetically mutated superflu viruses that experts have been warning about for decades.

"Some hybrids between H5N1 virus and seasonal influenza viruses were more pathogenic than the original H5N1 viruses. That is worrisome," says Kawaoka.

Spread of H5N1

The reason H5N1, which appeared in humans in 1997, has never given rise to a pandemic is that the virus does not appear to spread easily among people. It has been transmitted between humans only in rare cases, usually among family members in close conditions. But the fear has long been that if bird flu genetically mixed with human flu - in a process called re-assortment, in which two flu viruses swap genes in an infected cell - it could create a new strain that is both deadly and transmissible, as illustrated by the new PNAS study. That's how many past pandemic viruses, including 2009 H1N1, were created, leading to new strains to which humans have no natural immunity, Time Magazine states.

"With the new pandemic H1N1 virus, people sort of forgot about H5N1 avian influenza. But the reality is that H5N1 avian virus is still out there, "Kawaoka said. "Our data suggests that it is possible there may be re-assortment between H5N1 and pandemic H1N1 that can create a more pathogenic H5N1 virus."

During an outbreak of bird flu, people who have contact with infected birds can become sick. It may also be possible to catch bird flu by eating poultry that is not well cooked or through contact with a person who has it. Bird flu can make people very sick or even cause death. There is currently no vaccine available to the public, Medline Plus states.

H5N1 vaccine

After the rush for the vaccine for H1N1 - which many believe wasn't tested sufficiently enough - it seems companies want to be prepared for H5N1. Vical Incorporated have released detailed data from two Phase 1 trials of the company's Vaxfectin(R)-adjuvanted DNA vaccines for H5N1 influenza, demonstrating the potential of DNA vaccines for rapid deployment in future pandemics.

"Our Phase 1 results clearly demonstrated the ability of DNA vaccines against H5N1 avian-origin influenza to achieve antibody responses in the same range as conventional vaccines," said Larry Smith, Ph.D.,Vical's Vice President of Vaccine Research to Market Watch.

So far, the spread of avian flu from birds to humans, and from person to person has been rare. Nonetheless, because all influenza viruses have the ability to change, scientists are concerned that the bird flu virus could one day be able to infect humans and spread easily from one person to another.

Jodie Humphries

New health reform plan

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:44:00 +0000

President Obama's health reform plans had seemed to go quiet after Republican Scott Brown won a shock victory in Massachusetts in January, delivering a serious blow to Obama's plans. But now, a new proposal by Obama has sparked new debate over the issue

The Republican win had meant the Democrats had lost their filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate, but just days before the planned Democrat and Republican healthcare summit on 25 February - where lawmakers hope to find a bipartisan path to reform - the Obama administration has released a roughly $950 billion health reform proposal that tracks closely with the Senate's already-passed bill.

In addition, however, the proposal would increase coverage subsidies, require greater accountability for health insurance companies and direct the federal government to pick up most of the tab for a deep expansion of Medicaid.

On The White House website, it states, "Over the past year the House and the Senate have been working on an effort to provide health insurance reform that lowers costs, guarantees choices, and enhances quality health care for all Americans.

"Building on that year-long effort, the President has now put forth a proposal that incorporates the work the House and the Senate have done and adds additional ideas from Republican members of Congress."

The proposal aims to make healthcare more affordable, make health insurers more accountable, expand health coverage to all Americans, and make the health system sustainable, stabilizing family budgets, the Federal budget, and the economy.

The aims

It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for healthcare in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This will help over 31 million Americans afford healthcare who do not get it today - and make coverage more affordable for many more.

It sets up a new competitive health insurance market giving tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have.

It brings greater accountability to healthcare by laying out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.

It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.

It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years - and about $1 trillion over the second decade - by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.

Interestingly, say the White House, the President's Proposal is aimed at bridging the gap between the House and Senate bills and includes new provisions to reduce waste, fraud and abuse.

It includes a targeted set of changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Senate-passed health insurance reform bill. The President's Proposal reflects policies from the House-passed bill and the President's priorities.

Key changes include:

Eliminating the Nebraska FMAP provision and providing significant additional Federal financing to all States for the expansion of Medicaid.

Closing the Medicare prescription drug "donut hole" coverage gap.

Strengthening the Senate bill's provisions that make insurance affordable for individuals and families.

Strengthening the provisions to fight fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid.

Increasing the threshold for the excise tax on the most expensive health plans from $23,000 for a family plan to $27,500 and starting it in 2018 for all plans.

Improving insurance protections for consumers and creating a new Health Insurance Rate Authority to provide Federal assistance and oversight to States in conducting reviews of unreasonable rate increases and other unfair practices of insurance plans.

Only time will tell if the changes will be approved by both Democrats and Republicans in order to overhaul the healthcare system in America.

Jodie Humphries

Top 10 radiation phones

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:40:00 +0000

A report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has found that Motorola Droid, Blackberry Bold 9700, LG Chocolate Touch and HTC Nexus One are pushing the limits of radio frequency radiation safety limits set by the Federal Communications Commission.

But 2010's offerings aren't all bad news. Three new phones - Motorola Brute i680, Samsung Mythic and Pantech Impact - rank among the lowest-emission devices on the market.

EWG has compiled radiation data for new phones given top marks by CNET, PCMag.com, PC World and Consumer Reports. Technical experts at these publications rate phones for performance, usability, features and aesthetics, but not radiation output, EWG reports.

Cell phones emit radio frequency radiation to send and receive voice and text messages. Some but not all studies suggest this radiation may increase risks for brain and salivary gland cancer. Scientists around the world are conducting studies to resolve the many uncertainties.

Cell phones

To make people more aware, the EWG has compiled a report of more than 1000 phones so that consumers are aware of what radiation their cell phones are transmitting.

Levels vary widely, from 0.3 to 1.6, the legal limit, measured in watts per kilogram of body weight, also known as SAR (specific absorption rate), the amount of radio frequency energy absorbed by the body when using a wireless device phone.

"A number of health agencies around the world advise people to reduce exposures to cell phone radiation, driven by recent studies raising questions about the safety of this radiation, particularly for children," said Jane Houlihan, senior vice president for research at Environmental Working Group.

"That's why it's essential for consumers to have radiation output information before they purchase phones for themselves and their families."

Jodie Humphries

During your lifetime

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

Have you ever considered how many times you'll do one thing in your lifetime? Like how many friends you'll make or how many headaches you'll suffer from? Or even how many hours you'll spend in the shower? Well a new study aims to find out for you by exploring how many times people do certain things, offering an interesting cross section for comparison between what you and every one else does.

The study, conducted by ActiveQuote.com - an independent comparison site on private health insurance - is interested in questions about lifestyle habits and polled 3000 adults in an effort to find out how many times a "normal" person might do one thing. For instance, among other findings, the survey revealed that an average person will suffer from 6282 common aliments during their lifetime.

The recent study also showed that the average person will put up with at least 80 ailments including headaches, cramp, back pain and common colds every single year. It also revealed that the fourth most common ailment was pulled muscles, which reportedly pain Britons alone at least nine times a year; 707 over a lifetime. Fifth in the list of upsets is a cricked neck - set off by simple movements such as sleeping in an unusual position or brushing teeth - which results in five 'cricks' a year, or 393 over 78.5 years.

Other complaints on the sick list include tummy upsets, nose bleeds and strained or sprained wrists and ankles. The results show the average person will have a total of 315 tummy upsets, 157 nose bleeds and 236 strains or sprains in their lifetime.

Click on image for larger view

What if you're healthy?

Ironically, more than half of those polled believe they are fit and healthy, but have still suffered from two common colds, two cuts, an eye infection, earache, a bad dose of flu and heartburn over the last 12 months alone.

Richard Theo, Director of ActiveQuote.com said: "While the ailments may seem minor, this survey shows just how disruptive they can be - and this figure doesn't take into account more serious illnesses, which of course can massively affect your life and keep out of work for weeks if not months.

"This is borne out by our business. Yes, many are turning to us simply to scour the entire market to find a better deal, but we're also seeing a growing number of enquiries from people considering private health insurance for the first time. They tell us that they just cannot afford the disruption to their lives if a problem strikes - they want peace of mind."

Theo continued: "According to CIPD figures, 172 million days were lost last year due to absenteeism, which was estimated to cost the UK economy about GBP£13.2 billion."

But if peace of mind is really what you're after, you could do worse than to remember that the next time you lose the TV remote, eat a chocolate bar or have a headache, millions of other people around the world are doing the same thing too.

Jodie Humphries

What influences you with your health?

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:39:00 +0000

What do you find influences you when it comes to your health? According to a survey, the internet has far more influence over consumer health decisions than traditional channels like print, TV and radio.

The report - Health Influence Mapping: Benchmarking the Influence of Various Sources on Consumer Health Actions - by pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research, also pointed out that although the internet's role in healthcare has soared over the past decade, healthcare professionals still have the strongest effect on consumer health behavior.

"With all the changes in media and healthcare, we think it's critical for marketers to take a step back and check their assumptions around the relative influence of various health sources on consumer behavior," said Monique Levy, Senior Director of Research at Manhattan Research and lead author of the report to World Pharma News.

"We found many interesting results that can help marketers better align their marketing strategies in 2010. For example, despite the buzz around social media, editorial health content still has significantly more influence over consumer health actions than various forms of social media."

Health information

In 2009, 20 million consumers searched for health information on their mobile phones, doubling from 10 million in 2008. When it comes to social media, 80 million US adults created or consumed health-related user-generated content (UGC) online through social networks, communities or other types of media in 2009.

According to the study, 16 percent of US adults said they didn't fill a prescription in 2009 because of cost, likely due in part to the recession. Further, general attitudes toward the pharmaceutical industry show little sign of improving despite a focus on healthcare reform.

Jodie Humphries

Being happy can help your health

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:29:00 +0000

Research has found that people who are typically happy and enthusiastic are less likely to develop heart disease than those who have a gloomier disposition.

An increased risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke has previously been linked to getting angry or stressed, but a study by American researchers, published in the European Heart Journal, claims to be the first to show an independent link between emotions and coronary heart disease.

Lead researcher, Dr. Karina Davidson, of Columbia University, New York, said to British newspaper The Times, that the findings suggest that it may be possible to help to prevent heart disease by boosting a person's mood.

"Everyone should try and inject some fun into their daily routines to counteract any effects of stress on their health, rather than waiting for holidays," she said. "Some people wait for their two weeks of vacation to have fun, and that would be analogous to binge drinking.

"Essentially, spending some few minutes each day truly relaxed and enjoying yourself is certainly good for your mental health, and may improve your physical health as well."

Research

Over the space of 10 years Davidson and colleagues tracked the health of 1739 adults who participated in a 1995 health survey in NovaScotia , Canada. Nurses assessed participants' risk of heart disease and measured symptoms of depression, hostility, anxiety and their degree of positive emotions, referred to as "positive affect."

Writing in the European Heart Journal, the researchers define positive affect as the experience of pleasurable emotions such as joy, happiness, excitement, enthusiasm and contentment.

The study participants were awarded a score out of five for positive affect, varying from "none" to "extreme" depending on their answers to questions on how they responded to stressful situations or expressed their emotions.

After taking account of age, sex and cardiovascular risk factors, the researchers found that, over the ten-year period, people with increased scores for positive affect were less likely to suffer a fatal or non-fatal heart attack or stroke.

"Participants with no positive affect were at a 22 percent higher risk of heart disease than those with a little positive affect, who were themselves at 22 percent higher risk than those with moderate positive affect," Dr. Davidson said.

She suggested there could be several possible explanations for the link, including typically happy people having longer periods of rest or relaxation, or being able to recover more quickly from stress or anxiety.

Dr. Davidson said that to improve mood and relaxation, people should devote time daily to a hobby or preferred leisure pursuit.

She added that more studies were needed to confirm the link between mood and physical health: "We desperately need rigorous clinical trials in this area."

"If the trials support our findings, then these results will be incredibly important in describing specifically what clinicians and patients could do to improve health."

Jodie Humphries

Increase in medical schools in the US

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:12:00 +0000

In the US, nearly two dozen medical schools have recently opened or might open across the country - the most at any time since the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s and 1990s only one new medical school was established. These new schools are seeking to address an imbalance in American medicine that has been growing for a quarter century.

Many students who found themselves unable to get places in medical schools in the US have instead been turning their attention to offshore medical schools, or giving up hope entirely of getting placement in domestic schools. At the same time, while this was happening, American hospitals were using foreign-trained and foreign-born physicians to fill medical residencies.

"Huge numbers of qualified American kids were not getting into American medical schools or going abroad to study," Dr. Lawrence G. Smith, dean of the proposed Hofstra University School of Medicine, in Hempstead, NY, which is not yet recruiting students, said to The New York Times.

According to reports, however, the new schools are also a market response, to cope with a growing population; the aging of the health-conscious baby-boom generation; the impending retirement of, by some counts, as many as a third of current doctors; and the expectation that, the present political climate notwithstanding, changes in healthcare policy will eventually bring a tide of newly insured patients into the American healthcare system. Currently in America, there is an estimated 46 million people without healthcare insurance.

What's more, if all the schools being proposed do open, it would mean an 18 percent increase in the 131 medical schools across the country. (By comparison, there are 200 law schools approved by the American Bar Association.) Supporters of the expansion say that having more doctors will improve care, by getting doctors to urban and rural areas where they are much needed, by shifting care to primary and family practice physicians rather than expensive specialists, and by reducing long waits for people to see a doctor and get the care they need.

Will it help demand?

Despite the fact that the expansion of medical schools has many supporters, there are skeptics out there who say that although many parts of the country do need more primary care, American doctors tend to congregate in areas that are already overrun with doctors.

The New York Times states that doctors create demand for their own services, and that nurse practitioners and physician assistants could fill gaps in medical care at a lower cost.

Many of the developing medical schools are well aware of such arguments, and are billing themselves as different from traditional medical schools, more focused on serving primary care needs in immigrant and disadvantaged communities. Administrators say that they expect that approach to be buttressed by a shift in state and federal reimbursements from specialists to primary care doctors.

The Association of American Medical Colleges, a trade group, has called for a 30 percent increase in enrollment, or about 5000 more doctors a year.

Jodie Humphries

Give a little heart

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:41:00 +0000

In the US, many find that the largest expense in their life is healthcare, it's these people who are finding themselves in the center of the debate on how to reform the $2.5 trillion US healthcare sector.

A large majority of this group are heart patients, who are finding that monthly out-of-pocket costs for premiums and medications are growing, and consuming around 20 percent of their monthly incomes.

Some 46 million people in the US lack health insurance and many with coverage find that it's inadequate when it comes to preventive care or when they are struck by major illness.

A survey of heart patients by the American Heart Association shows that the cost of insurance premiums and medication is the top concern of heart patients, said the poll, made available to Reuters.

The online survey conducted between 29 December 2009 and 5 January 2010 of 1105 adults who said they had either a heart condition, stroke or high blood pressure showed that 56 percent had trouble paying for prescription drugs or other medical care in the past few years.

The survey found that 69 percent of stroke patients were most likely to report having trouble paying medical bills.

People who lack health insurance experience a 24 percent to 56 percent higher risk of death from stroke than those who are insured. The uninsured are also less likely to take needed medications.

While almost two thirds of heart patients - 64 percent - said making healthcare costs more affordable was a top priority for them.

About 46 percent of those who said they had trouble paying medical bills said they had to delay getting needed healthcare and 43 percent said they failed to fill a prescription because of the expense.

Life and death

"Nearly 10 percent of heart disease patients eventually file for bankruptcy," said AHA spokeswoman Suzanne Ffolkes.

"The high cost of healthcare is forcing many of our patients to not take advantage of, or to forego, life-saving treatments and medications," Nancy Brown, chief executive of the Heart Association said in an interview. "They really are making life and death decisions because of the cost of healthcare."

The US Senate and House of Representatives have passed sweeping reform measures but efforts to merge the two bills into a single piece of legislation stalled when Democrats lost their "supermajority" of 60 seats in the Senate after a special Massachusetts election last month.

Republicans say it is a mistake to expand the role of government in healthcare and oppose the roughly $1 trillion 10-year cost of expanding health insurance coverage at a time of record budget deficits.

Michelle Obama takes on obesity battle

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:19:00 +0000

Michelle Obama, the American First Lady, is set to throw herself into the spotlight by announcing a sweeping initiative aimed at the way American children eat and play. The 'Let's Move' campaign is aimed at reshaping school lunches, playgrounds and medical checkups with the explicit aim of eliminating childhood obesity within a generation.

The campaign has been nearly a year in development and marks Mrs. Obama's first high-profile policy role. In preparation she has already lined up an array of partners in government, medicine, science, business, education and athletics who are pledging to work together to get children off their couches and consuming fresher, healthier food.

The three major suppliers of school lunches - Sodexo, Chartwells Schools Dining Services and Aramark have pledged to reduce the amount of fat, sugar and salt in their meals over the next five years. While beverage makers have promised more consumer-friendly labeling on all cans, bottles, and vending and fountain machines within two years.

The American Academy of Pediatrics have also called on doctors to measure body mass index, an indicator of obesity, in children.

To help promote the campaign, professional athletes from 12 leagues, including football and baseball, have volunteered to promote the message of "60 Minutes of Play a Day" through public service announcements; media companies including the Walt Disney Company and NBC have pledged to broadcast them, The New York Times reports.

"We know that solving our obesity challenge won't be easy and it won't be quick, but make no mistake about it - this problem can be solved," Mrs. Obama said. "This isn't like putting a man on the moon or inventing the internet. It doesn't take a stroke of genius or a feat of technology. We have everything we need right now to help our kids lead healthy lives.

"The truth is, our kids didn't do this to themselves," Mrs. Obama added. "Our kids didn't choose to make food products with tons of fat and sugar and supersize portions, and then to have those foods marketed to them wherever they turn."

Rising rates

Childhood obesity rates in the US have tripled over the past three decades, and today nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. Health experts blame obesity for a variety of medical conditions, among them heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and asthma.

In actual fact, obesity-related diseases cost the healthcare system $150 billion a year.

Rising rates mean that for the first time in the America history, American children may face a shorter expected lifespan than their parents.

The White House and its allies are also making the case that the obesity epidemic affects national security; obesity is now one of the most common reasons for disqualification for military service.

Among other research, Mrs. Obama was heavily influenced by a study carried out several years ago in Somerville, in which a series of numerous but small changes - for instance, repainting crosswalks with reflective paint so more children could safely walk to school - resulted in slowing the rate of childhood obesity.

Is third-hand smoke bad for you?

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:27:00 +0000

It's well known that smoking can have a serious effect on your health. It's also known that inhaling someone else's second hand smoke is bad for you too, but now a new report suggests third-hand smoke can also pose a health risk.

A US study led by researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has found that third-hand smoke - tobacco residue clinging to surfaces is also bad for you. The study is the first to quantify the reactions of third-hand smoke with nitrous acid.

The study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that when a cigarette burns, nicotine is released in the form of a vapor that collects and condenses on indoor surfaces such as walls, carpeting, drapes and furniture, where it can linger for months. Researchers discovered tobacco smoke residues found on everyday surfaces react with molecules in indoor air to form potent cancer causing chemicals.

"Our study shows that when this residual nicotine reacts with ambient nitrous acid it forms carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines, or TSNAs," said Hugo Destaillats, a corresponding author of the study.

Exposure

The most likely human exposure to TSNAs is through either inhalation of dust or the contact of skin with carpet or clothes - making third-hand smoke particularly dangerous to infants and toddlers.

They found that opening a window or turning on a fan to air out a room while a cigarette burns does not eliminate the hazard of third-hand smoke, neither does smoking outdoors.

"Smoking outside is better than smoking indoors but nicotine residues will stick to a smoker's skin and clothing," said Lara Gundel, a co-author of the study.

"Those residues follow a smoker back inside and get spread everywhere. The biggest risk is to young children.

"Dermal uptake of the nicotine through a child's skin is likely to occur when the smoker returns and if nitrous acid is in the air, which it usually is, thenTSNAs will be formed."

Substantial levels of TSNAs were also found in the truck of a heavy smoker, the study says, adding that most vehicle engines emit some nitrous acid that can infiltrate the passenger compartment of a vehicle.

The researchers said: "Implementation of 100 percent smoke-free environments in public places and self-restrictions in residences and automobiles are the most effective tobacco control measures, through elimination of the primary pollution source.

"In buildings where substantial smoking has occurred, replacing nicotine-laden furnishings, carpets and wallboard can significantly reduce exposures to third-hand smoking hazards."

Are you doing enough for your blood pressure?

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:04:00 +0000

In the US, more than 72 million adults have high blood pressure - the staggering amount of one in three American adults. And this figure is looking set to increase.

Anyone can develop high blood pressure, but these factors increase the risk: being overweight or obese, being physically inactive, high salt and sodium intake, low potassium intake (due to not eating enough fruits and vegetables), excessive alcohol consumption, and diabetes.

High blood pressure can lead to numerous other life-threatening conditions, which includes heart disease (biggest killer), strokes (third biggest killer) and kidney failure (ninth biggest killer).

In the US, high blood pressure is a factor in 67 percent of heart attacks, while it's a factor in 77 percent of strokes. Also, high blood pressure precedes 74 percent of cases of heart failure and it's the second leading cause of chronic kidney failure in the US-responsible for 26 percent of all cases.

Each year, high blood pressure causes more visits to doctors than any other condition-just a 10 percent decline in the number of visits would save $450 million each year. A decline would help reduce the $100 billion it costs the US economy each year, according to Mission.

As nearly 60 million Americans are over age 55 which means they have a 90 percent likelihood of developing high blood pressure in their lifetimes.

Changing your lifestyle

"Lifestyle changes can be hard," says Dr. Peter Rudd, professor of medicine emeritus at the Stanford University School of Medicine. "And even when drugs are prescribed, patients don't always take them properly. After all, high blood pressure usually has no symptoms, so people may not feel they need to take medication or adjust their habits," Rudd says to the Los Angeles Times.

Patients can greatly reduce their risk for such problems by bringing their blood pressure down to a "goal level" they establish with their doctor. Unfortunately, national data show that only one in three people with high blood pressure manages to do this, even though a wide range of lifestyle choices can help and effective drug treatments are available.

Some factors are beyond your control, when it comes to high blood pressure, including age (as your age goes up, your blood pressure tends to go up too), gender (men are more likely to have high blood pressure than women), race and ethnicity (African Americans are more likely to have high blood pressure than Caucasian or Hispanic Americans), salt-sensitivity (African Americans are also more likely to be salt-sensitive) and family history (if your parents or other close relatives have high blood pressure, you have a greater than average risk of developing it too).

But you have control over some other factors, such as how much you weigh, how much salt you consume, how much alcohol you consume, whether or not you smoke, how much exercise you get and how much stress you experience.

Richard N. Fogoros, M.D. for About.com recommends the following tips to prevent high blood pressure:

1. Maintain a healthy weight. There are many statistical tables that calculate your ideal body weight based upon your height, build and age.

2. Lose weight if you are overweight, being overweight increases your risk of high blood pressure by six to eight times.

3. To lose weight do it slowly and steadily, aiming to lose one-half to one pound a week. Eat fewer calories than you burn off. For instance, you could cut down from 3500 calories a day in the first week to 3000 calories a day for the second week, and then to 2500 calories a day for the third week and so on.

4. Be more physically active. Fit some light activity into your daily routine, like walking at lunch, using the stairs rather than the elevator, or working in your garden.

5. Choose foodstuffs lower in salt and sodium. Eat no more than six grams of salt a day.

6. Check food labels for information of sodium in the food. Look for products with "unsalted" or "sodium free" labels.

7. Buy fresh poultry, fish and lean meat, and fresh, or canned with "no salt added", vegetables.

8. Cut back on frozen dinners, pizza, canned soups, broths and salad dressings, which are high in sodium.

9. If you drink alcohol, do it in moderation. If you have no more than two drinks a day, your risk of high blood pressure is low.

10. Other things too may help prevent hypertension, like calcium, potassium, fish oils, magnesium and stress management.

Community health centers a saving grace

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:14:00 +0000

Researchers at the University of Chicago have said that community health centers could help fill gaps in the US healthcare system for very little money.

Their report, which was published in journal Health Affairs, was released as President Barack Obama proposed increased federal funding to the centers, which are set up to treat people without health insurance, and people who live far from hospitals or are too poor.

"Community health centers play a vital role in providing primary care and other services to those who cannot afford it or cannot access care. They are an investment that pays off for patients and the nation as a whole," Anthony LoSasso of the University of Illinois at Chicago, who led the study, said in a statement.

Lo Sasso's team said a $500,000 increase in funding for US centers would provide treatment for an extra 540 uninsured patients, Reuters reports.

Obama's proposed 2011 budget adds $290 million to expand a network of federally funded health centers.

"We're investing new funds in what I consider to be the backbone of the American healthcare system, community health centers," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters.

"Thanks to this investment, these neighborhood centers will provide high-quality primary care for 20 million people a year - three million more than were served in 2008."

Research

Obama's government gave community centers more than $2 billion under the 2009 stimulus program known officially as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Lo Sasso's team looked at data on such community centers from 1996 to 2006, studying all kinds of centers - whether funded by state or local government or through private foundations - and found an increase in services across the board, especially in treating mental conditions.

Each additional $1 million of federal grant support led to around eight more full-time employees, five of them medical care providers.

Every $1 million in state grants led to close to five full-time employees, with private grant dollars leading to nine new employees.

The researchers found that by 2001, such centers were providing $1.25 million worth of free care.

"We show that the investments made in federally qualified health centers during 1996-2006 clearly translated into an increase in services available to patients, including mental health and substance abuse treatment and counseling and staffing," the researchers wrote.

"Roughly 25 percent of the nation's 3.4 million low-income uninsured children receive care at such a center."