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Dozens of GP commissioning leaders quit CCG boards in first six months since NHS reforms amid workload fears
Date: Sep-17-2013At least 30 GPs have resigned their positions on CCG boards since the transfer of commissioning responsibility in April, amid fears that rising practice workload is preventing even enthusiasts from implementing the NHS reforms, a Pulse investigation reveals. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from 74 CCGs across England show that one in three boards have seen a GP member resign since April, while the overall proportion of CCG board members who are GPs also appears to have declined, from an estimated 49% last year to just 43%...
CVS Caremark research finds new, more accurate method for classifying patient medication adherence behaviors
Date: Sep-17-2013Researchers at CVS Caremark (NYSE:CVS) and Brigham and Women's Hospital have found that a new approach to classifying patients by their long-term medication adherence behavior may be more accurate than traditional approaches. In a study published in the September 2013 issue of Medical Care, the researchers followed more than 264,000 statin-users over a 15-month period and created measures to account for different adherence behaviors...
Screening saves patient lives from DVT
Date: Sep-17-2013A national initiative to carry out mandatory screening of hospital patients for deep vein thrombosis has resulted in a "significant" reduction in death rates, experts in Birmingham have concluded. A major study was carried out involving every single patient admitted to all 163 NHS hospital trusts in England between July 2010 and March 2012...
CDC, NYC Dept. of Health, scholars respond to IOM report on sodium
Date: Sep-17-2013The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) have published their first official responses to a controversial Institute of Medicine (IOM) report that challenged current national guidelines recommending sodium intake as low as 1,500 milligrams for many Americans. The responses, whose authors include CDC Director Thomas Frieden and NYC DOHMH Commissioner Thomas Farley, will be published on September 16 in a series of commentaries and editorials in American Journal of Hypertension...
The excise ('Cadillac') tax on high-cost, employer-sponsored health coverage
Date: Sep-17-2013A new Health Policy Brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation explains one of the most controversial provisions of the Affordable Care Act: the so-called Cadillac tax on generous employer-sponsored health insurance plans. Beginning in 2018 a 40 percent excise tax will be assessed on the cost of any of these plans exceeding $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage. Employers, who would be responsible for paying the tax, are preparing for it by scaling back health benefit offerings or increasing workers' deductibles or copays to avoid paying the tax...
Internists offer principles for organizing clinical care teams in policy paper
Date: Sep-17-2013The American College of Physicians (ACP) sets the framework for a team-based model of health care in a new policy paper published in the peer-reviewed medical journal, Annals of Internal Medicine. ACP offers more than a dozen principles to encourage and enable clinicians to work together effectively in dynamic clinical care teams...
New MatrixRIB MIPO instrumentation for less invasive surgical fixation of rib fractures launched
Date: Sep-17-2013DePuy Synthes CMF*, a leader in skeletal and soft tissue repair and reconstruction, announced the launch of new instrumentation that enables less invasive surgical fixation and stabilization of rib fractures with the company's MatrixRIB™ System of precontoured, low-profile titanium plates, locking screws and intramedullary splints. MatrixRIBTM Minimally Invasive Plate Osteosynthesis (MIPO) instrumentation was designed to provide surgeons with improved access, through small incisions, to rib fractures including difficult to reach sub-scapula rib fractures...
One-to-one midwife care just as safe and costs significantly less than current maternity care
Date: Sep-17-2013Continued care from a named midwife throughout pregnancy, birth, and after the baby is born (caseload midwifery) is just as safe as standard maternity care (shared between different midwives and medical practitioners) for all women irrespective of risk, and is significantly cheaper, according to new research published in The Lancet. "Caseload midwifery costs roughly AUS$566.00 (£333...
Cold sores linked to mutation in gene, study suggests
Date: Sep-17-2013Why some people are troubled by cold sores while others are not has finally been explained by scientists. Cold sores affect around one in five people but, until now, no one has been sure why some are more prone to the virus that causes them. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found that people affected by cold sores have a mutation in a gene, which means their immune system is not able to prevent them from developing. Cold sores are caused by a strain of the herpes simplex virus - herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1)...
Patients warn other patients about the danger of untested cures on the web
Date: Sep-17-2013Bombarded with unsubstantiated claims for 'pioneering cancer treatments', new diets and unfounded stem cell cures, patients say they have been left 'chasing false hope', exposed to crippling financial and emotional costs and risked serious harm to their health. They are publishing a guide[1] in collaboration with medical charities[2] and Sense About Science, to help people weigh up claims about 'miracle cures' on the web and in advertising...
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