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

One Doctor's View: Electronic Medical Records Work Well
Doctors increasingly use email and electronic medical records to improve health care. In an essay in the Los Angeles Times, Rahul Parikh writes about his own experience at a Kaiser Permanente facility in Northern California where they implemented an electronic medical record system in 2006: "...notes, orders and prescriptions are clear and contiguous. There"s no waiting for paperwork. And if a patient of mine shows up in another office across town (remember, Kaiser is an integrated system -- we all share the same computer network), a doctor whom I have never met can see what I"ve written, my patient"s list of problems and what I"ve done for the patient in the past before he or she even sets foot in the room to talk to the patient. Such record systems can alert us to possible medication errors or dangerous drug interactions. They can continuously be updated to identify best practices. And they talk to patients as well, allowing them to access past-visit information and immunization records and to make appointments and send e-mails to their doctor."
generic viagra online
Targeting Human And Animal Diseases In Africa: Research Network Wins Approximately ÷£5.7 Million
Deadly diseases including plague, Ebola and Rift Valley Fever are being targeted as part of a new multi-million pound international partnership involving African researchers and the London International Development Centre (LIDC). The Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance (SACIDS) links medical and veterinary institutions from five African countries and the UK to improve the capacity of African institutions to detect, identify and monitor infectious diseases affecting humans and animals, including new infectious human diseases of animal origin.
News of the day
GP Bodies Support Guidelines For Use Of Patient Records In Medical Research
The two leading bodies representing GPs in the UK have backed a call by the Wellcome Trust for clearer guidance for GPs to ensure medical records can be safely used in research.
Mental Health

As Reform Stalls, Senators Scramble To Scale Back Or Cut Costs

"The high cost of securing health insurance for all Americans, the top domestic priority of President Obama, has Congressional Democrats scrambling to scale back their proposals or find ways to trim tens of billions of dollars a year from existing health programs," the New York Times reports. Early estimates for the cost of the Senate Finance Committee"s reform proposal are far higher than anticipated, forcing leading senators in charge of shaping the legislation into a holding pattern as they seek lower-cost alternatives. Among the items being considered: ""an automatic mechanism" to reduce the growth of Medicare under an expedited procedure like the one used to close military bases" and a requirement that some employers contribute to the cost of Medicaid or private health insurance for low-wage workers. Meanwhile, the Senate health committee continued marking up its own proposal, but Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said, "Obviously this is not going to go as fast as we thought" (Pear, 6/18). According to CongressDaily, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who has been chairing the HELP committee markup proceedings in the absence of HELP Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said he hoped to wrap up the quality section of the bill by this afternoon and move on to dealing with prevention and workforce issues early next week. (Hunt, 6/19). Republicans offered 400 amendments during markup this week, prompting Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid to say, "they are designed for no other reason than to slow the process to a halt," the Hill reports. However, "Seven senators have formed a bipartisan group to find consensus on health-care reform legislation, a sign of fresh momentum after a week of setbacks," the Washington Post reports. "There"s no doubt in my mind we"re going to get a bipartisan bill," Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the Finance chairman and a member of the group, said. The group - called the "Coalition of the Willing" by members - also includes Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and other key Republicans. Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who introduced the compromise concept of creating nonprofit co-operatives instead of creating a government-run insurance plan, also joined the "Coalition of the Willing," Dow Jones Newswires reports. That plan appeared in materials describing Finance"s draft version of their bill, however, in its current form, "[t]he direct government control of the plan could stir complaints from Republicans that the co-op is little different from a public health insurance option, which they have fiercely denounced" (Yoest, 6/18). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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

© Copyright 2009