LSPPPO|HEALTHCARE NEWS|October 17, 2013
Healthcare News
A Weekly Compilation of Clinical Laboratory and Related Information
from The Division of Laboratory Science and Standards
October 17, 2013
News Highlights
Will FDA Step in With lab Development Tests?
PSA Screening: Why Are We Screening at 75?
Researchers Determine That Individuals’ ‘Breathprint’ Are Unique; May Have Potential for Clinical Laboratory Testing When Coupled With Mass Spectrometry Technology
Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment May Improve With Liquid Biopsy
Global Stem Cell Standard Could Pave Way for Universal Therapy
Pentagon Seeks to Design Virus-Fighting Protein 'Cocktails'
Cortisol in Hair a Marker of Prolonged Stress in Kids
Cola First Private Accreditor to Receive State Deeming Authority in California
Septicemia Tops List of 10 Most Expensive Inpatient Conditions
Laboratory Professionals are a key to Aiding Providers in Meeting Meaningful Use Stage 2
Experts Examine Intersection of Health IT and Quality Measurement in AHRQ Report
View Previous Issues - Healthcare News Archive
Obama Signs Bill to Raise Debt Limit, Reopen Government
Obama signed the measure into law shortly after midnight, reopening parks and monuments across the nation, restoring government services and putting furloughed federal employees back on the job, many of them in the Washington region. “Employees should expect to return to work in the morning,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the White House budget director, said in a statement.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Idle CDC Worries Experts as Flu Season Starts
The fall flu season in the U.S. is unfolding largely unobserved.
The CDC's labs and surveillance programs are idle, thanks to the government shutdown, and outside experts are worried that essential data is being lost. Indeed, a CDC spokeswoman told MedPage Today that just about all of the regular apparatus that monitors flu and flu-like illness has been shut down. Some 80% to 85% of the usual staff is on enforced leave, according to Barbara Reynolds, PhD, the agency's director of public affairs. That means information about such things as pediatric influenza, anti-viral resistance, admissions to hospital for flu or flu-like illness, and mortality and morbidity owing to pneumonia and influenza is not being gathered. There is no "national snapshot" of the flu season, Reynolds said. On the other hand, she added, some staff members are still working on nonsubtypeable influenza A, in an attempt to ensure that the nation is not caught by surprise by another flu pandemic.
But it's not just data and it's not just flu, according to Gregory Poland, MD, an infectious diseases specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "There are an endless number of infectious disease threats that, as we often say, are an airplane ride away from us," Poland said. And the CDC is the "only entity" that tracks infectious disease on a national scale, he added. "So now you've got a week, 2 weeks, who knows how long, where there's no one really responsible for watching what's happening nationally."
Source: http://www.medpagetoday.com/
What If a Flu Breaks Out When CDC Can’t Track It?
As director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the last government shutdown, in 1995-1996, I can attest to the very real potential for unnecessary pain, suffering and death when the work of public-health officials is curtailed. As a consequence of the current shutdown, the CDC has been required to furlough two-thirds of its staff, leaving only 4,000 people to conduct vital public-health responsibilities. This translates into reduced protection for Americans. Here are just a few examples:
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/
Health Act Embraced in California
There are radio and television commercials galore, along with Twitter and Facebook posts and scores of highway billboards. There are armies of outreach workers who speak Spanish, Tagalog, Cambodian, Mandarin and Cantonese, all flocking to county fairs, farmers markets, street festivals and back-to-school nights across the state. There are even dinner parties in Latino neighborhoods designed to reach one family at a time. With enthusiastic backing from state officials and an estimated seven million uninsured, California is a crucial testing ground for the success of President Obama’s health care law. It is building the country’s largest state-run health insurance exchange and has already expanded Medicaid coverage for the poor. Officials hope that the efforts here will eventually attract more than two million people who are currently uninsured.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/
Support for Healthcare Reform Grows as Government Shutdown Drags on
In the survey taken Oct. 7-9, only a few days after the glitch-ridden launch of the ACA's health insurance marketplaces, 38 percent of respondents said the healthcare law is a good idea, up from 31 percent a month earlier, NBC News said in reporting the findings. The federal government so far has declined to release the number of people who have signed up for health insurance through federally run exchanges, catching the ire of Republican lawmakers who are insisting the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services release enrollment data. Meanwhile, several states running their own exchanges said tens of thousands of people already have enrolled. About 40,000 signed up for insurance in New York, officials there said, while 27,000 were at least partway through the application process in California.
Source: http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/
115 Members of Congress Urge Medicare Officials to Drop Proposal to Cut Medicare Payments for Pathology Services
The American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) applauds efforts by U.S. Congressmen Jim Gerlach (R-PA),Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) and 113 of their colleagues in the House who sent a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner requesting a withdrawal of a recommendation in the CY 2014Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule to cut Medicare payments for pathology services that diagnose breast, colon, prostate, skin, ovarian, leukemia and other cancers.
Source: http://www.americanbankingnews.com/
Shutdown Imperils Costly Lab Mice, Years of Research
The government shutdown is likely to mean an early death for thousands of mice used in research on diseases such as diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer's. Federal research centers including the National Institutes of Health will have to kill some mice to avoid overcrowding, researchers say. Others will die because it is impossible to maintain certain lines of genetically altered mice without constant monitoring by scientists. And most federal scientists have been banned from their own labs since Oct. 1. "I'm sure it's chaos at the NIH for anyone doing mouse experiments," says Roger Reeves, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who uses hundreds of so-called transgenic mice in his work on Down syndrome. NIH officials say they aren't doing media interviews. So Reeves and other scientists at Johns Hopkins agreed to talk about what a shutdown would mean for their lab animals and the research these animals make possible.
Source: http://www.npr.org/
Will FDA Step in With lab Development Tests?
In her speech at Advamed 2013, FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said a new challenge will be regulating in some way lab development tests. Now, LDTs are left to CLIA, which, Hamburg said, does not ensure they are properly designed, consistently assembled or clinically valid. She called for a “critical baseline” of these sorts of in vitro diagnostics, which previously had been more “simple.” “As a result we are considering a risk-based framework,” Hamburg said. In a panel following the speech, WSJ columnist and American Enterprise Institute Resident Fellow Dr. Scott Gottlieb disagreed with FDA’s movement into this area. “A lot of these issues around laboratory development tests can be addressed through CLIA properly,” he said. “I think we have to ask hard questions about whether CLIA–or the FDA for that matter–should be judging clinical utility.”
Source: http://medcitynews.com/
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Cola First Private Accreditor to Receive State Deeming Authority in California
COLA, an internationally respected clinical laboratory accreditation organization, announced it has been awarded “deemed” status by Laboratory Field Services (LFS) in the State of California. Clinical laboratories can now demonstrate compliance with federal CLIA regulations as well as California laboratory licensure laws and regulations through COLA accreditation. COLA is the first private clinical laboratory accreditor to receive deemed status in the state. COLA was granted deemed status following an extensive review by LFS, during which the accreditor was able to demonstrate that it has synchronized its standards with California’s unique laws and regulations. COLA has been continuously deemed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) since 1993 to provide federal certification under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) 1988, and currently accredits nearly 8,000 laboratories nationally, including nearly 500 in California.
Source: http://baltimore.citybizlist.com/
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National Institute Of Health Launches $25 Million Study on Newborn Genetic Testing
Researchers will spend $25 million in federal funds over the next five years assessing the effectiveness and ethical implications of making genetic testing of newborns a new delivery room standard. Launched by the National Institutes of Health last month, the study will be divided into four projects at the University of California, San Francisco, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Should genetic testing become standard, it will build upon routine blood testing of newborns. The blood testing was introduced in the 1960s as a way for parents to learn if their infants have any conditions that can be banished if treated early on, including several developmental delays. But the answers held in blood testing are limited, say researchers, and there is a higher possibility for false positives.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Global Stem Cell Standard Could Pave Way for Universal Therapy
Patients suffering from a range of diseases could benefit from better treatments if new standards in stem cell research are adopted by the international scientific community. Leading scientists are calling on governments from around the world to adopt a joined-up approach so that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be shared between countries.
Professor Emeritus Sir Ian Wilmut, of MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and his colleagues, argue that adopting such regulations would not only facilitate international collaborations but create banks of stem cell lines for future use in patient treatment. Professor Wilmut makes the case in the journal Cell Stem Cell. The new guidelines would stop patients being denied the use of stem cells from other countries because of differing legislation.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
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Researchers Determine That Individuals’ ‘Breathprint’ Are Unique; May Have Potential for Clinical Laboratory Testing When Coupled With Mass Spectrometry Technology
New research shows that a person’s “breathprint” is as unique as a fingerprint and may be as effective as bodily fluids in diagnosing diseases. That same research effort is showing that it is feasible to combine breath specimens and mass spectrometry to accurately identify disease. That could give clinical laboratories a new methodology to use when creating diagnostic assays. These findings are part of a new study conducted by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Zurich. The study was published by the journal PLOS ONE.
Source: http://www.darkdaily.com/
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PSA Screening: Why Are We Screening at 75?
There is no clinical guideline recommending prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening for men 75 or older, but that doesn't stop many doctors from ordering the test. Really? Mining Medicare Part A and B data for Texas, researchers found that overall 41% of about 61,000 men 75 or older routinely received PSA screening and about 29% of the PSA tests were ordered by primary care physicians. The findings were published as a research letter in the Oct. 16 issue of JAMA. And it turned out that some PCPs were more likely order PSA than others -- seven times more likely in some cases.
Source: http://www.medpagetoday.com/
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Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment May Improve With Liquid Biopsy
A microfluidic chip developed at the University of Michigan is among the best at capturing elusive circulating tumor cells from blood - and it can support the cells' growth for further analysis. The device, believed to be the first to pair these functions, uses the advanced electronics material graphene oxide. In clinics, such a device could one day help doctors diagnose cancers, give more accurate prognoses and test treatment options on cultured cells without subjecting patients to traditional biopsies.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
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Faulty Assay Sets Stage for $500,000 Snafu
A faulty commercial assay derailed a once-promising search for a diagnostic biomarker for pancreatic cancer and wasted $500,000 in research funding, according to investigators who were misled by the assay results. In preliminary studies, the assay results suggested that CUB and zona pellucida-like domain 1 (CUZD1) had potential to distinguish pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma from normal pancreatic tissue. As the research progressed, however, investigators discovered that the assay was recognizing the common cancer antigen CA-125, but not before they had invested $500,000 in funding in the search for a pancreatic cancer biomarker.
Source: http://www.medpagetoday.com/
Peanut Butter Test may Detect Alzheimer's Disease: Study
Researchers noticed that patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease had a huge discrepancy in smell sensitivity and could detect the peanut butter farther away while using just their right nostril. A simple test involving a tablespoon of peanut butter and a ruler may help doctors detect Alzheimer's disease. Researchers led by University of Florida graduate student Jennifer Stamps found that patients with early stage Alzheimer's disease had a more difficult time detecting the peanut butter held under their nose with their left nostril than their right.
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/
Abnormal DNA Methylation Precedes Cancer Initiation: Non-Invasive Tests a Future Possibility
Unique DNA markings on certain genes may "predict" the risk of developing head and neck cancer, according to new research led by Queen Mary University of London. The findings, published in the journal Cancer, raise the potential for the development of non-invasive tests which could pick up these tell-tale signs of early cancer initiation. Lead researcher Dr Muy Teck-Teh, from the Institute of Dentistry at Queen Mary, said: "In this study we have identified four genes which were either over or under-expressed in head and neck cancer. The expression of these genes was inversely correlated with particular DNA methylation marks, suggesting the genes are epigenetically modified in these cancers.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/266861.php
Clinical Trials Continue, but Only at a Crawl
The federal government has continued to enroll critically ill people in clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health since the government shutdown began, but the pace has slowed drastically, and many other sick people are having to wait for treatment. As elected officials try to sway public opinion on which party bears responsibility for the shutdown, lawmakers, advocates and news reports have raised the specter of children with cancer being kept from potentially lifesaving treatments because financing has been cut off.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/
Next Generation Sequencing Test Developed at UPMC Improves Detection of Thyroid Cancer, Reduces Unnecessary Surgeries
A new test for genetic markers that can identify which lumps in the thyroid gland are cancerous and which are harmless - potentially preventing unneeded operations - will make its debut Oct. 1 for patients seeking care at the UPMC/UPCI Multidisciplinary Thyroid Center (MTC). Growth of a small mass or nodule of the thyroid gland, which is located in the "Adam's apple" area of the neck, is very common, particularly with aging, said Yuri Nikiforov, M.D., Ph.D., director of thyroid molecular diagnostics at the thyroid center and a professor of pathology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The new test, called ThyroSeq, was designed and developed by Dr. Nikiforov and his team and uses a technique called next-generation sequencing.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/266867.php
Myriad's myRisk Hereditary Cancer™ Test Improves Colon Cancer Testing by 60 Percent
Myriad Genetics, Inc. has announced new clinical data from a study with myRisk Hereditary Cancer, a 25-gene hereditary cancer panel that showed a 60 percent increase in mutations detected in cancer predisposition genes in patients with a prior history of colon cancer and/or polyps. Myriad is presenting this clinical study at the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer (CGA) Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Calif.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
Water Street Sells Clinical Laboratory to Quest Diagnostics
Water Street Healthcare Partners, a strategic investor focused exclusively on the health care industry, announced that it has sold ConVerge Diagnostic Services to Quest Diagnostics. Headquartered in Peabody, Mass, ConVerge is a leading full-service regional laboratory providing clinical, cytology and anatomic pathology testing services. Water Street invested in ConVerge in 2009 and recruited a management team spearheaded by Bob Gorman.
Source: http://baltimore.citybizlist.com/
Across Canada, Clinical Pathology Laboratories Are Adopting Different Operational Models to Deliver More Value to Clinicians
Because of successive decreases in budgets for clinical laboratory testing, many Canadian medical laboratories are engaging their staffs to innovate and introduce new value-added testing services.
An analysis of the lab testing marketplace shows that current momentum supports predictions that there will be ongoing increases in lab test utilization,” stated James Tucker, Partner and Managing Director for the Boston Consulting Group in Toronto, Ontario. "Regular increases in the volume of lab tests to be performed must be considered when laboratories look at different ways to reduce their costs and keep expenses in line with declining revenue."
Tucker identified four ways to improve the utilization of medical laboratory tests. They are:
Manage underutilization of lab tests by introducing protocols designed to help clinicians avoid acute incidents and improve patient outcomes;
Manage overutilization of lab tests by helping clinicians recognize when tests are inappropriate;
Improve chronic care management by helping patients with self-testing; and,
Eliminate obsolete or ineffective lab tests by shifting test mix to more clinically useful assays.
Source: http://www.darkdaily.com/
Why Scientists Held Back Details on a Unique Botulinum Toxin
Scientists have discovered the first new form of botulinum toxin in over 40 years, but they're taking the unusual step of keeping key details about it secret. That's because botulinum toxin is one of the most poisonous substances known. It causes botulism, and the newly identified form of it can't be neutralized by any available treatment. The researchers published two reports describing their work online in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. The information in those reports is deliberately incomplete, to prevent anyone from using it as the recipe for a potent new bioweapon.
Source: http://www.npr.org/
Pentagon Seeks to Design Virus-Fighting Protein 'Cocktails'
The U.S. Defense Department is weighing a new search for immune-protein "cocktails" it hopes will protect humans against Ebola and other deadly, weapon-usable viruses. The Pentagon two weeks ago invited scientists to submit research proposals for designing "monoclonal antibodies" that could protect against Ebola and Marburg, as well as "alphaviruses" such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis. Pentagon planners have been turning to antibodies as a possible tool because "no easy and quick fix" for such agents has emerged from efforts to develop vaccines or traditional antiviral treatments, said Gigi Gronvall, a senior associate with the Center for Health Security at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Source: http://www.nextgov.com/
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Keys Uncovered to Antibiotic Resistance in MRSA
University of Notre Dame researchers Shahriar Mobashery and Mayland Chang and their collaborators in Spain have published research results that show how methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) regulates the critical crosslinking of its cell wall in the face of beta-lactam antibiotics. The work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals the mechanistic basis for how the MRSA bacterium became such a difficult pathogen over the previous 50 years, in which time it spread rapidly across the world.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
MERS Again Linked to Bats
The point of origin for the MERS virus continues to baffle scientists. New evidence once again suggests that the deadly virus is linked to bats. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is one of the latest problem viruses to have emerged this decade. MERS-CoV is the sixth new type of coronavirus like SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). Coronaviruses are so called because they have crown-like projections on their surfaces. "Corona" in Latin means "crown" or "halo." Symptoms of MERS-CoV infection include renal failure and severe acute pneumonia, which often result in a fatal outcome.
Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/
Pan-Cancer Studies Find Common Patterns Shared by Different Tumor Types
Cancer encompasses a complex group of diseases traditionally defined by where in the body it originates, as in lung cancer or colon cancer. This framework for studying and treating cancer has made sense for generations, but molecular analysis now shows that cancers of different organs have many shared features, while cancers from the same organ or tissue are often quite distinct. The Pan-Cancer Initiative, a major effort to analyze the molecular aberrations in cancer cells across a range of tumor types, has yielded an abundance of new findings reported in 18 forthcoming papers.
Source: http://www.technologynetworks.com/
Alzheimer's Breakthrough Hailed as 'Turning Point'
The discovery of the first chemical to prevent the death of brain tissue in a neurodegenerative disease has been hailed as the "turning point" in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. More work is needed to develop a drug that could be taken by patients. But scientists say a resulting medicine could treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and other diseases. In tests on mice, the Medical Research Council showed all brain cell death from prion disease could be prevented. Prof Roger Morris, from King's College London, said: "This finding, I suspect, will be judged by history as a turning point in the search for medicines to control and prevent Alzheimer's disease." He told the BBC a cure for Alzheimer's was not imminent but: "I'm very excited, it's the first proof in any living animal that you can delay neurodegeneration."The world won't change tomorrow, but this is a landmark study."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24462699
Most with Type 1 Diabetes Secrete Small Amounts of Insulin
Contrary to conventional wisdom, most patients with even longstanding type 1 diabetes still have beta cells that secrete small amounts of insulin after a meal, according to a new study published online October 9 in Diabetologia. "Using a new, very sensitive assay for C-peptide — a marker of insulin secretion — we found that 73% [of] people with type 1 diabetes, even with a long duration, had detectable insulin production," lead author Richard A. Oram, MD, from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, told Medscape Medical News.
Source: http://www.medscape.com/
Toddler Brain Scan Gives Language Insight
The left hand side of the brain has more myelin.
The brain has a critical window for language development between the ages of two and four, brain scans suggest. Environmental influences have their biggest impact before the age of four, as the brain's wiring develops to process new words, say UK and US scientists. The research in The Journal of Neuroscience suggests disorders causing language delay should be tackled early. It also explains why young children are good at learning two languages. The scientists, based at King's College London, and Brown University, Rhode Island, studied 108 children with normal brain development between the ages of one and six. They used brain scans to look at myelin - the insulation that develops from birth within the circuitry of the brain. To their surprise, they found the distribution of myelin is fixed from the age of four, suggesting the brain is most plastic in very early life. Any environmental influences on brain development will be strongest in infanthood, they predict.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Depression Risk 'Starts in the Womb'
Children whose mothers are depressed during pregnancy have a small increased risk of depression in adulthood, according to a UK study. Medical treatment during pregnancy could lower the risk of future mental health problems in the child, say researchers at Bristol University. The study followed the offspring of more than 8,000 mothers who had postnatal or antenatal depression. The risk is around 1.3 times higher than normal at age 18, it found.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Could NFL Concussion Questions be Solved by fly Swatters?
By slapping spring-loaded vials of Drosophila melanogaster against a foam pad and knocking the flies senseless, Ganetzky and his colleagues believe they have found leads toward a biological marker for concussions and a path toward blocking degeneration of neurons that can cause symptoms of dementia. Their results were published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/
Study Links Gene Variation to a Darker View of Life
Some people just see the world more darkly than others. A group of scientists says that what people observe in everyday life may depend on their genetic blueprint. A particular gene, known to play a part in emotional memories, could also influence where people tend to focus their eyes and attention. Subjects who had a specific form of a gene in which certain amino acids are missing, found in about half of Caucasians, had a heightened awareness of negative stimuli. Individuals with the missing amino acids in the ADRA2B gene have more norepinephrine in their brains, and as a result, “experience the flash of the flashbulb memory more intensely,” said lead author and University of British Columbia psychologist Rebecca M. Todd.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Cortisol in Hair a Marker of Prolonged Stress in Kids
The level of cortisol in hair may be a marker of prolonged stress in children, which could be a useful "complement" to other ways of studying how stress influences the health of children, report researchers from Sweden. In a prospective study, Jerker Karlén, MD, and colleagues from Linköping University found a correlation between mother and child hair cortisol levels; high levels of cortisol were related to indicators of psychosocial stress in the child.
Source: http://www.medscape.com/
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Shutdown Not Impeding Salmonella Outbreak Investigation
If you haven’t already heard, there’s an ongoing Salmonella outbreak that has infected at least 278 people in 17 states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say it’s linked to seven strains of Salmonella Heidelberg — some of which are antibiotic-resistant — that have contaminated chickens grown by West Coast poultry producer Foster Farms. To top it off, there’s a 42-percent hospitalization rate in these cases, double what’s usually associated with Salmonella, possibly because of the antibiotic resistance. If there’s a silver lining to this story, it’s that the government shutdown is not impeding the investigation. “We’ve been investigating this outbreak for some time,” Christopher Braden, CDC’s director of foodborne, waterborne and environmental diseases, told Food Safety News.
Source: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/
Illnesses in Salmonella Outbreak Rise to 317
The outbreak consists of seven different strains of salmonella Heidelberg, several of them resistant to multiple antibiotics. The number of victims in the national outbreak of salmonella linked to raw chicken rose to 317 Friday, health officials reported. The illnesses have been reported in 20 states and Puerto Rico, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The majority of cases, 73%, have been in California. No deaths have been reported.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/
Dengue Virus Identified in Houston
Dengue fever, a virulent tropical disease thought to be eradicated from the United States in the 1950s, has re-emerged in Houston, according to a new study. Baylor College of Medicine scientists are reporting the mosquito-borne virus has recently been transmitted in Houston, the first evidence the disease so prevalent in the developing world has spread to a major U.S. city in large numbers. In the past decade, it has been identified in Hawaii, south Florida and along the Texas-Mexico border. "Dengue virus can cause incredibly severe disease and death," said Dr. Kristy Murray, a professor of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the study's principal investigator. "This study shows that Houston may be at risk of an outbreak that people need to be on the lookout."
Source: http://www.chron.com/
High-Dose Flu Vax Better for Frail Elderly
Among the frail elderly in long-term care, a high-dose influenza vaccine improved antibody responses compared with standard vaccines, a researcher said. In a randomized, single-blind trial over two flu seasons, the higher dose gave superior responses to four out of five strains contained in the vaccines, according to Richard Zimmerman, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh.
Source: http://www.medpagetoday.com/
Parasites: Hookworm Vaccine Will Be Tried in Africa
Dr. Peter J. Hotez, director of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, explained that the vaccine creates antibodies not against the parasites themselves but against two enzymes found in the worm’s own gut — one that detoxifies the iron in its blood diet, and another that digests blood proteins. Without those enzymes the worm slowly dies. The trial will start on a few adults in Gabon, and children will eventually be enrolled. Even if all goes well, the trial could take at least five years. But Dr. Hotez noted that he began work on the vaccine as a graduate student at Rockefeller University 30 years ago “and I’ve been working on it my whole life.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/
Vitamin D Pills' Effect on Healthy Bones Queried
Healthy adults do not need to take vitamin D supplements, suggests a study in The Lancet which found they had no beneficial effect on bone density, a sign of osteoporosis. But experts say many other factors could be at play and people should not stop taking supplements. University of Auckland researchers analysed 23 studies involving more than 4,000 healthy people.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Laboratory Professionals are a key to Aiding Providers in Meeting Meaningful Use Stage 2
Laboratory professionals are well-versed in how lab analyses are performed, how test results are reported, and the interpretation of test results, in providing quality patient care. Consequently, laboratory professionals can be valuable resources to Eligible Hospitals (EHs) and Eligible Providers (EPs) attempting to meet and attest to Meaningful Use Stage 2 objectives.
Source: http://laboratory-manager.advanceweb.com/
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Experts Examine Intersection of Health IT and Quality Measurement in AHRQ Report
A report from AHRQ, “Health IT-Enabled Quality Measurement: Perspectives, Pathways, and Practical Guidance,” outlines experts’ viewpoints on how information technologies are advancing the science of quality measurement. Over the course of the 2-year project, diverse perspectives were identified regarding how to operationalize quality measurement as well as how to prioritize iterative advancements in health IT-enabled quality measurement. The report contains a searchable catalog describing over 150 health IT-enabled quality measurement projects. More than 100 future activities were recommended to provide practical, prospective insight and strengthened quality measurement infrastructure.
Source: http://healthit.ahrq.gov/
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With Form Comes Function: Bringing Standards to Data
The simple concept of a data standard holds great potential for improving government, despite a number of persistent challenges. During the August convening of the Urban Policy Advisory Group, information and innovation officers from cities across the country discussed the need for data standards to support collaboration across departments, agencies, and cities. As Abhi Nemani of Code for America put it, a data standard is basically a way to format a spreadsheet: a common set of headers and guidelines about how to think about data. This simple concept holds great potential for improving government in three major areas:
Scale
Integration
Serendipity
Open data and open standards invite public servants and private citizens alike to build novel applications on top of government data, leading to unforeseen insights.
Some of the common challenges to implementation include:
IT infrastructure
Data & Standards Maintenance
Customization
Unwanted scrutiny
Source: http://www.govtech.com/
Septicemia Tops List of 10 Most Expensive Inpatient Conditions
Below are the top 10 most expensive conditions treated in U.S. hospitals, all payers in 2011, according to the AHRQ:
Septicemia (except in labor)--$20.3 billion
Osteoarthritis--$14.8 billion
Complication of device, implant or graft--$12.9 billion
Liveborn--$12.4 billion
Acute myocardial infarction--$11.5 billion
Spondylosis, intervertebral disc disorders, other back problems--$11.2 billion
Pneumonia (except that caused by tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases)--$10.6 billion
Congestive heart failure, nonhypertensive--$10.5 billion
Coronary atherosclerosis--$10.4 billion
Respiratory failure, insufficiency, arrest (adult)--$8.7 billion
Source: http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/
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1 Percent of Patients Drive 21 Percent of Costs
The Agency of Health Care Quality has issued a report that attributes a large chunk of the nation's healthcare spending on a tiny proportion of patients, Kaiser Health News reported. Altogether, just 1 percent of the nation's population was tied to $1.3 trillion in healthcare spending in 2010, roughly 21 percent of the nation's total, according to Kaiser Health News. These patients' healthcare costs are running about $88,000 per capita. And just 5 percent of patients were responsible for half of the nation's healthcare spending. By comparison, the article said, half of the nation's patients incur virtually no costs at all and account for just 2.8 percent of U.S. healthcare expenditures.
Source: http://www.fiercehealthfinance.com/
Consolidation of Big Hospital Systems May Drive Healthcare Costs Even Higher, Say Some Experts
Recent hospital mergers are creating super-sized health systems that immediately gain leverage over insurers when negotiating managed care contracts. Experts say the nation is experiencing its biggest surge in hospital mergers in more than a decade. Moreover, this latest wave of deals is creating supersized hospital systems that are expected to dominate healthcare and possibly lead to higher healthcare costs. The ongoing consolidation of hospital ownership means further consolidation of the hospital laboratories that find themselves merged into larger health systems. That will have both good and bad consequences for pathologists and medical laboratory managers working within these organizations.
Source: http://www.darkdaily.com/
Judge Orders Tuomey to pay $276.8 Million for Stark, False Claims Act Violations
A federal judge ordered South Carolina's Tuomey Healthcare System to pay $277 million for violating laws that bar hospitals from paying doctors to refer Medicare patients for treatments. U.S. District Judge Margaret Seymour ruled against Tuomey (PDF) on virtually every post-trial issue and granted the government's request to impose $39.3 million in Stark penalties and another $237.5 million in False Claims Act fines. Seymour also rejected Tuomey's attempts in legal filings to nullify the verdict, though experts say a post-verdict out-of-court settlement could still be in the works.
Source: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/
Rabies Kills 24,000 a Year in Africa Because Vaccine Costly: Experts
Rabies kills 24,000 people a year in Africa, most of them children, because many on the world's poorest continent cannot afford the cost of the vaccine, experts said. Africa is home to nearly half the 55,000 people around the world who die each year from rabies, caused mainly by bites from dogs contaminated with the virus, according to a conference of experts on the disease in the Senegalese capital Dakar. Vaccination of humans, as well as dogs and domestic pets, is the only way to prevent the spread of the disease.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/
Check for Blood in Urine, Urges Kidney Cancer Campaign
If you see blood in your urine, even if it is just once, it could be a sign of cancer, a public health campaign warns. Kidney cancer diagnoses have risen by a third in the past 10 years in England. And the death toll has increased by 7%, with about 3,500 people dying from kidney cancer in England in 2011.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/
GHS Involves Private Sector in Laboratory Reforms
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has adopted measures to reform the laboratory systems in health care delivery. In this regard, the private sector is being engaged in the refurbishment of the Central Clinical Reference Laboratory at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) to be able to conduct quality assurance tests on reagents to ensure patients receive accurate laboratory tests. Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, Director General of GHS, who announced the measures, said in addition, the GHS was engaging the private sector to assist with the supply, distribution and management of reagents and equipment to promote efficient and effective laboratory services.
Source: http://www.ghananewsagency.org/
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