July 02, 2009
links for 2009-07-02
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The emergency room at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital is seeing more patients over the past six months. Many with behavioral problems such as depression. The local police chief says they are making frequent trips to the ER.
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Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and AMA president Dr. J. James Rohack discuss health care reform.
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A two-year effort to create a countywide health program for Cuyahoga County's poor and uninsured is at risk of falling short of its ultimate goal as the group's members debate exactly how much money and other resources they are willing to commit.
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Documentaries about health-care and food are all the rage. Cue the lights - bring the music up - action.
Category:
Posted by David Porter
July 01, 2009
links for 2009-07-01
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Health insurance is supposed to offer protection — both medically and financially. But as it turns out, an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured.
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The widespread use of expensive cancer drugs to prolong patients’ lives by just weeks or months was called into question by an article published Monday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
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The disagreement centers on a critical issue: What’s the best way to cover impoverished Americans? Is it by expanding Medicaid? Or by providing subsidies for the poor to buy private insurance on new health insurance exchanges to be created by the legislation?
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
June 30, 2009
links for 2009-06-30
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Because Insurance policies come with limits even the insured may not get access to new drugs or a needed transplant.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
Race origins and health disparities
An article out of the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science tries to connect the dots between race origins and health disparities.
Efforts to simplify the complexities of race— including genetic, cultural and socioeconomic variations—have made race-related research “a minefield of often premature and ultimately wrong conclusions,” [lead author Nina T. Harawa said.]
To understand health disparities in the various population groups, she said, researchers need to understand how today’s racial categories evolved from the negative assumptions made hundreds of years ago to justify slavery.
The article appears in Ethnicity and Disease Journal and a pdf version of the first page can be found here.
Category: Health Disparities; Health Inequality; Health Inequities; Minority Health; Race; Racial Health
Posted by David Porter
June 29, 2009
links for 2009-06-29
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More tests don't always equal better care.
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From the journal Annals of Family Medicine
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Almost 50 percent of HIV-positive American teens and young adults don't know they are infected, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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As the lobbyists watched the 22 senators, NPR watched the lobbyists — took panoramic photos of them, in fact.
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Health clinic executives say the money will allow them to keep their doors open as the rolls of uninsured patients grow. An estimated 64 million people use rural health clinics, a number that is expected to rise as people lose their jobs and health insurance.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
June 26, 2009
links for 2009-06-26
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No one can buy a transplant - but knowing how the system works is a definite advantage.
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One out of five—that’s the latest CDC estimate of how many people living with HIV in the U.S. are unaware of their HIV status. Stigma around HIV remains a barrier for HIV testing. National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) is an opportunity to reduce HIV testing stigma and promote testing!
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Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin today introduced the Ending Health Disparities for LGBT Americans Act (ELHDA), the first comprehensive approach to improving all areas of the health care system where lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans face inequality and discrimination.
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Research study finds that endoscopic and histological Barrett's esophagus was present more often in non-Hispanic whites than in African Americans.
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It’s not difficult to get most Americans health-care coverage. If you make it accessible and affordable most people will buy it.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
June 25, 2009
links for 2009-06-25
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Assistant U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Michele Moloney-Kitts and Christine Lubinski, head of the Center for Global Health Policy and Advocacy, answer viewer questions on President Obama's global health initiative and how it will shift U.S. global health priorities. (Transcript and mp3 available at link)
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Massachusetts will cut some dental services, slow enrollment, and may eliminate coverage for legal immigrants from their 'universal' health coverage.
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Greater Cleveland diabetes patients are showing health improvements in areas such as blood sugar control, but the gains are threatened by a growing number of people losing insurance coverage.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
June 24, 2009
links for 2009-06-24
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Aboriginal children are among the most marginalized children in Canadian society. Despite some advances, in almost any measure of health and well-being, Aboriginal children – including First Nations, Inuit and Métis -- are at least two or three times worse off than other Canadian children. As children, they are less likely to see a doctor. As teens, they are more likely to become pregnant. And in many communities, they are more likely to commit suicide.
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Huge geographic differences exist in cancer risk
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Almost 2.2 million people lived in neighborhoods where pollution raised the risk of developing cancer to levels the government generally considers to be unacceptable. There, toxic chemicals were significant enough that people who breathed the air throughout their lives faced an extra 100-in-1 million risk of getting cancer.
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The team of more than 30 researchers found that low-income women not only have more chronic diseases -- such as hypertension, arthritis and diabetes -- than their higher income sisters, but that their condition degenerates more quickly.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
Blogging and Tweeting about donating a kidney
Pamela Paulk, the VP of Human Resources at Johns Hopkins is keeping a blog about her experience donating a kidney.
She writes:
I am writing this blog in hopes of bringing more attention and awareness to the need for kidney donors … and to show that ordinary people can be donors. My hope is that maybe one person who reads this will hear about someone else needing a kidney and will say, “Hey, I can do that. I can give my kidney.”
Her most recent blog post was made prior to the day of the surgery. However she updated her Twitter feed up to and after the surgery.
Click on the image for a full sized version or click here.
Twitter is becoming an important tool for getting information out to friends and family members. Last month a transplant team used Twitter to keep a family updated while their 3 year-old received a new kidney.
Link to this entry and sharing options
Category: Blog; Health Care; Organ Donation; Social Media; twitter
Posted by David Porter
June 23, 2009
links for 2009-06-23
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Parents struggle to get insurance companies to pay for the newest treatment.
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Americans are struggling to pay for healthcare in the ongoing economic recession, with a quarter saying they have had trouble in the past 12 months.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
Racial disparities in health care (CNN Video)
Tony Harris and Elizabeth Cohen talk about health disparities.
EXTRA: The Center for Reducing Health Disparities in now on Facebook. You can become a fan here.
Category: Health Disparities; Racial Disparities
Posted by David Porter
June 19, 2009
links for 2009-06-19
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Hospitals are reducing the number of Medicaid patients they accept including children covered under SCHIP.
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Audio program from NPR's Fresh Air.
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Physician heal thyself.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
June 18, 2009
links for 2009-06-18
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Researchers found that black children with high blood pressure are more likely than other children to develop a thickening of the left chamber of the heart. Known as left ventricular hypertrophy, or LVH, the condition can lead to heart failure, rhythm abnormalities and death.
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Executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite withering criticism from Republican and Democratic members of Congress who decried the practice as unfair and abusive.
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Gov. Ted Strickland has floated roughly $2 billion in cuts to help close a $3.2 billion shortfall in the two-year state budget, a plan that would slash health care and other safety-net services for Ohio's poor.
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People are afraid of losing their insurance in coming year. Nearly one in four people (23.6%) fear losing their health insurance at some point in the next 12 months.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
June 17, 2009
links for 2009-06-17
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Reacting to a rising tide of anger from gay and lesbian supporters at a series of slights and deferred promises, President Obama will tomorrow extend some benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.
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Despite the overwhelming evidence that men are being left behind, the U.S. government has never made a concerted effort to address male health issues. Right now, there are seven (seven!) offices of women's health in the U.S. government: six in the Department of Health and Human Services and one in the Department of Agriculture. And the Pentagon makes huge investments in women's health research. Yet there is not a single federal organization that encourages and disseminates physical and mental health research for and about men.
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Residents in the poorest neighborhoods of Los Angeles County continue to face living conditions that are significantly more unhealthy than more affluent areas.
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Executives of three of the nation’s largest health insurers told federal lawmakers Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite criticism that the practice is unfair and abusive.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
June 16, 2009
links for 2009-06-16
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Among cancers which affect both sexes, [in the UK] men are 60 per cent more likely to develop the disease and 70 per cent more likely to die from it.
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Children belonging to ethnic minority and low-income groups face an increased risk of suffering from asthma, new research shows.
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Insurance rules vary, but what often happens is that patients with private insurance end up paying all of the facility fee until they reach their deductible. At the nine Clinic facilities, for example, a person with a $25 co-pay now pays $80 for an office visit because of the $55 facility fee.
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On some reservations, the oft-quoted refrain is "don't get sick after June," when the federal dollars run out. It's a sick joke, and a sad one, because it's sometimes true, especially on the poorest reservations where residents cannot afford health insurance. Officials say they have about half of what they need to operate, and patients know they must be dying or about to lose a limb to get serious care.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
New effort hopes to reduce the disparity in pneumococcal disease
A joint effort launched this week hopes to improve vaccination rates for pneumococcal disease in developing countries. The need is pressing.
Pneumococcal disease takes the lives of 1.6 million people each year – including up to one million children before their fifth birthday. More than 90 percent of these deaths occur in developing countries. Pneumonia, the most common form of serious pneumococcal disease, accounts for one in every four child deaths, making it the leading cause of death among young children.
Access to vaccines will be via an Advance Market Commitment. Donations will be used to help stabilize the price of vaccines once they enter the market. In theory, the promise of stable prices will motivate vaccine producers to invest resources for not only manufacture but also research and development.
The long term price (in a developing country) for a pneumococcal vaccine will be $3.50 if these AMCs are successful. In the U.S., the cost is around $70 per dose.
Link to this entry and sharing options
Category: AMC; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Flu; Health Disparities; Health Inequities; Vaccines
Posted by David Porter
June 15, 2009
links for 2009-06-15
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HIV is impacting black women disproportionately, according to a recent report by the Florida Department of Health's Bureau of HIV/AIDS. It has been the leading cause of death among black women age 25 to 44 in Florida for the past 15 years.
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British men may be literally dying as a result of their reluctance to see the doctor, researchers said on Monday with a new study showing they are nearly 40 percent more likely to die from any form of cancer than women.
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Online version of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS report.
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Measures of lead poisoning among Cleveland-area children younger than 6 have reached an all-time low. Cleveland's lead poisoning rate dropped from 46.6 percent in 1994, the highest in recent history, to just over 8 percent in 2008, the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council announced Friday.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
June 11, 2009
links for 2009-06-11
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NPR report on health disparities in minority women.
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Bidding process for community health center may negatively affect Hispanic residents.
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As the health care debate heats up, the American Medical Association is letting Congress know that it will oppose creation of a government-sponsored insurance plan, which President Obama and many other Democrats see as an essential element of legislation to remake the health care system.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
June 10, 2009
links for 2009-06-10
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Ensuring that every American or Ohioan is insured is not the same as ensuring that everyone receives equal treatment.
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HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius newly released report on Health Disparities.
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Black women in the District suffer from obesity, diabetes, heart disease and generally poor health in alarmingly high numbers, and white women do not.
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter
June 09, 2009
links for 2009-06-09
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As part of the larger effort to overhaul health care, lawmakers are trying to address the problem that intrigues Mr. Obama so much — the huge geographic variations in Medicare spending per beneficiary. Two decades of research suggests that the higher spending does not produce better results for patients but may be evidence of inefficiency.
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Parents may try to set an example by eating a healthy diet themselves, but a new study has found that their children are not paying attention.
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Black, Latino and Asian lawmakers want President Barack Obama to focus more on racial disparities reported in medical treatment as the White House works toward overhauling the nation's health care system.
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Black and Asian patients were more likely than white patients to report communication difficulties with their doctors in 2005.
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Grassley Tweets, "Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a "hammer" u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL."
Category: Lunch Break Reading
Posted by David Porter