Leica SCN400 2.2 – Fast, Flexible Whole Slide Capture for Digital Pathology

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5-Channel Fluorescence Digital Pathology Scanning

    

 

 

WETZLAR, Germany, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Leica Microsystems announces the release of the SCN400 2.2 scanning platform. Batch processing in both brightfield and multi-channel fluorescence, coupled with user-friendly workflows, makes the SCN400 2.2 an all-round high performance solution for digital pathology scanning.

With up to 5 fluorescence channels per slide, the SCN400 2.2 provides a truly flexible whole slide scanning solution. The ability to capture multiple markers on a single sample, with clear focus and channel separation, ensures that researchers maximize results from precious or rare samples. Capacity for multiple filter cubes enables up to 7 distinct fluorescence channels to be utilized across a scanning batch, providing flexibility for the varied samples in research and pharmaceutical laboratories. 

The SCN400 2.2 is optimized to meet the requirements of both brightfield and fluorescence imaging in a single scanning platform. Monochrome detectors for fluorescence provide excellent separation of individual fluorophores that may be close in wavelength, while color detectors for brightfield provide excellent digital slide capture quality.

For brightfield imaging the advanced tissue finding system automatically identifies areas for capture, while Leica's patented Dynamic Focus removes the overhead of slide pre-mapping, rapidly scanning high quality whole slide images.  With the addition of the SL801 autoloader with capacity for 384 slides, the SCN400 2.2 becomes a truly automated high-throughput system.

Dr. Donal O'Shea, Head of Digital Pathology at Leica Microsystems, says "Providing a streamlined workflow for tissue-based research that facilitates quantitative analysis and flexible solutions for multi-user laboratories is a continued focus for Leica.  The advanced brightfield and fluorescence imaging capacity in this release provides an optimal single-platform scanner for the varied samples used by biomarker discovery and translational researchers."

Total Digital Pathology from Leica provides complete end-to-end solutions for scanning, management and analysis of digital pathology images. As part of this portfolio, the SCN400 2.2 provides unparalleled flexibility and performance, to make slide scanning a simple, integrated step in the pathology workflow.
To learn more about the SCN400 2.2, please visit:
http://www.leica-microsystems.com/products/digital-pathology/scan/details/product/leica-scn400-2/
http://www.leica-microsystems.com/products/digital-pathology/scan/details/product/leica-scn400-f/

Leica Microsystems is a world leader in microscopes and scientific instruments. Founded as a family business in the nineteenth century, the company's history was marked by unparalleled innovation on its way to becoming a global enterprise.

Its historically close cooperation with the scientific community is the key to Leica Microsystems' tradition of innovation, which draws on users' ideas and creates solutions tailored to their requirements. At the global level, Leica Microsystems is organized in three divisions, all of which are among the leaders in their respective fields: the Life Science Division, Industry Division and Medical Division.

The company is represented in over 100 countries with 6 manufacturing facilities in 5 countries, sales and service organizations in 20 countries, and an international network of dealers. The company is headquartered in Wetzlar, Germany.

Source: Leica Microsystems


 

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New robot will connect doctors, patients

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By Dan Adams Globe Correspondent/July 24, 2012
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    The 5-foot-4-inch, 140-pound “telemedicine” robot will be produced in partnership with InTouch Health of Santa Barbara, Calif., a maker of in-hospital robots, and is designed to help patients with health emergencies get more rapid treatment from specialists — especially at night, when hospital staff levels are lower, the company said.

    “Telemedicine is about getting the right expertise to the right place at the right time,” said InTouch chief executive Yulun Wang. “If a patient has a stroke and comes into the emergency room, you better get a stroke neurologist there quickly. Otherwise, through sheer delay, it can be a matter of life or death.”

    Called RP-VITA, the robot allows doctors to virtually visit patients in distant locations, carrying on conversations and even taking measurements in real time. Equipped with cameras, microphones, 3-D mapping sensors, a stethoscope, and a video screen “head” that automatically swivels to listen to voices, the robot transmits and receives video, audio, and navigation instructions over a Wi-Fi broadband connection.

    Doctors, patients, and hospital staff control the robot with a specialized terminal or via a software application that runs on Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet computer, and talk to one another using a Skype-like video chat displayed on the robot’s main screen.

    “I can get data I never had over the phone,” said Dr. Jason Knight, a pediatric emergency care physician at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County in California, who has been testing a prototype of the robot. “There’s never been one time I’ve used it and said, ‘That was a waste of time.’ I always see something I wouldn’t have otherwise.”

    In February, iRobot said it planned to widen its product range to reduce its dependence on defense contracts as the Pentagon executes plans to cut its budget by $450 billion over the next 10 years. The company, which also makes consumer products such as the Roomba vacuum robot, laid off 55 workers, or around 8 percent of its workforce, in October.

    The RP-VITA incorporates a number of design advances, according to iRobot senior vice president Glen Weinstein. The robot can interact in real-time with heart monitors, blood oxygenation sensors, ultrasound machines, and other diagnostic tools, to give doctors on the other end of the connection access to patient data. And where earlier hospital robots were steered manually, or wheeled from room to room by staffers, the RP-VITA can navigate to learned destinations on its own, avoiding obstacles along the way. It will even give a wider berth to people than it does to inanimate objects, like furnishings, as it roams the hallways.

    “The ability of our systems to work in a dynamic environment has only been mature for the last couple years,” said Weinstein. “From my perspective, this is the most sophisticated robot that’s been created. It’s really pulling together a significant amount of expertise that I don’t believe exists elsewhere in the world.”

    The RP-VITA is scheduled to be released late this year, and will cost between $4,000 and $6,000 per month to lease, according to iRobot.

    “From the patient perspective, the advantage is the rapidity. The faster you get a diagnosis and treatment, the better your outcome,” said Liz Boehm of ExperiaHealth, a patient experience consultant firm in San Francisco.

    The use of telemedicine robots is still very limited, said Boehm, who said some of the benefits can be realized simply through using the Skype video service. But either way, she said, patients can expect to see a growing use of remote communications technology in medicine.

    “For clinicians, the ability to be home more and not have calls be so onerous, that’s wonderful,” she said, “because the clinician is less likely to get burnt out by her job, and can give better care to more people.”

    Dan Adams can be reached at dadams@globe.com. Find him on Twitter at @DanielAdams86.

    © Copyright 2012 Globe Newspaper Company. 

    The 5-foot-4-inch, 140-pound telemedicine robot is designed to help patients with time-sensitive health emergencies get rapid treatment from specialists.The 5-foot-4-inch, 140-pound telemedicine robot is designed to help patients with time-sensitive health emergencies get rapid treatment from specialists.

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    UAB Division of Informatics to manage medical research data

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    Published: Monday, July 23, 2012, 9:00 AM


    BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Doctors and medical researchers are dealing with increasingly large sets of data. Genetic sequences, images from pathology biopsies and lab tests, and information about how patients respond to treatment, to name just a few. Along with this data are the bewildering names of new disciplines that try to make sense of this information overload -- genomics, proteomics, immunoproteomics, metabalomics, transcriptomics. And overarching all of this is an effort commonly called bioinformatics, which tries to use computing to find better ways to coordinate the data, make sense of it all and mine it for valuable discoveries.

    Which brings us to Jonas Almeida. Almeida is a recent addition to the University of Alabama at Birmingham medical center, recruited away from the prestigious University of Texas-MD Anderson Cancer Center in January 2011 to launch a newly formed Division of Informatics in the med school's pathology department.

    At MD Anderson as a professor of bioinformatics, Almeida was deeply involved in the Cancer Genome Atlas, a shared site for cancer data started with the help of National Cancer Institute funding in 2006. Its utility was seen just last week in a TCGA study of gene mutations in colon and rectal cancers.

    Researchers used the shared data to show that the patterns in colon and rectal cancers were the same, regardless of where they came from. This means the two are actually a single type of cancer. The discovery is considered an important step in understanding the foundations of that disease.

    An effort like the Atlas, Almeida said, takes advantage of "the cloud" -- a web-based set of programs and standardized data formats that allows researchers to build interactive masses of data. Almeida likened this use of the cloud to the popular pastime FarmVille, a farming simulation social network game.

    Another approach in informatics is seen in a paper Almeida and colleagues published Friday about a new app they created for image bioinformatics. This app, called ImageJS, is like one version of Angry Birds, because it operates inside a Google Chrome web browser.

    ImageJS started with a common pathology problem -- a patient has had a brain biopsy, and a slice of the brain has been put on a slide and stained with one dye to color the nuclei of cells and with another dye to create a different color in nuclei that are replicating.

    Normally a pathologist will look at an image of the stained cells and through individual skill and possible help from image processing software, figure how much replication is going on. A high amount means cancer.

    "Pathologists face two major problems that have been insoluble for many years," Almeida said in a telephone interview from Germany.

    First, they would run into difficulties about patient privacy if they had to send the images off to some other computer site to be analyzed, and any software they might want to put on their own hospital computers would create a security question.

    Second, if they wished to make any changes to the algorithms used to analyze images, they would need to get the software rewritten by its producer, and then go through the long and tedious process of getting that software cleared by the information technology folks.

    ImageJS, a simple and fast program written in JavaScript, sidesteps both of those problems.

    It lets the pathologist work at his or her own computer but avoids adding any new programming files to the computer. The ImageJS app does this by operating in a Google Chrome browser which acts as a "sandbox where code is executed without direct access to the machine's file system," Almeida, pathologist Dr. James Hackney and four other division of informatics colleagues wrote in their Journal of Pathology Informatics paper.

    Free code

    Furthermore, the code is freely available from hosting services such as GitHub and Google Code. Users will be able to write a few lines of code to slightly alter the image algorithms, something akin to an Angry Birds player being able to change the colors of the birds, Almeida said.

    While ImageJS addresses a pathology problem, it also doubles as an experiment in informatics. Almeida said he hopes to see it lead to interactions where researchers use and modify the app's simple architecture to build a collaborative computational ecosystem.

    [See Almedia's YouTube.com channel.]

    At UAB, the Portuguese-born Almeida has hired five faculty and now has about 15 researchers and staff in the informatics division.

    UAB pathology chairman Dr. Kevin Roth was the key to luring Almeida to UAB.

    "He offered me something that is special -- a strategic vision about the future," Almeida said. "He sees biostatistics and bioinformatics to be part of the tools of select medical centers."

    Almeida gave another example of the potential use of bioinformatics for clinicians -- shared cancer databases in the cloud where oncologists can find answers to questions that could improve patient care.

    Such questions, Almeida said, include, "What patients have been seen before that were like the one that I'm seeing? What happened to those patients? What drugs did they respond to?"

    Join the conversation by clicking to comment or email Hansen at jhansen@bhamnews.com.

     

     

    UAB-Jonas-Almedia.jpg
    UAB's Jonas Almedia and his
    colleagues created an app called ImageJS. (UAB.edu)

     

     

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    Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence and Star of TV's "Oddities" Evan Michelson on "The Midnight Archive"

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    The newest latest episode of The Midnight Archive--Ronni Thomas' fantastic documentary series centered around Brooklyn's Observatory--has just gone live! Entitled "Dealing in the Obscure," it features Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence, star of TV's "Oddities", and good friend/partner in crime Evan Michelson waxing poetic on the pleasures of time travel through material culture, why some people are drawn to darkness, and her own uncannily beautiful collection.

    To watch the episode, simply press play in the viewer above. More on the episode, in the words of director/creator Ronni Thomas:

    The Midnight Archive - Ep. 14 - Evan Michelson - It is a pleasure to have Evan Michelson, owner of the NYC epicenter of the odd 'Obscura Antiques' and star of Science Channel's "Oddities"' as a guest on our series. In what is certainly our most abstract and experimental episode, she quite eloquently puts into words why some of us are so drawn to certain objects, the dark, and the disturbing. Her house is, as she puts it, a literal library of the strange and esoteric. Each artifact houses a special story and emotion for its possessor. So enjoy a very psychedelic and surreal episode of the series and please make sure to like our facebook page for random tidbits of macabre history and events around the world! And be sure if in NYC or visiting to check our Obscura Antiques in the East Village - you will not be disappointed!

    For more on the series, to see any of the episodes, or to sign up for the mailing list and thus be alerted to future uploads, visit The Midnight Archive website by clicking here. You can also "like" it on Facebook--and be alerted in this way--by clicking here.

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    "Last Things and Other Forms," Herbert Pfostl and Jon Beacham

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    My friend Herbert Pfostl--who is also the curator of the outstanding New Museum Bookstore and author of the wonderful To Die No More--has a lovely looking exhibition with artist Jon Beacham. Entitled "Last Things and Other Forms," it will be on view until this Friday, July 27th, whence it will be ushered out by a closing party from 6:30 to 10. Looks to be a lovely show. You can find out more by clicking here.

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    Secure Your Hotel Room for Pathology Visions 2012 Today

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    2012 Register Now_HC
    Secure Your Hotel Room for Pathology Visions 2012 Today!
    Hotel Reservations Must be Received Prior to October 1, 2012

    The DPA has secured a special group rate for attendees of Pathology Visions at the Hilton Baltimore for a single and double occupancy room.

    ROOM RATE:hiltonbaltimore
    $189 Single/Double + tax

    Check-in: 3:00 PM
    Check-out: Noon
    Self Parking: $28, In/Out privilege
    Valet parking: $40, In/Out privilege

    For overnight guest room accommodations, please make reservations by clicking here
    or by contacting the Hilton Baltimore
    directly by phone at (443) 573-8700.

    Be sure to mention that you are with the group Pathology Visions in order to receive the contracted group rate.

    Learn more

    Exhibitor Deadline is Approaching

     All Exhibitor & Supporter Applications are due August 1, 2012

    The Pathology Visions exhibit program furthers the education of attendees by providing an opportunity for on-site discussions and exchanges on the newest available technologies, as well as an area for exhibitors to present information on products or services pertinent to the attendees’ professional interests.

    There are three levels of exhibit support opportunities available which include Gold Supporter ($10,000), Silver Supporter ($5,000), and Exhibit Booth Only ($4,000). The deadline to reserve an exhibitor spot is August 1, 2012.

    Once participation as an exhibitor has been confirmed, the company’s logo and a link to the company’s website will be featured on the 2012 Exhibitor & Supporter page. All booth assignments will be finalized August 3, 2012.

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    NASA'S SLS Rocket Passes Major Hurdle

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    NASA's next-generation Space Launch System (SLS) passed a major review hurdle this week that could position the heavy-lift rocket for a test flight in 2017 and eventually status as the launch vehicle for the space agency's Orion spacecraft on deep space missions.

    The SLS will "provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit," NASA said in a statement announcing the rocket's successful navigation of an independent review board's evaluation of technical, performance, cost, and schedule requirements for its design and manufacture.

    "This new heavy-lift launch vehicle will make it possible for explorers to reach beyond our current limits, to nearby asteroids, Mars and its moons, and to destinations even farther across our solar system," said NASA associate administrator William Gerstenmaier.

    The review board confirmed the SLS program's integration with the future Orion spacecraft, NASA's next-generation Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) with room onboard for four astronauts. Orion is being designed for trips that would take humans further into space than ever beforebeyond the Moon to Mars and even the asteroid belt. Those missions are expected to commence no earlier than 2020.

    SLS program directors will now take the rocket to the design phase. The board selected six rocket designs for this phase, including three from Huntsville, Ala.-based Dynetics, according to Ala.com. The other design proposals come from Northrop Grumman, Aerojet General, and ATK Launch Systems. Only one design will win out but NASA expects to shell out $200 million on demonstrations for all six designs, Ala.com reported.

    The program was initiated just 10 months ago, around the time that NASA was ending its storied space shuttle programan end of an era for the agency that also meant it would no longer have the capability to launch humans into space. Since retiring the shuttle fleet, NASA has relied on the Russian space agency to ferry its astronauts to the International Space Station, while handing off ISS supply runs to the Russians, the European and Japanese space agencies, and even to a privately held company, SpaceX.

    NASA is aiming for an SLS booster configured with a 77-ton lift capacity for the first test flight about four years from now. Future three-stage SLS boosters will be capable of lifting 143 tons into space, the agency said.

    "This is a pivotal moment for this program and for NASA. This has been a whirlwind experience from a design standpoint. Reaching this key development point in such a short period of time, while following the strict protocol and design standards set by NASA for human spaceflight is a testament to the team's commitment to delivering the nation's next heavy-lift launch vehicle," said SLS Program Manager Todd May.

    For more from Damon, follow him on Twitter @dpoeter.

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    NASA'S SLS Rocket Passes Major Hurdle

    Medical merger is enticing to college

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    Susan Robertson

    Merging with Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk to form the William & Mary School of Medicine definitely has potential, but the benefits have yet to be spelled out.

    The possible partnership, announced Wednesday, would make William & Mary the fourth state university with a medical program. The obvious benefits include prestige for William & Mary and state funding for EVMS.

    W&M President Taylor Reveley said serious consideration of a merger began only recently, and a look at similar partnerships will undergo due diligence by the administration and the Board of Visitors.

    Im well aware of the resources a medical school can bring to a university, he said. Although William and Mary and EVMS have cooperated in the past, making EVMS a part of the college would provide greater opportunities for collaboration and the development of innovative learning and research opportunities for William & Mary undergraduate and graduate students.

    Out in Roanoke, Virginia Tech had four big reasons for merging with the Carilion hospital system in 2007, according to Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech.

    To address a looming shortage of doctors.

    To improve health care delivery in Southwest Virginia.

    To expand Virginia Techs life science and human health research.

    To link efforts of Virginia Tech and Carilion and create jobs in the region.

    Original post:

    Medical merger is enticing to college

    Liberty rolls toward end of line

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    Home Business Automotive A 2011 Liberty is taken for a test drive at the Monroe Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Superstore in Monroe. THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT Enlarge Loading

    Published: 7/29/2012

    BY TYREL LINKHORN BLADE BUSINESS WRITER

    At its introduction in 2001, the Jeep Liberty had a tall mountain to climb. It was replacing the capable and very well-received Jeep Cherokee -- a vehicle that practically invented the small sport utility vehicle segment.

    And the Liberty was doing it in a way that proved a bit controversial. Instead of sharp lines, the Liberty had curves. It was heavier. It traded the bulletproof straight six for a four-cylinder or V-6 engine. The Jeep enthusiast crowd saw it as near affront to the slab-sided utilitarian Cherokee.

    "The first-generation Liberty was criticized for having gone really soft," said Ed Kim, vice president of industry analysis at AutoPacific. "Some members of the press sort of derided it for being a girly Jeep, being too cute, being not masculine enough, even though in terms of its rugged hardware, it was every bit as capable as the previous-generation Cherokee."

    Regardless of those perceptions, buyers scooped up more than 171,000 of the Toledo-built Liberty in its first full year. That was about 30,000 more units than the Cherokee sold in its last full year in 2001.

    Since then, more than 1.25 million Libertys have been sold.

    Now, after an 11-year run and one major redesign, the Liberty as we know it will soon come to an end. Chrysler Group LLC hasn't officially said when production will cease, but union officials and supplier contracts confirm that Aug. 16 will be Liberty's last day.

    Its replacement -- officially unnamed as yet -- is expected to be vastly different from the outgoing Liberty.

    More here:

    Liberty rolls toward end of line

    With deadline looming, members of local Green and Libertarian parties make push for signatures

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    "We have a lot of common interests. We both need to break the two-party machine," said Dave Moser, chairman of the York County Libertarian Party.

    York, PA -

    John Schwab signed petitions to help get Green and Libertarian candidates on the ballot in the fall -- even though he doesn't think he'd vote for them.

    "Democracy is supposed to be the great equalizer," said the 46-year-old York Republican. "...I believe they should be running just like anybody else."He was approached near the corner of West Philadelphia and North Beaver streets on Saturday, as members of the York County Green Party and the York County Libertarian Party were seeking signatures for nominating petitions outside York's Central Market.

    Republican and Democratic candidates competed for votes in the April primary. But the process for others, like members of the Green and Libertarian parties, to get candidates on the ballot in the fall is different. They have until the end of the day Wednesday to submit paperwork with enough signatures to the state. The signatures can also be challenged.

    "We're out here on the streets, one person at a time, one ounce of sweat at a time," said Dave Moser, chairman of the York County Libertarian Party.

    He's seeking enough signatures to challenge state Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-West Manchester Township, for the 95th state House seat. And he's also been helping Mike Koffenberger, of Stewartstown, get enough signatures to appear on the ballot as the Libertarian candidate in the 4th Congressional District race for retiring Congressman Todd Platts' seat.

    Members of the York County Green Party on Saturday were helping with a statewide effort to get presidential candidate Jill Stein, a physician from Massachusetts, and vice presidential candidate Cheri Honkala, an anti-poverty advocate who ran for sheriff in Philadelphia 2011, on the ballot in Pennsylvania.

    Some rejection was part of the gig.

    "Hi, guys. Do you have a second?" asked Britt Beachley, who was sitting at a table with info about the Green Party.

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    With deadline looming, members of local Green and Libertarian parties make push for signatures

    Health-care act to have tax impact

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    by Russ Wiles - Jul. 28, 2012 05:48 PM The Republic | azcentral.com

    Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act, it's time to start picking through the details. Several key tax rules are scheduled to change in 2013, especially for higher-income individuals.

    Republicans are still trying to overturn the law, and that could happen based on what transpires in the November election. But if nothing changes, here's what to expect in terms of the health-related tax impact, with focus on items that apply to individuals rather than businesses:

    New Medicare tax. Higher payroll withholding is on the horizon with the introduction of a 0.9 percent tax starting in 2013. It will hit people with earned income exceeding $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly. That's in addition to the current Medicaid tax of 1.45 percent.

    New investment-income tax. The legislation also imposes a 3.8 percent levy on interest, dividends, some rents and other unearned income for people above those $200,000/$250,000 income levels. This levy, also designed to support Medicare, starts in 2013.

    "This 3.8 percent tax would be on top of any increase in the dividends/capital-gains/ordinary-income rates that (take effect) ... upon expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts at the end of 2012," according to tax-researcher CCH.

    Top rates rising. That 3.8 percent Medicare addition plus scheduled regular-tax increases mean the top effective rate for high-income earners could go from the current 35 percent to 43.4 percent in 2013, said Jason Miller, manager of financial planning at Harris Private Bank in Scottsdale. The capital-gains rate could go from a top 15 percent this year to 23.8 percent next year.

    Harvesting or prematurely locking in capital gains, normally an unwise strategy, could make sense, Miller added. So could accelerating income into 2012 rather than deferring it, if possible. In one strategy cited by Mark Luscombe, principal analyst at CCH in suburban Chicago, you might opt to convert a regular IRA into a Roth, paying the applicable taxes at this year's lower rates and thereby securing tax-free withdrawals in future years.

    Incidentally, selling a home for a large capital gain after this year could be costly, since the gain could increase net investment income and boost adjusted gross income above the $200,000/$250,000 threshold amounts. However, most people won't face the tax on a home sale, as individuals still will be able to shelter up to $250,000 and couples $500,000 in gains on the sale of a primary residence, said Luscombe.

    In other words, the new 3.8 percent tax applies to housing capital gains above the $250,000/$500,000 limits only if your income exceeds the thresholds.

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    Health-care act to have tax impact

    Making sense of health care reform

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    With the looming implementation of health care reform, many Napa County residents have begun to wonder how the new federal law will impact their lives and businesses.

    The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Obama administrations Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare, in June on a 5-4 vote. The law will require almost every American to have health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty.

    While most Napa County residents agree that its good for everyone to have health coverage, many are divided on the law itself. Some say its too weak and they would prefer a single-payer health care system or Medicare for all. Others say the law goes too far and that the governments involvement in health care will do more harm than good.

    Seven Napa County residents recently shared their opinions on health care reform and how they will be personally affected by the Affordable Care Act.

    Ken Allen, 56

    Napa resident and volunteer for the Napa Valley Museum

    Ken Allen said health care is a human right and its an abomination that so many people are unable to afford care.

    Allen has received health coverage through Kaiser Permanente for about 12 years.

    He first became covered through his employer. After losing his job through company-wide layoffs, Allen continued with Kaiser through COBRA and Cal-COBRA, which extends an employers health insurance for 36 months after someone becomes unemployed. Once his Cal-COBRA coverage ran out, Allen said he chose to stick with Kaiser even though purchasing a policy as an individual more than doubled his monthly premium.

    I think Kaiser is revolutionary in how they do things, Allen said, describing the health care provider as a one-stop shop.

    More here:

    Making sense of health care reform

    Palliative care: A softer touch eases last years of life

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    1:00 AM The approach wins praise and makes sense, but the U.S. health care system seems to work against it.

    By LISA M. KRIEGER San Jose Mercury News

    click image to enlarge

    Karen Gossage, a palliative care nurse, listens to the lungs of Marilyn Cronin, 58, of Soquel, Californa, who suffers from emphysema and liver failure, at her home this month.

    Dai Sugano/San Jose Mercury News/MCT

    WHAT IS PALLIATIVE CARE?

    Palliative care -- from the Latin "palliare," which means "to cloak" -- grew out of the hospice movement of the 1970s.

    It is care that helps patients with life-limiting illness in their final years. Its managers guide patients through difficult choices in planning for care and treatment and managing symptoms and spiritual, social and psychological issues.

    Palliative care sharply contrasts in cost and patient experience with the prevalent end-of-life care in hospitals. Many studies confirm the high costs of physically and emotionally draining treatment for failing elderly people.

    A study of the deaths of 5,158 elderly by UC San Francisco's Dr. Alexander Smith found that more than half had gone to the ER in the last month of their lives. Two-thirds went in their final six months. (Health Affairs, June 2012)

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    Palliative care: A softer touch eases last years of life

    Doctor shortage to strain system after health-care law hikes demand

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    RIVERSIDE, calif.In the Inland Empire, an economically depressed region in Southern California, President Barack Obama's health care law is expected to extend insurance coverage to more than 300,000 people by 2014. But coverage will not necessarily translate into care: Local health experts doubt there will be enough doctors to meet the area's needs.

    Other places across the country, including the Mississippi Delta, Detroit and suburban Phoenix, face similar problems. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that in 2015, the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed. That number will more than double by 2025, as the expansion of insurance coverage and the aging of baby boomers drive up demand

    The Daily Dose prescribes an enriched mix of news, features, consumer issues and in-depth followups to The Denver Post's coverage of medicine and health care.

    Health experts say there is little that the government or the medical profession will be able to do to close the gap by 2014, when the law begins extending coverage to about 30 million Americans. It typically takes a decade to train a doctor.

    "We have a shortage of every kind of doctor, except for plastic surgeons and dermatologists," said Dr. G. Richard Olds, dean of the new medical school at the University of California, Riverside, founded in part to address the region's doctor shortage. "We'll have a 5,000-physician shortage in 10 years, no matter what anybody does."

    Experts describe a doctor shortage as an "invisible problem." Patients still get care, but the process is often slow and difficult. In Riverside, it has left residents driving long distances to doctors, languishing on waiting lists, overusing emergency rooms and forgoing care.

    "It results in delayed care and higher levels of acuity," said Dustin Corcoran, the chief executive of the California Medical Association, which represents 35,000 physicians.

    People "access the health care system through the emergency department, rather than establishing a relationship with a primary care physician who might keep them from getting sicker," Corcoran said.

    In the Inland Empire, encompassing the counties of Riverside and San Bernardino, the shortage of doctors is already severe. The population of Riverside County swelled 42 percent in the 2000s, gaining more than 644,000 people. But the growth in the number of physicians has lagged, in no small part because the area has trouble attracting doctors, who might make more money and prefer living in nearby Orange County or Los Angeles.

    Moreover, across the country, fewer than half of primary care clinicians were accepting new Medicaid patients as of 2008, making it hard for the poor to find care even when they are eligible for Medicaid. The expansion of Medicaid accounts for more than one-third of the overall growth in coverage in Obama's health care law.

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    Doctor shortage to strain system after health-care law hikes demand