Studies Highlight Advances In Personalized Cancer Medicine

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New studies highlighting the promise of individualized, precision medicine were released recently at a press briefing at the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

These studies demonstrate that we are solidly in the era of precision medicine, in which patients benefit from a growing understanding of cancers genetic weak spots, said news briefing moderator Sylvia Adams, MD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center. Todays findings promise to expand the range of effective, targeted treatments for people with cancer. They also affirm that patients in all settings, from research hospitals to smaller community institutions, can expect to benefit in the years ahead.

Key study findings include:

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About ASCO The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is the worlds leading professional organization representing physicians who care for people with cancer. With more than 30,000 members, ASCO is committed to improving cancer care through scientific meetings, educational programs and peer-reviewed journals. ASCO is supported by its affiliate organization, the Conquer Cancer Foundation, which funds ground-breaking research and programs that make a tangible difference in the lives of people with cancer. For more information, visit http://www.asco.org/presscenter. Patient-oriented cancer information is available atwww.cancer.net.

SOURCE: The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

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Studies Highlight Advances In Personalized Cancer Medicine

Safed medical school to place students in northern hospitals as doctors' assistants

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Students at the medical school in Safed will work as doctors' assistants and serve patients in northern hospitals as part of a new program launched by the school, Haaretz has learned.

Safed medical school, the country's fifth medical school, which opened in November as a branch of Bar-Ilan University, will place students in hospitals as doctors' assistants beginning next year. Students will work from 4 P.M. to 11 P.M. in Poriya Hospital in Tiberias, Rebecca Sieff Hospital in Safed and Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya. They will admit patients into the wards, but treatment will be administered by doctors.

Health Ministry director general Ronni Gamzu has notified hospital directors in the north that the ministry will support the project with a sum of NIS 1 million, about half the estimated cost. Gamzu wrote that this sum is significantly higher than what has been given to similar programs enabling students to take part in hospital activity in the central region. "There is no such [funding] in Sheba [Medical Center] and Ichilov [Hospital] together," Gamzu wrote.

However, the ministry is still looking for ways to finance the program, and ministry officials said "the issue is still under debate."

According to Ran Tur-Kaspa, dean of faculty in Safed, "The students will be called doctors' assistants, admit the interns to the wards and later present the cases to the doctor on evening duty, who will decide what treatment to give the patients."

Only students who complete their clinical training in internal wards will be employed as doctors' assistants.

The faculty had considered canceling a program intended for Israeli medical students abroad, who are set to begin their clinical training in northern hospitals in about a year, as these hospitals are already training students with bachelor's degrees, Tur-Kaspa said. "But following discussions we decided to continue the program that helps Israeli medical students abroad to return to Israel for their final study years," he said.

Some 50 out of 300 Israeli medical students abroad who have applied to the Safed medical school have been admitted for next year's studies. These students are planning to return to Israel for their last three years of study.

The registration process for the four-year program for students who hold a bachelor's degree is still underway.

Within four years, 200 doctors are expected to graduate from the Safed medical school. By 2015, 150 doctors are expected to graduate each year.

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Safed medical school to place students in northern hospitals as doctors' assistants

Liberty production to end Aug. 16

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Published: 6/7/2012 - Updated: 3 minutes ago

BY TYREL LINKHORN BLADE BUSINESS WRITER

Jeep will stop building the Liberty sport utility vehicle on Aug. 16, a move that will eliminate some jobs at local suppliers that did not get contracts for the incoming model. However, other suppliers stand to add workers when Jeep begins producing the next-generation replacement in 2013.

Dana Holding Corp. and Faurecia Inc. will each cut about 40 jobs that support the Toledo-built Liberty, The Blade has learned.

Chuck Hartlage, a spokesman for Dana, confirmed the Mamuee-based parts supplier will close a small axle assembly plant at 315 Matzinger Rd. Mr. Hartlage said the plant's 37 employees have been notified the plant will be shuttered Aug. 16.

Union officials affirmed that Aug. 16 is Chrysler Group LLC's shut-down date for the Liberty line.

Dana opened the Matzinger Road plant in 2006 specifically to supply the Liberty and the now-defunct Dodge Nitro. But as Chrysler prepares to bring an all-new model to the Toledo Assembly complex, that work no longer will be there.

"Every time a program or a vehicle is updated, you may continue to supply the parts or they may source it elsewhere," Mr. Hartlage said. "We're not going to be supplying the next generation on that specific part. We still have a lot of business on Jeep vehicles."

Bruce Baumhower, president of UAW Local 12, said Chrysler is bringing axle assembly work back in-house.

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Liberty production to end Aug. 16

Liberty Property Trust Prices $400 Million Of 4.125% Senior Notes Due 2022

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MALVERN, Pa., June 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Liberty Property Trust (LRY), announced today that its limited partnership subsidiary, Liberty Property Limited Partnership, has priced $400 million aggregate principal amount of 4.125% senior unsecured notes due June 15, 2022. The 4.125% notes were priced to yield 4.149%. The offering is expected to close on June 11, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions.

The proceeds will be used to repay indebtedness outstanding under the Company's unsecured credit facility and for general corporate purposes.

This offering is being made pursuant to a prospectus supplement to the Company's base prospectus included in an automatic shelf registration statement initially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 5, 2011.

The offering may be made only by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus. A copy of the prospectus supplement and prospectus relating to these securities may be obtained, when available, by contacting Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th Street, 8th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11220, toll free at (800) 831-9146 or at batprospectusdept@citi.com; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, 383 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10179, Attention: High Grade Syndicate Desk, 3rd floor, telephone collect at (212) 834-4533, or UBS Securities LLC, Attn: Prospectus Specialist, 299 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10071 or by telephone at 877-827-6444, ext. 561 3884.

This press release is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities, blue sky or other laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.

Liberty Property Trust (LRY) is a leader in commercial real estate, serving customers in the United States and United Kingdom, through the development, acquisition, ownership and management of superior office and industrial properties. Liberty's 77 million square foot portfolio includes 650 properties providing office, distribution and light manufacturing facilities to 1,700 tenants.

The statements contained in this press release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities law. Although Liberty believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. As forward-looking statements, these statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expected results. These factors include, without limitation, the uncertainties affecting real estate businesses generally (such as entry into new leases, renewals of leases and dependence on tenants' business operations), risks relating to our ability to maintain and increase property occupancy and rental rates, the financial condition of tenants, the uncertainties of real estate development and construction activity, the costs and availability of financing, the effects of local economic and market conditions, regulatory changes, potential liability relative to environmental matters and other risks and uncertainties detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events.

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Liberty Property Trust Prices $400 Million Of 4.125% Senior Notes Due 2022

Californians got taken by no-on Proposition 29 ads

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Re "Altered term limits OK'd" (Page A1, June 6): Count another victory for doublespeak, distortions, and wholesale falsifications of reality. Big Tobacco and its defenders, under the guise of all taxes are evil libertarianism, played to the ignorance and laziness of California voters. Every single argument that their distorted ads presented to the voters could easily be proven false if voters had taken the 15-20 minutes it takes to read the 13 pages of the California Cancer Research Act. Fortunately for Altria, R.J. Reynolds, and other organizations that denounced the CCRA, words like "accountability", "bureaucracy", and "political appointees" create a Pavlovian response among ignoramuses who think 30-second ads on TV tell the whole story. -- Jason Knowles, Rocklin

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Palm Islands Of Dubai Are World’s Largest Artificial Island Trio [PHOTOS]

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Frequently called the eighth wonder of the world, the Palm Islands of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates are the world's largest artificial islands, each manmade into the shape of a palm tree.

In Dubai, where tourism is making it one of the fastest growing cities in the world, the Palm Islands are a popular travel destination. But only one of the three islands - the Palm Jumeirah, the Palm Jebel Ali and the Palm Deira -- that make up the Palms is open to visitors.

Claiming the title of the largest manmade archipelago in the world, the Palm Islands can be seen from space. Each of them is shaped like a palm tree, but there are no actual palm trees there.

According to How Stuff Works, the islands were a brainchild of Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, who decided Dubai needed a new role as its oil supply ran out. Sheik Mohammed teamed up with Dubai-based developer Nakheel Properties to create islands for the emirate, whose desert climate and short coastline limited tourism development. The addition of the Palms in fact the coastline of the small emirate by 166 percent, according to TripGuideDubai. AMEInfo.com reported that state-owned developers Nakheel benefited from the construction, reporting a profit of $98.6 million in April and May despite global economic fragility.

The project took just four years to complete and each island required nearly 12 million pounds of rock and more than 53 million pounds of sand from the ocean floor to construct.

Jumeirah, the only island open to the public, houses the Burj Al-Arab seven-star luxury hotel. The Palm Jumeirah also includes residential property as well as commercial attractions like The Trunk, 16 Fronds and Crescent, according to Just Luxe. The first residents, who include David Beckham, moved onto plots on Jumeirah during the summer of 2007.

In total, the Palm Islands house 60 luxury hotels, 4,000 residential villas, 1,000 water homes, 5,000 shoreline apartments and multiple marinas, restaurants, shopping malls, sports facilities, health spas, cinemas and dive sites, according to All World Best.

View the slideshow to see photos of the three islands - the Palm Jumeirah, the Palm Jebel Ali and the Palm Deira -- that make up the Palms.

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Palm Islands Of Dubai Are World’s Largest Artificial Island Trio [PHOTOS]

Pacific Islands reach expands for Northpower

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Pacific Islands reach expands for Northpower

7 June, 2012

An innovative Kiwi electricity and fibre company has announced it is extending its project work in the Pacific Islands.

Northpower, Northland owned electricity lines distribution company, hopes to expand the impact it is having in the Pacific by securing more project work in the next 12 months.

Speaking at ANZ Pacific Infrastructure Forum in Auckland today, Northpower outlined its growth curve for the Pacific Islands.

Northpower Business Development General Manager Sean Horgan says the company has already assisted with an extensive expansion and upgrade of Samoas electricity network following the completion of one key project.

A further two are underway in partnership with the Electric Power Corporation (EPC) of Samoa and these will be completed ahead of schedule later this year, says Mr Horgan.

For some time now we have been targeting other Pacific Islands projects for further growth most of which are part of an Asian Development Bank or World Bank funded programme.

We are currently assisting Meridian with the transmission circuit from the PV array to Tongas power network and we are also working with the Fiji Electricity Authority on a project.

More are in sight within the Pacific Islands, says Mr Horgan.

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Pacific Islands reach expands for Northpower

Australian Great White Shark Populations Separated By Genetics

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June 5, 2012

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com

Despite inhabiting the same waters, two populations of Great White sharks living in the coastal waters of Australia are genetically distinct, according to a new study published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.

The two groups of Great Whites, or white sharks, are separated by the Bass Strait, a stretch of water between the Australian mainland and Tasmania to the south. The research team, led by Dean Blower from the University of Queensland, used genetic tests from 97 shark tissue samples dating back to 1989 confirmed this geographical divide.

The genetic makeup of white sharks west of Bass Strait was different from those on the eastern seaboard of Australia despite the lack of any physical barrier between these regions, said Professor John Pandolfi, a Chief Investigator at the University of Queensland.

Our tagging and tracking showed that white sharks travel thousands of kilometers, said Barry Bruce, a lead study researcher from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

But sharks tagged and tracked off eastern Australia did not go west of Bass Strait, and sharks tagged off Western and South Australia rarely went east. When they did they often returned, so we started to wonder whether there was more than one breeding population.

Now we know that while white sharks across Australia can mix, the intriguing thing is that they seem to return to either east or western regions to breed, Bruce said.

While previous work by other international research teams have identified separate genetic populations of white sharks across ocean basins, this is the first time such segregation has been found at the regional level.

The Bass Strait, which is named after George Bass who sailed around Tasmania in the late 18th century, measures 240 km across and averages about 50 meters deep. The shallow waters have been known to be notoriously rough and have taken down many sailing vessels. The strait has even been linked to a Bermuda Triangle-type mysticism at times.

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Australian Great White Shark Populations Separated By Genetics

MARC travel award announced for the 2012 GSA Model Organisms to Human Biology-Cancer Genetics Meeting

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Public release date: 6-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Fran Yates fyates@faseb.org 301-634-7109 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

Bethesda, MD FASEB MARC (Maximizing Access to Research Careers) Program has announced the travel award recipient for the 2012 Genetics Society of America (GSA) Model Organisms to Human Biology-Cancer Genetics Meeting in Washington, DC from June 17-20, 2012. These awards are meant to promote the entry of underrepresented minority students, postdoctorates and scientists into the mainstream of the basic science community and to encourage the participation of young scientists at the 2012 GSA Model Organisms to Human Biology-Cancer Genetics Meeting.

Awards are given to poster/platform presenters and faculty mentors paired with the students/trainees they mentor. This year MARC conferred 1 award totaling $1,650.

The FASEB MARC Program is funded by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health. A primary goal of the MARC Program is to increase the number and competitiveness of underrepresented minorities engaged in biomedical and behavioral research.

The following has been selected to receive a FASEB MARC Travel Award for her poster/platform presentation:

Shanelle Joseph, Southern University and A&M College [EMS member]

###

FASEB is composed of 26 societies with more than 100,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. Celebrating 100 Years of Advancing the Life Sciences in 2012, FASEB is rededicating its efforts to advance health and well-being by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.

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MARC travel award announced for the 2012 GSA Model Organisms to Human Biology-Cancer Genetics Meeting

Report shows more patients getting home care

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Talking health. Caroline Brereton, CEO of the Mississauga Halton Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), shared highlights of the organization's annual report tonight at a dinner at BraeBen Golf Course Staff photo by Louie Rosella

Killer off his meds, jury hears

In the months before he clubbed his girlfriend to death with a baseball bat, Timothy Turosky said he stopped taking antidepressants because he was convinced that government agents were monitoring his trips to the doctor.

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Report shows more patients getting home care

Physical inactivity costs health care system billions: study

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Updated: Wed Jun. 06 2012 21:26:40

The Canadian Press

TORONTO The more Canadians settle into a life of physical inactivity, the more they exact a toll on the country's health care system, a new study from Queen's University suggested.

The report, published Wednesday in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, estimated the total cost of a life of lassitude had reached approximately $6.8 billion in 2009, or 3.7 per cent of all health care costs.

Study author Ian Janssen mined a variety of data sources to arrive at the figures, which account for both the direct and indirect cost of physical inactivity.

Janssen said his estimates of physical activity levels throughout the country were based on Statistics Canada's Health Measure Survey, which tracked the movements of some 5,000 participants using an accelerometer.

This data was combined with scientific literature on the risks physically inactive people run of contracting seven common chronic diseases, as well as figures from Health Canada estimating the cost of treating those conditions.

Running those results through a series of mathematical models, Janssen said the direct cost of treating conditions associated with a sedentary lifestyle amounted to more than $2.4 billion. The indirect costs -- which he described as the loss of personal and financial productivity due to poor health -- added up to slightly above $4.3 billion, he said.

"It's important for people to understand that this is a very costly behaviour," Janssen said in a telephone interview from Kingston, Ont.

"We often think of medical care as the diseases themselves. We don't realize that those diseases are caused, in large measure, by our lifestyle behaviours and choices."

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Physical inactivity costs health care system billions: study

House lawmakers pass health care cost bill Lynn's Walsh shepherded through

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BOSTON The state House of Representatives has passed a proposal that aims to reel in the state's spiraling health care costs by $160 billion over the next 15 years. The House and Senate must now resolve their differences over the measure before it can go to Gov. Deval Patrick.

Lawmakers have been working on legislation that tries to lower the costs resulting from the 2006 landmark Massachusetts health care legislation that mandates health insurance for nearly all state residents. The House passed its version of the bill 148-7 late Tuesday night.

This bill aims to contain health care costs by evening out disparities in the prices of health services. It would require hospitals that charge more than 20 percent above the state median price for a service to pay a 10 percent surcharge.

It also focuses on workforce development, overhauls medical malpractice laws and adopts alternative payment methods, such as global and bundled payments for services.

A conference committee will now reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill, which differ on certain provisions like the surcharge on hospitals and other health care providers. The Senate bill does not call for any surcharge.

Patrick, a Democrat, told reporters Wednesday that he is looking forward to the work of the committee.

"I'm confident we are going to get to a great and final bill," he said. "It will be a good bill for patients and for the industry as well."

During debate on the bill, Rep. Steven Walsh, D-Lynn, who spearheaded the effort, said health care costs in Massachusetts have been rising from 6.7 percent to 8 percent annually, with the state spending $66 billion on health care last year

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House lawmakers pass health care cost bill Lynn's Walsh shepherded through

Analysis tracks how health care value has changed over 200 years

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Public release date: 6-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Rick Adams clarence.r.adams@hitchcock.org 603-653-1913 Massachusetts General Hospital

No one questions whether or not health care costs have risen, and risen dramatically, in recent decades. But beyond questions of cost alone is a bigger question: how has the value of health care changed or, in other words, is the health care system getting what it pays for in terms of improved patient health?

Any answer to such a question must be complex, but one group of health care specialists has used a unique historical resource records from the 200-year-old history of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to examine trends in the value of health care since the early 19th century. Their analysis, published in the June 7 New England Journal of Medicine, reveals that increases in health expenditures, slow during the hospital's first hundred years and steadily increasing throughout the 20th century, were accompanied by significant reductions in mortality rates during those years. Since 2001, however, costs have continued to escalate while mortality rates have not changed.

"This review of 200 years is the longest population health run ever looked at," said Gregg Meyer, MD, corresponding author of the study. "The difficult question it raises is: are the modest improvements we're seeing in mortality over the past 10 years worth the current trajectory of costs? We need to focus on a health care system that's sustainable. We don't have that system now, but we need to work toward it urgently." Formerly senior vice president for Quality and Safety at MGH, Meyer is now chief clinical officer and executive vice president for Population Health at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health System.

Drawing on records kept by the MGH of the condition of each patient leaving the hospital classified according to whether they had died or whether or not their condition had improved the paper's authors prepared a chart reflecting inpatient mortality rates for each year since patients were first admitted to the MGH in 1821. The hospital also calculated the annual costs per patient discharged alive, which the authors of the current report adjusted to reflect 2010 dollars. The results reflect what the authors term "four distinct eras" of health care value.

In the first period, from 1821 to 1910, costs stayed fairly level at an average of close to $1,000 per patient discharged alive. Mortality fluctuated greatly often reflecting events such as epidemics and the introduction of advances such as surgical anesthetics around an average of 8.7 percent. In the second period 1911 to 1960 costs began to rise and mortality to drop relatively slowly, with fluctuations representing the 1918 influenza epidemic and the growing numbers of patients who were cared for in hospitals rather than at home during their final days.

The years from 1961 through 2000 were characterized by more rapid rates of change, with both rising costs and declining mortality attributable to factors such as the availability of private health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and the development of new, often costly medical technologies. Throughout the 20th century, increased costs closely tracked reductions in mortality. During the first part of the century, each $1,000 cost increase was associated with a decrease of 2 deaths per 1,000 patients, and after 1960 the same cost increase led to a reduction of 2.4 deaths per 1,000 patients.

Since 2001, however, an even more rapid increase in costs has been accompanied by little change in mortality rates, leading the authors to write that the period "seems to be characterized by diminishing returns, with growth in costs far outpacing reductions in inpatient mortality." They also note that, while the MGH's costs are higher than the average U.S. hospital's because of its medical education and research activities, the trends outlined by their analysis of MGH records parallel those seen at other hospitals.

"We do think it mirrors the results you would find in academic medical centers specifically and really, health care in general, if you looked at that same long time period. The factors that impact mortality and costs such as wars, epidemics, introduction of new drugs and technologies were experienced by the entire health care system." Meyer said.

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Analysis tracks how health care value has changed over 200 years

No gouging! Reform curbs health care hikes

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Why is your health insurance so expensive?

In some cases, it's because your insurer was simply allowed to increase premiums unchecked.

But not anymore. Under health care reform's "rate review" provision, all proposed rate increases of 10 percent or more must be gone over by independent experts. If the planned price hikes don't stand up to scrutiny, states can negotiate them down or, where authorized, deny them outright. The law also makes it easy for you to track how your health insurer's rate proposals have stood up to the test.

Since the crackdown on rising premiums began last September, Connecticut reduced a proposed Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield increase from 12.9 percent to 3.9 percent, New Mexico trimmed a Presbyterian Healthcare rate hike from 9.7 percent to 4.7 percent, and New York held three companies' average proposed increases of 12.7 percent to 8.2 percent.

Cutting down price hikes that are deemed unreasonable is just one facet of the federal rate review initiative. Under the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, health insurance companies in every state now must publicly justify any proposed rate increase at or above the 10 percent threshold, in postings on the federal Healthcare.gov rate review website. Think of it as a report card for your health insurance company.

You can log on to the site and search by state or health insurer to see if and why your premiums may be jumping at least 10 percent, and read the findings by state or federal examiners on whether a requested increase passed muster. To date, more than 185 rate increases affecting 1.3 million policyholders have been posted to the site.

Later this year, the "medical loss ratios" of health insurers also will be posted, giving you a closer look at whether your insurer is meeting the health care law's requirement that at least 80 percent of your premium be spent directly on medical care. If that's not the case, the insurance company will now owe you a rebate for the difference.

"The whole point of the Affordable Care Act is to create this very open, transparent marketplace so that consumer choice can guide toward better outcomes," says Brian Chiglinsky, spokesman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. "We're trying to prompt consumers to say, 'Should I be buying this policy?'"

Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, who chairs the Health Insurance and Managed Care Committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, says health care reform's rate review program will help states stand up to insurance companies.

"Some states have had what's called 'prior approval authority' to review and modify health insurance rate increases for years, some have prior authority over the individual market but not the small group market, and some have no rate review at all," she says.

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No gouging! Reform curbs health care hikes

Briody joins new record exchange

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Lockport Union-Sun & Journal Briody Health Care Facility is the first long-term care facility to join the Western New York HEALTHeLINK electronic clinical information exchange.

The exchange allows health care providers to access consenting patients medical records, to gain important information such as blood type, vaccination history, allergy history and current prescription medical regimens.

The exchange is a way for different specialists primary care doctor, cardiologist, allergist, oncologist to know a patients full medical history in the event the patient is unable to convey or doesnt remember all of the details, according to the HealthELink website. Patients must actively consent to their information being viewed by participating providers.

Briody Health Care Facility has begun submitting residents admission, discharge and transfer notices electronically through HealthELink, a spokesman announced this week.

We are very happy to collaborate with HealthELink to add another aspect of technology at our health facility which will help improve patient outcomes, Briody Administrator Ann Briody Petock said. Our facility initiated the use of an electronic medical record three years ago, and we have seen the benefits that technology can provide to increase communication, quality of care and to prepare us for the digital future of health care.

Throughout the eight-county Western New York region, more than 390,000 residents are signed up to have their health records viewed in HealthELink. Nearly 2,400 individual health-care providers are participating.In addition to Briody, they come fromthree independent laboratory practices, five independent radiology practices, three home care agencies and area hospitals accounting for 90 percent of the beds in the region, according to executive director Daniel Porreca.

Briodys addition is a milestone for the system, he said.

Transition of care, whether from the hospital to a long-term care facility, or from long-term to home care, can be vulnerable times for patients ... as their health information and current medications may be in flux, Porreca said. Having long-term care facilities as data sources for HealthELink will allow for better coordination between treating physicians. Those physicians will also have immediate access to their patients health information to provide better and more efficient care during these transitions.

For more information about the system, visit http://www.wnyhealthelink.com.

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Briody joins new record exchange