Health Focus: Software application improves health service delivery – Video


Health Focus: Software application improves health service delivery
If you are a patient, you definitely want to be cared for not only by your family and friends but by your medical professionals. However the relationship with the health care professionals...

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Health Focus: Software application improves health service delivery - Video

Health-care law will cost taxpayers less than expected, CBO says

President Obamas health-care law will cost taxpayers substantially less than previously estimated, congressional budget officials said Monday, in an upbeat note for a program that has faced withering criticism since its passage five years ago.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office attributed the savings to spending on medical care in coming years that will not be as great as previously forecast. As a result, the agency said, insurers are not expected to charge Americans as much for coverage, and the government will save on subsidies for low- and moderate-income people.

Whats more, the CBO has concluded that companies are not canceling health insurance policies as often as had been anticipated earlier this year. Fewer Americans consequently are planning to sign up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, generating more taxpayer savings.

In total, the health-care law will cost taxpayers $142 billion, or 11 percent, less over the next decade than estimated in January. The cost of providing subsidies for people to buy insurance on the state and federal marketplaces the centerpiece of the law will be 20 percent lower than projected.

The savings are a positive development for a program that has been battered by bad news, from the botched rollout of the main enrollment Web site in 2013 to a legal challenge before the Supreme Court last week.

Theres certainly a lot of rhetoric by the laws opponents that costs are going to explode, that costs are out of control, that Obamacare had no cost containment in it, said John Holahan, an economist at the Urban Institute. I cant see how people can continue to say those things.

The report is one of a growing number of assessments of the laws impact on the nations economy, budget outlook and health insurance market long-debated topics since before its passage in March 2010.

On Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced that as of Feb. 22, nearly 11.7million people across the country had signed up for or reenrolled in health insurance through the state and federal marketplaces.

Last week, Gallup reported that the share of Americans without insurance coverage continued the slide that began after the law went into effect, with 12.3percent of the population uninsured at the end of February.

A role in slower spending?

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Health-care law will cost taxpayers less than expected, CBO says

Apple's ResearchKit: Health care's tipping point?

Just as the launch of Apple's iPod and iTunes proved to be the tipping point in digital music, some are speculating that Apple's new platform for medical researchers and its Apple Watch,could do the same for digital, data-driven health care.

"They've got the size, the influence, and they're integrating across consumer digital health to medicine," said Paul Sonnier, a digital health advocate and consultant. "It's all about ecosystem building and bringing in the right partners."

Read MoreHow many 'life-saving' watches will Apple sell?

Apple announced Monday a new open-source platform called ResearchKit to help health researchers enlist and monitor research subjects through Apple devices.

"This is a new era," said Yvonne Chan, director of personalized medicine and digital health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. "This is really, truly revolutionizing the way clinical research could be done in the future."

Mount Sinai Hospital is one of five medical facilities that will conduct clinical trials using ResearchKit.

Read MoreApple must think beyond the watch

Mount Sinai researchers plan to use their Asthma Mobile Health study app to recruit a large number of asthma patients, who will then use the app to track their day-to-day symptoms and habits. The hope is that the real-time tracking will help the researchers and the patients understand what triggers attacks, and document what practices can maintain better health.

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Apple's ResearchKit: Health care's tipping point?

Health care meeting tonight in Souris

Political leaders challenged to attend meeting, provide answers

Guardian photo by Steve Sharratt

Souris Mayor David MacDonald

SOURIS Politicians of almost every stripe have been invited to attend a public meeting in Souris Tuesday night intent on improving health-care services for eastern P.E.I.

You could say our confidence is rather low since our message for better health care here has failed to gain any attention, says Alan MacPhee, eastern chair of Islandwide Hospital Access.

The goal of the group is to inform the public as a means of forming good public policy.

Thats why the group is hosting a public meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at the Souris regional high school and is taking the pre-election opportunity of inviting all the politicians. A distributed flyer says the group has invited all Liberal, PC and NDP leaders and candidates.

We have been poorly treated by Health P.E.I. and we are tired of it, said Souris Mayor David MacDonald. We need solid ambulance service as a start point to give rural communities some equity in the delivery of health services.

Health P.E.I. contends it is managing limited resources, but Islandwide Hospital Access says the problem is in the allocation of those resources. The group says Souris needs four doctors and is expected to be reduced to only two.

Health budgets have more than doubled, yet rural services have been cut, said MacPhee. This is the core of what we are calling rural discrimination. The problem is not the amount of money ... its the mismanagement of money.

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Health care meeting tonight in Souris

Time For Bipartisan Action On Health Care Transparency

This week is Patient Safety Awareness Week, and its time to recognize the secret sauce for any successful effort to improve health care quality: transparency. Thats something both sides of the aisle should be able to get behind.

We have a long way to go. Choosing a doctor or hospital is one of lifes most important decisions, but you will likely find more detail about the quality of, say, toasters on the market than you will about health care providers. That is not an accident. The idea that health care should be transparent is a fledgling movement, with some powerful opponents. Health industry lobbyists are collectively among the most well-funded interest groups in Washington, and they have succeeded in slowing the pace of change.

But they havent stalled it completely, thanks to the determination of coalitions of consumer and business advocates, as well as some enlightened health care providers and policymakers. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in particular has taken unprecedented steps to use its leverage to create a culture of transparent public reporting. Through all its efforts, more and more quality and safety data are reaching the light of day. And thats good news for consumers.

Progress In The Private Sector United in their common goal of driving transparency in the health care sector, a multitude of organizations have already pointed the direction for transparency initiatives. They have assembled data into useful and engaging online tools to help consumers make informed decisions and have pointed out data that is missing but desperately needed by consumers. A new independent study in Health Affairs analyzed the four most prominent and widely-used tools to rate hospitals: the Hospital Safety Score, U.S. News & World Report, Consumer Reports and HealthGrades. The authors found that each of these tools considers different aspects of hospital performance, and each one reaches different conclusions as a result. Some tools look at mortality rate for certain surgical procedures, some consider readmission rates, and some look at a mix of management practices and patient outcomes for particular conditions or procedures. (In full disclosure, one of the tools analyzed, the Hospital Safety Score, is a letter grade issued to hospitals by my nonprofit, The Leapfrog Group, and is focused exclusively on errors, injuries, accidents and infections.)

Based on the findings, one of the studys authors, Dr. Robert Wachter, a prominent patient safety guru (and volunteer expert at my organization) from the University of California, San Francisco, suggests consumers consult more than one rating when making decisions about hospitals. This is sound advice. Hospitals are complex places, and a hospital may have a world-class cardiac unit but a mediocre obstetrics program. Even hospitals with uniformly great surgeons might have a high rate of errors and infections. And just as consumers weigh such factors as airbag placement, console design, and gas mileage when purchasing a car, health care consumers should consider as much information as possible when choosing where to receive care.

Missing and Hidden Data So what information should patients have access to when making these crucial decisions?

Business advocates and consumers have a long wish list of data that is largely hidden from public reporting. In addition to more nuanced and comprehensive data on hospital safety, here are a few items consumers should be able to easily access online but cannot:

Some of this data is shielded from public view by law. Some is shielded by standard practice. And some is not collected because scientists havent put the resources into figuring out how to measure it.

But change isnt just on the horizon anymoreits here. Dr. Wachter is leading the charge for more openness among his colleagues. He recently co-chaired a multi-stakeholder roundtable at the respected Lucian Leape Institute of the National Patient Safety Foundation, which issued an exceptionally bold call to action on transparency last month. The report said health cares culture of secrecy needs to change, and it made a series of recommendations for far greater transparency among doctors and nurses, between health organizations, and with patients and the public. This report should be a playbook for the new Congress; transparency is a cause that cuts across partisan lines.

This Patient Safety Awareness Week, lets be more than aware lets be vocal about the change wed like to see. Consumers entrust their lives to the health care industry. The stakes couldnt be higher for our families, and we are entitled to know how the system really works.

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Time For Bipartisan Action On Health Care Transparency

How We Spend Our Health Care Dollars As We Age

We spend more on our health care as we age. No news there. But you may be surprised to learn that all health spending is not created equal. For most of us, as long as we can stay out of the hospital or a nursing home, our costs are relatively modestand steadyeven as we grow older.

But that can change if we have a severe, acute medical episode that lands us in a hospital bed or a skilled nursing facility, or if our functional or cognitive limitations get so severe that we need home health care or even must move to a nursing home. While we use those services infrequently, we are more likely to do so as we age. Because they are extremely expensive and often not paid for by Medicare, our out-of-pocket costs for those services can go through the roof.

According to a new study by Sudipto Banerjee at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, out-of-pocket spending for routine (he calls it recurring) care changes very little after age 65. Even at age 85 and older,our spending for visits to doctors or the dentistor even for medicationremains pretty constant. In part, that may be because Medicare pays a big chunk of the costs for many of these services, including medications, though the program does require co-pays and deductibles (and, in the case of drugs, has the famous donut hole).

Banerjee did find a big gap between what a typical senior spends on drugs compared toout-of-pocket costs for a handful of the biggest users. For instance, an average spender aged 65-74 can expect to pay about $1,900 for medications over a two-year period (Note the study looks over two years, not annually). But the top ten percent of spenders will pay $4,800 for their meds.

However, even among those high users there is little change in costs as people age. In other words, if you were a big spender at 85, you were probably also a high-cost user at 65.

The story is very different, however, when it comes to less frequent but very expensive medical care or long-term supports and services. Banerjees data comes from the Health and Retirement Study, a comprehensive national survey of people 50 and older.

As we age, we are far more likely to use these costly services. For instance, about 27 percent of those 65-74 had an overnight hospital stay during the period 2010-2012, while more than 42 percent of those 85 and older spent at least one night in a hospital. Similarly, less than 4 percent of younger seniors spent a night in a skilled nursing facility but nearly one-quarter of those 85 or older did so.

Interestingly, a separate study by Tricia Neuman and colleagues at the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that per-person Medicare spending increases with age until people reach very old age, when it begins to steadily decline. This suggests that the very old choose to use fewer in-patient services or other costly forms of treatment.

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How We Spend Our Health Care Dollars As We Age

Researchers from Stanford University and 23andMe discover genetic links to rosacea

First ever genome-wide association study on common, incurable skin condition pinpoints 2 genetic variants associated with rosacea

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 10, 2015 -- Today marked the publication of the first ever genome-wide association study of rosacea, a common and incurable skin disorder. Led by Dr. Anne Lynn S. Chang of Stanford University's School of Medicine, and co-authored by 23andMe, the study is the first to identify genetic factors for this condition.

Rosacea (pronounced roh-ZAY-sha) is estimated to affect more than 16 million people in the United States alone1. Symptoms typically include redness, visible blood vessels, and pimple-like sores on the skin of the central face, and many experience stinging, burning, or increased sensitivity over the affected skin. Because rosacea affects facial appearance, it can also have a psychological impact on those who suffer from it. In surveys by the National Rosacea Society, more than 76 percent of rosacea patients said their condition had lowered their self-confidence and self-esteem.

To help better understand the genetics of rosacea, researchers at Stanford University and 23andMe studied the data of more than 46,000 23andMe customers* consented for research. The study, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, found two genetic variants strongly associated with the disease among people of European ancestry.

Further, the study uncovered that the genetic variants, or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), found to be strongly associated with rosacea are in or near the HLA-DRA and BTNL2 genes, which are associated with other diseases, including diabetes and celiac disease.

The genome-wide association study was broken into two parts: discovery and validation. First, data voluntarily submitted by 22,000 23andMe customers was examined. More than 2,600 customers reported having received a rosacea diagnosis from a physician. The remainder of the study participants did not have the condition and were treated as controls. To validate findings from this initial group, 23andMe researchers then tested the identified SNPs with a separate group of 29,000 consented 23andMe customers (3,000 rosacea patients, 26,000 controls). The researchers were able to confirm the same association with rosacea.

"This is another example of how 23andMe can help in researching common yet poorly understood diseases," said Joyce Tung, Ph.D., 23andMe's director of research and a co-author of the paper. "The study also speaks to the power of large data sets in studying and identifying genetic associations."

In addition to the genome-wide association study, the research included obtaining skin biopsies from six individuals with rosacea and showed that both HLA-DRA and BTNL2 proteins can be found in the skin of people with rosacea. This preliminary work hints toward the biological relevance of HLA-DRA and BTNL2 in rosacea.

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Full paper citation and availability: Assessment of the Genetic Basis of Rosacea by Genome-Wide Association Study

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Researchers from Stanford University and 23andMe discover genetic links to rosacea

Are current water treatment methods sufficient to remove harmful engineered nanoparticle?

IMAGE:Environmental Engineering Science, the official journal of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options. Publishing state-of-the-art... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, March 10, 2015--The increased use of engineered nanoparticles (ENMs) in commercial and industrial applications is raising concern over the environmental and health effects of nanoparticles released into the water supply. A timely study that analyzes the ability of typical water pretreatment methods to remove titanium dioxide, the most commonly used ENM, is published in Environmental Engineering Science, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Environmental Engineering Science website until April 10, 2015.

Nichola Kinsinger, Ryan Honda, Valerie Keene, and Sharon Walker, University of California, Riverside, suggest that current methods of water prefiltration treatment cannot adequately remove titanium dioxide ENMs. They describe the results of scaled-down tests to evaluate the effectiveness of three traditional methods--coagulation, flocculation, and sedimentation--in the article "Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticle Removal in Primary Prefiltration Stages of Water Treatment: Role of Coating, Natural Organic Matter, Source Water, and Solution Chemistry".

"As nanoscience and engineering allow us to develop new exciting products, we must be ever mindful of associated consequences of these advances," says Domenico Grasso, PhD, PE, DEE, Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Engineering Science and Provost, University of Delaware. "Professor Walker and her team have presented an excellent report raising concerns that some engineered nanomaterials may find their ways into our water supplies."

"While further optimization of such treatment processes may allow for improved removal efficiencies, this study illustrates the challenges that we must be prepared to face with the emergence of new engineered nanomaterials," says Sharon Walker, PhD, Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside.

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About the Journal

Environmental Engineering Science, the official journal of theThe Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors (AEESP) , is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options. Publishing state-of-the-art studies of innovative solutions to problems in air, water, and land contamination and waste disposal, the Journal features applications of environmental engineering and scientific discoveries, policy issues, environmental economics, and sustainable development including climate change, complex and adaptive systems, contaminant fate and transport, environmental risk assessment and management, green technologies, industrial ecology, environmental policy, and energy and the environment. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Environmental Engineering Science website.

About the Association

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Are current water treatment methods sufficient to remove harmful engineered nanoparticle?

Jumping, roly-poly, untethered robot described in Soft Robotics journal

IMAGE:Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, combines advances in biomedical engineering, biomechanics, mathematical modeling, biopolymer chemistry, computer science, and tissue engineering... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, March 9, 2015-- A novel, fully untethered soft robot capable of repeated jumping is able to cover half a meter in a single hop-and-roll motion. The innovative design of this combustion-powered robot, based on a roly-poly toy, and how it returns to an upright position after each jump are described in a fascinating study published in Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Soft Robotics website.

In the article "An Untethered, Jumping Roly-Poly Soft Robot Driven by Combustion", Michael Loepfe, Christoph Schumacher, Urs Lustenberger, and Wendelin Stark, Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering (Zurich, Switzerland), describe a soft robot powered by a mixture of nitrous oxide/propane/butane gas that can function even over rough terrain. The authors provide a detailed description of the activity of the robot and suggest future advances that could improve the jumping ability and performance of the robot.

"Although this robot is a hybrid of soft and hard components, I think it demonstrates how incorporating new materials can open up all sorts of robot capabilities," says Editor-in-Chief Barry A. Trimmer, PhD, who directs the Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Laboratory at Tufts University (Medford, MA).

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About the Journal

Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, combines advances in biomedical engineering, biomechanics, mathematical modeling, biopolymer chemistry, computer science, and tissue engineering to present new approaches to the creation of robotic technology and devices that can undergo dramatic changes in shape and size in order to adapt to various environments. Led by Editor-in-Chief Barry A. Trimmer, PhD, and a distinguished team of Associate Editors, the Journal provides the latest research and developments on topics such as soft material creation, characterization, and modeling; flexible and degradable electronics; soft actuators and sensors; control and simulation of highly deformable structures; biomechanics and control of soft animals and tissues; biohybrid devices and living machines; and design and fabrication of conformable machines. Tables of content and a sample issue can be viewed on the Soft Robotics website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science, technology, and biomedical research, including 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing and Tissue Engineering. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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Jumping, roly-poly, untethered robot described in Soft Robotics journal

Gene therapy: Hope for the blind?

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) --

Six-year-old Andy Moorhead is learning how to read. But instead of using his eyes, he's using his fingers. Andy told ABC30, "Well, I read the letters with my fingers."

Andy is blind. Andy's Mother, Heather Ingram-Moorhead explained, "He was around nine months, and we started to notice his eyes were twitching."

Andy has leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA. It's the most common type of childhood blindness and is caused by genetic mutations.

"It is just very hard. It's taken us a while to really understand the condition and do everything to help Andy," Heather told ABC30.

Andy's whole family is hands-on. Even his sister Valerie gives him guidance. But despite their efforts, his mom says gene therapy is their only hope.

University of Florida scientist Shannon E. Boye, PhD, is using a $900,000 grant to perfect a gene therapy that could restore vision.

"It's not an attempt just to slow the progression of the disease. It's actually an attempt to halt the progression and make the patient better by delivering them the gene they don't have," Boye told ABC30.

Boye says the therapy has worked in animals. "We're able to show, via what's called an electra retinal gram, that the retinal function has been restored to the mice," she explained.

Gene therapy is still an investigational treatment with risks and only available for those in a clinical trial. Right now there are hundreds of studies underway to treat conditions like LCA, cancer and HIV. It's hope that one day Andy could put down his cane and see his family for the first time.

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Gene therapy: Hope for the blind?

Lime Street: Campaigners to carry on fighting to save the Futurist's facade

Campaigners fighting to save the historic Futurist cinema say they will not give up after new Lime Street regeneration plans did not include the building.

Save the Futurist say they are aware of commercial interest in the site and hoped at least the facade of the 1912 building would be saved in the 35m plans.

Disappointed only part of the cinemas facade features in the new designs for Lime Street.

The group urged for the proposals to be reconsidered and said they would continue to fight their cause.

Design images for a new look Lime Street, revealed by the ECHO, have been widely criticised with Joe Anderson calling for them to be reviewed.

In pictures: Inside the Futurist

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A spokesman for Save the Futurist said campaigners had been left disappointed to see only part of the facade, which would be used to form a balcony overlooking Lime Street, included in the scheme.

Iain Hoskins said: We would have liked to save the whole building and saying it cant be saved is unfortunate - it can, its just economics.

We are still campaigning to save the facade of the Futurist. Adding a bit of it to the site is not really appropriate and I think, with the groundswell of support we have had over the weekend, it shocked quite a lot of people because its just a crying shame.

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Lime Street: Campaigners to carry on fighting to save the Futurist's facade

Tomorrowland today: watch the trailer for George Clooney's sci-fi blockbuster

Given the seemingly endless influx of sequels, remakes, reboots and reimaginings, the prospect of an original blockbuster is quite thrilling. While recent attempts (Jupiter Ascending, Chappie) have been patchy, Brad Birds latest adventure, Tomorrowland, looks set to buck the trend.

Weve already been treated to a deviously mysterious teaser, which offered a glimpse of the universe that was being created. Now a full-length trailer has supplied us with a deeper look at what to expect.

Related: The 88 movies we're most excited about in 2015

The film follows a wayward teen, played by Britt Robertson, who finds herself in the possession of a magical pin that can transport her to a fantastical other world. Her search for details leads her to George Clooneys boy genius turned resentful older man, and Hugh Laurie, who appears to be evil.

The second trailer offers more snapshots of the futuristic Tomorrowland, which shares the same name as a themed area of Disneyland. It also contain some recognisable rides, including Space Mountain, so we wouldnt put it past Disney to subsequently reveal stronger links between the park and the film.

Interestingly, the title appears to have been tweaked for international audiences. While its being promoted as Tomorrowland in the US, the latest UK trailer has it down as Tomorrowland: A World Beyond. Meanwhile, due to a naming conflict with a music festival, it will be called TomorrowWorld in some European countries.

Tomorrowland: A World Beyond appears in cinemas on 22 May.

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Tomorrowland today: watch the trailer for George Clooney's sci-fi blockbuster