One in four people who are chronically infected with hepatitis B will die from its impact if untreated, but a team of researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine has identified the most cost-effective way of fighting this treacherous infection.
A study conducted by Harvard Medical School, Group Health Cooperative’s Center for Health Studies and OptumHealth Behavioral Solutions (formerly United Behavioral Health) found that a systematic approach to identifying and treating depression not only improves clinical outcomes but also results in higher job retention, decreased sickness, lower work-absence and increased work productivity.
Each year more than half a million infants worldwide, primarily in developing countries, die from diarrhea caused by rotavirus. Even in industrialized countries management of the infection costs economies about $1 billion a year. Now a study in the online open access journal, BMC Microbiology demonstrates that with the addition of probiotic bacteria, preventative measures can potentially be made far cheaper but just as effective.
In the second of two essays in this issue to explore innovative staffing models, Zweifler argues for the integration of dedicated chronic disease management workers into the primary care practice.
NHS trusts across England will share £97 million to help tackle violence and abuse against NHS staff, the Department of Health confirmed today.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced today that, after being found compliant with Medicare requirements through a comprehensive marketing review, seven health plan sponsors may resume marketing their Private-Fee-For-Service (PFFS) plans. The approvals allow the sponsors, as well as all other Medicare Advantage organizations, to market to newly eligible Medicare beneficiaries through October 1, 2007. The plans may also market to those beneficiaries with special enrollment periods.
WHO is expanding its programme to train health care staff in low- and middle-income countries in essential emergency, basic surgery and anaesthesia skills. The programme, which already exists in 22 countries, will boost the capacity of first-level health facilities (rural or district hospitals and health centres) to deal with simple but essential surgery in a growing number of developing regions.
Employees seeking treatment for depression who participated in a program that included a telephone outreach intervention had fewer symptoms, worked more hours and had greater job retention than participants receiving usual care, according to a study in the Sept. 26 issue of JAMA.
An under-used colon cancer screening test now available in the U.S. effectively detects colorectal cancer and may help to improve colon cancer screening rates, according to investigators at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. The study appears in the September 25, 2007 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI).
Despite decades of advances in diabetes care, African Americans and Latinos are still far less likely than whites to have their blood sugar under control, even with the help of medications, a new nationally representative study finds. That puts them at a much higher risk of blindness, heart attack, kidney failure, foot amputation and other long-term diabetes complications.