News

Summaries of open source, health care, or health IT news and information from various sources on the web selected by Open Health News (OHNews) staff. Links are provided to the original news or information source, e.g. news article, web site, journal,blog, video, etc.

See the following -

‘Entire Villages Disappeared’: Ebola Deaths In Sierra Leone ‘Underreported’

Staff Writer | RT News | October 1, 2014

Ebola’s toll on Sierra Leone is much greater than previously thought, with entire villages killed off by the virus. This means up to 20,000 people could have succumbed to the disease by now, a senior coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) believes...

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‘Facility Fees’ Add Billions To Medical Bills

Alan Bavley | The Kansas City Star | December 29, 2013

It was a minor skin infection. The visit to the dermatologist’s office at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center took just a few minutes. Before she left, Allison Zaromb paid $40 for her 4-year-old son’s care, the amount listed on her insurance card for an office visit to a physician specialist. Zaromb assumed she had settled the bill, until a shocker arrived in the mail: After paying for the doctor, she still owed about $200 for a “facility fee” [...]. Read More »

‘Field To Market’ Program Is Not Sustainable: It’s Big Ag’s Latest Lie

Jill Ettinger | Organic Authority | January 14, 2014

For those individuals interested in healthy living and a healthier planet, ears perk up at words like “sustainable agriculture.” A program named “Field to Market” conjures visions of a local food economy—small-scale bucolic farming in truly sustainable fashion—not corporations posturing towards global processed food empires. But that’s exactly what the program is. Read More »

‘Game-changing’ new option is Open Access Week highlight for optics and photonics publisher

Press Release | SPIE | October 22, 2012

Journal editors are expressing enthusiastic support for a new open access option announced recently by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. Read More »

‘Health law upheld, but health needs still unmet’: national doctors group

Press Release | Physicians for a National Health Program | June 28, 2012

Although the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the unfortunate reality is that the law, despite its modest benefits, is not a remedy to our health care crisis: (1) it will not achieve universal coverage, as it leaves at least 26 million uninsured, (2) it will not make health care affordable to Americans with insurance, because of high co-pays and gaps in coverage that leave patients vulnerable to financial ruin in the event of serious illness, and (3) it will not control costs.

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‘Misguided’ Nations Lock Up Valuable Geospatial Data

Staff Writer | Directions Magazine | February 19, 2014

Many governments, particularly those in low-income countries, are “shooting themselves in the foot” by failing to give research and development communities open access to their caches of geospatial data, experts have warned. Read More »

‘Mobile Midwife’ Taps Technology To Improve Health Care

Matikas Santos | Inquirer.net | April 19, 2013

Fermina Flores, 60, has been working as a midwife in the municipality of Gerona, Tarlac for the past 34 years, covering four barangays (villages) with a combined population of around 8,000. [...] And she does it all with the help of her high-tech 3G wireless data network-capable tablet computer that can record patients’ health information... Read More »

‘Subsidies Upheld, But Health Needs Still Unmet’: Doctors Group

Press Release | PNHP | June 25, 2015

Although the Supreme Court has upheld the premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, the law remains incapable of remedying the U.S. health crisis, physician group says

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‘Superbug’ Scourge Spreads as U.S. Fails to Track Rising Human Toll

Ryan McNeill, Deborah J. Nelson and Yasmeen Abutaleb | Reuters | September 7, 2016

Fifteen years after the U.S. declared drug-resistant infections to be a grave threat, the crisis is only worsening, a Reuters investigation finds, as government agencies remain unwilling or unable to impose reporting requirements on a healthcare industry that often hides the problem...

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“Download Two And Call Me In The Morning”: Doctors Review And Recommend The Best Health Apps With HealthTap’s All New AppRx

Press Release | HealthTap | May 30, 2013

Revolutionizing app discovery in health and wellness, HeatlhTap brings its vibrant network of top doctors to rate and “prescribe” mobile apps. Read More »

“Hard To See Value” In ICD-10 For Physicians, Analytics

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | October 10, 2013

[...] Experts have tried to clean up [the image of ICD-10] by praising the added specificity and granularity of the data that will result from the more than 140,000 codes, but it’s a hard sell to providers already drowning in EHR adoption, meaningful use, the ACA, and quality improvement reforms.  Is ICD-10 worth it? Read More »

“Health Care Productivity” Is An Oxymoron

Kim Bellard | Mcol Blog | September 26, 2013

It has long baffled me when politicians and others trumpet job growth in the health care sector, while at the same time bemoaning rising health costs, as if there was no connection. Some [cities] have bet a large portion of their economic future on their growing health care industries, and some economists attribute much of the nation’s recent economic revival on the growth in the health care sector. But job growth in itself is not always a good sign... Read More »

“I Want to Know What Code Is Running Inside My Body”

K McGowan | Backchannel | February 11, 2016

At age 33, Marie Moe learned that her heart might fail her at any moment. A computer security expert in Norway, she found out she has a fairly common heart condition that disrupts her normal pulse, so she had to get a pacemaker. The surgery was quick and uncomplicated. Just a few weeks later she was able to travel to London for a course on ethical hacking...

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“Indian superbug” NDM: "A Great Challenge For The Future Of Healthcare"

Maryn McKenna | Wired | April 29, 2014

A paper published this week reminded me to take a fresh look at NDM, the “Indian superbug” — actually a gene and enzyme — that got so much attention, including from me, in 2011. (Most of the posts are here.) Read More »

“ITdotHealth II” 2012 Materials Now Posted

Staff Writer | SMART Platforms | October 31, 2012

A section of our site is now devoted to coverage of the meeting held on September 10-11, including video and slides from keynotes, talks and panels, and a summary report from the meeting. Read More »