UPI Health Business articles from July 2005

UPI Health Business archives from July 2005

Piot: Asia AIDS at crossroads.
July 1, 2005... Byline: ED SUSMAN The 7th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific opened Friday in Japan in the wake of a prediction by Dr. Peter Piot, of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, that unless there is a vigorous...

Study: FSAs are 'welfare neutral'.
July 1, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN Flexible spending accounts, known as FSAs, neither improve nor reduce healthcare spending efficiency, but tax revenue suffers slightly, according to a working paper by Georgetown University Professor William Jack. ...

Health Wrap: Of 8s and Africa.
July 1, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, July 1 (UPI) -- Africa is suddenly receiving a degree of attention it seldom has enjoyed, with the health of its people the subject of both entertainment and politics. Saturday will bring Live 8, a...

Caregiving: A kinder, gentler pediatric ER.
July 1, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., July 1 (UPI) -- An emergency room in a big-city hospital can display as much blood and gore as an R-rated movie, and as disturbing as such a scene can be to adults, it can positively traumatize children....

Frist calls for DTC ban.
July 1, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, July 1 (UPI) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., called on U.S. pharmaceutical firms Friday to ban voluntarily direct-to-consumer advertisements of new prescription medications, saying a "blitz"...

U.S. Embassy removes mad cow notice.
July 1, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 1 (UPI) -- Three days after United Press International reported its existence, the U.S. Embassy in Japan has removed a notice from its Web site stating Department of Agriculture officials requested a...

Analysis: Put health IT money where needed.
July 1, 2005... Byline: ELLEN BECK WASHINGTON, July 1 (UPI) -- Healthcare is local, it is said within the industry time and time again. For the past year, though, the healthcare industry, which generates $1.7 trillion in U.S. spending each year, has...

Ped Med: Tallying up chronic-illness tab.
July 5, 2005... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ The costs of chronic childhood disease cut deep, slicing into the nation's budget, slashing years off young lives and shredding health and wellbeing even decades after the first strike. More youngsters than ever...

Bills in Congress would limit doctor hours.
July 5, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- A bill pending in both chambers of Congress would establish a federal limit on the number of hours physician residents can work in hospitals each week to help reduce medical errors and...

The Age of Autism: Homeschooler APB.
July 5, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Lawyers, it is said, never ask a question to which they do not already know the answer. This column has adopted the opposite tack, asking questions to which nobody knows the answer. Where are the autistic Amish?...

Video games boost student performance.
July 5, 2005... Byline: CATHERINE SHAROKY WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- Teachers in a Redmond, Ore., school have found by using video games in their classrooms, not only do students enjoy exercise more, they also produce better schoolwork and developed...

Fewer resources, fewer nursing students.
July 5, 2005... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- The nursing shortage is likely to escalate as baby boomers age and healthcare needs multiply, but nursing advocates say the problem is not lack of interest in pursuing nursing careers -- it...

Women's heart disease still an issue.
July 5, 2005... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for women, but among hospitals there remains a significant inadequate response to women's cardiovascular disease symptoms. A study by...

The Driving Doctor: Keep aggressors ahead.
July 5, 2005... Byline: PHIL BERARDELLI There are many unpleasant interactions that make up routine behavior on the highways these days, but nothing seems to rile aggressive drivers more than when others get in their way. This perceived insult is...

Walgreens pharmacists to strike in Chicago.
July 6, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- A union representing pharmacists at 400 Chicago-area Walgreens stores called on its members to go on strike beginning Wednesday night because the company has refused to address what the...

The Age of Autism: Dismaying 'Times'.
July 6, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Who knew the longest word in the English language would be the best one to explain what is wrong with a newspaper article? The word is related to establishment bias, and the newspaper in question is none other than...

Eat to Live: Scrumptious summer soup.
July 6, 2005... Byline: JULIA WATSON If any item in the produce department of the local grocery should cause a shoppers' revolt, it is the tomato. Hard, tasteless and expensive, it can be a waste of money any time of the year. Along with the...

Bedroom TVs bring down test scores.
July 6, 2005... Byline: EVA A. SYLWESTER WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- Children with television sets in their bedrooms perform significantly more poorly on standardized tests, a study by The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Stanford...

New breast-cancer drugs spur weak market.
July 6, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- The market for anti-hormonal cancer treatments will grow only slightly in the next decade, but a subgroup of those drugs could nearly double in revenue, a market analysis firm said Wednesday....

Web program curbs malpractice suits.
July 6, 2005... Byline: ANDREW DAMSTEDT WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) -- A New Jersey medical-liability insurer has employed a new Web-based technology in an attempt to reduce the number of malpractice lawsuits against its physicians. Conventus...

More ER visits can result in better care.
July 7, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., July 7 (UPI) -- The increase in U.S. hospital ER patient loads can mean longer waits and more crowded conditions for some hospitals, but for other ERs the increase can mean more efficient and more...

Rx drug abuse soars to 'epidemic' level.
July 7, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- More than 15 million Americans abuse controlled prescription drugs and the number of teens who do so has tripled in the past 10 years, a new study has concluded. "Today more people are...

Caregiving: A kinder, gentler ER.
July 7, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN Bringing someone with a medical problem to an emergency-care facility can be unnerving for a caregiver because of the time it takes before the paperwork is processed and someone on staff begins to check the patient. ...

Survey: Majority back stem-cell research.
July 7, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- The majority of U.S. adults support embryonic-stem-cell research and favor using federal funds to advance the science, according to results of a survey conducted by a non-profit...

The pill may increase heart-attack risk.
July 7, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- Women using oral contraceptives may be increasing their risk for heart attack or stroke, a new study suggests. "While women are taking the pill, there is basically a doubling of heart...

The Driving Doctor: Diminishing returns.
July 7, 2005... Byline: PHIL BERARDELLI Sometime, when you are out on the road and looking for something to occupy you, try this little experiment: If traffic is heavy, pick out another vehicle. It can be anything, from a cute little Mini Cooper to a...

Early PSA testing cuts death risk.
July 8, 2005... Byline: BRUCE SYLVESTER TORONTO, July 8 (UPI) -- Screening men for prostate cancer using the standard PSA test, even before they show symptoms, reduces the risk of developing the fatal form of the disease by 35 percent, Canadian...

Study finds infrequent IT use by doctors.
July 8, 2005... Byline: ANDREW DAMSTEDT WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- Clinical information technology has the ability to improve quality and reduce costs for patients with complex health problems, but a majority of Medicare outpatient visits in 2001...

Walgreens pharmacists continue strike.
July 8, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- A union representing pharmacists for Chicago-area Walgreens' stores that went on strike Wednesday said no progress has been made in mediator-led discussions and so the union plans to...

Health Wrap: What do women fear?
July 8, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Past a certain age, the idea of just plain dropping dead becomes more than a theoretical concern. Perhaps that is why women's fear of heart disease has almost doubled since 2002, according to a survey by the Society...

Johns Hopkins tops 'best hospitals' list.
July 8, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- The Johns Hopkins Hospital topped this year's list of the nation's best in a survey released Friday by U.S. News & World Report. Rounding out the top five were the Mayo Clinic in...

Food allergies a growing concern.
July 8, 2005... Byline: EVA A. SYLWESTER WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- Biological weapons may be a distant concern for most Americans, but some struggle to avoid them every day -- in the form of canned tuna laced with milk protein, fruit popsicles...

Costs impacting women's healthcare.
July 11, 2005... Byline: RENEE WILLIAMS WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- Rising healthcare costs in the United States are preventing women from receiving adequate and timely care, according to a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The report,...

The Age of Autism: 'The Times' vs. parents.
July 11, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Last week this column critiqued a June 25 article in The New York Times, "On Autism's Cause, It's Parents vs. Research." Subsequently we were forwarded copies of two letters that a parents group sent to the Times'...

Lorenzo's oil may prevent brain disease.
July 11, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- More than a decade after the film "Lorenzo's Oil" depicted the true story of a father who develops a compound to treat his son, who has been afflicted with a devastating mental disorder,...

WellPoint settlement may aid patient care.
July 11, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- Medical associations reached a "landmark" settlement Monday with one of the nation's biggest insurers that they said will make it easier for doctors to base decisions on patients' needs,...

Nursing shortage affects long-term care.
July 11, 2005... Byline: STOKELY BAKSH WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- As the U.S. retirement population grows, increasing demand for workers providing long-term care will become more of a problem because of the overall shortage of nurses, experts told United...

Muslim nations falling behind AIDS crisis.
July 11, 2005... Byline: LYDELL C. BRIDGEFORD WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- As the AIDS pandemic sweeps across Asia and Africa, many Muslim nations on those continents have been slow to set up HIV/AIDS surveillance and outreach programs, U.S. researchers...

Caregiving: Assisted-living quality varies.
July 12, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN The United States has a patchwork of individual state regulations covering assisted-living centers for the elderly, but no federal oversight. There is even difficulty locating all of the facilities within a given...

Dems pan Medicaid commission.
July 12, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- Reaction to the Bush administration's appointing a commission charged with recommending controversial cuts to the Medicaid health program for the poor fell mostly along party lines Monday,...

Scientists find clues to memory health.
July 12, 2005... Byline: K.L. CAPOZZA SAN FRANCISCO, July 12 (UPI) -- Misplaced keys, faltering name recall, incomplete thoughts -- by age 50, many otherwise healthy adults begin to notice these insidious symptoms, all signs of short-term memory loss....

Volunteer slams Peace Corps over drug.
July 12, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- A former Peace Corps volunteer said the controversial anti-malaria drug Lariam triggered such severe mental illness she had to leave her post -- but the agency is ignoring the problem. ...

Senate considers embryo-sparing research.
July 12, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- New embryonic-stem-cell techniques that could spare human embryos from destruction and render moot some of the moral objections to the research were presented Tuesday to senators...

Vaccines drop hepatitis to historic low.
July 12, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- The rate of hepatitis A has dropped to historic lows in the United States since the introduction of a vaccination program for children in 17 high-risk states, federal health officials...

Ped Med: Summer's skin-deep ills.
July 13, 2005... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ Summertime threats to a child's skin come in all forms: animal, vegetable and mineral. Be it the sting of a yellow jacket, the scratch of a poison-ivy leaf or the scrape of a jagged rock, parents can take steps...

Millions risk high Rx Medicare costs.
July 13, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- Six and a half million seniors already incurring high prescription-drug costs could be paying thousands of dollars more for medication expenses, even after Medicare's drug benefit begins...

New devices hunt cancers, heart disease.
July 13, 2005... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, July 13 (UPI) -- New technological advances in healthcare could freeze out cancers, enhance ultrasound with gas-filled microcapsules and find breast tumors with red light, experts told United Press...

Pharmacists accuse Walgreens of harassment.
July 13, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- A union representing pharmacists at nearly 400 Chicago-area Walgreens stores that went on strike last week filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging the company...

The Age of Autism: Both sides now.
July 13, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Part 1 of 2. Regular readers of this column (and we thank you) know that we value a back-and-forth approach. Since beginning this open-ended series six months ago, we have paused several times to let readers speak, and...

Eat to Live: The pleasures of pudding.
July 13, 2005... Byline: JULIA WATSON Sitting high above the salt marshes of England's south coast, the "Ancient Town of Rye," as the escutcheon on its outskirts proclaims it, is supposed by skeptical tourists negotiating its cobbled streets to have been...

Caregiving: A communications plan needed.
July 14, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN The telephone is a lifeline for everyone, but for caregivers it can mean life and death in reaching an ambulance, whether caring for a child, someone disabled or the elderly. Therefore, caregivers need a communications...

FDA backs sales of asthma drugs.
July 14, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has backed continued sales of three popular asthma drugs, despite evidence they contribute to rare but serious side effects and even death in...

U.S. and other nations brace for bird flu.
July 14, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- Three countries are planning simulation exercises to prepare for a global outbreak of a strain of bird flu that has killed 54 people in Asia, but as the world braces for a pandemic of the...

New therapies help heart attack, pain, HIV.
July 14, 2005... Byline: CHARLES Q. CHOI NEW YORK, July 14 (UPI) -- Emerging medical innovations soon could include pain relief that lasts days instead of hours, an oxygen-loaded therapeutic that helps save heart-attack victims' lives on the way to the...

Vioxx maker hit on animal-testing data.
July 14, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- As the first court case against the painkilling drug Vioxx began in Texas, a physicians group Thursday attacked manufacturer Merck on another front, charging it relied on animal tests to...

Forever young: Don't help the Reaper.
July 14, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- Part 1 of 2. As the Rolling Stones testified, "what a drag it is getting old" -- and that was decades before Mick Jagger and Keith Richards actually began looking like aging rock stars, but...

Digital medical records can save big.
July 15, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., July 15 (UPI) -- Part 1 of 2. U.S. healthcare is the most expensive in the world and one reason is most hospitals and physicians are still using paper and files to keep medical records. Although almost...

FDA inspecting Chiron flu vaccine facility.
July 15, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 15 (UPI) -- Chiron Corp. said Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is conducting an inspection of its Liverpool facility, which was closed last year after millions of flu vaccines produced...

More incentives urged for biodefense.
July 15, 2005... Byline: ANDREW DAMSTEDT WASHINGTON, July 15 (UPI) -- Experts this week urged stronger federal-government incentives for pharmaceutical companies to invest in developing medicines to counter potential biological terror attacks. Chuck...

Study: The rich do tend to die happier.
July 15, 2005... Byline: RAY PREGEANT WASHINGTON, July 15 (UPI) -- Researchers have determined something that might also have seemed true intuitively: The wealthy in the United States tend to die in more comfort and less pain than their less fortunate...

Forever Young: The scientific frontier.
July 15, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, July 15 (UPI) -- Part 2 of 2. Dr. Bruce Ames is a leading biochemist who specializes in aging and nutrition. In Part 1 of an interview with United Press International, he discussed the importance of good...

Health Wrap: Take two and roll the dice.
July 15, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Over the years, we all have been warned that doing certain things could produce adverse consequences. Examples: Crossing your eyes could make them permanently crossed. Or, cracking your knuckles causes arthritis....

FDA to rule on Plan B by September.
July 18, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- The Food and Drug Administration will rule by the end of the summer whether to allow the Plan B morning-after pill to be sold over-the-counter in U.S. pharmacies. Health and Human...

Avant, Harvard to develop cholera vaccine.
July 18, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- The National Institutes of Health has awarded nearly $500,000 to Avant Immunotherapeutics and Harvard Medical School to develop a cholera vaccine that could help fight epidemics in...

Experts: Paper records can cost lives.
July 18, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., July 18 (UPI) -- Part 2 of a continuing series. When it comes to medical records -- in the United States, about 85 percent are held in paper files -- and paper can kill, experts warn. "Paper...

The Age of Autism: Isabella's story.
July 18, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED Here, as promised in our last column, is an account by one mother of her child's autism. The mother and daughter, Libby and Isabella Rupp of St. Paul, Minn., were pictured with a front-page article in The New York Times...

Well-rounded care benefits diabetics.
July 18, 2005... Byline: CATHERINE SHAROKY WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- Leading an organized, healthy lifestyle and focusing on nutrition and exercise along with proper medical care can help diabetics keep their blood sugar at a proper level and slow...

Green tea suggests cancer cure.
July 18, 2005... Byline: EVA A. SYLWESTER WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- New research reaffirms the potential value of green tea as a natural substance able to stop cancer before it starts. "What we do in our conference every year is focus on what the...

Senate OKs Crawford to head FDA.
July 19, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) -- The Senate has confirmed Lester Crawford as President George W. Bush's choice to head the Food and Drug Administration, finally filling the post after 16 months of controversial vacancy....

VNS depression device approval criticized.
July 19, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) -- A recently approved electrical-stimulation device for treating severe depression has not been proven to work and should not have been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, a...

Meth, Rx abuse treatments on the rise.
July 19, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) -- U.S. officials have seen an alarming rise in the number of people admitted to hospitals for treatment of methamphetamine and prescription pain-killer addiction, new government statistics...

USDA documents show mad cow violations.
July 19, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture claims it has found no evidence to support allegations by one of its meat inspectors that mad cow disease safeguards are being violated, possibly...

The Age of Autism: Rep. wants Amish study.
July 19, 2005... Byline: DAN OLMSTED A U.S. Congressman who is a medical doctor said Tuesday he will seek funding to study the autism rate among the largely unvaccinated Amish. "I want to get somebody to do a study on that community," Rep. Dave...

The Driving Doctor: Foiling tailgaters.
July 19, 2005... Byline: PHIL BERARDELLI They are the scourge of the modern road, able to shake the confidence of the most seasoned driver, and they often are involved in serious collisions and the most extreme and tragic road-rage incidents. They are...

Ped Med: Child-proofing the outdoors.
July 20, 2005... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ As covers slip off pools and shoes off feet in the summer sunshine, parents should take care not to let down their guard against accidental harm coming to their children. Each year, some 500 tots under age 5 die...

Eat to Live: Celebrating the popsicle.
July 20, 2005... Byline: JULIA WATSON Let's hear it for Frank Epperson. One hundred years ago, in 1905, when he was a mere slip of a boy of 11, he invented the popsicle. As with many famous inventions, Epperson's started with an accidental discovery:...

FDA issues warning on abortion pill deaths.
July 20, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Two new deaths from infection in women taking the abortion pill mifepristone prompted the Food and Drug Administration to issue new warnings on the drug Tuesday night. Officials said...

Groups pushing better Medicare info.
July 20, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH AND RENEE WILLIAMS WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Some of the nation's largest healthcare groups have announced an effort to raise the profile of next year's Medicare prescription drug benefit. Members of the...

Time spent under anesthesia could up risk.
July 20, 2005... Byline: CATHERINE SHAROKY WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- The length of time spent under general anesthesia during surgery determines the risk of postoperative complications and recovery periods for patients of all ages, new research has...

Study: Tailor weight-loss plan to culture.
July 20, 2005... Byline: ANDREW DAMSTEDT WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Researchers need to be culturally sensitive to help communities execute weight-loss programs successfully, new studies have found. The findings were presented this week at an Agency...

Caregiving: Cancer stigma.
July 21, 2005... Byline: ALEX CUKAN Part 1 of 2. The front yard of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was standing room only recently, with reporters and camera crews camped there and waiting for him to announce his retirement. Ever...

Terrorized children need special attention.
July 21, 2005... Byline: KATHERINE TORRES WASHINGTON, July 21 (UPI) -- Part 1 of 2. The recent terror attacks in London -- where a series of bombs killed more than 50 people on three subways trains and a double-decker bus -- have rubbed people's nerves raw...

USDA botched testing of mad cow suspect.
July 21, 2005... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, July 21 (UPI) -- U.S. Department of Agriculture officials tracing cattle that may have been associated with the country's first case of mad cow disease in 2003 botched the testing of a cow considered "at...

Senate backers flex muscle on drug imports.
July 21, 2005... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, July 21 (UPI) -- A bipartisan Senate committee majority voted Thursday to allow the importation of prescription drugs from abroad, a legalization regime that is opposed by congressional Republican leaders...