The National Institutes of Health has proposed new guidelines to prevent financial conflicts of interest among thousands of researchers who receive federal funding. The move, which will affect more than 40,000 researchers, comes amid rising concern about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry and other private-sector interests on scientific research. In a series of high-profile cases, federally funded researchers have received upward of millions of dollars from companies with a financial interest in the outcome of their work, the Washington Post reports.
Officials with the Nashville Medical Trade Center have launched a leasing section on their website that provides detailed information on the $250 million project, which could eventually generate $390 million a year for the local economy and employ nearly 2,800 people. A prospectus includes floor plans and specifications for floors five through 11 of the proposed structure, which is where healthcare companies would be able to rent permanent showroom space.
Methodist Healthcare System of San Antonio has formed a business relationship with Averde Health Inc. that will give Averde health plan members access to care at the health system's eight acute-care hospitals. Under the terms of the agreement, Averde plan members will have access to Methodist Hospital, Metropolitan Methodist Hospital, Northeast Methodist Hospital, Methodist Heart Hospital, Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital, Texas Neurosciences Center, and several family health centers.
Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center announced it has negotiated a clinical affiliation with Anna Jaques Hospital of Newburyport, MA, a 123-bed community hospital serving 17 cities and towns. Under the agreement, Beth Israel Deaconess, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, will provide medical services not currently available to Anna Jaques patients, such as specialty cardiovascular and high-risk pregnancy care.
Kaiser Permanente Colorado will open four new medical facilities in the next five years in the Denver area, including a 120,000-square-foot specialty center, the company announced. Those facilities are in addition to a previously announced 5,000-square-foot primary-care center in Evergreen that is expected to open this fall, said Roland Lyon, vice president of regional strategy and performance for the nonprofit health plan. The new facilities are expected to create more than 100 jobs, he added.
Those with health insurance are just as likely to use the emergency room as people without insurance, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The aim of "Emergency Department Visitors and Visits: Who Used the Emergency Room in 2007" was to determine the types of visitors who use hospital ERs. The results may surprise some who believe that ERs mainly serve uninsured people, Amy Bernstein, chief of the Analytic Studies Branch in the Office of Analysis and Epidemiology for the CDC and the National Center for Health Statistics, told USA Today.