Digital games are one of the latest tools being used to improve health outcomes, according to Carleen Hawn, co-founder and editor of Healthspottr.com. Virtual realities, computer simulations, and online play are among the games gaining traction, Hawn says, adding that health-related digital games have an "immense" potential for growth in the digital game market. According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the worldwide market for game hardware and software generated $42 billion in revenues in 2007 and will grow to an estimated $68 billion by 2012. Currently, digital health games generate an estimated $6.6 billion.
During a webcast on health reform, David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health IT, said that health information technology can improve healthcare quality and lower costs by preventing adverse drug interactions and eliminating duplicative tests. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius added that telemedicine services provide people in rural areas with remote access to physicians and medical experts.
The White House has started a new Web site to fight charges that President Obama's proposed overhaul of the nation's healthcare system would inevitably lead to socialized medicine, rationed care and even forced euthanasia for the elderly. Speaking at a summit of North American leaders in Mexico, Obama predicted that "the American people are going to be glad that we acted to change an unsustainable system so that more people have coverage."
President Barack Obama is trying to convince Americans with health insurance that legislation in Congress would benefit them by holding three town-hall meetings. Obama will emphasize how the legislation would fix three specific problems, according to a White House official. The Democratic National Committee said it is mobilizing supporters to attend local meetings that have been dominated by health-overhaul opponents.
Arlington-based Texas Health Resources, North Texas' largest hospital system, has laid off 33 workers to gear up for cutbacks in response to a decline in patients who pay their bills. Although it is just a fraction of its 19,000 workforce, the move could be the beginning of widespread cost-cutting. The layoffs were spread across the company, from administration to clinical staff, according to a spokesman.
To cover the needs of an estimated 6.8 million uninsured illegal immigrants, some advocates have proposed broadening the healthcare overhaul legislation now before Congress. It is immoral, immigration activists say, for hospitals and doctors to deny healthcare to the seriously ill, no matter their legal status. But proponents of tougher immigration enforcement and others fighting to contain runaway costs fear that providing such services would encourage more illegal border crossings.