The 6th Annual World Health Care Congress is scheduled for April 14-16, 2009, in Washington, DC. The Congress will convene over 2,000 CEOs, senior executives and government officials from the nation's largest employers, hospitals, health systems, health plans, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and leading government agencies, according to event organizers.
GE Healthcare has announced the introduction of Discovery PET/CT 600, a positron emission tomography/computed tomography system. Recently cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Discovery PET/CT 600 is part of GE's Discovery family of scanners designed to enable earlier detection and accurate monitoring of disease with molecular imaging technology in both hardware and software, according to a GE release.
Breast MRI is showing double-digit growth in 2008 and is one of the fastest growing procedures in the MR departments, according to a newly released imaging market guide from Arlington Medical Resources. AMR representatives said its market guide is an audit of conventional x-ray, CT scanning, MRI, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, and cardiac cath lab procedure volumes, with iodinated contrast agent and radiopharmaceutical usage information in hospital and non-hospital settings.
The recent economic crisis has many IT leaders tightening their belts and preparing for sparse spending in the coming months. A September survey of some 50 CIOs by an association for IT executives showed that more than half of those polled have put nonessential projects on hold and about one-fourth have decided to freeze IT hiring. And 61% of those surveyed admitted they were reevaluating their 2009 budgets.
Microsoft is co-sponsoring a study to see if people who undergo genetic testing to identify their risk for developing certain diseases actually change their behavior to mitigate that risk.
San Diego-based research lab Scripps Translational Science Institute will offer genetic scans to up to 10,000 employees, family members, and friends of Scripps Health that provide a detailed analysis of their risk for more than 20 health conditions. The conditions are ones that can be changed or prevented by people's lifestyle choices. Scripps will then track changes in the participants' behaviors over 20 years to see if people who learn they are at risk for certain diseases or conditions will actually take preventative measures to avoid them.
Misys Healthcare Systems and Allscripts let go 44 people as the two software companies merged into a single business. Glen Tullman, CEO of the new Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, said the terminated jobs were redundant and that the newly combined company is trying to fill more than 100 vacancies in software sales and product installation. The new company's business plan is to sell Allscripts products to Misys customers. Allscripts supplies electronic health records to about 40,000 physicians.
Pennsylvania is among the leaders in the percentage of employers providing healthcare coverage, but it is losing that advantage. A new report by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, DC, says 70.2% of Pennsylvanians had employer-provided coverage in 2006-07, down 5.7 percentage points from six years ago. That compares with a 4.7 percentage point average decline nationally.
Three former employees of Des Moines, IA-based Broadlawns Medical Center want to try their hand at overseeing the place. The three are among seven candidates vying for two seats on the public hospital's board of trustees. The hospital, which is supported by Polk County (IA) taxpayers, is run by seven elected trustees.
Iowa leaders have delayed action on a proposal endorsed by Gov. Chet Culver that would give state employees fewer health insurance plan choices in 2009. Under the plan, state employees would no longer be able to choose health insurance plans currently offered by United HealthCare. They would instead have to choose among packages offered by Wellmark. Culver's staff argues it would save millions of dollars for taxpayers and state workers. But there are concerns that eliminating United could eliminate competition and eventually drive costs higher.
A new study from the University of Minnesota and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota says a bonus can help entice doctors to make referrals to a hot line. As an experiment, Blue Cross offered to pay medical clinics for referring smokers to a stop-smoking hot line, with clinics receiving up to $100 per referral. In less than a year, those clinics referred nearly three times as many smokers to the hot line as those that didn't get the bonuses (11% vs. 4%), according to the study.
