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With the advent of managed health care came the need for managed care organizations (MCOs) to develop ways to convince physicians of the need to cut unnecessary medical costs. The resulting growth of incentives to physicians both real and perceived brought on debate that has yet to abate among health care professionals, legislators, and the public.
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A U.S. congressman caused a stir in public health and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention circles in December by accusing federal health officials of failing to comply with federal law and asking them to testify at a special hearing.
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With a significant percentage of the U.S. population deemed overweight, surgical treatments for obesity have become much more widespread.
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Stung by criticism that it is not doing enough to enforce its own regulations governing direct-to-consumer advertising by pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the publication of three new guidance documents designed to improve communications the public sees about new drugs and devices.
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A woman seeking help conceiving through assisted reproduction inquires about the possibility of using her sister as an egg donor because previous attempts using her own have failed. Would your program allow it?
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Fertility programs worldwide need to change their methods for calculating successful birth rates to emphasize births of single babies at term as the desired outcome of assisted reproductive technologies, rather than the birth of twins or triplets, an Australian researcher argues.
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An experimental blood oxygenation device has the potential to help thousands of patients with severe emphysema or other lung conditions. The device has been thoroughly tested in laboratory animals, but human trials would involve major invasive procedures for research participants and place them at very high risk of death or serious complications.
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Paramedics in the Denver area will be administering an experimental blood substitute to patients who meet certain criteria under an unusual research protocol that allows patients to be recruited without giving informed consent.
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In recent years, efforts to address substance abuse among pregnant women have moved from being barely visible public health initiatives to controversial political battlegrounds.
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Removing financial incentives to providers and employers that are designed to influence coverage decisions and recruiting patient representatives to participate in designing health care benefit packages are two measures that can help ensure that health care coverage decisions are fair and equitable, says a new report from an independent research arm of the American Medical Association (AMA) in Chicago.
