Tag: Health Care Policy
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Nation & World
Study: Doctor burnout costs health care system $4.6 billion a year
Physician burnout is costing the U.S. health care system an estimated $4.6 billion annually, according to new research from an international team led by a Harvard Business School researcher.
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Nation & World
Health reform alone may not increase access to physicians or reduce healthcare inequality gaps
In a new study, Harvard researchers looked at the effects of the 2006 Massachusetts Health Reform and found that the legislation has led to improvements in insurance coverage as well…
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Nation & World
Medical School revises conflict of interest policy
Harvard Medical School (HMS) released a series of revisions to its conflict of interest (COI) policy today that strengthens its commitment to transparency and financial disclosure while recognizing the School’s commitment…
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Nation & World
Warning: Your reality is out of date
When people think of knowledge, they generally think of two sorts of facts: facts that don’t change, like the height of Mount Everest or the capital of the United States, and facts that fluctuate constantly, like the temperature or the stock market close.
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Nation & World
New study finds 45,000 deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage
Nearly 45,000 annual deaths are associated with lack of health insurance, according to a new study published online today by the American Journal of Public Health. That figure is about…
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Nation & World
Economy shaping health care reform effort
Political and philosophical differences aside, it’s the economic crisis that’s driving the current national health care reform debate. “Every day the president gets an envelope [that] says, ‘Whoa! Bigger [deficit]…
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Nation & World
Health, life insurers hold billions in tobacco stocks
More than a decade after Harvard Medical School researchers first revealed that life and health insurance companies were major investors in tobacco stocks – prompting calls upon them to divest…
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Nation & World
Video can help patients make end-of-life decisions
Viewing a video showing a patient with advanced dementia interacting with family and caregivers may help elderly patients plan for end-of-life care, according to a study led by Massachusetts General…
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Nation & World
Hospice care under-used by many terminally ill patients, study finds
A new study led by researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMS) found that only about half the patients diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer discuss hospice care with their physician within…
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Nation & World
New study assesses quality and cost of care at nation’s hospitals
Costly care isn’t necessarily better care at the nation’s hospitals. New research conducted by a team including Harvard Kennedy School Professor Amitabh Chandra represents one of the first nationwide analyses…
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Nation & World
Universal coverage may narrow gaps in health outcomes
Health care disparities in the United States have long been noted, with particular attention paid to the gaps separating racial and economic groups. And while some research has looked at…
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Nation & World
U.S. hospitals slow to adopt electronic health records, citing cost
There is broad consensus that electronic health records (EHR) have the potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health care providers. Yet, to date, there has been no reliable…
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Nation & World
Policies regarding IRB members’ industry contacts often lacking
At a time of heightened concern about conflicts of interest posed by relationships between academic medical researchers and commercial firms, a new study finds that a significant number of academic…
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Nation & World
Blumenthal named national coordinator for health information technology
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today (March 20) the selection of David Blumenthal as the Obama administration’s choice for national coordinator for health information technology. …
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Nation & World
Supply of board-certified emergency physicians unlikely to meet projected needs
The number of physicians with board certification in emergency medicine is unlikely to meet the staffing needs of U.S. emergency departments in the foreseeable future, if ever. In the December…
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Nation & World
South African AIDS policy tied to 330,000 lives lost
More than 330,000 lives were lost to HIV/AIDS in South Africa from 2000 and 2005 because a feasible and timely antiretroviral (ARV) treatment program was not implemented, assert researchers from…
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Nation & World
Decline in cigarette smoking in U.S. significantly offset by increase in other tobacco products
While trends in cigarette smoking and sales have declined in the U.S. for the past decade, sales of non-cigarette tobacco products have been on the rise. Researchers from the Harvard…
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Nation & World
NIH awards Harvard Medical School $117.5 million, five-year grant for patient-centered research
The National Institutes of Health today announced that Harvard Medical School (HMS) will receive $117.5 million over the next five years for the establishment of a Clinical and Translational Science…
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Nation & World
Life expectancy stagnating, worsening, for large segment of U.S. population
A new, long-term study of mortality trends in U.S. counties from 1960 to 2000 finds that an overall average life expectancy increase of 6.5 years for men and women is…
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Nation & World
Symposium addresses disparities in Native American health care
Sunshine Dwojak, a fourth-year Harvard Medical School student, was 26 when her mother died of heart disease, leaving behind three children. Dwojak’s mother was 48. “My grandmother said our family…
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Nation & World
Almost two million veterans lack health coverage
One in every eight (12.2 percent) of the 47 million Americans without health insurance is a veteran or member of a veteran’s household, according to a study by Harvard Medical…
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Nation & World
Economic motivation could underlie some ordering of imaging tests
A new study by researchers at Institute for Technology Assessment in Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Department of Radiology finds that physicians who consistently refer patients to themselves or members of…
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Nation & World
Medical schools’ departments, department heads often have industry relationships
BOSTON – A study led by members of the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Policy (MGH-IHP) has found that institutional academic-industry relationships – financial relationships companies have with medical…
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Nation & World
U.S. lagging in adoption of electronic health records
With fewer than one in 10 doctors making full use of electronic health records and as few as 5 percent of hospitals using one form of them, the U.S. health…
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Nation & World
Less than half of U.S. health care workers get flu shots
Steffie Woolhandler, Harvard Medical School associate professor of medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance, and colleagues at the University of California Los Angeles analyzed data from the 2000 National Health Interview…
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Nation & World
Survey: Many seniors don’t understand Medicare drug benefit
When asked how well they understand the new Medicare drug benefit, more than six in 10 seniors (61 percent) say ‘not too well’ or ‘not at all,’ while more than…
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Nation & World
Health care reform in China discussed
Health care in the People’s Republic of China is unequal and too expensive, and there’s not enough of it, but the Chinese government is aware of the problems and is moving to address them, China’s vice minister of health said Sept. 8 at Harvard Medical School.