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Upcoming Health IT Decisions Could Spell Success Or Failure
"An unprecedented effort to computerize the nation"s hospitals and physician offices could be the key to reducing crippling health care costs - or a giveaway to technology vendors whose sales will be subsidized by taxpayers," the Dallas Morning News reports. The $45 billion, stimulus-funded effort in question could help reduce costs by cutting into the country"s $37.6 billion in medical errors each year, for instance. But, if requirements for providers seeking stimulus funding are too strict, the program could turn into "a bonanza for software vendors." Don't forget to buy zoloft online no prescription.

HELP Democrats Draft New Bill With Public Plan And Employer Mandate That They Say Is Cheaper
Democrats on a key Senate committee are readying a plan that has a government-run insurance option and a $750-per-worker annual fee on larger companies that do not offer coverage to its employees, The Associated Press reports.

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International Scientists' Network To Map Drug-Resistant Malaria
PTI/Hindu reports on the Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN) - an "international network of malaria scientists," which will be "established to map the emergence of resistance" to malaria drugs and "guide global efforts to control and eradicate the disease." The goal of WWARN, which "will integrate the efforts of researchers, NGOs and public health experts in malaria-endemic areas around the world," is to provide "comprehensive and rigorous evidence" for policy makers, which will help them "select the best anti-malarial treatments and to formulate strategies to control the critical problem of resistance wherever it arises," PTI/Hindu writes.
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Atrial Fibrillation Linked To Increased Hospitalization In Heart Failure Patients

Patients with atrial fibrillation, common in those with advanced chronic heart failure, have an increased risk of hospitalization due to heart failure, according to new research from researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The findings, published in June in the European Heart Journal, also suggest that atrial fibrillation is not associated with an increased risk of death in heart failure patients, contradicting previous assumptions. "Our findings show that the presence of atrial fibrillation in heart failure patients did not increase their risk of death, as has been previously suggested, but did increase the risk of hospitalization due to worsening heart failure," said Mustafa Ahmed, M.D., a physician-scientist at the UAB American Board of Internal Medicine Research Pathway Program and the study"s lead investigator. Atrial fibrillation is a condition with irregular heart rhythm and is often accompanied by increased heart rate. "Importantly, atrial fibrillation significantly increased hospitalization due to heart failure only in patients not receiving a beta-blocker or drugs that block the beta-receptors in the heart but not in those receiving a beta-blocker," said Ali Ahmed, M.D., MPH, associate professor in the division of gerontology, geriatrics and palliative care medicine, director of UAB"s Geriatric Heart Failure Clinic and the study"s senior investigator. "In patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation, beta-blockers, which help reduce heart rate, may be useful in reducing the risk of hospitalization due to worsening heart failure." Ahmed and colleagues matched 487 pairs of heart failure patients with and without atrial fibrillation from the Beta-Blocker Evaluation of Survival Trial. All-cause mortality occurred in 38 percent of the patients with atrial fibrillation against 37 percent of patients without. However, 44 percent patients with atrial fibrillation were hospitalized for worsening heart failure over the course of the trial, against only 38 percent without. The research was supported through a grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health, and a generous gift from Ms. Jean B. Morris of Birmingham, Alabama. Ahmed"s co-researchers were Mustafa Ahmed, M.D., James Ekundayo, M.D., DrPH, Inmaculada Aban, Ph.D., Bo Liu, MB, MPH, all from UAB; Michel White, MD, Montreal Heart Institute; Thomas Love, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University; and Wilbert Aronow, MD, New York Medical College. About UAB Health System The UAB Health System includes all of the University of Alabama at Birmingham"s patient care activities, including UAB Hospital, the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital and The Kirklin Clinic. UAB is the state of Alabama"s largest employer and an internationally renowned research university and academic health center whose professional schools and specialty patient care programs are consistently ranked as among the nation"s top 50. University of Alabama at Birmingham


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