Report: Upholding healthcare reform cheaper than throwing it out. A Congressional Budget Office report shows that repealing the healthcare reform legislation would add $230 billion to federal budget deficits over the next decade, reports The New York Times.
Healthcare growth slowest in 50 years. The so-called Great Recession caused the slowest growth in the U.S. healthcare industry in five decades, reports Reuters.
Newborns could be a source of organs. There are currently an estimated 200,000 Americans who are awaiting organ transplants, and 100 of them have not yet celebrated a first birthday. Of 192 infants who died over a three-year period in one of three Boston NICUs, 16 or 8 percent, were deemed candidates for organ donation after cardiac death, according to Children’s Hospital Boston’s Dr. Anne Hansen, reports MedPage Today.
Blood test for Alzheimer’s getting closer. Researchers are working towards an anti-body detection test for Alzheimer’s disease. An NIH-funded study publisehd today in Cell indicates that patients may one day be able to submit a blood sample to see if they have the disease, according to HealthDay.
A national doctor’s license? “Since we may have gone to a medical school in any state, or even in other countries, and since the examinations we take to obtain our licenses have become fundamentally national exams, why is there state by state licensing for us?”
Alzheimer’s blood test. Researchers found two antibodies which identified Alzheimer’s sufferers in a small-sample study.
Hospital high rollers. Non-profit hospital executives in the Pacific Northwest are scrutinized for high pay and plush perks, including having their country club dues paid for.
Dealflow and more. Cancer antibody developer Symphogen received $130 million; cancer therapeutics company Pro-Pharmceuticals closed on $2.1 million; Place Capital has purchased National Surgical Hospitals; Echo Therapeutics raised $5.5 million; and Alzheimer’s disease detection company Neuroptix raised $4.6 million.
Material from MedCity News was used in this report.
