MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Senate strikes down GOP attempt to repeal healthcare reform. The Senate voted down a repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but approved a measure eliminating a tax requirement that frustrated small businesses, reports The Wall Street Street Journal.
From Wednesday’s Senate debate and vote rejecting a repeal of President Obama’s healthcare reform law:
Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat, lambasted Republicans for seeking repeal of the law without proposing an alternative. "If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle said, ‘You know, you’re right. We have to reduce costs. We have a better way,’ and they offered a bill on the floor, well maybe we’d take a look at it," Mr. Schumer said. "But they’re silent."
Meanwhile, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), wants to fast-track healthcare lawsuits over the constitutionality of the healthcare reform laws to the Supreme Court. “The vote to repeal healthcare is largely symbolic because the Supreme Court is going to have to be the one to decide this matter,” Nelson said, reports The Hill.
Researchers find new vascular disease in genomic study. Scientists at the Undiagnosed Diseases Program at the National Institutes of Health discovered a disease caused by a mutation in a gene that prevents calcium from depositing in blood vessels, they report in The New England Journal of Medicine, reports The New York Times.
Scientists grow bio-engineered blood vessels. Scientists at Duke University, East Carolina University and Yale University produce functional blood vessels in a lab, an alternative to harvesting from a patient, according to a study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, reports AFP.
Physician gender gap grows. Female doctors only made $3,600 less than their male counterparts in 1999. I say only because that gap has grown to nearly $17,000 today, according to the latest study. “What is surprising is that even when we account for specialty and hours and other factors, we see this growing unexplained gap in starting salary. The same gap exists for women in primary care as it does in specialty fields,” said one of the study’s authors.
Medical journal bans drug ads. Emergency Medicine Australasia won’t take paid ads from pharmaceutical companies because it could “change the prescribing practices of doctors.” (via PharmaGossip)
Modern hospital design cuts costs. Single patient rooms and new safety measures built into new hospital projects can cut patient stays and save hospitals $10 million annually, according to a new report.
Digital health revenues… reached $1.7 billion in the United States.
Dealflow and more. Vitality, which makes Internet connected pill caps, was acquired by angel investor Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong; Glaukos, which makes eye stents to treat glaucoma, raised $29.5 million; health app maker Massive Health raised $2.25 million; spinal medical device business Spine Wave raised $17.5 million; ophthalmic therapeutics business Ocular Therapeutix has raised $14 million.
Material from MedCity News was used in this report.
