Hospitals and Health Systems News

While care transformation continues to lead the list of concerns for hospital and health system executives, this year two of the top four topics relate to patients’ non-clinical needs, according to The Advisory Board Company’s Annual Health Care CEO Survey. Specifically, meeting consumer expectations and patient engagement made notable moves up the list. [Read more…]

Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP), with the approval of its Governing Board, added $5 million additional dollars to its Network Enhancement Fund (NEF) to bring new providers to practice in the Inland Empire (IE) to help improve access to care for more than 1.12 million IEHP Members. The program, started in late 2014, continues to add new providers to the Inland Empire. [Read more…]

Capital BlueCross has signed an agreement with The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit organization focused on health care quality and safety, that will establish a regional hospital recognition program to help employers and consumers in central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley make more informed health care decisions. [Read more…]

WellStar Health System is deploying an innovative solution to improve the patient experience while providing better patient care. WellStar’s electronic medical record patient portal, WellStar MyChart, will provide patients with round-the-clock access to their providers’ notes in addition to instructions, next steps, medication lists and test results from outpatient medical visits. WellStar is the first Georgia-based health system to offer this service to its patients. [Read more…]

Hemp Health Inc., maker of cannabidiol (CBD) products, today introduced THC Buzzkill, a patent-pending CBD supplement that counteracts the ‘high’ of marijuana. Sold as an oral spray, THC Buzzkill absorbs into the bloodstream rapidly and lessens the psychoactive effects of THC using all-natural ingredients. THC Buzzkill is the first supplement designed for marijuana users who need to sober up quickly.

THC Buzzkill’s primary ingredients come from high-CBD, low-THC cannabis. Kosher, vegan and non-GMO, the cannabis is sourced from sustainable farms in Germany, Denmark and other European countries. THC Buzzkill is legal all 50 states and 42 countries.

THC Buzzkill pilot users report that the tincture lessens the effects of marijuana within 15 minutes. The supplement does not remove chemical traces of THC from the human body, and it does not make it safe for the marijuana user to drive an automobile or operate machinery. Taking THC Buzzkill prior to consuming marijuana will not block the effects.

THC Buzzkill is sold in a 1 ounce or 2 ounce bottle. Users can expect roughly 40 applications per ounce. The supplement will be sold online at www.hemphealthinc.com and at marijuana dispensaries, smoke shops and health stores nationwide. In states that permit recreational marijuana use, residents can expect to find THC Buzzkill at convenience stores and gas stations.

To learn more about THC Buzzkill, visit https://hemphealthinc.com

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Moleculera Labs today announced the receipt of a two-year, $300,000 matching grant from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST). This grant supports the development and clinical validation of new diagnostic testing panels to identify autoantibodies directed against neuronal antigens in patients experiencing neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Such panels are intended to assist physicians in identifying the subset of patients whose symptoms may actually be caused by underlying treatable infection-triggered autoimmune and inflammatory responses.

Research by Madeleine Cunningham, Ph.D., Moleculera’s co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, and her collaborators has led to development of the Cunningham Panel™, which measures relevant anti-neuronal antibodies and neuronal cell-activating antibodies circulating in the patient’s blood, as well as the activity of a key enzyme in the brain involved in the up-regulation of many neurotransmitters including dopamine. This test panel aids physicians in identifying individuals with PANDAS or PANS, thus enabling those children to receive appropriate anti-infective and/or immunological treatment that often results in a dramatic reduction or resolution of symptoms, without resorting to symptomatic control with neuropsychiatric drugs alone.

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EHE International, the recognized leader in preventive medicine and annual physical exams, today announced that the Prime Healthcare, Avon, CT office has been named an EHE-certified preventive care center. Through Prime Healthcare, Avon, EHE members in the Avon region now have greater access to its preventive care program to help them proactively maintain their health.

“EHE is proud to add Prime Healthcare in Avon to its growing private provider network. Prime Healthcare is eager to contribute to the wellness of its local community,” said Deborah McKeever, president of EHE International. “EHE members will benefit from the expertise and experience of Prime Healthcare’s doctors who have met our high professional and practice standards earning them the ‘EHE Certified’ status.”

“EHE’s continued expansion in the Avon area and across the United States is a sign that more and more employers are realizing the benefits of standardized clinical protocols in preventive health and annual exams,” added McKeever. “It is well-recognized that a focus on prevention helps control future healthcare costs, improves productivity and allows employees to proactively manage their own health. EHE has a century of experience in caring for employers’ greatest asset, its employees.”

If you would like to learn more about EHE International’s physician network, please contact:

Mike Pokrywka
Director, Provider Markets
EHE International
Office: (212) 332-3025
Mobile: (203) 507-5609
Fax: (212) 332-1170
Email: [email protected]

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Thousands of Pennsylvanians receive medical services every day from local health care systems. Each of these facilities has its own physicians and practitioners with their own specialized knowledge gained from their own experience providing care. But what if they came together to compare notes? What if they shared what they know about what works best for patients? What if, cooperatively, they focused on improving specific categories of care?

That is exactly the purpose of a new collaborative brought together by Capital BlueCross and the Health Care Improvement Foundation (HCIF). A first-of-its-kind for the central Pennsylvania and Lehigh Valley regions, the collaborative is focusing on improving health care safety, outcomes, and the overall patient experience by zeroing in on one important health initiative at a time.

The first area of focus that the collaborative’s health care system participants have agreed to work on with Capital BlueCross and HCIF is palliative care.

The aim of the collaborative is to advance the care and support of patients with advanced illness and their families across the region. Over the course of the collaborative, organizations will work together to improve the awareness and use of POLST (Pennsylvania Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment) by promoting advanced care planning conversations between health care providers and patients with advanced illness and their families, fostering shared decision-making about individualized goals of care, and ensuring the implementation of individualized health care goals across care settings.

A Regional Palliative Care Steering Committee is being formed to provide input into collaborative goals, metrics, and the curriculum for an in-person conference this fall. The committee will continue to work together to ensure that program activities best support participating organizations and that patient outcomes are met and sustained.

Success of the initiative will be monitored and measured by the Pennsylvania Health Care Quality Alliance. The Pennsylvania Health Care Quality Alliance is a non-profit that seeks to improve the quality of patient health through alliances between hospitals, physicians, health plans and other stakeholders who are dedicated to promoting responsible public reporting of health care information. More information can be found at www.pahealthcarequality.org.

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Edison Nation Medical, the premier healthcare innovation marketplace, today announced a partnership with the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC), the leading professional association of respiratory care specialists. Edison Nation Medical, which brings 12+ years experience working with individuals and small business to commercialize their innovation ideas, will work with AARC to assist the professional association’s community of more than 50,000 respiratory therapists in bringing their product innovation ideas to life.

AARC’s mission is to provide training, encouragement and support to respiratory care professionals. The organization has played a key role in advancing the science of respiratory care and serves as a tireless advocate for respiratory therapists as well as patients, their families and the public.

Edison Nation Medical works directly with people who have ideas or inventions — big or small — for new medical products that can improve the standard of care. The company provides a clear and easy pathway through which anyone — physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, entrepreneurs, even patients and caregivers — can submit a medical invention or idea for full evaluation and potential commercialization.

Joining Edison Nation Medical is free and inventions submitted through their confidential and secure online portal are reviewed in detail by medical, product development and legal experts. Following the in depth evaluations, these inventions are further invested in and improved upon by Edison Nation Medical’s expert design and engineering teams, as appropriate. The end goal is to commercialize each qualified product idea either by licensing the idea to a medical device manufacturer or by starting a company around the idea and, when successful, Edison Nation Medical shares licensing royalties or revenues with the inventor.

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• Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Case Confirmed in Orlando Florida
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EndoChoice® today announced David Gill has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer. The company also announced it has been recognized for the fifth consecutive year as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine.

The continued rapid growth at EndoChoice has been fueled by the success of the company’s wide range of products and services purposefully designed and built for gastroenterologists. “We are in business to serve the gastroenterology caregiver and this unprecedented growth is recognition that our efforts are appreciated,” said Mark Gilreath, Founder and CEO of EndoChoice. “As a result of our expansion and plans for the future, it became important to have a CFO of David’s tenure and experience to guide us through our next growth opportunities,” Gilreath added.

David Gill has been the CFO of four public companies and led the IPO’s of Interland, CTI and NxStage. He joins the company as sales of the new Fuse® Full Spectrum Endoscopy® system have accelerated. “Although colonoscopy is considered the best tool to fight colon cancer, numerous clinical studies have shown this disease continues to plague populations around the world because not everyone is routinely screened and traditional endoscopes miss up to 40% of pre-cancerous polyps. I am excited to join the EndoChoice team and be part of the revolution Fuse is bringing to gastroenterology care,” said Gill.

Endoscopes are thin flexible tubes with imaging capabilities that doctors use to view the upper and lower GI tracts of their patients. The Fuse system uses three small cameras at the tip of a flexible GI endoscope, as compared with one at the tip of a standard, forward-viewing endoscope. With a wider 330 degree view, physicians using Fuse see nearly twice the surface area and anatomy, including behind and into folds where colon cancer causing polyps often hide. A recent clinical study found that Fuse detected 69% more pre-cancerous polyps versus the standard colonoscope. As a result, informed patients are beginning to ‘insist on Fuse’ for their next colonoscopy.

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BloodCenter of Wisconsin’s Diagnostic Laboratories today announced the availability of an innovative Erythroid Chimerism test to monitor erythroid lineage chimerism in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. This allows the physician to directly gauge the success of the transplant in these patients and provides physicians with actionable information to guide patient care.

Sickle cell disease is a common and severe autosomal recessive disorder caused by a mutation in the hemoglobin gene. SCD affects approximately 100,000 people in the United States, one in every 300-500 African Americans. In SCD patients with severe clinical symptoms, allogeneic bone marrow transplantation can be used to replace the blood cell producing capacity, potentially curing them of the disease.1

In patients with SCD, several studies have demonstrated that standard chimerism assays do not always reflect chimerism in the erythroid lineage.2,3 Since red cells do not contain DNA, chimerism of the erythroid compartment can be monitored using HbA and HbS transcripts produced from the hemoglobin gene and expressed in red cell progenitors.

BloodCenter’s Diagnostic Laboratories help physicians provide clinical care to patients worldwide, fostering better understanding and treatment options for patients with difficult-to-diagnose diseases. In addition, the laboratories collaborate with other institutions and industry partners to bring new diagnostic testing and treatment options to patient care.

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US News & World Report is out with their rankings of the best hospitals according to their own survey. For the first time, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, claimed the No. 1 spot, followed by Massachusetts General Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is No. 1 in cancer and the Cleveland Clinic is 1st in cardiology & heart surgery.

The 2014-15 Honor Roll

1. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
2. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
3. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
4. Cleveland Clinic
5. UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
6. New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, New York
7. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia
8. UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
9. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
10. Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
11. University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle
12. (tie) Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
12. (tie) UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
14. Duke University Hospital, Durham, North Carolina ?
15. NYU Langone Medical Center, New York
16. Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
17. Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University, St. Louis [Read more…]

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is confirming that a man is being treated for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome at Dr. P. Phillips Hospital in Orlando, Florida. This is the second case that has been confirmed in the United States, another case has been confirmed in Indiana.

CDC officials told Click Orlando that the patient was working in a facility in Saudi Arabia that was caring for another MERS patient. Apparently he contracted the disease while caring for another Middle East Respiratory Syndrome patient in Saudi Arabia.

In a USA Today article, “CDC officials cautioned that while the patient felt the symptoms of the MERS virus while traveling from Saudi Arabia, it was not known if the patient was infectious at that time.”

There have been 538 lab-confirmed cases of MERS-CoV worldwide, including 145 deaths attributed to it; the majority of those cases occurred in Saudi Arabia according to the CDC.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is viral respiratory illness first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It is caused by a coronavirus called MERS-CoV. Most people who have been confirmed to have MERS-CoV infection developed severe acute respiratory illness. They had fever, cough, and shortness of breath. More than 30% of these people died.

Image of map showing countries in Arabian Penninsula with and without confirmed MERs as detailed on this page.So far, all the cases have been linked to countries in the Arabian Peninsula. This virus has spread from ill people to others through close contact, such as caring for or living with an infected person. However, there is no evidence of sustained spreading in community settings.

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In honor of National Women’s Health Week (May 11-17), Women’s Health Magazine, the fastest-growing international women’s lifestyle and wellness magazine, is teaming up with the Emmy®-winning daytime syndicated series, The Doctors (check local listings), to encourage women across the country to make their health a priority and bring vital information to the masses during this important week.

To promote the week-long initiative, the May issue of Women’s Health, on sale now, features a four-page spread highlighting instant health upgrades with exclusive advice from The Doctors co-hosts Travis Stork, M.D., Rachael Ross, M.D., Ph,D., Jennifer Berman, M.D., Jennifer Ashton, M.D. and Ian Smith, M.D. In the “45 Instant Health Upgrades” article, the experts discuss ways to improve one’s physical and mental health in all aspects of their life, including sexual health, relationships, nutrition, sleep, oral care, stress and fitness.

In conjunction with the May issue feature, The Doctors will include daily segments from May 12-16, during which the show hosts and Women’s Health editors will reveal health and wellness upgrades to showcase more ways to take advantage of National Women’s Health Week.

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CSL Limited (ASX:CSL), parent company of CSL Behring which is based in King of Prussia, PA, recently opened the CSL Behring Biotechnology Manufacturing Facility in Melbourne, Australia. The new facility, located adjacent to the site’s manufacturing plant for plasma products, is the centerpiece of CSL’s $250 million expansion at its Broadmeadows site and will play an increasingly important role in the company’s global operations, particularly in the late-stage development of new types of hemophilia products. It is one of the largest and most advanced facilities of its kind in the world and will produce novel recombinant therapies on a large scale for international clinical trials. [Read more…]

InspireMD, Inc. (“InspireMD” or the “Company”) (NYSE MKT: NSPR), a leader in embolic protection stents, recently announced new 12-month results from the MASTER (MGuard for Acute ST Elevation Reperfusion) trial demonstrating that the MGuard outperformed bare metal and drug eluting stents in all-cause mortality in ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. Results from the trial were presented at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Conference in San Francisco earlier.

Additionally, the Company will be holding an evening symposium tomorrow, October 30 th, starting at 6:30 pm PT. Dr. Gregg Stone, Dr. Ori Ben-Yehuda and Dr. Jose Henriques will lead the symposium and will be joined by a panel of medical experts.

The MGuard utilizes the Company’s proprietary MicroNet™ technology, which is a circular knitted mesh that wraps around the stent to protect patients from plaque debris flowing downstream upon deployment. This advanced technology allows the MGuard to specifically address the unmet need for STEMI patients, and save the life of those who suffer from heart attacks.

“It is very reassuring to see that the 12-month follow up data is consistent with the acute results presented at TCT last year, especially the data that shows the mortality benefit trend of using this unique technology,” stated Prof. Dariusz Dudek, Physician-in-Chief, 2nd Department of Clinical Cardiology and Cardiovascular Interventions at the University Hospital in Krakow. “These positive results should give clinicians the confidence to use MGuard technology as a first line of defense against distal embolization for their STEMI patients.”

The MASTER trial enrolled a total of 433 patients with STEMI presenting within 12 hours of symptom onset undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention were randomized at 50 sites in 9 countries to the MGuard EPS (n = 217) or commercially available bare metal or drug-eluting stents (n = 216).

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ICU Eyewear, a pioneer in sustainable and fashionable eyewear, is now a corporate sponsor of the Seva Foundation in concordance with World Sight Day on Oct. 10 th, 2013. ICU’s support of the Seva Foundation will provide aid to two programs, including the SIPI Program and Seva’s Eye Care Initiative, furthering the Seva Foundation’s mission to eliminate preventable blindness and visual impairment.

As part of the SIPI program domestically, ICU is providing 600 pairs of eyeglasses and sunglasses to impoverished Native American communities in New Mexico. The SIPI, or Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, works with Seva and will train 25 American Indians, most of which are women, to be top tier vision technicians and licensed opticians. This training is at no cost to the participants and benefits the high demand in impoverished American Indian communities in or near the Albuquerque area.

ICU Eyewear, founded by Patricia Kesten in 1997, has become a globally recognized leader in reading eyewear and sunglasses. ICU Eyewear designs have revolutionized the reading glass industry with fun styles, bright colors and unique patterns at affordable prices for the everyday customer.

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Akeso Care Management®, Inc. (ACM®), announced today that it has been awarded Health Utilization Management Accreditation by URAC, a Washington, DC-based health care accrediting organization that establishes quality standards for the health care industry. [Read more…]

America’s changing healthcare industry is beginning to reshape the non-physician healthcare work force, with certain jobs evaporating while others are blooming, according to results of the 2013 Staff Salary Survey by Physicians Practice , America’s Leading Practice Management Magazine. [Read more…]