December 29th, 2011 by BarbaraFederOstrov in Health Policy, News
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ER Waits: Hospitals’ marketing claims of short waits for emergency room care aren’t backed up by any evidence, John Dorschner reports for the Miami Herald.
Chronic Fatigue: The editors of prestigious journal Science have retracted a controversial paper linking chronic fatigue syndrome to the XMRV virus; critics of the study believe contamination of samples was to blame for the results, which have not been replicated by other scientists, Ivan Oransky reports for Reuters.
Environmental Health: Tough new EPA rules on mercury emissions from oil- and coal-burning power plants are being Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Reporting on Health - The Reporting on Health Daily Briefing*
December 26th, 2011 by BarbaraFederOstrov in News, Research
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Domestic Violence: 25 percent of women surveyed by the government say they were violently attacked by their husbands or boyfriends in a finding one federal official called “astounding,” the Associated Press reports.
C-Sections: The number of births by Cesarean section in Calif. has risen 50 percent in the past 10 years, new research shows, but it isn’t because of the health benefits over vaginal delivery. Researchers cite financial incentives for doctors and an “awareness gap” of the procedure’s risks among the explanations, Stephanie O’Neill reports for KPCC public radio.
Health Reform: South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley predetermined the findings of a state committee working on health reform even before Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Reporting on Health - The Reporting on Health Daily Briefing*
December 24th, 2011 by BarbaraFederOstrov in Health Policy, News
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Kim Jong Il: Of course we’re going to highlight the lowlights of the North Korean leader’s health: CNN has the scoop on the dictator’s cause of death and previous illnesses. Knight Science Journalism Tracker’s Paul Raeburn rounds up previous analyses of Kim Jong Il’s psychological profile.
Breast Cancer: Companies are trying to build a better mammogram as they compete for a bigger slice of the $6 billion-and-growing medical imaging market, Sierra Jiminez reports for Fortune. Nearly 300,000 American women have been diagnosed with breast cancer this year.
Health Reform: The U.S. Supreme Court will devote an unprecedented week of oral argument over health reform when Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Reporting on Health - The Reporting on Health Daily Briefing*
December 15th, 2011 by Jessie Gruman, Ph.D. in Opinion, True Stories
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That old Tom Petty song, “The Waiting is the Hardest Part,” keeps running through my mind. Four of my friends are waiting to hear the results of medical tests taken last week.
- Lucas has exhausted all of the standard cancer therapies for rectal cancer and is waiting to hear if he is a candidate for any experimental treatments.
- Sam, who has lived through aggressive treatment for multiple cancers, is waiting to hear results from a test that will tell him if the fact that he is so very, very sick is due to one of them recurring.
- Lucy just had major abdominal surgery and is waiting to hear the results of the pathology report that will determine whether or not her cancer can be treated at all.
- Phil, who has been in remission from two different leukemias, had Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
Distracted Driving: Studies of 
