"Health industry officials delivered a plan to the White House Monday documenting how they"ll attempt to save $2 trillion over a decade through measures like reducing hospitalizations and cutting down on paperwork," the Associated Press reports. "Health insurers, doctors, hospitals, drug-makers and others were under pressure to make good on a pledge they made last month to curb their own costs to help President Barack Obama achieve his health care overhaul goals." Their three big areas of savings: $150 billion to $180 billion would come from more efficient use of health care services, $350 billion to $850 billion from better management of chronic diseases, and $500 billion to $700 billion through administrative improvements such as standardizing claim forms (Werner, 6/1).
According to new research* carried out by Lloydspharmacy, the UK"s leading community pharmacy chain, around 2.1million British holidaymakers and travellers are ignoring the need to protect themselves against malaria. This may explain the alarming rise in the number of cases found in the UK, with the British Medical Journal reporting a 30% rise in malaria cases in the UK over the last 15 years**. According to the new survey of over 1000 people, 25% had travelled to a
malaria hotspot in the last five years, with the African continent the most popular of these destinations (11%). The research also found that 19% of these intrepid adventurers either ignored the risk of malaria, or abandoned their malaria medication during the danger period. Despite malaria being one of the leading causes of disease and death in the world, with an estimated 300-500 million new cases worldwide every year, resulting in 1.5 to 2.7 million deaths***, Lloydspharmacy found 9% of men and 5% of women
simply relied on less effective measures like mosquito repellent, nets or Vitamin B to protect themselves from the potentially deadly disease. 
Evidence suggests that outcomes in many clinical settings leave a lot to be desired, which means that research into quality improvement (QI) in clinical care has the potential to greatly improve the lot of patients. Now a study in the journal Medical Care Research and Review published by SAGE suggests that both theoretical and practical improvements in QI effectiveness studies could make these into much more powerful tools for positive change. Evidence suggests that one in
four hospital deaths may be preventable, a third of certain clinical procedures expose patients to risk without improving their health, a third of drugs are prescribed erroneously and one third of abnormal laboratory results are not chased up by clinicians in the US. QI focuses on understanding, controlling, and improving work processes, analysing problems" root causes, making work processes predictable, and then continuously improving process performance. 
Bosentan appears to be a more cost-effective initial treatment option for patients with moderate pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), classified as WHO functional class III, than no active intervention. A cost-utility model was constructed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of bosentan compared with no active intervention, both added to palliative care in the UK. In the model, simulated patients remained on their initial intervention until death or until they deteriorated
to functional class IV, which triggered initiation of intravenous epoprostenol treatment. In the base-case analysis, which assumed that first line treatment did not affect survival, bosentan was more effective and less costly than no active intervention. When survival benefits associated with bosentan treatment were taken into consideration, bosentan was found to be a potential cost effective first line treatment. 
Thousands of people in England are unaware that they are at risk of developing heart disease due to an undiagnosed genetic condition, says the Royal College of Physicians. Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is an inherited condition causing high levels of LDL cholesterol, and increased risk of coronary heart disease in men in their 50s and women in their 60s. Early treatment with statins has been shown to reduce risk and improve life expectancy to normal. A pilot audit of
248 cases in 12 hospitals in England and two in Wales, funded by the Department of Health and the Welsh Assembly Government and carried out by the Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit at the Royal College of Physicians, found that while care for identified patients was generally good, very few families were being systematically genetically screened, and there were not enough facilities for diagnosing and treating children with FH in the right care settings.