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Regional Center For Biodefense And Emerging Infectious Diseases Research Funded By NIH
A consortium of research centers in the Tri-state Region, including Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, has received a $46 million grant to conduct research on emerging infectious diseases.
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Fasting During Ramadan Is Safe For Stroke Patients
Physiological and biochemical changes that occur during fasting in Ramadan are not a risk factor for stroke and do not affect the short-term survival of patients. This is the result of a study by a team of researchers from the Isfahan University of Medical Sicences (Iran). The data are being presented at the annual meeting of the European Neurological Society in Milan (Italy).
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Insurers Offer Reform Concessions, But Balk At Small Business Demands
"Employer-provided medical insurance remains the bedrock of the nation"s health care system. And yet, while most big employers still provide health benefits, soaring premiums have meant many small businesses can no longer afford to cover their workers," the New York Times reports. Some are concerned that many such businesses, those with fewer than 100 workers and which employ 40 percent of the labor force, will be left out of the health reform plan incubating in Congress. While insurers have offered key concessions to make it easier for individuals to buy insurance, saying they"ll "sell policies even to people with pre-existing medical conditions, and to stop basing prices on how healthy or sick someone is," the companies appear unwilling to give small employers the same break.
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When Managing Low-Risk Patients With Chest Pain In The Emergency Department, Cardiac CT Is More Cost Effective

The use of cardiac CT for low-risk chest pain patients in the emergency department, instead of the traditional standard of care (SOC) workup, may reduce a patient"s length of stay and hospital charges, according to a study performed at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA. The SOC workup, which is timely and expensive, consists of a series of cardiac enzyme tests, ECGs and nuclear stress testing. Fifty patients were included in the study. "We found that cardiac CT based workups in low risk chest pain patients decreased the length of hospital stay up to 20 hours and was significantly cheaper (44% less) than using the standard of care workup," said Janet May, MS, lead author of the study. "The SOC mean length of stay was 25.4 hours and the mean length of stay for cardiac CT with observation was 14.3 hours. The mean charges for SOC were $7,597; the mean charges for cardiac CT with observation were $6,153; and the mean charges for cardiac CT without observation were $4,251," said May. "Delivering care through emergency departments is expensive, so cost containment in that setting is critical. Over six million patients present to US emergency rooms each year with chest pain and up to 79% of those patients fall into the low-risk category," she said. "Our study shows that cardiac CT has the potential to significantly reduce cost and length of stay in the emergency department by rapidly identifying those patients who can safely be discharged quickly," said May. This study appears in the July issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology. Heather Curry American Roentgen Ray Society


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