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A large nationwide study has found that blacks are substantially less likely than whites to know that they have atrial fibrillation or to use warfarin, the most common treatment for the condition. Atrial fibrillation, an abnormal heart rhythm, significantly increases risk of stroke. Warfarin is known to reduce that risk.

Choking is a leading cause of injury and death among children, especially those younger than 4 years of age. The majority of choking-related incidents among children are associated with food, coins and toys.

A large academic medical center has found that a significant percentage of outpatient referrals they receive from primary care physicians for computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging studies are inappropriate (based upon evidence-based appropriateness criteria developed by a radiology benefits management company), according to a new study.

The personal health and financial information stored in thousands of North American home computers may be vulnerable to theft through file-sharing software, according to a new study.

More than 500,000 women die each year worldwide due to complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth. Half of these women live in sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers say these women are not dying as a result of any illness, but rather from a lack of basic healthcare measures.

A voluntary effort by the US food service industry to reduce salt in processed foods could have far-reaching implications for the health of the US population, preventing strokes and heart attacks in nearly a million Americans and saving $32.1 billion in medical costs, according to a new study.

Routine testing of the hearts of young American athletes using electrocardiograms to screen for sudden death is “reasonable in cost and effective at saving lives,” according to a new study by cardiologists.

After remaining stable for 2 decades, the average hours worked per week by physicians decreased by about 7 percent between 1996 and 2008, according to a study in the February 24 issue of JAMA.

A surge in volunteers following a major disaster can overwhelm a response system, and without overall coordination, can actually make a situation worse instead of better. The outpouring of medical volunteers who responded to the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti in January provides a roadmap for health care providers during future disasters, say the authors of a new article.

A new study estimates the total economic impact of foodborne illness across the U.S. to be a combined $152 billion annually.

A recent report confirmed that 3.5 to 5.3 million people (1-2 percent of the US population) have chronic hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus infections. Despite efforts by federal, state and local government agencies to control and prevent these diseases, they remain a serious public health concern.

California’s dirty air caused more than $193 million in hospital-based medical care from 2005 to 2007 as people sought help for problems such as asthma and pneumonia triggered by elevated pollution levels, according to a new study. While much work has been done previously to catalog the economic impact of air pollution across California, the study is the first to quantify the cost of hospital-based medical care caused by the dirty air.

As health departments across the United States seek a better way to determine which children should be tested for lead poisoning, a new method has proven to be more accurate and cost-effective than current strategies.

Women’s community groups have had a dramatic effect on reducing neonatal mortality rates in some of the poorest areas on India, according to a new study. The groups provide a cost-effective intervention with added benefits such as reducing significantly maternal depression and improving decision-making amongst the women.

The use of a physician-pharmacist collaborative care plan to manage lipid control in patients with high cholesterol does not have significant clinical impact, found a new article.

As the immigrant population grows, understanding its disability status and employment characteristics becomes increasingly important. People, both native and foreign-born, with disabilities make important contributions to our society, and many individuals continue to work despite a wide range of impairments. A new study focuses on disability and employment among working-age immigrants in the United States.

An analysis of comparative effectiveness studies finds that few compare medications with nonpharmacologic interventions, and few examine safety or cost-effectiveness, according to a new study.

A full house isn’t always a good thing, according to a new study that links high hospital occupancy to higher death rates for patients. High occupancy periods are a challenging time when more things can go wrong, authors say. Researchers evaluated records at 39 Michigan hospitals to study a set of factors that can affect hospital deaths. The large scale study can provide lessons for hospitals across the country.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) afflicts a large number of younger minority adults receiving medical care in settings that serve the uninsured and under-insured (settings collectively known as the health care safety net). Poor, minority adults with moderate to severe CKD are also two to four times more likely to progress to kidney failure than non-Hispanic whites, according to a new study.

WWF and TRAFFIC welcome a World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies statement urging its members not to use tiger bone or any other parts from endangered wildlife.

Most primary care physicians active in the Medicare program work in practices with too few patients to reliably measure significant differences in common measures of quality and cost performance, according to a new study.

Despite recent state legislation intended to improve price transparency, uninsured patients in California are unable to successfully obtain information about the cost of medical care at hospitals, according to a new study.

Despite improvements in obstetric care services, women from deprived areas are still more likely to give birth to a very preterm baby compared with mothers from more affluent areas, finds a new study.

According to an analysis of statewide data taken from 1998-2001, women in Oregon who made less than $50,000 a year were more than three times likely to report they were discriminated against by health providers because of their insurance status during pregnancy and delivery.

Health care professionals using new time-saving strategies to coordinate care for patients having a heart attack saw dramatic improvement in “door-to-balloon” times — the time from when a patient enters the hospital to the time blood flow is restored to the heart by opening a blockage with angioplasty. The faster patients are treated, the more likely they are to survive.

Experts are concerned that many epilepsy patients do not receive optimal care and continue to experience seizures despite improvements in diagnosis and a plethora of new therapies introduced over the last fifteen years. The consequences are a diminished quality of life, and a greater risk of disability and death.

Caring for a child with special health care needs usually means higher medical expenses for a family, particularly for low-income families, who spend a large share of their income on their child’s care. Yet, for individual families, the impact of out-of-pocket expenses is often a function of their state of residence.

The first ever published study of aviation-related injuries and deaths in the US finds that more than 1,013 patients are admitted to US hospitals with aviation-related injuries annually, and that 753 aviation-deaths occur each year. The study also reports that the largest categories of patients were occupants of civilian, noncommercial powered aircraft (32 percent) and parachutists (29 percent).

Osteoarthritis, a highly prevalent disease, raised aggregate annual medical care expenditures in the US by $185.5 billion according to researchers. Insurers footed $149.4 billion of the total medical spend and out-of-pocket expenditures were $36.1 billion.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that well over one million people in the United States are infected with HIV/AIDS. New research shows that many of those infected are minorities and do not have health insurance, and highlights the need for a national strategy to facilitate education and prevention efforts in minority and low-income populations.

Providing free medications to people after heart attack could add years to patients’ lives at a relatively low cost for provincial governments in Canada, according to a new study.

Low-income women are four times more likely to report fair or poor health, and nearly twice as likely to report a health condition that limits one or more of the basic physical activities, according to a new policy brief. They also experience inadequate access to health insurance and health care to a far greater degree than higher-income women, the study found.

Typically conducted in richer, developed countries but now increasingly done in the developing world, genome wide association studies raise a host of ethical issues that must be addressed, experts argue.

Everybody likes a raise in pay. Even health care professionals, it appears. Now a new study reports that the performance ratings of patient care from 25 medical groups throughout California significantly improved after the start of a statewide pay-for-performance program in 2004. But not if incentives focus on your doctor’s productivity.

The smoking ban in Wales has not displaced secondhand smoke from public places into the home. A study of 3,500 children from 75 primary schools in Wales found that they were exposed to similar amounts of secondhand smoke before and after legislation, which should reassure those worried that exposure to smoking at home could increase following the ban.

Nearly 90 percent of medical journals with relatively high impact factors have policies addressing author conflict of interest available for public review, according to a new study. But many journals do not require authors to sign disclosure statements, and there is variability in how COI is defined.

Patients whose hypertension is managed by a physician-pharmacist team have lower blood pressure levels and are more likely to reach goals for blood pressure control than those treated without this collaborative approach, according to a new report.

Low-income children who don’t access health care from the same place or provider over the long term are significantly more likely to have unmet health care needs compared with those do, according to a new study.

Direct-to-consumer advertising for a commonly prescribed antiplatelet drug does not appear associated with increased use, but may be associated with increased drug costs and Medicaid pharmacy expenditures, according to a new report.

Researchers have determined that only 663,000 of the approximately 3.9 million Americans with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection received antiviral therapy between 2002 and 2007. If this disturbing trend continues, by 2030 less than 15 percent of liver-related deaths from HCV will be prevented by antiviral therapy.

Finding a permanent home for children and youth who are in the care of welfare agencies should be a priority for all Canadians, researchers urge.

Purchasing prescription drugs in a three-month supply rather than a one-month supply has long been regarded as a way to save money. New research quantifies the savings for the first time.

A new Web site allows users to explore differences in the probability of dying across European countries and the US states for men and women of different ages and races.

Adults who use pet therapy while recovering from total joint-replacement surgery require 50 percent less pain medication than those who do not, according to new research.

An analysis of quality of cardiac care following the public release of data on measures of care at hospitals in Ontario, Canada, did not result in significant system-wide improvement in hospitals’ performance on most quality of care indicators, according to a new study.

Americans without health insurance appear more likely to die following admission to the hospital for trauma than those with health care coverage, according to a report.

As media researchers search for better methods to reach audiences, a new study has found that highlighting racial disparities in news releases increases coverage of health stories in black newspapers, which can improve health outcomes in populations at-risk for disparities.

Public health officials walking a tightrope between massive demand for vaccines and intense public scrutiny of side effects now have a new standard for evaluating the safety of their vaccination programs.

The US Senate currently has an historic opportunity to take a major step toward improving food safety for all Americans. That is why a coalition of public health professionals, consumer organizations and groups representing victims of food-borne illness is sending the message that it is time to “make our food safe for the holidays.”

Experts on both sides of the Atlantic applaud President Barack Obama and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, representing the European Union (EU) Presidency, for establishing a transatlantic task force to address antibiotic resistance, an urgent and growing problem that threatens patient safety and public health worldwide. During a summit held this week in Washington, D.C., President Obama and Prime Minister Reinfeldt joined forces to address the urgency of the problem and the need for solutions by signing an international agreement that seeks cooperative ways in which the United States and EU countries can help combat the global health crisis.