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MEDai Helps Medicare Part D Sponsors Adhere To CMS Medication Therapy Management Initiative
MEDai, Inc., headquartered in Orlando, FL, a leading provider of advanced solutions for healthcare that utilize award-winning predictive analytics, announced that its solutions are actively assisting Medicare Part D benefit sponsors with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services mandate, calling all Medicare Part D to offer members a medication therapy management (MTM) program.
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GPs Deliver Cost Effective Health Care, Australian Medical Association
An OECD report has confirmed that GP-led primary care is a cost effective way to promote good health while sending a warning about the need to better promote general practice as a career. The OECD Health Data 2009 report says despite the growing need for GPs worldwide there is an increasing trend towards specialisation. The number of specialists rose by 60% between 1990 and 2007, compared with only a 23% increase in GPs.
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Prostate Cancer Screening Has Yet To Prove Its Worth
The recent release of two large randomized trials suggests that if there is a benefit of screening, it is, at best, small, says a new report in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Authored by Otis W. Brawley, M.D. of the American Cancer Society and Donna Ankerst, Ph.D. and Ian M. Thompson, M.D. of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the review says because prostate cancer is virtually ubiquitous in men as they age, it is clear that a goal of "finding more cancers" is not acceptable. Instead, public health principles demand that screening must reduce the risk of death from prostate cancer, reduce the suffering from prostate cancer, or reduce health care costs when compared with a non-screening scenario. The authors suggest prostate cancer screening has yet to reach one of these standards to date.
Medical Devices

Vitamin A Supplements Can Reduce Malaria Cases In Children By One-Third, Study Finds

In malaria-endemic areas, vitamin A supplements - which cost about 2 U.S. cents each - can help reduce infections in children by one-third, according to a study published in the Malaria Journal, IRIN reports. The study analyzed results from previous studies conducted in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Papua New Guinea since 1995. It found that vitamin A supplements decreased malaria cases by one-third in Papua New Guinea and Burkina Faso. Peter Olumese of the WHO"s Global Malaria Programme said although the relationship between vitamin A deficiency and malaria requires more research, it is clear that vitamin A supplements help to prevent a range of infectious diseases in children. "We do not need to wait for all the answers," Olumese said. "While waiting on results [of further studies into the link], vitamin A supplements can be used to decrease morbidity and mortality in children, including those at risk of malaria." According to the WHO, children younger than age five in Africa and Southeast Asia had the highest levels of vitamin A deficiency between 1995 and 2005. UNICEF estimates it reaches 70 percent of children worldwide at risk of vitamin A deficiency with supplements twice a year. But that means that one-third of children might not receive the minimum amount, Olumese said. "Vitamin A supplement programming is often run as a donor-funded project and is not tied in with national child health programmes. When donors leave, so do the vitamin A supplements," he said. In addition, government health budgets rarely allocate sufficient funds for nutrients, said Banda Ndiaye of the non-profit Micronutrient Initiative, which helps governments carry out twice-yearly micronutrient campaigns. "Re allocation is very competitive and the basis of allocation may have as much to do with which constituency has more influence [rather] than what is needed most." "At a 2008 malnutrition conference hosted by the Copenhagen Consensus Center, economists calculated that an annual $60-million investment in micronutrients, especially vitamin A and zinc, would yield annual benefits of more than $1 billion, including health care cost savings," IRIN writes (IRIN 6/25). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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