Mo. Gets Stroke Care System
The Missouri General Assembly recently passed legislation aimed at strengthening its emergency response to stroke and heart attack. The bill, HB 1790, establishes a “time critical diagnosis system” for stroke and ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and requires the state health department to establish protocols for transporting patients to the nearest designated stroke and STEMI centers. The legislation, which was passed in May, is expected to be signed by the governor. “This lifesaving legislation provides the framework to create a new designation of stroke and heart attack centers in Missouri,” Republican Gov. Matt Blunt said in a statement. “These centers will focus on giving patients the right care in the right place in the right amount of time.” The state health department is already preparing to implement such a system, the governor said.
Grant to Study Parkinson's Tx
Officials at the National Institutes of Health recently awarded a $1.33 million grant to support research into the side effects of Parkinson's treatment. Christopher Bishop, Ph.D., of Binghamton (N.Y.) University, along with colleagues at Wayne State University in Detroit and the Veterans Administration hospital in Chicago, are researching ways to reduce dyskinesia and suppress the involuntary movements associated with prolonged treatment on L-dopa. “We are beginning to believe that dyskinesia is actually the inability to suppress motor memories as a result of the drug's stimulation,” Dr. Bishop said in a statement. One focus of their work is to look at serotonin compounds that reduce glutamate following L-dopa treatment. The research is also being supported by the American Parkinson's Disease Association.
MDs Don't Promote Research
Nearly 95% of Americans in a recent survey said that their physicians have never spoken to them about participating in a medical research study. The survey results, released by the Society for Women's Health Research, also found that less than 10% of respondents had ever participated in such a study. Further, women were less likely than were men to know that research opportunities were available. About 73% of women were aware of research opportunities, compared with 83% of men who were surveyed. Women were also more likely to say that they were too old or too sick to participate in research, according to the study. For example, 7.2% of women said that their age made them hesitant to participate in clinical research, compared with 2.4% of men. “Women 65 and older are among the fastest growing segments of our population, and we have very little health research data on them,” Sherry Marts, Ph.D., vice president of scientific affairs for the Society for Women's Health Research, said in a statement. “This lack of information is an area of great need and growing concern.” The telephone survey included responses from 2,028 U.S. adults.
CBO Casts Doubt on IT Savings
Health information technology, when coupled with other reforms, can help reduce health spending in certain settings, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office. However, the adoption of health IT alone will not produce significant savings, the report concludes. For example, institutions that have successfully used health IT to lower costs are generally integrated health care systems such as Kaiser Permanente. “Office-based physicians in particular may see no benefit if they purchase [an electronic health record]—and may even suffer financial harm,” the CBO report said. Recent studies by the RAND Corporation and the Center for Information Technology Leadership estimate savings from health IT at around $80 billion annually. Those estimates are derived by assuming certain changes to the health care system intended to incentivize physicians. CBO analysts found that a subsidy to providers could increase adoption but would be costly to the government. The full report is available online at