Study: Electronic Medical Records Could Spot Abuse
from Reuters
Electronic medical records might help doctors identify men and women most likely to be victims of domestic abuse, and perhaps someday other medical conditions, too, researchers said on Tuesday. More    

Senate Opens Door to Longer Doc Pay Fix
from Modern Healthcare
A key Democrat has left the door open for a longer-term physician pay fix. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), part of a small team of negotiators who helped shape a broad health reform package, said that he is “hopeful” that a two-year fix could be crafted before a final bill is voted on. More    

Doctors vs. Nurses: Blurring the Boundaries
from Nursing Times
With a government review, increased autonomy, advanced roles and working time laws contributing to nurses taking on junior doctors’ tasks, Clare Lomas looks at how the boundaries between the professions have become blurred. More    

Bad Reactions to Medicine Common in Kids
from NPR
If you take your kid to the doctor, there's about a 70 percent chance you'll walk out with the child having got a shot or instructions to take some sort of medicine. Afterward, there's a possibility of a bad reaction. Nearly 600,000 times a year, kids head to the ER, clinic or doctor's office because of problems with medicines they took, say researchers who crunched more than a decade's worth of federal data. The findings were just published online by the journal Pediatrics. More    

Pediatric Adverse Drug Events in the Outpatient Setting: An 11-Year National Analysis
from Pediatrics
Adverse drug events (ADEs) are a common complication of medical care, but few pediatric data are available describing the frequency or epidemiology of these events. We estimated the national incidence of pediatric ADEs requiring medical treatment, described the pediatric population seeking care for ADEs, and characterized the events in terms of patient symptoms and medications implicated. More    

New Findings from Harvard University in the Area of Pharmaceuticals Published
from Pharmacy Choice
"Medication errors represent a major public health concern, and inadequate prescription drug labels have been identified as a root cause of errors. A new prescription medication labeling system was implemented by Target pharmacies in May 2005 and aimed to improve health outcomes," scientists in the United States report (see also Pharmaceuticals). More    

Medicare Advantage Plans Stir Debate
from BND.com
Bonnie Lee Smith, a retired medical imaging technician, should have plenty of health insurance coverage: She qualifies for Medicare because of her age and for Medicaid because of her income. But Smith, 81, says she has had no primary physician since her previous doctor's office said it won't accept her coverage under a privately run Medicare plan. More