Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Hotze Health & Wellness Center Launches a Wellness Revolution in 2012

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Hotze Health & Wellness Center (HHWC), a world leader in the alternative health care industry, today announced its 2012 plans to get Houstonians on a path of health and wellness naturally without the use of pharmaceutical drugs. In an effort to educate and advocate people to rid themselves of unnecessary medications, HHWC is focusing its efforts on advancing a “Wellness Revolution” in Houston during 2012.

HHWC’s tag line, “Get your life back,” captures the unparalleled benefits HHWC provides through its new model of health care as well as its goal to advance a “Wellness Revolution.” Through the HHWC wellness program, which includes an 8-point treatment regimen and the use of bioidentical hormones, patients, or “guests,” are put in charge of their health and vitality. The goal is to help them get their life back, naturally and effectively.

“By advancing the Wellness Revolution, we put you back in the driver’s seat by helping you get onto a path of health and wellness,” said Dr. Steven Hotze, founder and CEO of HHWC. “We are able to help you regain and prolong your quality of life by utilizing bioidentical hormones, vitamin and minerals, and an optimal eating regimen, all of which restore hormones to optimal levels, strengthen the immune system, and increase energy levels.”

To summarize HHWC efforts to advance a “Wellness Revolution,” and help give people their lives back, the following educational resources are available:

About Hotze Health & Wellness Center:

Hotze Health & Wellness Center is leading the Revolution in Wellness™ care by changing the way women and men are treated in mid-life through the use of biologically identical hormones. Founded in 1989 by Steven F. Hotze, M.D., the Center has successfully treated more than 20,000 patients. In an effort to help patients obtain and maintain life-long health and wellness, physicians and registered nurses on staff address the root cause of symptoms, and correct health ailments naturally rather than merely masking symptoms with drugs. For more information, visit, www.hotzehwc.com, and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HotzeHWC.


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Mental health stigma in Africa?

Top psychiatrist Frank Njenga has changed how many Kenyans think about mental health issuesNjenga helped build the first private in-patient psychiatric hospital in KenyaHe's also created a television talk show in an effort to build better understandingEditor's note: Every week CNN International's African Voices highlights Africa's most engaging personalities, exploring the lives and passions of people who rarely open themselves up to the camera.

(CNN) -- As Kenya's leading psychiatrist, Frank Njenga has been championing the cause of better mental health care on the east African country and the continent for more than three decades.

He's been working tirelessly to bring quality mental health care in a country where mentally disabled people receive little help from the state and face massive stigma from society.

"It's a horrible indictment on what we've done but the truth and reality is that very little has been done systematically and deliberately by government or by ourselves to bring up the level of mental health in this part of the world," says Njenga.

In Kenya, an estimated three million, mostly poor, people live with intellectual and mental disabilities, according to NGO and United Nations figures. At the same time, the ratio of psychiatrists to the population is dismal -- just one psychiatrist to half a million people.

See also: Kenya's mentally ill locked up and forgotten

But Njenga, who is president of the African Association of Psychiatrists, says the problem is even worse in other countries on the continent.

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"It is a major challenge but it is a challenge that is very sadly is spread across the whole of the Africa continent," he says Njenga.

"In fact, Kenya is ironically behind South Africa and perhaps Egypt in the ratios of psychiatrists that are available per population. There are countries in Africa where there is no single psychiatrist to five-six million people."

This has motivated Njenga to dedicate his life helping mental health patients and raising awareness in a continent where mental disorders are often neglected and described as "un-African" and belonging to "people in the West."

Njenga, however, discards such claims as "clear nonsense."

"For as long as you are a self-confessed human being you will continue to suffer human conditions of which mental disorders are an integral part," he says.

Read also: Namibia's 'miracle doctor' brings gift of sight

Njenga describes Africa as "truly the traumatized continent" that's been plagued by wars, human suffering and lethal dictatorships.

"Whether you are looking at Rwanda or southern Sudan or Sierra Leone or DRC, the number of women and children and adults who have suffered severe trauma is greater than any other continent that I can think of."

We are losing far too many men and women to mental illness and therefore to un-productivity by not treating them for mental illness.
Frank Njenga

He underlines the link between good mental health and productivity and calls policy makers to make mental health services a priority in order to help their countries escape poverty.

"There is no health without mental health and there is no economy," says Njenga. "We are losing far too many men and women to mental illness and therefore to un-productivity by not treating them for mental illness."

Born in Kenya, Njenga was inspired as a teenager by the work of psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, writer of "Wretched of the Earth," a seminal book that explores identity and the post-colonial experience.

From then on, Njenga was convinced he wanted to be a psychiatrist. He went on to study psychology throughout medical school in Kenya before moving to the UK for his post-graduate studies at the Maudsley Hospital -- the world's oldest psychiatric hospital.

At the end of this studies, however, Njenga chose not to pursue a career in the UK but to return to his home country, committed to promoting the cause of better mental health in the continent.

"I went to the UK to come back and to come back as a psychiatrist and to make a difference in my homeland and in my continent. That is the reason I left Kenya and that is the reason I came back," he says.

Read also:The Africans giving aid to the world

On his return to Kenya, Njenga embarked on a mission to reduce the social stigma that is attached to going to a psychiatrist or seeing a mental health professional.

In a ground-breaking weekly show called "Frankly Speaking," Njenga spoke with his patients on television, putting the spotlight on tough issues such as schizophrenia and substance abuse -- taboo topics that were usually kept out of public sight.

Today the discussion of mental health issues on this continent is focused and is positive -- about that I feel proud and privileged.
Frank Njenga

"I felt powerful and relaxed I felt at last here I was able to tell it exactly as it was," he says. "Of all the things I have done in this society and community it is the program on television -- Frankly Speaking -- because I spoke frankly as my name is and my patients spoke very frankly indeed."

In his commitment to providing top-notch mental health care, Njenga also helped build a private in-patient psychiatric hospital, the first of its kind in Kenya.

He's also authored several children's books in a bid to build better understanding of mental illness and advocated for an insurance cover for mental health patients as chairman of the largest insurance company in Kenya.

Through awareness and affordable treatment, Njenga has changed how many people in Kenya think about mental health.

"Today the discussion of mental health issues on this continent is focused and is positive -- about that I feel proud and privileged," he says.

CNN's Leposo Lillian, David McKenzie and Jessica Ellis contributed to this report.

ADVERTISEMENTupdated 6:32 AM EST, Fri January 27, 2012 Software pioneer Herman Chinery-Hesse has helped to break down tech barriers between the continent and the rest of the world.updated 8:11 AM EST, Thu January 19, 2012 When techno-whiz Seth Owusu left Ghana for the United States in 1991, he had never used a computer before. updated 9:29 AM EST, Mon January 16, 2012 EVCO founder Seth Owusu provides reconditioned computers to schools in the developing word.updated 10:24 AM EST, Tue January 31, 2012 Tell CNN which African you most admire, and why. Your comments could end up on a future episode of African Voices.updated 6:49 AM EST, Wed January 11, 2012 Khaled Abol Naga might be one of Egypt's most recognizable faces but last January, the actor was proud to be just one of the crowd. updated 5:48 AM EST, Fri January 6, 2012 Whether it's through music, dancing or his art, Nigerian Jimi Solanke is a master of telling local folk stories. updated 6:20 AM EST, Tue December 27, 2011 Kohler and Jones manipulate a rhino for Handspring's With their magnificent puppets, Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler have been pushing theatergoers' experiences to new heights.updated 10:02 AM EST, Mon December 19, 2011 Blind singer/songwriter Cobhams Asuquo is responsible for helping to find and produce Nigeria's new sound.updated 12:58 PM EST, Tue December 13, 2011 At 71 years old, Keino, the Olympic gold medalist now focuses on encouraging Africa's next generation of star athletes. Each week African Voices brings you inspiring and compelling profiles of Africans across the continent and around the world.Most popular stories right nowADVERTISEMENTcareerbuilder.com

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Health Highlights: Jan. 31, 2012

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

New Cystic Fibrosis Drug Approved by FDA

The first drug that treats the root cause of the deadly lung disorder cystic fibrosis was approved Tuesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The twice-a-day pill Kalydeco was approved for patients with a rare form of CF that affects just 1,200 people in the U.S., about 4 percent of the 30,000 Americans with the disease, the Associated Press reported.

Clinical trials showed that the drug improved lung function and reduced other symptoms of CF, which causes sticky mucus to accumulate in the lungs and organs. This leads to infections, digestive problems and death in young adulthood.

"Even though this drug isn't for the majority of people, it proves that you can look at the mistake in the genes and design a drug in a rational way that will fix the problem," Dr. Drucy Borowitz, director of the cystic fibrosis program at the State University of New York, told the AP.

Kalydeco, which is made by Vertex Pharmaceutical Inc., costs almost $300,000 a year.

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Brazilian Blowout Maker Settles California Lawsuit

As part of a lawsuit settlement, the company that makes popular Brazilian Blowout hair straightening products says it will warn consumers that two of its formulations emit formaldehyde gas, a possible carcinogen.

The lawsuit was filed in November by California's attorney general, the Associated Press reported.

North Hollywood GIB LLC also agreed to pay $600,000 in fines and penalties for failing to alert consumers and hair stylists that its products may contain cancer-causing chemicals, and will have all its products tested for toxic substances at a state-approved lab.

The company will also supply salons with a pamphlet outlining recommended safety precautions, the AP reported.

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FDA Sued Over Secret Surveillance of Employees

A lawsuit by a group of scientists and doctors who worked at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the agency secretly monitored their personal e-mails.

Government documents show the surveillance occurred over two years and began after the employees alerted Congress that the FDA was approving medical devices that the scientists and doctors believed posed unacceptable risks to patients, the Washington Post reported.

All six employees worked in an office that reviewed devices for cancer screening and other purposes. The information collected by the FDA surveillance contributed to the harassment or dismissal of all six employees.

FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson said the agency does not comment on litigation, the Post reported.

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Senator's Stroke Shows it Can Happen at Any Age

The stroke suffered by 52-year-old Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois a little over a week ago shows that a stroke can strike people at any age and everyone needs to know the warning signs, experts say.

"Nobody's invincible," Dr. Ralph Sacco, a University of Miami neurologist and past president of the American Heart Association, told the Associated Press.

Most strokes do occur in older adults but up to a quarter of them occur in people younger than 65, Sacco said.

Recent government research found that national hospitalization rates for ischemic strokes (caused by blocked/reduced blood flow to the brain) have risen by about a third among people ages 15 to 44 over the past decade, the AP reported.

Kirk suffered an ischemic stroke caused by a tear in the carotid artery in his neck. Such tears are usually caused by trauma but doctors haven't been able to say what the cause was in this case, the AP reported.

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Faster, Safer Circumcision Methods Being Evaluated For HIV/AIDS Prevention

Research showing that circumcising adult heterosexual men can reduce their risk of HIV infection by 60 percent or more has public health experts looking for ways to provide faster, cheaper and safer circumcision for men in Africa.

Several devices are currently being tested, including one called the PrePex and another called the Shang Ring, The New York Times reported.

The PrePex features a rubber band that compresses the foreskin against a plastic ring slipped inside it. The foreskin is deprived of blood and dies within hours. After a week, it falls off or can be clipped off.

The Shang Ring, a plastic two-ring clamp that's used in China to treat men with foreskins that have become so tight that they cut off urination. This method requires cutting off the excess foreskin beyond the clamp, The Times reported.

Both methods are being evaluated by the World Health Organization.

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Legionnaire's-Causing Bacteria Found in Las Vegas Hotel-Casino

The bacteria that causes Legionnaire's disease was found in water samples from the Luxor hotel-casino in Las Vegas this month after a guest died of the form of pneumonia, health officials said Monday.

Three cases of Luxor guests being diagnosed with Legionnaire's disease have been reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national surveillance program, according to the Southern Nevada Health District, the Associated Press reported.

District officials said water at the Luxor was tested after the first two cases were reported in the spring of 2011, but no Legionella bacteria was detected. Both those patients recovered.

After the bacteria was found in water samples this month, the Luxor immediately took action, including superheating and super-chlorination of its water system, the AP reported.


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Doll Favors US Energy, Health-Care, Technology Stocks

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Doll, chief equity strategist at BlackRock Inc., talks about the outlook for Europe's debt crisis, U.S. stocks and his investment strategy. Doll also discusses China's economic growth and emerging markets. He speaks with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television's "First Up." (Source: Bloomberg)


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No big Fukushima health impact seen: U.N. body chairman

VIENNA (Reuters) - The health impact of last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan appears relatively small thanks partly to prompt evacuations, the chairman of a U.N. scientific body investigating the effects of radiation said on Tuesday.

The fact that some radioactive releases spread over the ocean instead of populated areas also contributed to limiting the consequences, said Wolfgang Weiss of the U.N. Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR).

"As far as the doses we have seen from the screening of the population ... they are very low," Weiss told Reuters. This was partly "due to the rapid evacuation and this worked very well."

Weiss was speaking on the sidelines of a week-long meeting of 60 international experts in Vienna to assess for the United Nations the radiation exposures and health effects of the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years.

The March 11 disaster caused by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima plant on the coast north of Tokyo, triggering a radiation crisis and widespread contamination. About 80,000 residents fled a 20-km (12-mile) exclusion zone.

Weiss said Japanese experts attending the meeting had told him that they were not aware of any acute health effects, in contrast to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.

"What we have seen in Chernobyl - people were dying from huge, high exposures, some of the workers were dying very soon - nothing along these lines has been reported so far (in Japan)," he said. "Up to now there were no acute immediate effects observed."

Several thousand children developed thyroid cancer due to radiation exposure after the Chernobyl disaster in the then Soviet Union, when a reactor exploded and caught fire and radiation was sent billowing across Europe.

Weiss said a few workers at Fukushima had received high radioactive doses, but "so far the initial medical follow-up of these workers who had high doses, as far as the Japanese colleagues told us, was OK."

A preliminary report on the radiation effects of Fukushima will be presented at UNSCEAR's annual meeting in May and a final document will be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly in 2013.

"We are putting together a jigsaw puzzle, evaluating the exposures of the general public, of workers, and radiation effects, and looking for the missing pieces," Weiss said.

The U.N. committee, which has published reports about Chernobyl, groups scientists from 27 countries.

Asked whether he was optimistic that the overall health effects would be quite small, Weiss said: "If we find out that what we know now is representing the situation, then the answer would be yes ... the health impact would be low."

(Reporting by Fredrik Dahl; editing by David Stamp)


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Health Net’s & UCLA’s Health Literacy Social Media Program Opens to All Teens Nationwide

Tue, Jan 31, 2012, 8:46 AM EST - U.S. Markets open in 44 mins.

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Health Dialog Wins AVA Award for HD Care CompassTM Tool

Tue, Jan 31, 2012, 2:10 PM EST - U.S. Markets close in 1 hr 50 mins

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Health Savings Accounts Surpass $12.4 Billion Accounts in 2011

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) surpassed $12.4 billion in assets in almost 6.8 million accounts by year-end 2011 according to a survey and resulting research report conducted by Devenir, an investment firm that specializes in providing investment options for HSAs.

The survey data was collected in January, 2012 and primarily consisted of the top 50 HSA providers in the health savings account market, with all data being collected for the December 31st, 2011 period. “We continue to see strong growth in the HSA marketplace as well as steady increases in average balances,” says Eric Remjeske President and Co-Founder of Devenir.

Key findings from the Devenir December 2011 survey and research report:

Steady growth. HSAs continue to see consistent growth as the total number of HSA accounts rose to almost 6.8 million with assets totaling $12.4 billion, a year over year increase of almost 20% for accounts and a 26% increase in assets for the period from December 31st, 2010 to December 31st, 2011. Average account balance at the end of 2011 grew to $1,841 from $1,751 at the end 2010, a 5.1% increase. When you eliminate identified zero balance accounts that average rises to $2,179. Existing accounts average balances have grown at an average of 31% each year from the year they were opened since 2005. Contributions and Withdrawals industry wide carried forward 24% of their contributions over the past year into 2012. HSA investment dollars continue to grow. HSA investment assets reached an estimated $960 million in December, a 34% year over year increase and are projected to reach $4.7 billion by the end of 2015.

“With the data suggesting that the average HSA balance continues to grow steadily the longer the account has been opened, HSAs are demonstrating that they are serving their purpose and helping consumers save for future healthcare expenses,” according to Jon Robb, Lead Research Associate with Devenir. Devenir projects the HSA market to reach $27.6 billion in assets by the end of 20151. Devenir also projects that HSA investment dollars will continue to grow quickly as health savings account user’s balances become larger, representing 17% of all HSA assets by the end of 2015.

Estimates are derived from the Year-End 2011 Devenir HSA survey, press release and, previous market research.

1 Projections are barring any dramatic regulatory or market environment changes.

Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions based on historical growth, the economy, other future conditions and forecasts of future events, circumstances and results.

About Devenir

Devenir, a full-service broker dealer and registered investment advisor based in Minneapolis, is a national leader in providing customized investment solutions to the HSA Custodian marketplace. As an HSA industry leading investment firm, Devenir offers a host of investment options to suit the unique needs of employers, banks, third party administrators and plan participants. www.devenir.com


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Cardinal Health Introduces Smart-Seal™ Surgical Mask

DUBLIN, Ohio, Jan. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Cardinal Health today announced the availability of its Smart-Seal™ surgical mask, designed to enhance fit and help reduce fog on eyewear. The mask is the company's latest addition to its facial protection portfolio and leverages the key design features of the company's Secure-Gard® mask while adding enhanced features of fit and fog protection.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cardinal-health-introduces-smart-seal-surgical-mask-138356274.html

The Smart-Seal™ surgical mask features a patent-pending, "cinch and hug" single-tie design that creates a custom seal around the wearer's nose and mouth. The innovative design eliminates gaps between the wearer's face and the mask, promoting proper use and helping to reduce contamination risks in the perioperative environment.

The Smart-Seal™ surgical mask features closed-cell foam and a fog-reducing vapor barrier. It also has a large chamber with two rows of sonic bonds that help keep the mask filter away from the wearer's face and minimize distractions.

The Smart-Seal™ surgical mask provides the highest level of fluid-resistant protection at 160mmHg. In addition, the Smart-Seal™ surgical mask meets the highest level of bacteria filtration efficiency (BFE) and particulate filtration efficiency (PFE), with BFE equaling 99.9 percent and PFE equaling 99 percent.

"We developed the Smart-Seal™ surgical mask in direct response to customer indications that fogging was a problem," said Lisa Ashby, president, Category Management at Cardinal Health. "The Smart-Seal™ mask offers the next evolution in surgical mask protection, addressing not only fog and fit, but also providing the highest level of filtration and fluid resistance."

To learn more about the Smart-Seal™ surgical mask, visit http://cardinalhealth.com/us/en/FacialProtection or contact Scott Harrison at 1-847-887-2346 or scott.harrison01@cardinalhealth.com; Mark Jones at 1-847-887-4543 or mark.jones@cardinalhealth.com; or your local Cardinal Health surgical products sales representative.

About Cardinal Health              
Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE: CAH - News) is a $103 billion health care services company that improves the cost-effectiveness of health care. As the business behind health care, Cardinal Health helps pharmacies, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and physician offices focus on patient care while  reducing costs, enhancing efficiency and improving quality. Cardinal Health is an essential link in the health care supply chain, providing pharmaceuticals and medical products to more than 60,000 locations each day. The company is also a leading manufacturer of medical and surgical products, including gloves, surgical apparel and fluid management products. In addition, the company supports the growing diagnostic industry by supplying medical products to clinical laboratories and operating the nation's largest network of radiopharmacies that dispense products to aid in the early diagnosis and treatment of disease. Ranked #19 on the Fortune 500, Cardinal Health employs more than 30,000 people worldwide. More information about the company may be found at cardinalhealth.com and @CardinalHealth on Twitter.

Related Link:
Cardinal Health facial protection


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Falak health update Next 72hrs crictical

Falak's health continues to deteriorate. The fluid aspirated from Falak's brain was sent for analysis.The tests have revealed that the fluid still contains infection. On Monday, Doctors at AIIMS performed a second surgery on Falak to remove accumulated fluid from the toddler's brain. Her condition is still said to be critical, and further complications. Doctors have changed the antibiotics Falak was being administered so far. A sketch of Rajkumar, who allegedly handed Falak over to a teenaged girl has been released. Police teams have reached Mumbai and Bihar in search for Rajkumar. For more log onto: http://alpha.newsx.com/.


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NFL Player Visits Boy Facing Health Battle

Blake Schuler already had a number of health issues he's dealing with, but now the fifth grader is battling cancer. The Chicago Bears' Ricky Henry stopped by the family's home to give some support.


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Streamline Health Expands Client Base With Software as a Service Agreement with Riverside Medical Group

CINCINNATI, Jan. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Streamline Health Solutions, Inc. (NasdaqCM: STRM - News), a leading provider of enterprise content management and business analytics solutions for healthcare organizations, today announced that Riverside Medical Group has signed an agreement to license the Company's physician workflow management solution to manage accounts receivable and denials.

Riverside facilities include physician offices, outpatient centers, convalescent facilities, retirement communities, hospitals, and other services throughout eastern Virginia. The company has licensed Opportunity Manager along with the accounts receivable and denial management workflows. These solutions will provide advanced data insight to identify areas of performance improvement across the revenue cycle continuum, allowing the physician practices to maximize revenues and effectively prioritize and manage outstanding accounts receivable levels. They will also be used to help maximize the overturn of denials through proactive follow-up.

"New clients like Riverside Medical Group expand Streamline Health's presence in the healthcare space by providing workflow and analytic solutions to the ambulatory side of patient care in addition to the acute business," said Robert E. Watson, president and chief executive officer of Streamline Health. "The sale of these solutions demonstrates the additive value to our business of our recent Interpoint Partners acquisition. Riverside Medical Group recognized the value in our new business analytics solutions and the advanced reporting capabilities they will provide. We're pleased to add them to our list of respected healthcare organization clients."

"We chose solutions from Streamline Health because of the ability to integrate with our practice management system, as well as the ability to adjust the workflows to meet our specific needs," said Richelle Fleischer, Vice President Revenue Cycle and Customer Relations Management, Riverside Health System. "We were looking for a proven solution from an established healthcare information technology vendor, and are very happy with our choice of Streamline Health."

About Streamline Health

Streamline Health provides solutions that help hospitals and physician groups improve efficiencies and business processes across the enterprise to enhance and protect revenues. Our enterprise content management solutions transform unstructured data into digital assets that seamlessly integrate with disparate clinical, administrative, and financial information systems. Our business analytics solutions provide real-time access to key performance metrics that enable healthcare organizations to identify and manage opportunities to maximize financial performance. Our integrated workflow systems automate and manage critical business activities to improve organizational accountability to drive both operational and financial performance. Across the revenue cycle, our solutions offer a flexible, customizable way to optimize the clinical and financial performance of any healthcare organization. For more information visit www.streamlinehealth.net.

About Riverside Medical Group

Riverside Medical Group (RMG) is one of the largest and most diverse multi-specialty group practices in the state of Virginia. Currently, RMG has 450 providers delivering care in 132 locations across the Hampton Roads area. Our providers are linked by an electronic medical record that is leading the nation.  The Electronic Medical Record provides a higher quality documentation of patient care that can speed up healthcare decisions, increase convenience and improve patient safety and ultimately save lives. Through a combination of information technology and medical knowledge RMG is positioned to be the driving force in the health of the communities it serves.

Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

Statements made by Streamline Health Solutions, Inc. that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties and are no guarantee of future performance. The forward looking statements contained herein are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, included herein. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the timing of contract negotiations and execution of contracts and the related timing of the revenue recognition related thereto, the potential cancellation of existing contracts or clients not completing projects included in the backlog, the impact of competitive products and pricing, product demand and market acceptance, new product development, key strategic alliances with vendors that resell the Company's products, the ability of the Company to control costs, availability of products obtained from third party vendors, the healthcare regulatory environment, potential changes in legislation, regulation and government funding affecting the healthcare industry, healthcare information systems budgets, availability of healthcare information systems trained personnel for implementation of new systems, as well as maintenance of legacy systems, fluctuations in operating results, effects of critical accounting policies and judgments, changes in accounting policies or procedures as may be required by the Financial Accountings Standards Board or other similar entities, changes in economic, business and market conditions impacting the healthcare industry, the markets in which the Company operates and nationally, and the Company's ability to maintain compliance with the terms of its credit facilities, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Streamline Health Solutions, Inc. filings with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward looking statements, which reflect management's analysis only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements, which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Director of Marketing Communications


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Hans Rosling Brings Life, Humor, Sword-Swallowing to Global Health Statistics

Hans Rosling, co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation, visualizes global health trends and population numbers -- transforming dry poverty and development statistics into Internet sensations. In addition to his focus on the developing world and data visualization, the Swede happens to swallow swords. Ray Suarez reports.


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U.K. Health Service Faces Damage From Reforms, Editors Say

January 31, 2012, 6:22 AM EST By Kristen Hallam

(Updates with Department of Health comment in seventh paragraph.)

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Britain’s National Health Service will need another overhaul in five years if “damaging” changes being implemented by the government are allowed to continue, the editors of three U.K. health-care publications said.

The Health and Social Care Bill, proposed by the Conservative-led coalition government, calls for “reforms designed and implemented so badly that another major NHS reform program is guaranteed within five years,” the leaders of the British Medical Journal, the Health Service Journal and Nursing Times wrote in an editorial simultaneously published in all three publications.

The bill, which applies only to England, would be the biggest shakeup in the history of the 64-year-old National Health Service. The legislation includes proposals aimed at expanding the number of private companies that offer health-care services to NHS patients. It would also create an unspecified number of groups to commission services and create a national agency to take on duties now performed by regional trusts.

“Let us try to salvage some good from this damaging upheaval and resolve never to repeat it,” the editors wrote.

‘Drop the Bill’

Stopping the bill would save about 360 million pounds ($567 million) by eliminating the need to set up new groups to manage the NHS and a regulator to oversee the changes, according to a second editorial in the BMJ. It would also save about 650 million pounds a year needed to run the organizations, Kieran Walshe, a professor of health policy and management at the Manchester Business School, wrote in the editorial.

“The government could argue that, in the special economic circumstances of the day, it makes sense to drop the bill,” Walshe wrote. “They would also neutralize an issue which has become increasingly politically toxic.”

The legislation would save 4.5 billion pounds through the next national election and 1.5 billion pounds each year after that, the Department of Health said today in an e-mail.

“It’s completely untrue to suggest that dropping the bill would save the NHS money,” the department said. “Our reforms are based on what NHS staff themselves have consistently said: They want more freedom from day-to-day bureaucracy and political interference so they can get on with the job of caring for patients. This is exactly what this bill achieves.”

House of Lords

The legislation is going through the House of Lords, and any amendments made there would have to be approved by the House of Commons before the bill is submitted for royal assent.

“We repeat our offer today to work with the government on introducing general practitioner-led commissioning on condition that it drops this unnecessary bill,” Andy Burnham, the Labour Party lawmaker who acts as spokesman on health policy, said in a statement. “We can support giving clinicians a bigger role in shaping NHS services, but it could be delivered more quickly, with less disruption and at much lower cost without this bill.”

Parts of the government’s plan, including increased competition, greater choice for patients and more involvement by general practitioners in commissioning treatment, could be accomplished under existing rules, Walshe wrote.

The BMJ is run by the British Medical Association. The Nursing Times and Health Service Journal are published by Emap Inform, which is owned by private-equity firm Apax Partners and Guardian Media Group Plc, according to the company’s website.

--With assistance from Gonzalo Vina in London and Chris Kay in Abuja. Editors: David Risser, Robert Valpuesta

To contact the reporter on this story: Kristen Hallam in London at khallam@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net


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England’s Health Service Faces Damage From Reforms, Editors Say

January 31, 2012, 6:22 AM EST By Kristen Hallam

(Updates with Department of Health comment in seventh paragraph.)

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Britain’s National Health Service will need another overhaul in five years if “damaging” changes being implemented by the government are allowed to continue, the editors of three U.K. health-care publications said.

The Health and Social Care Bill, proposed by the Conservative-led coalition government, calls for “reforms designed and implemented so badly that another major NHS reform program is guaranteed within five years,” the leaders of the British Medical Journal, the Health Service Journal and Nursing Times wrote in an editorial simultaneously published in all three publications.

The bill, which applies only to England, would be the biggest shakeup in the history of the 64-year-old National Health Service. The legislation includes proposals aimed at expanding the number of private companies that offer health-care services to NHS patients. It would also create an unspecified number of groups to commission services and create a national agency to take on duties now performed by regional trusts.

“Let us try to salvage some good from this damaging upheaval and resolve never to repeat it,” the editors wrote.

‘Drop the Bill’

Stopping the bill would save about 360 million pounds ($567 million) by eliminating the need to set up new groups to manage the NHS and a regulator to oversee the changes, according to a second editorial in the BMJ. It would also save about 650 million pounds a year needed to run the organizations, Kieran Walshe, a professor of health policy and management at the Manchester Business School, wrote in the editorial.

“The government could argue that, in the special economic circumstances of the day, it makes sense to drop the bill,” Walshe wrote. “They would also neutralize an issue which has become increasingly politically toxic.”

The legislation would save 4.5 billion pounds through the next national election and 1.5 billion pounds each year after that, the Department of Health said today in an e-mail.

“It’s completely untrue to suggest that dropping the bill would save the NHS money,” the department said. “Our reforms are based on what NHS staff themselves have consistently said: They want more freedom from day-to-day bureaucracy and political interference so they can get on with the job of caring for patients. This is exactly what this bill achieves.”

House of Lords

The legislation is going through the House of Lords, and any amendments made there would have to be approved by the House of Commons before the bill is submitted for royal assent.

“We repeat our offer today to work with the government on introducing general practitioner-led commissioning on condition that it drops this unnecessary bill,” Andy Burnham, the Labour Party lawmaker who acts as spokesman on health policy, said in a statement. “We can support giving clinicians a bigger role in shaping NHS services, but it could be delivered more quickly, with less disruption and at much lower cost without this bill.”

Parts of the government’s plan, including increased competition, greater choice for patients and more involvement by general practitioners in commissioning treatment, could be accomplished under existing rules, Walshe wrote.

The BMJ is run by the British Medical Association. The Nursing Times and Health Service Journal are published by Emap Inform, which is owned by private-equity firm Apax Partners and Guardian Media Group Plc, according to the company’s website.

--With assistance from Gonzalo Vina in London and Chris Kay in Abuja. Editors: David Risser, Robert Valpuesta

To contact the reporter on this story: Kristen Hallam in London at khallam@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net


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Monday, January 30, 2012

Health Reform Law Gaining Wider Acceptance: Poll

MONDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Americans are slowly starting to embrace some key components of the controversial health care reform act signed into law by President Barack Obama nearly two years ago, a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll found.

To be sure, Americans remain sharply divided over the legislation, with slightly more than one-third (36 percent) of adults saying they want the law repealed and 21 percent saying they want it to remain as is. Another 25 percent would like to see only certain elements of the law modified, the poll found.

"The public is still divided, mainly on partisan lines, as to whether to implement or repeal all, parts, or none of the health care reform bill," said Harris Poll Chairman Humphrey Taylor.

The poll, conducted earlier this month, found that support for the legislation clearly breaks down along party lines. Almost two-thirds of Republicans (63 percent) said they wanted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act repealed, compared to 9 percent of Democrats.

But while poll respondents were split about the law as a whole, many strongly supported key elements of the bill, "with the notable exception of the individual mandate [the requirement that all adults purchase health insurance] which remains deeply unpopular," Taylor said.

That support for certain components of the law seems to be increasing slowly with time. For instance, 71 percent of those polled now back the law's provision that prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to those already sick. At the end of 2010, 64 percent supported this provision.

Other provisions that are showing a slow but steady rise in acceptance since November 2010 include:

allowing children to stay on their parents' insurance plans until they turn 26 -- 57 percent in January 2012 versus 55 percent in November 2010.creating insurance exchanges where people can shop for insurance -- 59 percent versus 51 percent.providing tax credits to small businesses to help pay for their employees' insurance -- 70 percent versus 60 percent.requiring all employers with 50 or more employees to offer insurance to their employees or pay a penalty -- 53 percent versus 48 percent.requiring research to measure the effectiveness of different treatments -- 53 percent versus 44 percent.creating a new Independent Payment Advisory Board to limit the growth of Medicare spending -- 38 percent versus 32 percent.

But the most controversial aspect of the law -- the so-called individual mandate that requires all adults to have health insurance or face a fine -- remains widely unpopular, with only 19 percent of those polled supporting it.

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the constitutionality of the law starting in late March.

"It's clear that people really appreciate key reforms that are in the Affordable Care Act and it demonstrates how important it is for people to know that those reforms actually are embodied in the legislation," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, nonpartisan group that says it's dedicated to quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

The problem is that many people don't know what's actually in the law, as previous polls, including some conducted by Harris Interactive/HealthDay, have shown.

"People do not understand the health reform bill," said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative public policy research organization in Dallas that says it backs private alternatives to government regulation and control. "This reflects a failure all the way around on the part of backers of the bill, critics and the health-care media. No one's explained how this works."

Pollack pointed out that some provisions of the Affordable Care Act aren't scheduled to take effect until 2014.

The poll also found that, by a 55 percent to 45 percent margin, people think health care reform should be addressed by each state separately, rather than at the federal level.

A fair amount of the current Republican primary race to challenge President Obama in the November election has focused on pledges to repeal much or all of the health care act.

Slightly more than half of those polled -- including 61 percent of Republicans -- said they knew that when Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts he supported a law that provides health insurance to many people in the state. The law is similar to the federal law signed by Obama in March 2010.

Most poll respondents said they had little or no idea what the Massachusetts law has -- and has not -- accomplished. The legislation, which includes an individual mandate, has provided coverage to a majority of state residents, is popular with most people in the state, but has yet to contain costs.

The poll was conducted online Jan. 17-19 with 2,415 adults 18 years of age and older. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted, where necessary, to bring them into line with their actual proportions of the U.S. population. So-called "propensity score weighting" was also used to adjust for respondents' likelihood to be online.

More information

For more details on the poll visit Harris Interactive.

To learn more about the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, visit healthcare.gov.


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Health Management Associates Appoints Paul Hurst as Senior Vice President of Government Relations

Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 4:49 PM EST - U.S. Markets closed

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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Personal Health: Communities Learn the Good Life Can Be a Killer

ACTIVE ANTIDOTE Atlanta transformed an old rail corridor into a trail network that encourages walking and biking.Christopher T. MartinACTIVE ANTIDOTE Atlanta transformed an old rail corridor into a trail network that encourages walking and biking.

Developers in the last half-century called it progress when they built homes and shopping malls far from city centers throughout the country, sounding the death knell for many downtowns. But now an alarmed cadre of public health experts say these expanded metropolitan areas have had a far more serious impact on the people who live there by creating vehicle-dependent environments that foster obesity, poor health, social isolation, excessive stress and depression.

As a result, these experts say, our “built environment” — where we live, work, play and shop — has become a leading cause of disability and death in the 21st century. Physical activity has been disappearing from the lives of young and old, and many communities are virtual “food deserts,” serviced only by convenience stores that stock nutrient-poor prepared foods and drinks.

According to Dr. Richard J. Jackson, professor and chairman of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, unless changes are made soon in the way many of our neighborhoods are constructed, people in the current generation (born since 1980) will be the first in America to live shorter lives than their parents do.

Although a decade ago urban planning was all but missing from public health concerns, a sea change has occurred. At the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in October, Dr. Jackson said, there were about 300 presentations on how the built environment inhibits or fosters the ability of people to be physically active and get healthy food.

In a healthy environment, he said, “people who are young, elderly, sick or poor can meet their life needs without getting in a car,” which means designing communities where it is safe and enjoyable to walk, bike, take in nature and socialize.

“People who walk more weigh less and live longer,” Dr. Jackson said. “People who are fit live longer. People who have friends and remain socially active live longer. We don’t need to prove all of this,” despite the plethora of research reports demonstrating the ill effects of current community structures.

“We’ve become the victims of our own success,” he said of the public health mission that cleared cities of congested slums. “By living far from where we work, we reduced crowding and improved the quality of our air and water, which drove down rates of infectious disease.” But as people have moved farther and farther from where they work, shop and socialize, the rates of chronic diseases have soared.

Public transportation has not kept pace with the expansion of suburbs and exurbs. Nor are there enough sidewalks, nearby parks and safe places to walk, cycle or play outdoors in many, if not most, towns. Parents spend hours in cars getting to and from work; children are bused or driven to and from school; and those who can’t drive must depend on others to take them everywhere or risk becoming socially isolated.

In 1974, 66 percent of all children walked or biked to school. By 2000, that number had dropped to 13 percent.

“Children who grow up in suburbia can’t meet their life needs without getting a ride somewhere,” Dr. Jackson said. “The average teen in suburbia says it’s boring.”

His new book, “Designing Healthy Communities,” a companion piece to a coming public television series, says: “When there is nearly nothing within walking distance to interest a young person and it is near-lethal to bicycle, he or she must relinquish autonomy — a capacity every creature must develop just as much as strength and endurance.” The book was written with Stacy Sinclair, director of education at the Media Policy Center in Santa Monica, Calif.

“We’ve engineered physical activity out of children’s lives,” Dr. Jackson said in an interview. “Only a quarter of the children in California can pass a basic fitness test, and two in seven volunteers for the military can’t get in because they’re not in good enough physical condition.”

The health consequences, he said, are terrifying. Not only are Americans of all ages fatter than ever, but also growing numbers of children are developing diseases once seen only in adults: Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and fatty livers.

Can our suburbs be saved?

The four-part series that Dr. Jackson developed with the documentary producers Dale Bell and Harry Wiland, to be broadcast in the spring, highlights changes being made in forward-thinking communities — changes that foster better physical and mental health by redesigning the built environment.

“Health happens in neighborhoods, not doctors’ offices,” Dr. Jackson states in one of the programs.

Metropolitan Atlanta, which is 8,000 square miles and growing and where workers drive an average of 66 miles a day, has suffered the ill effects of high ozone levels, few sidewalks and bike lanes, and crosswalks as much as a mile apart. In what may be the crown jewel in environmental restructuring for better health, Atlanta created an urban paradise from an abandoned railroad corridor, with light rail and 22 miles of walking and biking trails that enable everyone, including people with disabilities, to get to any place they want to go.

In Lakewood, Colo., an abandoned shopping mall (a blight now rampant in suburbia) in the Belmar district was converted into housing, businesses and play areas that foster community.

Syracuse, where superhighways cut through and destroyed neighborhoods, is converting an old saltworks district into a mixed-income, energy-smart housing and business area, giving residents easy access to workplaces and outdoor recreation. The local supermarket, Nojaim’s, offers health and nutrition classes and weekly health checks, and a mobile farmers’ market services an area that lacks grocery stores.

Another jewel in environmental restructuring is Elgin, Ill., where an island park was created in the middle of the rejuvenated Fox River and a former Superfund site known as auto dealers’ row is now Festival Park, giving families a place to gather for water play, picnics and musical performances. A Bikeway Master Plan will eventually connect all the neighborhoods, and easy access to the river has spurred investment.

“For every dollar the city has spent, we have leveraged that into two or three dollars of private investment through new kinds of buildings, row houses and businesses that have opened because the river has a magnetic quality,” said a former mayor of Elgin, Ed Schock. He might have added another economic benefit: the prospect of lower health care costs.

Further information on healthier communities can be found at designinghealthycommunities.org.


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Health 2.0 Launches Developers World Cup

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Health 2.0 announced today that it launched its first Health 2.0 Developers World Cup in which teams of developers, innovators, and entrepreneurs worldwide will compete in code-a-thons to build applications and tools that improve healthcare. The winners from each coding competition will face-off in San Francisco at the 6th Annual Fall Health 2.0 Conference for the Developers World Cup title. All finalists will receive free passes to the conference and a travel stipend. The winning team will receive a $10,000 cash prize, the opportunity to showcase their winning product on the main stage of the conference, and international visibility as world champions.

Health 2.0's code-a-thons are live one- to two-day events that result in rapid development of concepts and working prototype applications.

"We are building upon the successes of our developer challenges to encourage new ideas and products that enhance health care delivery in the United States," said Indu Subaiya, Health 2.0 Co-Chairman and CEO. "Improving quality of care and reducing costs are challenges confronting nations around the globe, not just the U.S. Our goal with the Developers World Cup is to unleash the innovation and creativity of the international developer community and bring multi-disciplinary teams comprised of designers, clinicians, patients and entrepreneurs together to address health issues that matter the most in their region."

The Developers World Cup kicked off yesterday in Delhi with a one-daycode-a-thon that was held in conjunction with Health 2.0 India Conference. The next international code-a-thon will be hosted by the Health 2.0 Fukushima Chapter in Japan on February 21-22, 2012. Other competitions are planned in China, the Netherlands, Russia and several cities in the U.S. The international and U.S. winners will gather at Health Innovation Week in October to refine their entries and then square off in the final competition October, 6-7, 2012 at the 6th Annual Fall Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.

To learn more about Health 2.0 Developer World Cup, please visit http://www.health2challenge.org/code-a-thon/world-cup/.

About Health 2.0
Health 2.0: The conference. The media network. The innovation community. The Health 2.0 Conference is the leading showcase of cutting-edge innovation transforming the health care system and is the premiere platform connecting IT innovators to established health care providers. Health 2.0 covers the broadest spectrum of the technology revolution that is shaking up every sector of health care. Learn more at http://www.health2con.com.


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Health 2.0 and ONC Launch Three New Challenges Through the Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire -01/30/12)- Over the past few weeks, Health 2.0 and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced the launch of three new Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative competitions that challenge developer communities with creating innovative health information technology (HIT) solutions. The i2 program promotes the use of technology to drive better outcomes, engage users in their health and improve health care quality. The Health 2.0 Developer Challenge program is now accepting submissions for three new challenges, "Health Innovations in Commuting Challenge," "Discharge Follow-Up Appointment Challenge" and the "EHR Accessibility Module Challenge."

"Health 2.0 is proud to launch these three new Developer Challenges. The burgeoning Developer Challenge program has witnessed a tremendous increase in both number and quality of competition submissions," said Indu Subaiya, CEO and Co-chair of Health 2.0. "While Health 2.0 is many things, its innovation competitions are one of its most forward-thinking divisions -- thanks to the i2 program, we play a role in spurring innovation and improving the U.S. health care system."

Commuting is a component of daily life for 120 million Americans and has been shown to correlate with health problems including high cholesterol, recurring neck and back pain, and higher stress levels. The "Health Innovations in Commuting Challenge" calls on innovators to design concepts that would improve the health of commuters through enhanced data collection, exchange and analysis. Participants are asked to demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which commuting is correlated with health factors and to express the ways in which their models are innovative in diminishing commuting's deleterious effects on health. Submissions are due on Monday, March 5, 2012. The winner will present the submission on an ONC-hosted webinar and will have opportunities for future collaboration with industry leaders. For more details visit the "Health Innovations in Commuting Challenge" website.

Individuals with disabilities constitute 19 percent of the population five years and older, yet account for over a quarter ($400 billion) of all health expenditures. Accessibility and usability in health IT are high priority issues for the disability community. The "EHR Accessibility Module Challenge" tasks multi-disciplinary teams with creating and testing a module or application that makes it easy for disabled consumers to access and interact with the health data stored in their EHRs. Submissions are due on Monday, July 23, 2012. Prizes will total $85,000. The first place winner will receive $60,000 and a demo opportunity, the second place winner will receive $20,000 and the third place winner will receive $5,000. For more details, visit the "EHR Accessibility Module Challenge" website.

Nearly one in five patients from a hospital will be readmitted within 30 days, a large proportion of which can be prevented by improving communications and coordinating care before and after discharge from the hospital. The "Discharge Follow-Up Appointment Challenge" tasks developers to create easy-to-use web-based tools to make post-discharge follow-up appointment scheduling more effective and to facilitate collaboration between providers, caregivers and patients. The first place winner will receive partnership consideration with a pilot test bed community such as an ONC Beacon Community or a member of CMMI's Community-Based Care Transition Program, in addition to $5,000 to support a three-day site visit to the pilot community. Submissions are due on Monday, April 30, 2012. For more details visit the "Discharge Follow-Up Appointment Challenge" website.

"The Discharge Challenge is special because it serves as a follow-up to the very successful 'Ensuring Safe Transitions from Hospital to Home Challenge.' It gives teams that participated in the Safe Transitions Challenge the opportunity to build on their innovations and gives new teams that did not participate in the challenge the chance to provide innovative approaches to improving the care transition process," explains Matthew Holt, Co-Chair of Health 2.0. "Challenges are one means to positively expedite the implementation of technology in the health care space."

About ONC
ONC is the principal Federal entity charged with coordination of nationwide efforts to implement and use the most advanced health information technology and the electronic exchange of health information. The position of National Coordinator was created in 2004, through an Executive Order and legislatively mandated in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) of 2009. For more information, see http://healthit.hhs.gov/.

About Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative
The Investing in Innovation (i2) program utilizes prizes and challenges to facilitate innovation and obtain solutions to intractable health IT problems. Aligned with the Administration's innovation agenda, i2 is the first federal program to operate under the authority of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011. For details see http://www.health2challenge.org/onc-i2-challenges/

About Health 2.0
The conference. The media network. The innovation community. The Health 2.0 Conference is the leading showcase of cutting-edge innovation transforming the health care system. Since its beginning in 2007, Health 2.0 has served as a community resource for search and online tools to help consumers manage their health and connect to providers. Now that the industry has caught up, Health 2.0 covers the entire cloud, web, mobile and unplatforms technology revolution that is shaking up every sector of health care. For more, visit http://www.health2con.com.


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Health officials: Luxor guests had Legionnaires'

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Health officials in Las Vegas said Monday that the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease was found in water samples at the Luxor hotel-casino this month after a guest died of the form of pneumonia.

The Southern Nevada Health District said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national surveillance program reported three cases in the past year of Luxor guests being diagnosed with the disease caused by Legionella bacteria.

The Las Vegas Strip resort's water was tested after the first two cases were reported during the spring of last year, but no Legionella bacteria was detected, district officials said. Those guests recovered.

Officials say the Luxor, owned by MGM Resorts International, immediately began a remediation process once the bacteria was found.

MGM Resorts spokesman Gordon Absher said treatment procedures include superheating and super-chlorination of the water system.

"We are confident in the integrity of our systems and the safety protocols we follow at all our hotels. Guest and employee safety is always a top priority at our company," Absher said. "Even before last summer, MGM Resorts led the industry with aggressive and stringent programs to control Legionella issues common to all large buildings."

Absher said the company's resorts regularly test for Legionella and treat water systems preventatively, before bacteria are detected.

The new cases come as the company is already facing a civil lawsuit from guests who said they were infected with Legionella at the Aria Resort & Casino, part of the CityCenter complex that is half-owned by MGM Resorts.

MGM Resorts notified guests that they might have been exposed to the bacteria between June 21 and July 4 after the district reported six cases of Legionnaires' disease in July. The district said those guests recovered after treatment.

Eight guests sued in August, seeking $337.5 million in damages from the resort and its builders. An MGM Resorts spokesman at the time denied negligence, saying hotel officials carefully communicated with its guests and reimbursed them fairly for legitimate medical expenses. The case is still pending in federal court in Las Vegas.

Legionella is commonly found in the environment in fresh water, the district said. Symptoms of Legionnaires' disease usually begin within two weeks of being exposed to the bacteria, the district said.

District officials said between 8,000 and 18,000 people are hospitalized with Legionnaires' disease each year, and can cause death in up to 30 percent of cases. Officials said as many as one-fourth of reported Legionnaires' cases are associated with travel, so health investigators typically ask for travel histories when they look into individual cases.

___

Oskar Garcia can be reached at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia.


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BAYADA Home Health Care Acquires Nursefinders Home Care

MOORESTOWN, NJ--(Marketwire -01/30/12)- BAYADA Home Health Care, a leading provider of home health care services to people of all ages, announced today that is has acquired Nursefinders Home Care, an AMN Healthcare Company. As part of the acquisition, 16 Nursefinders Home Care offices will transition to BAYADA Home Health Care. They are located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

The acquisition will not affect Nursefinders Home Care's 19 franchise locations in Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. These offices will remain Nursefinders Home Care.

"As we welcome Nursefinders Home Care to the BAYADA family, we are excited to expand our geographic reach, which aligns with our vision to make it possible for more and more people worldwide to experience a better quality of life in the comfort of their own homes," said Mark Baiada, president, CEO, and founder of BAYADA Home Health Care. "Nursefinders' commitment to quality care fits well with our BAYADA core beliefs. At BAYADA, we believe our clients come first and our employees are our greatest asset. These beliefs are a part of our guiding philosophy, The BAYADA Way, which expresses the values and beliefs that have been the foundation of our work since 1975."

BAYADA and Nursefinders Home Care are dedicated to helping children, adults, and seniors live safely at home with comfort, independence, and dignity. Comprehensive services include care for a wide range of diagnoses, including short-term, intermittent care, and ongoing care for complex medical conditions; assistive care to help with bathing, dressing, and light housekeeping; physical, occupational, and speech therapy; respite care to provide caregivers with temporary relief; hospice care, habilitation, and behavioral health.

"We share many of the same values of BAYADA Home Health Care, and their excellent reputation, quality of services provided, and commitment to their mission and values were important factors in our decision," explained Nursefinders Home Care President Linda Sheffield, who will stay on with BAYADA as a division director. "We anticipate that this will be a seamless transition, and our clients will continue to receive the same high quality care from the same team of nurses, therapists, and home health aides that they've been accustomed to."

BAYADA Home Health Care, which started with one office in Philadelphia in 1975, has grown to more than 240 offices in 24 states and India. The company employs more than 17,000 nurses, home health aides, therapists, medical social workers, and other health care professionals who provide care with compassion, excellence, and reliability to people of all ages in the comfort of home.

For more information on BAYADA Home Health Care, please call 888-4-BAYADA.

Founded in 1975 by J. Mark Baiada, BAYADA Home Health Care provides nursing, rehabilitative, therapeutic, hospice, and assistive care services to children, adults, and seniors in the comfort of their homes. Headquartered in suburban Philadelphia, BAYADA employs more than 17,000 nurses, home health aides, therapists, medical social workers, and other home health care professionals who serve their communities from more than 240 offices in 24 states and India. For more information, visit www.bayada.com.


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Saving Retiree Health Plans

More companies in dire financial straits are pulling the plug on retiree health-care benefits—dealing a blow to everyone from hourly union employees to upper management.

Eastman Kodak and Hostess Brands, both of which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this month, are expected to ask the courts to let them kill their plans, following in the footsteps of bankruptcies at American Airlines parent AMR Corp., Harry & David, the mail-order food retailer owned by private-equity firm Wasserstein & Co., and scores of auto-parts companies, steelmakers and others.

Bankruptcy judges usually let companies terminate such plans, figuring the move will make it more likely that creditors will be paid and that the company's chances of turning itself around will be enhanced if it can shed millions or even billions of dollars in retiree obligations at the stroke of a pen. Retirees, who are unsecured creditors, always are vulnerable.

[More from WSJ.com: Enjoy the Super Bowl, Don't Lose the Bet]

But loss of coverage can devastate retirees who might not be able to obtain, or afford, coverage in the open market, especially involuntary early retirees who are years away from collecting Medicare benefits and might be one heart attack or bout of cancer away from financial ruin.

Still, retirees of companies in bankruptcy protection have an option unavailable to retirees of companies that are healthy but eliminate retiree health coverage anyway: the Health Coverage Tax Credit, or HCTC, a federally funded program administered by the Internal Revenue Service.

The credit pays a portion—currently 72.5%—of health-insurance premiums for retirees whose benefits have been reduced or eliminated in bankruptcy proceedings and whose pensions are taken over by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the federal insurer that assumes control of failed plans and pays the benefits.

The program will pay for comprehensive major medical coverage, including prescription drugs and dental and vision care, if they are included in that coverage.

People can elect to pay 27.5% of their monthly premium to the HCTC program, which will then send the full payment to the insurer. Or they can pay their health insurer directly each month and claim a credit on their federal tax return for the 72.5%.

[More from WSJ.com: Taking Your Pension Private]

To be eligible for the subsidy, you must be receiving a pension from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. You also must be 55 to 64 years old and enrolled in a qualified health plan (provided you are paying more than 50% of the costs). That includes Cobra, which requires your former employer to continue offering job-based health coverage to you if you lose your job.

In 2009, Congress expanded HCTC coverage to include benefits sponsored by Voluntary Employee Benefits Associations, or VEBAs, which are trust funds established during the bankruptcy process to provide retiree health benefits. Such large-scale associations have since been set up to cover retirees of some bankrupt companies, including Delta Air Lines and General Motors' floundering auto-parts spinoff, Delphi. These post-bankruptcy arrangements cover both union and salaried retirees, including management.

Roughly 7,000 participants in the Delphi VEBA pay $150 to $200 a month in premiums per person, for example, with a $250 deductible and total out-of-pocket expenses capped at $1,200. American Airlines retirees have recently formed a committee that will likely explore setting up a VEBA if their coverage is terminated, and retirees of another major airline is in the planning stages of setting up such a plan.

In a little-noticed move last October, a New York bankruptcy court judge approved the creation of the first industrywide VEBA, which will provide benefits to retirees of failed auto-parts manufacturers based in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Retirees in the auto and steel industries are planning to roll out VEBAs in March and April, says Cathy Cone, managing partner of Cone Insurance Group, a Houston-based insurance broker that helps set up the plans.

[More from WSJ.com: You Don't Have to Be Rich to Build Wealth]

The Health Care Tax Credit was set to expire at the end of 2010, but it was extended and expanded from 65% to 72.5%, with the increase retroactive to Feb. 13, 2011, after retiree groups and unions lobbied vigorously.

The tax credit is authorized through 2013, but there is likely to be strong pressure to reauthorize it—and not just from retirees and unions. Insurers, which have been developing products and services financed by the taxpayer subsidy, will push vigorously to keep it alive, though there isn't a guarantee it will happen.


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Baby Falak's health deteriorating: Doctor

The 2-year-old Falak underwent a second brain surgery on Monday and has been put back on ventilator. http://ibnlive.com/livetv


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NV health district: Luxor guests had Legionnaires'

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Health officials in Las Vegas say the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease was found in water samples at the Luxor hotel-casino this month after a guest died of the form of pneumonia.

The Southern Nevada Health District said Monday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported three cases of Luxor guests being diagnosed with the disease caused by Legionella bacteria.

District officials say the Las Vegas Strip resort's water was tested after the first two cases were reported during the spring of last year, but no Legionella bacteria was detected. Those guests recovered.

Officials say the Luxor, owned by MGM Resorts International, immediately began a remediation process once the bacteria was found.

MGM Resorts spokesman Gordon Absher says treatment procedures include superheating and super-chlorination of the water system.


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Health Highlights: Jan.30, 2012

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

New Partnership Targets Neglected Tropical Diseases

A group of international health organizations and pharmaceutical companies announced Monday that they've created a partnership to control or eliminate 10 deadly but neglected tropical diseases by the end of the decade.

The diseases targeted for eradication are: Guinea worm disease, sleeping sickness, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis and blinding trachoma. Those to be brought under control are: soil-transmitted helminthes, schistosomiasis, river blindness, Chagas disease and visceral leishmaniasis, the Wall Street Journal reported.

All 10 diseases flourish in tropical climates and impoverished areas and most are ancient diseases that have plagued humans for centuries. About 1.4 billion people worldwide are affected by neglected tropical diseases.

The partnership includes 13 pharmaceutical companies, the World Health Organization, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WSJ reported.

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Create Commission to Study In Vitro Clinics: Gingrich

A commission should study the ethical issues relating to in vitro fertilization clinics in the United States, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich said Sunday.

Infertile women go to the clinics to receive treatment and get pregnant. Large number of embryos are created at the clinics. Gingrich did not expand on his proposal for a commission, the Associated Press reported.

"If you have in vitro fertilization you are creating life. And therefore we should look seriously at what should the rules be for clinics that do that because they're creating life," Gingrich said outside a Baptist church in Florida.

Gingrich, who is campaigning for votes in Tuesday's Florida primary, also said he opposes using leftover embryos from in vitro clinics for stem cell research, the AP reported.

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FDA Detains Imported Orange Juice

Several shipments of orange juice from Canada and Brazil have been detained by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after it found traces of an illegal fungicide.

The orange juice contained small amounts of carbendazim, which is used to combat mold on orange trees. The fungicide is not approved for use in the U.S., the Associated Press reported.

Carbendazim is used in Brazil. No oranges are grown in Canada, but companies in Canada purchase orange juice products from Brazil and other countries and export them to the U.S.

Since it began testing for the fungicide earlier this month, the FDA has detained nine of 80 orange juice and orange juice concentrate shipments at the border, and importers have withdrawn to additional shipment, the AP reported.

The FDA started testing for carbendazim after Coca-Cola reported finding the fungicide in its own orange juice and competing orange juices.

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Catholic Colleges Oppose Birth Control Rule

Many student health services at Catholic colleges in the United States refuse to prescribe or cover birth control, but they're under increasing pressure to change that stance.

The Obama administration said this month that the new health care law requires insurance plans at Catholic institutions to cover birth control without co-payments for employees, and that may be extended to students, The New York Times reported.

The administration's rule is based on an Institute of Medicine conclusion that birth control is not just a convenience, but is medically necessary "to ensure women's health and well-being."

Catholic organizations are fighting the rule because they say it would violate their beliefs and force them to finance behavior that contradicts their beliefs, The Times reported.

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Prostate Cancer Found in 2,200-Year-Old Mummy

The discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old Egyptian mummy suggests that the cancer was caused by genetics and not environmental factors, a researcher says.

The mummy was of a man who died in his forties and is the second-oldest known case of prostate cancer. The oldest is from a 2,700-year-old skeleton of a king in Russia, the Associated Press reported.

The team that studied the Egyptian mummy for two years included Salima Ikram, a professor from American University in Cairo.

"Living conditions in ancient times were very different; there were no pollutants or modified foods, which leads us to believe that the disease is not necessarily only linked to industrial factors," she told the AP.


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Health Highlights: Jan. 27, 2012

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

FDA Approves New Drug for Type 2 Diabetes

Bydureon (exenatide extended release), Amylin Pharmaceuticals' long-acting version of the diabetes drug Byetta, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The once-weekly injection will include a label warning that the drug caused certain thyroid tumors in rats, the Dow Jones news service reported. It's not known whether the drug causes such tumors in people, the label warning says. But the drug shouldn't be used by people with a family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma (a form of cancer), the warning continues.

Twice in 2010, the FDA declined approval of Bydureon, requesting additional studies and clinical information, Dow Jones reported.

Bydureon is a "glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor," a class of medications that helps the body produce more insulin, which helps regulate blood sugar.

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Erin Brockovich Takes on High School Girls' Mystery Illness

The environmental activist Erin Brockovich says she's investigating the case of more than a dozen teen girls at an upstate New York high school with tics and involuntary verbal outbursts.

They mystery illness among the girls at Le Roy high school began several months ago. Extensive testing of the school grounds failed to detect any signs of infectious disease or toxins, msnbc.com reported.

Dr. Laszlo Mechtler, a neurologist who has seen and is treating 10 of the girls, had diagnosed them with a rare condition called mass psychogenic illness, more commonly known as mass hysteria.

He noted that while the girls' symptoms may be psychological in origin, that doesn't mean they aren't real, msnbc.com reported.

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H1N1 'Swine' Flu Cases Increase in Mexico

There's agreement about an increased number of H1N1 swine flu and other flu cases in Mexico this season, but while newspapers are warning of a worrisome rise in cases, federal and state officials say the number of cases is within the normal range and there is no cause for alarm.

However, confusing figures about flu cases are listed on the Mexican health ministry's website and it hasn't specified the rise in cases, the Associated Press reported.

There are also conflicting reports about screening measures being implemented in schools to check for the H1N1 virus, which is now considered a seasonal flu. The federal education ministry said Wednesday that screening measures were being implemented in all elementary schools, but later said screenings are being conducted only at schools where children exhibit symptoms.

Mexico is seeing more cases of H1N1 flu this season, while the United States is seeing more cases of a strain called H3N2, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This year's seasonal flu vaccine contains antibodies for both strains.

"We are not aware of any unusual changes in the virus in Mexico that would be concerning," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said in an email to the AP.

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Spinal Cord Injury Treatment Tested on Dogs

Researchers are using dogs to test an experimental drug to treat spinal cord injuries. If it's effective, it could lead to human treatments.

The U.S. Department of Defense-funded study will test the drug GM6001 in dachshunds and other long-bodied dogs with spinal cord injuries to see if it will help them walk again, ABC News reported.

The drug blocks an enzyme that promotes damage after a spinal cord injury.

"After you have a spinal cord injury, the deficits you see are not just a consequence of the initial injury, but rather events that occur after the injury," study co-investigator Linda Noble-Haeusslein told ABC News. "These events are a little more delayed in onset, so we have the possibility of preventing them."

In a previous study, she found that GM6001 helped mice recover from spinal cord injuries.

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High Heels Affect Biomechanics: Study

Wearing high heels affects a woman's biomechanics, a new study finds.

Australian researchers compared women who wore high heels for at least 40 hours a week and a control group women who rarely, if ever, wore high heels. The women who wore high heels walked differently than those who wore flats, even when the heel wearers went barefoot, The New York Times reported.

As a result of the heel wearers' perpetual flexed, toes-pointed position while walking with or without heels, the fibers in their calf muscles had shortened and they put much greater mechanical strain on their calf muscles, said the study published last week in The Journal of Applied Physiology.

Among women in the control group, walking primarily involved stretching and stressing their tendons, The Times reported.

By stretching and straining their already shortened calf muscles, the heel wearers walk less efficiently when wearing heels or not, requiring them to use more energy and probably leading to muscle fatigue, the researchers said.

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Fake News Sites for Acai Berry Pills Shut Down by FTC

Six online marketers accused of using fake news websites to convince consumers to buy acai berry weight-loss products have reached settlements with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC accused the marketers of creating websites that falsely appeared to be part of legitimate news organizations. For example, the sites presenting a reporters' "first-hand experience" with acai berry supplements and featured investigative-sounding headlines, CBS News reported.

The FTC went to court in April to seek temporary restraining orders against the six marketers, all of which have since taken down their sites promoting the acai berry pills.

Under the agreements with the FTC, the marketers will pay about $500,000 to the commission. They are barred from making deceptive claims and must make clear that their messages are advertisements and not objective journalism, CBS News reported.

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Health commissioner calls it a career

From a box that once held copy paper, William Franks pulled out a stuffed rooster and set it on the table.

“A number of years ago, when it looked like bird flu and not swine flu, we wanted to attract people (to our booth) at the Stark County Fair, so someone went and got this at Flower Factory,” the Stark County health commissioner said with a laugh.

Franks plans to use the prop as a departing present to an unsuspecting employee. He also plans to give away a red brick that Franks said came from the former St. Francis Hotel, where the Health Department once was located, and a red-billed Exit Incorporated hat, a memento of the Osnaburg Township construction and demolition debris facility the department closed in 2002.

The gifts were mingled inside cardboard boxes with family photos, including one of Franks as a teenager with his father, a World War II veteran, at their Peninsula home, along with certificates of accomplishments and educational books about food service regulations and environmental laws — a mix that reflects the county’s longest serving health commissioner’s playful charisma in a job that deals with such serious subjects as food borne illness, communicable diseases and groundwater pollution.

Franks, 64, whose career in public health spans 41 years  — from a sanitarian for the Lake County Health Department, to a district sanitarian for the state, to Ohio’s youngest health commissioner with the Columbiana County Health Department to Stark County’s health commissioner for 29 years — officially will retire Tuesday.

THEN AND NOW

Franks paused from packing his office last week to reflect on his career, one that began before the formation of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and before health departments cared about dental hygiene, nutrition and obesity.

“The whole concept of public health has changed,” Franks said. “ ... People are becoming more active and the nutrition and clinical aspects have expanded in the time I have been here.”

When Franks began his career as Stark County’s health commissioner in 1983, he oversaw a department that operated on $732,306 annually, according to Repository archives.

Today, the Stark County Health Department has a           $6 million annual budget. It employs 75 full-time workers who serve about 250,000 people living outside the cities of Canton, Alliance and Massillon — which each having its own health departments. The county agency’s duties vary widely from maintaining birth and death certificates to issuing permits for septic systems and wells to immunizations and mosquito control to inspecting restaurants, grocery stores, landfills and garbage trucks to hosting a variety of educational programs.

From a box that once held copy paper, William Franks pulled out a stuffed rooster and set it on the table.

“A number of years ago, when it looked like bird flu and not swine flu, we wanted to attract people (to our booth) at the Stark County Fair, so someone went and got this at Flower Factory,” the Stark County health commissioner said with a laugh.

Franks plans to use the prop as a departing present to an unsuspecting employee. He also plans to give away a red brick that Franks said came from the former St. Francis Hotel, where the Health Department once was located, and a red-billed Exit Incorporated hat, a memento of the Osnaburg Township construction and demolition debris facility the department closed in 2002.

The gifts were mingled inside cardboard boxes with family photos, including one of Franks as a teenager with his father, a World War II veteran, at their Peninsula home, along with certificates of accomplishments and educational books about food service regulations and environmental laws — a mix that reflects the county’s longest serving health commissioner’s playful charisma in a job that deals with such serious subjects as food borne illness, communicable diseases and groundwater pollution.

Franks, 64, whose career in public health spans 41 years  — from a sanitarian for the Lake County Health Department, to a district sanitarian for the state, to Ohio’s youngest health commissioner with the Columbiana County Health Department to Stark County’s health commissioner for 29 years — officially will retire Tuesday.

THEN AND NOW

Franks paused from packing his office last week to reflect on his career, one that began before the formation of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and before health departments cared about dental hygiene, nutrition and obesity.

“The whole concept of public health has changed,” Franks said. “ ... People are becoming more active and the nutrition and clinical aspects have expanded in the time I have been here.”

When Franks began his career as Stark County’s health commissioner in 1983, he oversaw a department that operated on $732,306 annually, according to Repository archives.

Today, the Stark County Health Department has a           $6 million annual budget. It employs 75 full-time workers who serve about 250,000 people living outside the cities of Canton, Alliance and Massillon — which each having its own health departments. The county agency’s duties vary widely from maintaining birth and death certificates to issuing permits for septic systems and wells to immunizations and mosquito control to inspecting restaurants, grocery stores, landfills and garbage trucks to hosting a variety of educational programs.

Franks says he has long viewed the Health Department as “the stopgap until society catches up,” a philosophy that’s led him to establish the county’s first prenatal and dental clinics and to seek statewide regulations for tobacco cessation. Franks’ crusade for landfill regulations earned him the nickname of “the godfather of construction and demolition debris” during the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners’ fall conference where he was recognized for his years of service.

Randall Flint, who has served as Alliance’s health commissioner for 28 years, called Franks a true champion of public health.

“He’s going to leave knowing he made a difference in improving the health of the community,” Flint said. “ ... They were good at seeing and identifying a potential issue in the community and taking some action to make sure it would not negatively affect the community.”

A key indicator of the community’s overall health — infant mortality rates — shows the community’s improvement during Frank’s tenure.

In the 1980s, the county’s infant mortality rate (number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births) was 12. Today, the four-year average is 7.4.

“I know it’s 30 years, but that’s one success I see,” Franks said.

END OF AN ERA

As health commissioner, Franks has steered the county Health Department through a tumultuous era in public health history. He held the reins in the early 1980s when AIDS first became widely known and health departments faced the challenge of educating people about the fatal disease. He saw the department through the life-changing year of 2001 that included the Sept. 11 attacks, anthrax scares, West Nile virus and the meningitis outbreak that killed two West Branch High School students and nearly claimed the life of a Marlington High girl.

Franks recalled the public hysteria during the meningitis scare that led responders to the unconventional mass immunization of thousands of students, a move questioned and criticized by other health experts. He said the event changed his outlook on public health.

“It kind of mellows you,” said Franks, who wished he had the opportunity to talk to the victims’ families. “It made me look at the human end, the recipient end. ... Instead of looking at the Health Department and its programs as an administrator, I look at it from the community’s end.”

He still believes he and other agencies made the right move with the information they had at the time.

STUCK TO MY GUNS

Throughout his career, Franks has maintained his steadfast attitude in the face of challenges.

“I always felt that if something needed to be done and I had the information (statistics) to back it up, then I stuck to my guns and didn’t let them back me down,” Franks said.

He doesn’t regret moving the department in 1992 from downtown Canton to its current location at 3951 Convenience Circle NW in Plain Township, despite the uproar from city officials, businesses and residents who sued the department to stop the move.

“We need to be out where we serve the people,” he said. “We don’t serve Canton.”

Franks, who started his career inspecting landfills, has spent the last several years battling landfill operators. In 2007, he and the county health board took a stand against the operators of Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility and refused to issue the Pike Township facility its annual operating license. The decision contradicted the Ohio EPA’s stance.

Kirk Norris, who will succeed Franks, recalls how his boss riled some officials when he said: “I don’t feel we have the legal right to license a landfill that’s on fire.”

“No pun intended, but he did take a lot of heat for that,” said Norris, who has served as director of environmental health since 2005.

Norris believes the conflict — which ended in a court settlement in 2009 — highlighted one of Franks’ strengths as a leader.

“Normally, when you come into a meeting, one person is set on one option; another person is set (against it). ... But he (Franks) could always come up with three, four, five options. That was his foresight,” Norris said.

He recalls sitting in a closed-door meeting of health officials when Franks, seemingly off the top of his head, proposed splitting the Countywide landfill so the county could license the portion of the 258-acre landfill that wasn’t on fire and the state would be responsible for the rest.

“Everybody at the table said, ‘No, you can’t do that,’ ” Norris recalled. “But that’s what ended up happening (roughly two years later). ... He got us to the point we needed to be with (presenting) another option.”

SUCCESSOR

Last week, Franks handed the proverbial reins of the department over to Norris during an informal meeting with Stark County Auditor Alan Harold, who serves as secretary of the three-member Stark County Budget Commission that annually approves the health district’s resources and appropriations.

Franks smiled like a proud papa as Norris explained how he has begun an assessment of the entire department and his planned changes to the environmental health division will eliminate a manager position and save the department $50,000 a year.

“The new broom sweeps clean,” said Franks, quoting the popular proverb.

Norris, a Stark County native who began with the Health Department fresh out of college 18 years ago, officially will assume his duties as health commissioner Wednesday.

Franks earned $105,130 during his last year as health commissioner, and is expected to receive roughly $40,000 in unused vacation and sick leave. Norris will earn $87,000 in his first year as health commissioner and $89,610 next year.


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