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Popular Articles

British Medical Association Launches "Look After Our NHS"
The BMA is stepping up its activity to publicise its concerns about government reforms that have created a market in healthcare and allowed commercially run firms to provide NHS care.

Health Affairs Study Finds No Link Between Cost, Quality Of Care
Quality of care is not linked to the cost of care, according to a study published last week on the Web site of the journal Health Affairs, CQ HealthBeat reports. For the study, researchers from Dartmouth College and Harvard University analyzed the health care bills of chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries in their last two years of life who received end-of-life care from 2,172 unidentified hospitals. The patients had one of three common conditions: heart attack, pneumonia or congestive heart failure. The study -- sponsored by the National Institute on Aging -- looked at common quality indicators at a hospital-by-hospital level instead of regional level (Norman, CQ HealthBeat, 5/22). Researchers compared the data with some of the quality measures reported on the HHS Hospital Compare Web site (Goldstein, "Health Blog," Wall Street Journal, 5/21). The study found that among the one-fifth of hospitals that spent the least, the cost of end-of-life care was $16,059 on average. In comparison, the cost of end-of-life care at the top 20% of highest-spending hospitals was $34,742 on average. The study also found no link -- or even evidence against a link -- between spending and the quality indicators. The researchers noted that the results might be skewed because the quality indicators they used might penalize hospitals that treat sicker patients. In addition, the study used process-of-care measures instead of patient outcomes. According to CQ HealthBeat, the findings of the study could have an effect on the debate over health care reform legislation because lawmakers and President Obama both have said that a reform plan must be able to control costs and expand access to high-quality, affordable health care (CQ HealthBeat, 5/22).
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Health Overhaul Issues Fill The Sunday Talk Shows
Health experts and politicians filled Sunday talk shows as Obama administration officials push for reform.
Diagnostics

Typhoid Vaccine Effectively Prevents Disease In Children, Study Finds

"A typhoid vaccine proved effective in the slums of India, where it not only helped prevent infection in children who received it, but also those in close contact who were unvaccinated," according to a New England Journal of Medicine study published on Thursday, the AP/Washington Post reports (Chang, 7/22). The study, "conducted in two wards of an Indian slum where about 60,000 people live," sought to investigate the Vi typhoid vaccine"s efficacy in children between the ages of 2 and 5, Reuters writes. "Doubt about its effectiveness in this younger age group is one reason the shots, which cost as little as 50 cents, are not widely given to prevent typhoid. The potentially deadly disease comes from contaminated food and water, and kills 216,000 to 600,000 people worldwide each year," according to the news service (Emery, 7/22). Researchers found that the vaccine was 80 percent effective in preventing typhoid fever among the children in the study. The vaccine also offered 44 percent protection among "unvaccinated neighbors who were in contact with the immunized children," according to the AP/Washington Post. "Overall, the vaccine was 61 percent effective," the newspaper reports. Though typhoid fever is treatable with antibiotics, new drug-resistant strains have arisen (7/22). In addition, "Safe and effective vaccines exist but are used mainly by wealthy travellers to developing countries rather than by poor residents," AFP/Google.com writes (7/23). According to the AP/Washington Post, the study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and coordinated by the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). GlaxoSmithKline donated the vaccine used in the research (7/22). In an IVI statement, IVI Director-General John Clemens said, "The protection for children under the age of five years is important because this age group has been shown to be at high risk for typhoid fever in many areas where the disease is endemic" (7/22). In a related NEJM commentary, Myron Levine of the University of Maryland School of Medicine wrote, "The time has come to implement use of these vaccines vigorously and monitor the effect of such intervention," according to Reuters (7/22). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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