The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) announced today that is has officially launched its new website for US patients and families, www.getpalliativecare.org. The site is designed to provide patients, family caregivers, doctors and policymakers with clear, concise palliative care information that can often be confusing to most consumers. [click link for full article]

Possis Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ-NMS: POSS) a developer, manufacturer and distributor of pioneering medical devices used in endovascular procedures, today announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its AngioJet® Spiroflex® rapid exchange catheter to remove blood clots (thrombus) from coronary arteries. [click link for full article]

To help progress and financially back the drug’s development, the Florey and Starfish Ventures, a leading Australian venture capital firm, have formed a start-up company, ‘Nephrodynamics Pty Ltd’.Septic shock can occur if a patient contracts a bacterial infection after surgery. It is the main cause of mortality in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and has up to a 40% mortality rate. [click link for full article]

Some physicians are concerned by recent research that showed as many as one-third of women taking breast cancer drugs developed in the past 10 years do not complete their recommended five-year course, which could lead to a recurrence of the disease and a reduced chance of survival, the Los Angeles Times reports. [click link for full article]

The routine vaccination against cervical cancer for pre-teen girls in the US is emerging as a concern to some parents and doctors as more and more states go down this path. [click link for full article]

Arrhythmia Alliance and supporting charities (STARS and SADS UK) are very happy to announce the Arrhythmia Awareness Week 2007(11th-17th June).2006 witnessed the great success of the beginning of the implementation in England of the National Service Framework (NSF), Chapter 8 for Coronary Heart Disease on Arrhythmias and Sudden Cardiac Death. Our Awareness Week last year played an important role in highlighting this via events held countrywide as well as lobbying MP support. [click link for full article]

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the world’s leading charitable funder of type 1 diabetes research, announced today that JDRF-funded researchers have identified a group of proteins that may play critical roles in causing blood vessel leakage in the eyes of people with two forms of diabetic retinopathy.These findings result from years of research conducted by Edward Feener, Ph.D. [click link for full article]

“Medicare for all is the only reform that has a prayer of providing universal coverage while containing costs,” Marcia Angell, former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, writes in a Boston Globe opinion piece. [click link for full article]

A Medicare pay-for-performance pilot project that rewards hospitals based on quality measures contributes to “modest” improvements in quality of care, according to a study published online Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Wall Street Journal reports (Tomsho, Wall Street Journal, 1/29). The project, which launched in October 2003, includes about 260 hospitals in 38 states. [click link for full article]

Several recent editorials and opinion pieces addressed entitlement spending, including a bill passed last week by the House that would require the HHS secretary to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies on prices for medications under the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Summaries appear below. [click link for full article]