Allina in the News

Here's recent news featuring Allina Hospitals & Clinics, a not-for-profit family of hospitals, clinics and other care services dedicated to meeting the health care needs of communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
Visit our newsroom in Allina.com.

Peripheral Artery Disease Prevalent Among Patients with Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome

[Cardiology Today, July 1, 2009] Peripheral artery disease (PAD) affects more than 9 million Americans and more than 10 million in Europe, according to Alan T. Hirsch, MD, director of the vascular medicine program at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. “PAD is one of the most prevalent, morbid and mortal CVDs,” he said. “The cost of PAD is as high and likely higher than any other CVD.” Read the full story on cardiologytoday.com...

Allina to Build New Clinic in Ramsey

[Finance and Commerce, June 30, 2009] The 22,900-square-foot clinic, to be built at a yet-to-be-determined location in the city, will meet the needs of a growing community with space for additional exam rooms and care providers, according to an Allina. Read the full story on finance-commerce.com...

Area health news

This summary of health news throughout the areas Allina serves includes links to the full articles on different Web sites. Read more headlines and news stories on Allina.com.

Minnesota Has Lowest Rate of Overweight Kids

[KARE11.com, July 1, 2009; Star Tribune, July 1, 2009 ] Minnesota has the lowest rate of overweight children in the nation, according to a new report on obesity in America. The bad news is that still means 23 out of 100 kids in the state are overweight or clinically obese.
Read the full story on kare11.com...
Read the full story on startribune.com...

Report Warns of Obese Baby Boomers

[CBS News Interactive: Healthwatch, July 1, 2009; Reuters, July 1, 2009 ] Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past year and didn't decline anywhere, says a new report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Read the full story on wcco.com...
Read the full story on reuters.com...

Heroin, Prescription Drug Use Up in the Twin Cities

[Star Tribune, June 30, 2009 ] Opiate abuse is up, but stimulant use is down. Those countervailing trends in drug use in the Twin Cities last year were detected in a new report by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. It found that emergency rooms and addiction treatment programs in the metro area reported spikes in the abuse of both heroin and prescription painkillers last year. Read the full story on startribune.com...

Study Confirms Increase in Wheat Gluten Disorder

[Star Tribune, July 1, 2009 ] A Minnesota study using frozen blood samples taken from Air Force recruits 50 years ago has found that intolerance of wheat gluten, a debilitating digestive condition, is four times more common today than it was in the 1950s. Contradict the prevailing belief that a sharp increase in diagnoses of wheat gluten intolerance has come about because of greater awareness and detection, and raises questions about whether dramatic changes in the American diet have played a role. Read the full story on startribune.com...

Cure for the Health Care Crisis?

[StarTribune, July 1, 2009] The approach at Central and other community clinics sounds similar to the themes for health care reform that Obama sketched in a speech this month to the American Medical Association: Emphasizing primary care. Read the full story on startribune.com...

Thomas Sowell: Beware the Health-care-reform Bandwagon

[Pioneer Press, June 30, 2009] Most political and media discussions of medical care have an air of unreality reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. There is an abundance of catch-phrases but remarkably few coherent arguments. Read the full story on twincities.com...

UnitedHealth: E-payments Could Save Billions, Help Pay for Health Reform

[Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal, June 30, 2009 ] A report released Tuesday by the UnitedHealth claims the system could save $332 billion over the next 10 years if health providers update their technology. Much of the $332 billion in savings would come from getting rid of paper records of all types at providers. For example, UnitedHealth estimates more than $108 billion would be saved in printing, postage and administrative costs by shifting payments and remittances to an electronic format. Read the full story on bizjournals.com...

Spine Surgery May be Expensive, Risky

[St. Louis Today, June 30, 2009] A new national study confirms that thousands of Americans are opting for expensive -- and potentially risky -- spine surgery to treat their aching backs, often with a product made by Medtronic Inc. Read the full story on stltoday.com...

UnitedHealth Subsidiary Launches Short-term Plans

[Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal, June 30, 2009] New short-term insurance plans meant to serve people between jobs who find COBRA benefits too costly launched by Indianapolis-based Golden Rule Insurance Co., part of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth, said Tuesday that it is introducing its Short Term Medical Plus and Short Term Medical Value plans in 19 states — Minnesota isn’t one of them, as state law prohibits for-profit insurers. Read the full story on bizjournals.com...

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL HEALTH NEWS

Read more headlines and news stories on Allina.com.

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

TB Vaccine May Be Fatal for Infants With HIV

Infants with HIV can die if they're given a standard tuberculosis vaccine, according to a three-year study conducted in South Africa.

The World Health Organization said the study found that babies born with HIV were more likely to contract a deadly form of TB if they were given the BCG, or bacille Calmette-Guerin, vaccine, the Associated Press reported.

Infants with HIV should not receive the vaccine, and vaccination should be delayed if a baby's HIV status is unknown, the researchers said.

The study appears in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

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Colon Cancer Study Is Stopped

A late-stage study of the cancer drug Sutent as a treatment for colon cancer has been halted because the drug is not effective enough, the drug's manufacturer, Pfizer, announced Tuesday.

The study was designed to compare the use of a combination treatment of Sutent and a type of chemotherapy with use of the chemotherapy alone. Researchers found that the combination treatment was not more effective at extending survival without cancer progression.

There were no safety issues, according to Pfizer.

Sutent is approved in the United States for treatment of advanced kidney cancer and gastrointestinal cancer, the Associated Press reported.

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U.S. Government to Seek Answers to Health-Care Questions

Should birth control pills be available over the counter? What's the best way to treat back pain? Should people with irregular heartbeats have surgery or take a drug?

The U.S. government plans to spend more than $1 billion to find the answers to questions such as those, according to an Associated Press report.

The money is part of the economic stimulus plan, specifically aimed at figuring out the so-called comparative effectiveness of various treatments, tests and strategies related to health care. The idea is to give doctors better information as to what's best for a particular patient and to give patients more ammunition to become active, informed participants in their health-care decisions, the AP said.

The questions released Tuesday came from the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, and included its top 100 priorities for study. The $1.1 billion set aside for the project would cover only a fraction of the research required to obtain answers, the AP reported.

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Many Factors Contribute to AMD: Study

A wide range of genetic and environmental factors contribute to the risk of developing the eye disease age-related macular degeneration (AMD), says a U.S. study.

Researchers followed more than 1,400 people for an average of 6.3 years and identified a number of risk factors that were used to develop a predictive and possibly diagnostic model, United Press International reported.

The factors include gene variants, age, smoking, body mass index, and ocular and environmental factors. All were independently associated with AMD.

"The determinants of the model can be assessed by completing a questionnaire and taking a blood test, and it is a tool which could be used to help guide prevention and treatments," lead author Dr. Johanna M. Seddon, of Tufts University School of Medicine, and director of the Ophthalmic Epidemiology and Genetics Service and Tufts Medical Center, said in a news release, UPI reported.

The study was published in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.

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Healthy Eating a Challenge at Work: Survey

A bounty of unhealthy snacks in American workplaces makes it difficult for employees to stick to a healthy diet, according to a new survey.

Sixty-three percent of respondents said they find it a challenge to eat healthy in their workplace and 47 percent said it's because there are too many unhealthy snack options available to them at work, United Press International reported.

Only 7 percent of respondents said they eat healthier at work than they do at home, said the survey, which was sponsored by Peapod Business Delivery.

Among the other findings:

• 28 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the amount of healthy snack choices available to them at work.
• Fresh produce is the food that employees most want in the workplace, but only 36 percent of companies regularly provide vegetables and fruits.
• Candy is at the bottom of the list of foods that workers want, yet 1 in 3 businesses offer candy to employees.

Copyright © 2009 ScoutNews LLC. All rights reserved.

Published on: 07/01/2009

TODAY'S HEALTH NEWS, a compilation of local, national and international health news, comes courtesy of Allina.com.

Link broken? Links to area health news articles may change without notice. For the full text of stories, please contact the editor .

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