On Wednesday WellPoint, Inc. recorded a 25 perecnt drop in quarterly profit. However,their shares lifted a bit with hopes that the health insurer will be able to contain and fix the problems that have plagued it in the past. The lift in share prices is encouraging for others in the industry indicating that this may not be a broad downturn. One would think that this indicates that the issues may be company specific and not an indicator of broad downturn. This is encouraging to most analysts. Other companies that enjoyed a lift in share price were: Aetna Inc climbed 5.2 percent, Cigna Corp bounced up 8 percent, and Coventry Health Care jumped 3.8 percent

Read more about WellPoint, Inc. at: WellPoint Financial Summary by Yahoo Finance

1. Laws prohibiting workplace discrimination (i.e. the Americans with Disabilities Act) may pose problems and potential litigation for companies who want to start a mandatory wellness program.
2. The new federal wellness rules offer leeway to companies so that they can reward those employees doing the "right" things and lay out penalties for those not complying.
3. They also spell out accommodations companies can make for employees with special circumstances.Wellness programs, including determining employees’ health status, implicates privacy concerns under HIPAA and other laws, and the credibility of physician certifications regarding medical inadvisability of participating in wellness programs

Check out the full details at: www.ngelaw.com/news/event_detail.aspx

The latest news, articles and online resources related to bioinformatics, computational biology, systems biology, nano technology, stem cell research, genomics and proteomics.

Bio Informatics is a science involving the techniques of chemistry, statistics, mathematics, computer science, informatics and biochemistry to solve biological problems on the molecular level. The use of computers make the handling of information easier and when such biological information is provided to you through computers it becomes easier to access data quickly, making biological research more productive and effective.

Bio Informatics Research

Major research is done in areas like sequence analysis, gene finding, protein structure alignment and prediction, protein-protein interactions and evolution. Sequence analysis is a computer based examination of fragments such as DNA strands to either find similar sequences or identification of genes or to predict protein structures and similar observations. Gene finding can involve gene duplication, lateral gene transfer and the prediction of bacterial factors. Measuring biodiversity consists of using specialized software programs to find, visualize and analyze information relating to species, genetics, size of populations, habitat needs and so on. In cancer the genomes of the affected cells are rearranged in a complicated manner thus massive sequencing is required to find the previous original combination which can be done using bio informatics.

Software tools for bioinformatics vary from simple command line tools to complex graphical programs. The best tool available is the BLAST used for determining the similarity of sequences from databases of protein or DNA sequences. SOAP (Service Oriented Architecture Protocol) based bioinformatics web services show the methods to use these for solutions. These can vary from standalone systems to entire comprehensive workflow management systems.

Latest Bio Informatic News

As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, an Oakland environmental group warned in a recent study that nurses are being exposed to harmful chemicals. I ronically, the exposure is from chemicals used to keep the hospital clean and treat patients. The group sites "heavy-duty cleaners and latex to chemotherapy drugs" could have long term effects on the nurses health. A study conducted by the Environmental Working Group and Health Care Without Harm, evaluated nursing exposure to 11 common chemicals use in healthcare, including anesthesia gas, hand disinfectants, cleaning agents and chemicals used for sterilization. The study notes that exposure may increase the risk of cancer, asthma and miscarriage rates for nurses that are exposed.

The frightening part of all this is that the nurses are unknowingly being exposed - the study notes that nurses may not even be aware that job related chemical exposure is an issue.

Check out the full story on nurses and chemical exposure here >>>

Job cuts continued today with news of Novartis slashing 2,500 full-time positions, or about 2.5% of its work force. The Wall Street Journal health blog reports that Novartis CEO Dan Vasella forshadowed the job cuts in a recent WSJ interview stating that it was going to cut 1,260 sales jobs mostly in the United States.

You can check out the WSJ blog post here… blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/12/13/swiss-miss-novartis-cuts-jobs-amid-drug-delays-competition/

Merck issued a 2008 earnings projection that fell short of analysts’ expectations. The drug maker also will book a $670 million charge in the current quarter to resolve probes related to its marketing efforts.

Merck 2008 Projected Earnings

Health Industry News - Commentary

Famed documentary filmmaker, Michael Moore has attacked the US healthcare policies in his new movie, entitled Sicko. In it, he attacks the HMO systems and insurance companies, well known for declining patients care due to lack of medical necessity or because the procedure is considered experimental. He featured several people victimized by various insurance companies or HMOs and, for a time, it seemed like the entire two hour movie would be a litany of healthcare nightmares.

By Christine Traxler M.D.

Famed documentary filmmaker, Michael Moore has attacked the US healthcare policies in his new movie, entitled Sicko. In it, he attacks the HMO systems and insurance companies, well known for declining patients care due to lack of medical necessity or because the procedure is considered experimental. He featured several people victimized by various insurance companies or HMOs and, for a time, it seemed like the entire two hour movie would be a litany of healthcare nightmares.

He introduced the audience to those who live in the northern part of the country who have dual citizenship with Canada and who have faked "common law marriages" with Canadians just to get the benefits of the Canadian healthcare system. Traveling to the UK and to France, he entertained the audience with stories of people who are used to getting their healthcare free. In France, one can get a free nanny of sorts who comes in for 8 hours a week to do their laundry and take care of the baby while the mother gets things done, like shopping, etc.

The policies of Canada, France and the UK involve universal free healthcare for all citizens. In spite of those who claim there are long waiting periods and diminished level of care, Michael Moore found only those who were happy with the system. He spoke to doctors and patients alike, including transported Americans, who had nothing but good things to say about this type of health system.

One of the highlights of the movie was a segment about individuals suffering from heath issues as a result of being volunteers at the 9/11 ground zero rescue site. As they weren’t government employees, they were not eligible for healthcare. Michael Moor got the idea that, since the terrorists at Guantanamo Bay received free universal healthcare, he hired a boat and took these people to Cuba. While they couldn’t get into Guantanamo Bay, they made it to Havana, where they had free, universal healthcare. The 9/11 volunteers were all admitted and treated for free in Havana, despite being US citizens. The whole thing was really touching.

His whole message was that US health policies need serious revamping and that a great many US citizens are falling through the cracks. As a healthcare provider, I can’t agree more. It would take a great deal for the US to overcome lobbying efforts, taxpayer concerns and Congress in general to get the kind of healthcare that the rest of the Western world takes for granted. We’re closer to China, which has essentially no insurance system, than we are to many modern countries. Possibly, a movie like Sicko will help change policy in the US for the better.

About the Author
Dr. Christine Traxler was a family practice physician in rural Minnesota before turning to medical writing and editing. She currently lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has two daughters. 

Microsoft announced its plan to jump into the medical record business - what will they think of next?

Read Microsoft Plans Medical record Service

The article goes on to state… "On Thursday the company is outlining its vision, dubbed HealthVault, in which a person can view, from one place, their complete health records. Consumers will be able to view information from medical devices, myriad health care providers and insurance companies as well as share that information with health care providers of their choosing or search for information related to their health issues."

If your reaction is the same as mine (shocked, amused and left with a feeling that there is no way can they pull this off) - then you will enjoy Chris Pirillo’s blog and video - check it out here…

Chris goes on to say…

"On Thursday the company outlined its vision, dubbed HealthVault, in which a person can view, from one place, their complete health records. Consumers will be able to view information from medical devices, myriad health care providers and insurance companies as well as share that information with health care providers of their choosing or search for information related to their health issues."

 Another good article can be found on ZDNet at http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=891

Who do you think will win the race for medical record dominance?

- Google

- Microsoft

- Other

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