Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)

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2D Barcodes Can Save Money And Streamline EHR Implementation

Katie Wike | Healthcare Technology Online | August 13, 2013

The use of 2D barcodes for vaccines improves the accuracy of medical records and transfers patient information directly into an EHR system; providing healthcare savings is the next step Read More »

A Same-Sex Domestic Violence Epidemic Is Silent

Maya Shwayder | The Atlantic | November 5, 2013

Domestic violence—or as it's often referred to today, intimate partner violence—is usually discussed in the context of heterosexual relationships. But partner violence is also an issue in the LGBTQ community, a fact that has only come to light in recent years. Read More »

Animal Antibiotics: FDA Rules Criticized As Weak As McDonald's

Ben Elgin and Andrew Martin | Bloomberg Businessweek | January 2, 2014

A delegation of public-health advocates filed into the suburban Chicago headquarters of McDonald’s (MCD) last January to deliver a tough message: A decade after the fast-food giant’s groundbreaking promise to reduce medically important antibiotics fed to the animals it buys, the policy had glaring loopholes and was having a questionable impact. Read More »

Before Privatizing The VA, Publicize It

Leah Binder | The Health Care Blog | June 1, 2014

The Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital scandal has policymakers calling for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s head, and this week they got it, when President Obama accepted the Secretary’s resignation...

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CDC Calls Back Staff To Handle Salmonella Outbreak

Cole Petrochko | MedPage Today | October 8, 2013

An outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg has spread to 18 states and has sickened nearly 300, prompting the return of some 30 CDC staffers furloughed during the government shutdown to work on the case. Read More »

CDC Calls Out Antibiotic Prescribing Problems

Lisa Schnirring | Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) | March 4, 2014

In a major report today that looked at antibiotic usage, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said some clinicians in similar hospital units prescribe triple the amounts, with some making the types of errors that fuel drug-resistance problems that put many more patients at risk. Read More »

CDC's Virtual Events Program Created By The Public Sector, For The Public Sector

Brittany Ballenstedt | Nextgov | February 7, 2014

Declines in budgets across the public health community were just one reason the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began looking at innovative approaches for employees and partners to collaborate online. Read More »

CDC: Have App, Will Travel

John Pulley | NextGov | February 1, 2012

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now has an app geared toward the iPad generation. The CDC's leap into mobile health gives iPad users touchpad access to the organization's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube sites, as well as articles about health topics, a health-related blog, updated CDC announcements and news releases, and the CDC's podcast library. Read More »

CDC: Why Is Lyme Disease Activity So Much Higher Than Predicted?

Alice G. Walton | Forbes | August 20, 2013

Sunday night’s conference on Lyme and other tick-borne diseases released some new data from the CDC on the number of people affected each year by Lyme disease. Namely, it pointed to a major difference in the recorded number of people affected by the disease and the actual number... Read More »

Chinese Melamine and American Vioxx: A Comparison

Ron Unz | The American Conservative | April 18, 2012

In contrasting China and America, pundits often cite our free and independent media as one of our greatest strengths, together with the tremendous importance which our society places upon individual American lives. Read More »

Cities Might Not Be As Prepared As They Think For A Bioterrorism Attack

John Metcalfe | The Atlantic Cities | July 24, 2013

Imagine that a small group of terrorists deliberately infect themselves with smallpox and then walk around London, spreading it to the populace. How much could the terrible disease proliferate before the world realized something was amiss? Read More »

Docs In For Stage 2 Rude Awakening

Erin McCann | Healthcare IT News | January 22, 2014

Most office-based physicians are not prepared for the October 2014 beginning attestation date. In fact, many aren't even close. Only 13 percent say their electronic health record systems have the abilities to support 14 of the 17 core Stage 2 objectives, according to a new CDC trends report released last week. Read More »

Fewer Moonshots, More Walks

In a provocative op-ed piece, Jarle Breivik, a professor of medicine at the University of Oslo, takes aim at the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative announced earlier this year by President Obama.  Nice try, he concedes -- but the reality is: "We’re a lot better at fighting cancer. We just can’t cure it." Is this stereotypical Norwegian pessimism or just some badly needed Scandinavian bluntness? Dr. Breivik points out that cancer is fundamentally a disease of aging, and none of us is getting any younger.  All our efforts to improve lifespan end up putting us at risk of living long enough that we'll get some form of cancer...

Funded vs. Unfunded Standards Development

Keith W. Boone | Healthcare IT News | August 26, 2013

I've noticed a trend of late.  A significant number of standards efforts are being pushed forwards by funded projects, instead of through unfunded initiatives.  I'd call them "volunteer-led" initiatives, but in an SDO, there are few real volunteers.  I get paid by my employer to participate in standards activities, as do most people I know who are involved.  It is simply a matter direct vs. indirect economic benefit. Read More »

Georgia Tech Develops Software for the Rapid Analysis of Foodborne Pathogens

Georgia Institute of Technology | ECN | February 8, 2012

The Georgia Tech scientists created an open source software package, the Computational Genomics Pipeline (CG-pipeline), to help meet CDC’s need. The software platform is now used worldwide in public health research and response efforts.

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