Who will win the election?

Barack Obama.  According to Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog, Obama has a 90 percent chance of winning the election.  Further, Obama is trending upwards.  According to Silver: Among 12 national polls published on Monday, Mr. Obama led by an average of 1.6 percentage points. Perhaps more important is the trend in the surveys. On average, Mr.…

Nurse anesthetists: To Reimburse or Not to Reimburse?

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently approved reimbursing nurse anesthetists for care provided to Medicare beneficiaries. Critics say it jeopardizes patient safety, while supporters say it extends health care to pain patients who are often underserved by the medical community. The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) (unsurprisingly) applauds the decision. Janice…

Hospital Quality Reporting in Italy

In the U.S. patients can use Hospital Compare to evaluate the quality of care individuals receive at each hospital in the U.S.  In Italy, there is P.Re.Val.E.  A paper by Renzi et al. explains: A Regional Outcome Evaluation Program (P.Re.Val.E.) was launched in the Lazio region of central Italy starting in 2005 (Fusco et al.…

Malaria returns to Greece

The impact of Greece economic crisis affects not only their population’s wallets, but also their health as well.  Contagious diseases such as malaria and HIV are on the rise in Greece. Some 70 cases have been reported there this year, and at least 12 people appear to have been infected in the country. (The others…