Culture | Page 2236 | Science Codex

How much will I be charged?

It's a basic, reasonable question: How much will this cost me? For patients in the emergency room, the answer all too often is a mystery.

Emergency departments play a critical role in health care, yet consumers typically know little about how medical charges are determined and often underestimate their financial responsibility -- then are shocked when the hospital bill arrives.

A new study led by UC San Francisco highlights the problem by identifying giant price swings in patient charges for the 10 most common outpatient conditions in emergency rooms across the country.

Putting time in its proper place

Boulder, Colorado, USA – In the March issue of GSA Today, seven scientists from six countries, led by Jan Zalasiewicz of the University of Leicester, propose a realignment of the terms "geochronology" and "chronostratigraphy" in an attempt to resolve the debate of whether units of the Geological Time Scale should have a single (time) or dual (time and time-rock) hierarchy.

Rapid, point-of-care tests for syphilis: The future of diagnosis

Montreal, February 27th – Syphilis is on the rise worldwide and there is an urgent need for reliable and rapid screening, particularly for people who live in areas where access to healthcare is limited. An international research team, led by scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) in Montreal, has demonstrated that rapid and point-of-care tests (POC) for syphilis are as accurate as conventional laboratory tests.

Workstation design improvements for drone operators may reduce costs & mishaps, researchers suggest

The U.S. Department of Defense reports that drone accidents in which personnel or aircraft are damaged or destroyed occur 50 times more often than mishaps involving human-operated aircraft. The U.S. Marines and Army reported 43 mishaps that involved human factors issues associated with drone ground control workstations and technology during 2006−2007.

Infusion of stem cells and specially generated T-cells from same donor improves leukemia survival

SEATTLE – In a significant advance for harnessing the immune system to treat leukemias, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for the first time have successfully infused large numbers of donor T-cells specific for a key anti-leukemic antigen to prolong survival in high-risk and relapsed leukemia patients after stem cell transplantation. Both the stem cells for transplant and the T-cells came from the same matched donors.

Lipid researcher, 98, reports on the dietary causes of heart disease

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A 98-year-old researcher argues that, contrary to decades of clinical assumptions and advice to patients, dietary cholesterol is good for your heart – unless that cholesterol is unnaturally oxidized (by frying foods in reused oil, eating lots of polyunsaturated fats, or smoking).

Sequestration will be a devastating blow to the nation's research institutions and scientists

Bethesda, MD - The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is once again calling on Congress and the President to work together to prevent sequestration, the automatic across-the-board budget cuts that are scheduled to go into effect on March 1st. "These automatic spending cuts will stop science advances in their tracks and cost highly trained researchers their jobs," said FASEB President, Judith S. Bond, PhD.

Moral Hazard: How people choose insurance plans

Economists often talk about "moral hazard," the idea that people's behavior changes in the presence of insurance. In finance, for instance, investors may take more risks if they know they will be bailed out, the subject of ongoing political controversy, while the most likely person to buy an alarm system is someone who got robbed.

When it comes to health insurance, the existence of moral hazard is a more matter-of-fact issue: When people get health insurance, they use more medical care, according to a recent randomized study on the impact of Medicaid.

Married opposite-sex couples have better overall health than same-sex couples who live together

Same-sex couples who live together have worse health than married opposite-sex couples and similar health as opposite-sex couples who are living together (after adjusting for socioeconomic differences), according to a new study from researchers at Rice University.

"Families, Resources and Adult Health: Where Do Sexual Minorities Fit?" is one of the first studies comparing the health of married couples, cohabitating opposite-sex couples and cohabiting same-sex couples. The study appears in the March 2013 Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Superbug CRE may endure in patients 1 year after initial infection: Study

Washington, DC, February 27, 2013 -- Patients who tested positive for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) took an average of 387 days following hospital discharge to be clear of the organism, according to a new study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

Studying the health of same-sex couples

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Same-sex couples that live together report worse health than people of the same socioeconomic status who are in heterosexual marriages, according to a national study that could have implications for the gay marriage debate.

Research has shown that married people are healthier than the unmarried. Yet, while gay marriage is gaining support in Michigan and around the country, most same-sex cohabiters do not have the option of legally marrying their partners, noted Hui Liu, Michigan State University sociologist and lead investigator on the study.

Study: Same-sex cohabitors less healthy than those in heterosexual marriages

WASHINGTON, DC, February 21, 2013 — Same-sex cohabitors report worse health than people of the same socioeconomic status who are in heterosexual marriages, according to a new study, which may provide fuel for gay marriage proponents.

Brandeis University study finds public policy, institutional barriers are pushing racial wealth gap

New research shows the dramatic gap in household wealth that now exists along racial lines in the United States cannot solely be attributed to personal ambition and behavioral choices, but rather reflects policies and institutional practices that create different opportunities for whites and African-Americans.

Mental health-substance use services in hospitals up after parity law, finds new report

WASHINGTON, DC —The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 ("Parity Act") increased access to mental health and substance use services in hospitals, yet consumers continued to pay more out-of-pocket for substance use admissions than for other types of hospital admissions, finds a new Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) report.

HPS2-THRIVE trial: Side-effects cause a quarter of heart patients to stop treatment

The largest randomised study of the vitamin niacin in patients with occlusive arterial disease (narrowing of the arteries) has shown a significant increase in adverse side-effects when it is combined with statin treatment.

Results from the HPS2-THRIVE study (Heart Protection Study 2 – Treatment of HDL to Reduce the Incidence of Vascular Events), including the reasons patients stopped the study treatment, are published online today (Wednesday) in the European Heart Journal [1].