Month: July 2011

About 900 doctors affiliated with Aurora Health Care clinics no longer will dispense free brand-name medication samples as Wisconsin's largest hospital system joins the growing number of health care providers around the nation to spurn a long-standing pharmaceutical industry tradition. The decision, which takes effect Aug. 1, affects Aurora Medical Group doctors at about 160 clinics, which log more than 3 million patient visits a year. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/25)

Come the first of the year, state workers and university employees will take another financial hit associated with their recent loss of collective bargaining power as the second wave of increased health insurance costs takes effect. Depending on the policy and the size of an employee's family, the changes could amount to anywhere from $200 to several thousands dollars in additional spending per year for health care coverage. (CAPITAL TIMES, 7/22)

When doctors scanned Susan Baker Kiconas' brain to see how a rare disease was destroying her vision, they found another problem: a large aneurysm, or blood vessel bulge. At UW Hospital last week, she got a new device that patches weakened arteries and cuts off blood flow to large aneurysms, greatly reducing the risk of rupture. UW Hospital is the first place in Wisconsin to offer the procedure, approved by the government in April. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 7/22)

A 65-year-old Columbia County man is the first confirmed death in Wisconsin related to the heat wave and authorities are investigating a death in Madison to determine whether it's heat-related, according to reports. Authorities have not released the name of the man who died Monday in Fountain Prairie, Columbia County Medical Examiner Angela Hinze said. The man had underlying medical conditions and was outdoors helping a family member with housework when the heat worsened his condition, Hinze said. (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/22)

The 50 psychiatrists, medical doctors and psychologists at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex would get midyear pay raises under a plan a County Board committee endorsed Wednesday. The salary upgrades are being sought because of the difficulty the complex has had in recruiting and retaining staff. The move also comes in the wake of damaging reports on patient assaults and efforts by the county to improve the quality of patient care, detailed in the Journal Sentinel's "Patients in Peril" series. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/21)

ENDECE, a Mequon biopharmaceutical company focused on cancer research and drug discovery, has received $1.2 million in funding from a group of private investors. The money will be used to further the development of the company's lead compound, NDC-1308, which the company says shuts down a tumor's ability to survive by targeting molecular "bioswitches" that control metabolic pathways within cells. (MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/21)

Two Marquette University School of Dentistry professors have received grants totaling more than $450,000 from the National Institutes of Health. (MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/21)

Seven months after doctors and scientists at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin published a groundbreaking paper describing how they read the genetic script of a young boy and used the results to treat him, the largest hospital chain in the New England region is launching its own pilot program to sequence the genomes of select patients. Partners HealthCare System, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School and includes Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, has enrolled its first family in the sequencing program and plans to follow the pilot effort by introducing the technology to its hospitals early in 2012. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/20)