Month: September 2011

One of the first pieces of mail to arrive at the couple's new address was from the city, telling residents about plans for a new UW Health clinic at the long-vacant Bancroft Dairy site just north of their street. The proposal would raze eight residential properties along Midland and Fish Hatchery, while also removing the rusting and abandoned industrial facility. In place of the existing housing: some 360 parking spaces to serve a new Wingra Family Medical Center and offices for the UW Medical Foundation proposed for a portion of the dairy site. (CAPITAL TIMES, 9/7)

Area public health departments are moving away from providing clinical based services for individuals and instead focusing on broad assessment, education and policy initiatives. The change is driven in part by inadequate funding, but health officials said they don't anticipate people losing access to any services. (OSHKOSH NORTHWESTERN, 9/7)

Two for-profit hospice companies have opened offices recently in Madison, creating a level of competition never seen before in a market long dominated by nonprofit HospiceCare Inc. HospiceCare, in Fitchburg, is suing one of the companies, Iowa-based Saint Jude Hospice, for trademark infringement. It says the tree in Saint Jude's logo looks too much like HospiceCare's tree. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 9/6))

What is the maximum dose of a drug that will limit side effects to an acceptable level? How many patients would benefit from a treatment and how many would be harmed? Would the potential benefit of screening everyone for a disease outweigh the potential harm to people who receive unneeded care because of inaccurate results? These are common questions in modern medicine. Yet answering them often would require clinical trials that span decades. That's not practical or even feasible. Instead, researchers are turning to computer models, meshing math and biology to develop a better understanding of the effectiveness of diagnostic tests and treatments. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 9/6)

The information that exists in Medicare billing records, patient registries and electronic health records could help answer one of the most common questions in modern medicine: How well does one treatment work compared with another? Purushottam "Prakash" Laud, a professor of biostatistics at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and a group of colleagues at the Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Texas have a three-year grant for nearly $1.2 million to develop software to help make better use of the information from Medicare billing records and other large databases. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 9/6)

A large clinical trial led by researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin of a CPR device to treat cardiac arrest failed to show a survival benefit, but the study's lead author said he believes combining the device with another CPR device eventually will save lives. The newest development involves a study published in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 9/2)

The state board that disciplines doctors correctly sanctioned a former University of Wisconsin Hospital physician who was accused of indecently touching female patients over a period of two years, an appeals court ruled Thursday. The 4th District Court of Appeals said that the state Medical Examining Board properly sanctioned Frank Salvi in 2009. He was suspended for 90 days and required to undergo a mental evaluation and five years of supervision. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 9/2)

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Wisconsin is attempting to keep people out of costly emergency rooms with a new partnership with Google Maps. (MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 9/1)

The United Way of Greater Milwaukee will look to bolster the fight against infant mortality in the city with a $48 million fundraising campaign this fall. Leaders of the 2011 Community Campaign unveiled the goal Wednesday during a kickoff event at MillerCoors Brewery. The goal exceeds the amount raised during the 2010 campaign by about $1.5 million and would be a record for the charity. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 9/1)