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Massachusetts Health Insurance Law Has Increased Access To Care, Though Residents' Ability To Obtain Treatment Hampered By Provider Supply, Study Find
Since the implementation of the Massachusetts health insurance law in 2006, more residents have health coverage and increased access to care, but rising health care costs combined with the current economic recession could undermine some of the law"s successes, according to the third annual "Update on Health Reform in Massachusetts" report by the Urban Institute, the Boston Globe reports. The study was funded by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Commonwealth Fund, and published in the journal Health Affairs.For the report, Sharon Long of the Urban Institute and colleagues surveyed about 4,000 Massachusetts adults in 2007 and 2008 and compared their health care habits with those of residents surveyed in 2006 -- just after the law went into effect. Researchers found that although there were initial gains in health care affordability, there are now some signs that an increasing number of state residents are reporting problems paying for medical bills, and an increasing number of people -- especially lower-income residents -- not seeking care because of costs (Lazar, Boston Globe, 5/28). One in five adults reported being told in the past 12 months that a physician or clinic was not accepting new patients or would not see patients with their type of insurance (Sack, New York Times, 5/28). Lower-income residents had more difficulties finding a physician than higher-income residents, with 24% of residents enrolled in state-subsidized health plans, saying they were told that a physician did not accept their insurance, compared with 7% of residents with private coverage (Boston Globe, 5/28). Additional Findings
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Westernization Associated With Potentially Harmful Sun Habits Among Asian Americans
Asian Americans who have adopted more aspects of Western culture may be more likely to engage in behaviors that increase sun exposure, thereby endangering their skin health, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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What Is First Aid? What Is The Recovery Position?
Globally, millions of people die each year as a result of accidents or serious injury. Unfortunately, many of those deaths could have been prevented had first aid been administered at the scene immediately, before the emergency services arrived. First aid, or emergency first aid is the care that is given to an injured or sick person prior to treatment by medically trained personnel. According to Medilexicon"s medical dictionary, first aid is "Immediate assistance administered in the case of injury or sudden illness by a bystander or other layperson, before the arrival of trained medical personnel."
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New Oral Agents May Prevent Injury After Radiation Exposure

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and collaborators have discovered and analyzed several new compounds, collectively called the ""EUK-400 series,"" which could someday be used to prevent radiation-induced injuries to kidneys, lungs, skin, intestinal tract and brains of radiological terrorism victims. The findings, which appear in the June issue of the Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, describe new agents which can be given orally in pill form, which would more expedient in an emergency situation. These agents are novel synthetic "antioxidants" that protect tissues against the kind of damage caused by agents such as "free radicals." Free radicals, and similar toxic byproducts formed in the body, are implicated in many different types of tissue injury, including those caused by radiation exposure. Often, this kind of injury occurs months to years after radiation exposure. The BUSM researchers and their colleagues are developing agents that prevent injury even when given after the radiation exposure. This paper describes a newer class of compounds, the ""EUK-400 series,"" that are designed to be given as a pill. According to the researchers, experiments described in their paper prove that these agents are orally active. They also show that the new agents have several desirable "antioxidant" activities, and protect cells in a "cell death" model. These same BUSM researchers and collaborators had previously discovered novel synthetic antioxidants that effectively mitigate radiation injuries, but had to be given by injection. "We have developed some of these agents and have studied them for over 15 years beginning with our work at the local biotechnology company Eukarion," said senior author Susan Doctrow, PhD, a research associate professor of medicine at BUSM"s Pulmonary Center. "These injectible antioxidants are very effective, but there has also been a desire to have agents that can be given orally. A pill would be more feasible than an injection to treat large numbers of people in an emergency scenario," she adds. Future studies will focus on the EUK-400 compounds" effects in various experimental models for radiation injury. Data showing their benefits in models for radiation injury in blood vessel cells have been presented at two major scientific conferences and will be the topic of future publication. More broadly, beyond the potential for treating victims of radiological terrorism, these compounds could also be useful drugs against a variety of diseases where an effective antioxidant has potential benefits, for example, various neurological, pulmonary, cardiovascular, and autoimmune disorders. Previously, Doctrow"s lab and others have published studies showing that the injectible versions of these compounds are beneficial in models for several such diseases. Funding for this study was provided by the U.S. Centers for Medical Countermeasures Against Radiation (CMCR) program, administered by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The study was initiated with CMCR "Pilot Grant" funding awarded to Dr. Rosalind Rosenthal, first author of the paper and currently a research associate at BUSM. Doctrow"s laboratory at BUSM is a member of a five-institution CMCR program, based at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Allison Rubin Boston University Medical Center


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