health care

Health & Safety

Fighting To Breathe: Living With COPD

2:21pm June 12, 2013

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive lung disease that slowly robs sufferers of the ability to breathe. COPD is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., surpassed only by cancer and heart disease. There are treatments, but no cure for the disease.

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Mike Jackson has diabetes and high blood pressure. His eye was damaged after he cut back on insulin because he couldn't afford it.

African-Americans Remain Hardest Hit By Medical Bills

8:37am June 11, 2013

by Patti Neighmond

Nearly 1 in 4 tell pollsters they're having a hard time paying for needed prescription medicine; 1 in 3 say they struggled to pay bills from hospitals or doctors last year.

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Feds Buckle On Emergency Contraception Age Restrictions

5:23am June 11, 2013

The administration had been trying to appeal a judge's ruling to make the morning-after birth control pill available over the counter with no age restrictions. The Justice Department said it would obey the order — sort of. The FDA may soon approve the over-the-counter sale of Plan B One Step without a prescription.

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Health & Safety

The Promise In Unraveling The Mysteries Of Rare Diseases

3:13pm June 10, 2013

As a child, Jeannie Peeper was diagnosed with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, an extremely rare disease that causes a second skeleton to grow inside the body. Peeper and science writer Carl Zimmer discuss the efforts of a small group to fund research to battle the disease.

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Jonathan Bush, co-founder, athenahealth, at Health Datapalooza IV, where he urged the government to release more data on health care quality and costs.

Datapalooza: A Concept, A Conference And A Movement

8:29pm June 07, 2013

by Eric Whitney

Entrepreneurs, investors and data geeks descended on Washington, D.C., in pursuit of better ways to make health information useful for consumers. They urged bureaucrats to set the health data free.

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Michelle Williams (center) and two daughters visit the grave of her mother, Judy Williams, at Fairview Cemetery in Hyde Park, Mass., on May 11. Judy died in 2011.

A Boston Family's Struggle With TB Reveals A Stubborn Foe

9:10am June 04, 2013

by Richard Knox

Tuberculosis is much less of a health threat in the United States than it is in other countries. But a family in Boston discovered that even here, no one is immune from this ancient foe. More than a dozen family members were infected with TB, and matriarch Judy Williams died at age 59.

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A construction worker paints walls at the Maryland Proton Treatment Center in Baltimore. Each of the center's five rooms will contain a massive piece of equipment that will rotate around a cancer patient to deliver a special kind of radiation.

Proton Beam Therapy Sparks Hospital Arms Race

10:41am June 03, 2013

by Jenny Gold

Local officials in Washington D.C., are on the verge of approving two high-tech radiation facilities for treating cancer at a total cost of $153 million. The treatment these hospitals would offer costs twice as much as standard radiation, but hasn't been shown to work any better for most cancers.

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Jen Regan strokes the head of her fiancée, Marc Fucarile, as he sleeps in his hospital bed at Massachusetts General Hospital. Fucarile was injured in the bombings at the Boston Marathon, and had to have his right leg amputated.

Survivor Of Boston Marathon Bombings Has Long Road Ahead

10:41am June 03, 2013

by Martha Bebinger

Marc Fucarlie left the hospital this week, after 45 days of surgeries and skin grafts, induced comas and dozens of tests. His right leg was amputated and it's uncertain how functional his left leg will be. His rehabilitation will take years, and he's worried about how he'll pay for it.

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Health & Safety

Hospital Reviews, Take Them With A Grain Of Salt

2:10pm May 30, 2013

Online reviews can come in handy when choosing a restaurant, but when it comes to picking a hospital, ratings and anecdotal reports can be misleading. Dr. Richard Gunderman explains how to sort through reviews and ratings to find the right hospital for you.

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Health & Safety

Health Law Spared Young Adults From High Hospital Bills

7:18pm May 29, 2013

by Sarah Varney

Young adults insured under their parents' plans were shielded from the potentially catastrophic cost of a medical emergency, a review of hospital records found. Researchers say $147 million in hospital bills were charged to insurers rather than the patients in 2011.

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