Wellness Update: North America: Hospital Supplies Market Outlook to 2017 - Business Wire - SunHerald.com

Research and Markets: North America Hospital Supplies Market Outlook to 2017 - Business Wire - SunHerald.com: "DUBLIN -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bc312a/north_america_hosp) has announced the addition of GlobalData's new report 'North America Hospital Supplies Market Outlook to 2017' to their offering.
The new report, North America Hospital Supplies Market Outlook to 2017 provides key market data on the North America Hospital Supplies market - Canada and United States. The report provides value (USD million) data for all the market categories - Disposable Hospital Supplies, Mobility Aids and Transportation Equipment, Operating Room Equipment, Patient Examination Devices, Sterilization and Disinfectant Equipment and Syringes and Needles. The report also provides company shares and distribution shares data for each of the aforementioned market categories. The report is supplemented with global corporate-level profiles of the key market participants.
This report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, primary and secondary research and in-house analysis by a team of industry experts."

Wellness Update: North America: Medical News: Salt Study Discounts Link to Hypertension - in Cardiovascular, Hypertension from MedPage Today

Medical News: Salt Study Discounts Link to Hypertension - in Cardiovascular, Hypertension from MedPage Today: "Staessen and colleagues found:

Cardiovascular deaths decreased across increasing tertiles of 24-hour urinary sodium excretion. There were 50 deaths in the low group, 24 in the medium tertile, and 10 in the high group – 4.1%, 1.9%, and 0.8% of the cohort, respectively – and the differences were significant at P<0.001.
The risk of cardiovascular death was significantly elevated in the low tertile, with a hazard ratio of 1.56 and a 95% confidence interval from 1.02 to 2.36, which was significant at P=0.04.
24-hour urinary sodium excretion was not associated with incidence of hypertension. There were 187 new cases of hypertension in the low tertile, 190 in the medium, and 175 in the high group over the follow-up period.
In multivariate analyses, a 100-millimole increase in sodium excretion was associated with a systolic blood pressure of 1.71 millimeters of mercury (significant at P<0.001) but no change in diastolic pressure."

Wellness Update: North America: Health Tip: Taking a Cruise? - US News and World Report

Health Tip: Taking a Cruise? - US News and World Report: "The National Center for Environmental Health suggests these tips to help prevent the spread of illness:

Wash your hands -- before and after eating or smoking; after touching your face or going to the bathroom, and when your hands are simply dirty.
Leave the area if you see someone get sick (vomiting or diarrhea). Report the problem to cruise staff, if they haven't already been notified.
Take care of yourself. Get plenty of rest and drink lots of water. Resting helps rebuild your immune system. Drinking water helps prevents dehydration.
Be considerate of other people's health. If you're ill before taking a cruise, call the cruise line to determine if you can reschedule, and if there are alternatives to losing your deposit or fare."

WELLNESS UPDATE: NORTH AMERICA: Jazz Festival

Detroit jazz festival’s new sponsor trio: Fiat, St. John Health, PNC Bank - Crain's Detroit Business - Detroit News and Information: "Laura Soave, head of the Fiat brand for North America, attended a luncheon today at the Detroit Athletic Club during which this year’s jazz lineup was announced. There also is talk of offering test drives of the Fiat 500 during the festival, scheduled for Sept. 2-5.

Besides local jazz artists, this year’s lineup will include artists from Japan, the Netherlands, Israel, South Africa, England and Brazil, celebrating the influence jazz has had on the world and the world’s influence on jazz.

The festival attracted about 750,000 people last year, Turnbull said.

The event has an estimated economic impact of about $90 million each year, with about 23 percent of its attendees coming from outside of Michigan."

Sesler: Canadian health-care system leaves us envious - Local Columns - GoErie.com/Erie Times-News

Sesler: Canadian health-care system leaves us envious - Local Columns - GoErie.com/Erie Times-News

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While doing some research on health-care reform, I came across an interesting story.

In 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Co. conducted polls for Canadians to nominate their choice for the man or woman whom they felt was the best Canadian in history. The person who won was Tommy Douglas.

I had heard of famous Canadians like Alexander Graham Bell, Wayne Gretzky and Dr. Frederick Banting (the inventor of insulin), but I had no idea who Tommy Douglas was.

It turns out that Douglas was the leader of the New Democratic Party, and he is considered the founder of the Canadian Healthcare System. He was (horrors!) a socialist and the seventh premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961. He led the first socialist government in North America and introduced public health care in Canada.

This tells me that Canadians must think a lot of their health-care system. America and Canada had similar health-care systems before Canada went to a single-payer system in the 1970s. Today, the United States spends much more money on health care than Canada, on both a per-capita basis and as a percentage of the GDP.

In 2006, per-capita spending on health care in Canada was U.S. $3,678; in the U.S. $6,714. The U.S. spent 15.3 percent on health care in that year; Canada spent 10 percent. Life expectancy is longer in Canada (80.34 years), compared to 78.6 years in the U.S. But to be fair, there is debate about the underlying causes of these differences.

An economic overview of America's health-care system shows that about 42 million people are not covered at all. Many health-care plans place rigid limitations on which doctors and hospitals people can use; administrative costs are approaching 25 percent of the health-care dollar; managed care is generally structured so that some physicians have incentives to cut costs and gain revenue by withholding care; and many Americans live in fear of losing whatever care they have.

The current system is based on the power of the insurance industry to stifle any challenges from real alternatives.

In contrast, the single-payer system, which Canada has used for the last 25 years, has drastically simplified its administrative costs. One report indicates it takes more people to administer Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts than it does to administer the entire health-care system in Canada.

Before Canada implemented its national health-care program, their health costs were the same portion of their economy as in the U.S. After they implemented their program, their costs stabilized at 9 percent, while U.S. costs have increased to 15.3 percent of our GDP.

Canada has a much higher percentage of general practitioners and fewer specialists. Canadian doctors make about one-third less than American doctors, and yet their satisfaction level is high because they have more time to practice medicine because paperwork is minimized.