Latest California Healthline Stories
Stem Cell Institute Moves Forward With Plans, First Grants Expected in May
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine created under Proposition 71 will begin to issue research grants in May, Independent Citizens Oversight Committee Chair Robert Klein said at a committee meeting Thursday, the AP/San Jose Mercury News reports.
UC-Davis Medical Center To Limit Emergency Department Admissions
The University of California-Davis Medical Center plans to implement soon a policy under which people who do not need emergency medical services would be directed to community clinics rather than treated in the hospital’s emergency department, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Florez To Hold Public Hearing on Care Provided by Fresno Hospital
Sen. Dean Florez (D-Bakersfield) on Wednesday will convene a public hearing on expectations for care provided by Community Medical Center in Fresno under a contract with the county, the Fresno Bee reports.
First 5 Fresno County Children and Families commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to allocate $6.4 million to expand health coverage to all county residents ages five and younger, the Fresno Bee reports.
Plans To Restructure Health Services at UC-San Diego Hospitals Raises Concerns
Some health officials and patient advocates criticized a restructuring proposal announced Wednesday by University of California-San Diego officials to move some health programs at the university’s Hillcrest campus to Thornton Hospital 12 miles away in La Jolla, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Antidepressant Use Correlates to Reduced Suicide Rate Since 1980s
The U.S. suicide rate has fallen “steadily” since the late 1980s, when Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors were introduced, according to an analysis by researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles in the Wednesday issue of the journal Nature Reviews: Drug Discovery, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Physicians Groups Recommend ‘Aggressive’ Treatment for Early-Stage Diabetes
Two physicians groups on Wednesday recommended “aggressive” treatment for newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients, the AP/Las Vegas Sun reports.
NIH Guidelines on Voluntary Public Access to Research Released
NIH Director Elias Zerhouni on Thursday released details of a new agency policy that requests scientists make agency-funded research publicly available online at no cost within 12 months of publication in a scientific journal, the Washington Post reports.
A group of 17 congressional Democrats sent a letter to President Bush saying that new Medicare rules to provide a subsidy to employers that provide prescription drug coverage to retirees could “contribut[e] to the steady erosion of retiree health benefits,” CongressDaily reports.
Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Class-Action Measure
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted 13-5 to approve a bill (S 5) that would shift more class-action lawsuits from state to federal courts, the Wall Street Journal reports.