Lines leading from the new Gulf Coast Medical Center in south Fort Myers looked more like the line for a ride at Disney World than for a hospital tour.
But, crowds came to take in all the new facility, walking around the 436,000 square feet of new construction in groups of 20.
Rose Digiorgio, 69, said she came to see it for peace of mind.
“Nobody wants to go to the hospital, but it’s great to know it’s here if you need it,” she said. “Plus Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON – Health-care advocates are actively campaigning to persuade Barack Obama to cross a leading candidate off his short-list for secretary of Health and Human Services: Tennessee Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen. And, in an unusual move for an official under consideration, the governor is fighting back publicly.
“Anybody who’s got some real scars and experience is going to have their detractors,” the governor said Monday in an interview Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday, December 17, 2008
You drink diet soda, so you must be healthier. Right?
That’s what New York Gov. David Paterson is talking about with his proposal for an “obesity tax” — a 15 percent slap on non-diet sugary soft drinks. Think $1 for a Diet Coke, $1.15 for a Coke.
There’s just one problem: Studies have found links between drinking diet sodas and obesity and diabetes.
at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Read the rest of this entry »

“This FDA, this Bush administration, instead of protecting the public health, is protecting industry,” said Rep.
(D-Conn.), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FDA budget. In an interview, DeLauro said she wants the agency to disclose its findings and to develop a plan to remove melamine from formula. “We’re talking about babies, about the most vulnerable. This really makes me angry.”
The FDA found melamine and cyanuric Read the rest of this entry »

Provisions In Stimulus Draws Concern About Care For Women, Minorities
) President Obama is expected to sign today includes $1.1 billion in funding for research to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness, a measure critics say could place the government in the middle of the physician-patient relationship and compromise treatment for women and minorities, the
reports. The
reports that the provision will allow researchers Read the rest of this entry »

, a $2 billion investment that supporters say will create thousands of jobs and begin to rebuild the city’s shattered health care system.
One of the hospitals, to be built by Louisiana State University, would replace the city’s landmark Charity Hospital, a lifeline for generations of the city’s poor, which has been vacant since the storm damaged its lower floors. The other would replace the vacant
hospital, also severely damaged Read the rest of this entry »

LAS VEGAS—As 59-year-old Richard Krikalo lumbers through the office of a junkyard he helps manage, he bumps into a desk and clips a wastebasket with his right leg.
Krikalo is almost blind in his right eye and has trouble with depth perception and peripheral vision.
“I go to the buffet and bump into people carrying food,” he growls, shaking his head, his static right eye unable to follow his blinking left one. “It’s embarrassing. The only Read the rest of this entry »

COLUMBIA — More than 200 people gathered Thursday morning at the Activity and Recreation Center to jump start their New Year’s resolutions of staying fit and healthy.
The Mayor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Health hosted “Happy New U” to demonstrate the variety of exercise opportunities in Columbia.
Fitness experts from the ARC, Columbia Jazzercise Center, Key Largo Fitness and Tanning, Wilson’s Fitness Read the rest of this entry »

ST. PAUL, Minn. – National experts gather in Prior Lake this week to focus on a stubborn racial health gap in one of the nation’s healthiest states.
Minorities in Minnesota face greater odds of dying from violence, diabetes and heart disease and less chance of having health insurance. Nonwhite teens are more likely to get pregnant than their white peers.
The “Health Equality” conference happens Wednesday through Friday at Mystic Lake Casino Read the rest of this entry »

attention-deficit disorder drug has gotten the pharmaceutical company in trouble with the Food and Drug Administration.
Last week, the FDA issued a warning letter to Shire — a Basingstoke, England, company that has its U.S. headquarters in Chester County — in which it told Shire to pull the plug on the video.
Shire spokesman Matt Cabrey said the video in question, which features former company spokesman Ty Pennington of the “Extreme Read the rest of this entry »