Many parents are more relaxed about booster seat use when carpooling, stronger laws need to encourage safety seat use

Most parents report that they typically require their child to use a life-saving booster seat, but more than 30 percent said they do not enforce this rule when their child is riding with another driver.

The study, conducted by child health experts at University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, also revealed that 45 percent of parents do not require their kids to use a booster when driving other children who do not have one.

Full post…

There is a growing disparity between healthy and sick Americans born after 1980, caused by various factors, including a widening income gap, obesity which tends to hit certain income and ethnic groups more, access to health care services, and some other factors, researchers from Ohio State University wrote in American Sociological Review. The authors added that the difference in the health of people gets wider as they approach and reach middle age, before closing during old age. This being the case, the researchers predict that over the next couple of decades, as younger generations get older and replace existing ones, differences will widen. Full post…

European insurers have identified reliance on third parties for data, sophisticated risk modelling requirements and obtaining sufficiently detailed fund data among the challenges to be overcome in order for them to achieve Solvency…

Keystone Insurers has agreed to expand its business into Georgia, US with around 15 ‘pioneer’ partners, during the second quarter of 2012.

Keystone vice president of sales and marketing Elizabeth Schenk said that the group has been designed to enhance the value of an independent agency providing mutual benefits to individual partners and the larger group.

Each independent agency within Keystone gains from an enhanced array of services and support by being part of the larger group.

Full post…

Global ophthalmic company OptiMedica Corp. has announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 510 market clearance of its Catalys Precision Laser System, a next generation laser cataract surgery system that brings unequaled precision and accuracy and a markedly streamlined workflow to the laser cataract procedure. Catalys combines a femtosecond laser, integrated Optical Coherence Tomography imaging and OptiMedica’s breakthrough pattern scanning technology in an ergonomic, easy-to-use system that allows cataract surgeons to perform image-guided pre-operative laser lens conditioning. The system is FDA cleared for capsulotomy and/or lens fragmentation .

Full post…

When it comes to receiving dental care, New Jersey has its share of underserved children, according to a Rutgers study.

In 2009, more than one-fifth of the state’s children between 3 and 18 received no dental care within the previous year. While an improvement over 2001, when almost one-third of the state’s children received no care, the study found that foreign-born children and those without health insurance were still likely to forgo visits to the dentist.

The Facts & Findings report, New Jersey Children without Dental Services in 2001 and 2009, was prepared by Rutgers’ Center for State Health Policy (CSHP). Full post…