Ziehm Imaging, leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of mobile C-arms, presents its innovative, award-winning product portfolio at RSNA 2011.

Latest market analyst reports predict substantial growth for the fluoroscopy and mobile C-arm market segments that will be substantially driven by the growing number of minimally invasive procedures. By 2017, the market might reach a volume of 1.4 billion US$. With long-year experience in the mobile C-arm business and a broad product portfolio, Ziehm Imaging is ideally positioned to benefit from this growth potential. “One of our highlights at this year’s RSNA is Ziehm Vision RFD hybrid edition that opens up hybrid room applications for physicians working in interdisciplinary environments,” says Nelson Mendes, President & CEO Ziehm Imaging Inc.

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The U.S. remains on track to spend twice as much for health care as for food, yet millions are without insurance or uninsured. “Health insurance premiums also continue to rise on average another 9 percent in 2011,” says Merton Bernstein, JD, leading health insurance expert and the Walter D. Coles Professor of Law Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis. “Medical care costs can change direction if policy makers stop whistling past a significant contributor non-benefit costs.” Bernstein details the numerous stages of the process for billing medical care services and the processing of these bills by insurers in his current Health Affairs piece, “Pay Attention to Health Insurance Non-Benefit Costs.” He estimates, using Best’s Insurance data, that about one billion non-Medicare billings are processed yearly. Full post…

While the majority of insurers (91%) believe future growth depends on providing a special customer experience, most of them do not currently see themselves as providing differentiated products and levels of service, according…

Eastern Insurance Holdings has reported a net income of $1.0m, or $0.13per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2011, compared to net income of $2.2m, or $0.25 per diluted share, for the same period in 2010.

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Worldwide, there are more than 1.5 billion overweight adults, including 400 million who are obese. In Australia, it is estimated more than 50 per cent of women and 60 per cent of men are either overweight or obese.

Although restriction of diet often results in initial weight loss, more than 80 per cent of obese dieters fail to maintain their reduced weight.

The study involved 50 overweight or obese adults, with a BMI of between 27 and 40, and an average weight of 95kg, who enrolled in a 10-week weight loss program using a very low energy diet.

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The U.S. health care system scored 64 out of 100 on key measures of performance, according to the third national scorecard report from the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, released today. The scorecard finds that – despite pockets of improvement – the U.S as a whole failed to improve when compared to best performers in this country, and among other nations. The report also finds significant erosion in access to care and affordability of care, as health care costs rose far faster than family incomes. At the same time, the scorecard highlights some bright spots for the U.S., with notable gains in quality of care in areas that have been the focus of public reporting or collaborative improvement initiatives. Full post…