AFrame Digital has been awarded a follow-on grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute on Aging for further research in fall reductions using its mobile care monitor platform, a wristwatch-like device that communicates a users motion and location data to cloud-based monitoring and alerting resources.

A two-hour delay in operating room availability for urgent cases increases costs to the hospital by 39 percent, according to a study published in the August issue of Surgery. The authors found the longer gap times and higher costs occurred during peak business hours, and suggested that strategies to maximize daytime OR use with elective surgeries at the expense of urgent cases ultimately result in inefficient care.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), coordinator of the U.S. voluntary standardization system, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) as the approved accreditor for the Permanent Certification Program for Health IT.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) is seeking comment on its Federal Health IT Strategic Plan to reduce health IT disparities.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has awarded up to $137 million, partly supported by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), to states to strengthen the public health infrastructure and provide jobs in core areas of public health.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released updated regulations on financial conflicts of interest for investigators and institutions that apply for Public Health Service (PHS) funding. The update is designed to provide a framework for identifying, reporting and managing financial conflicts of interest in an effort to enhance transparency and avoid conflicts that may bias research results and threaten credibility and public trust.

Patient safety programs help hospitals ward off infectionsand save money. Those are among the conclusions reached by researchers at the Johns Hospkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who found that one patient safety program in Michigan resulted in savings of as much as $53,000 per infection averted, according to a cost-effective analysis published in the September issue of the American Journal of Medical Quality.

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) will likely continue to be an important effort in generating evidence regarding the most effective diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, according to an article published in the September edition of Academic Radiology.