Drive through Dayton, Ohio, on a Sunday and deep on the FM dial you’ll often hear a show that can include an interview with the deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization, a report on the American Medical Association’s “Lobby Day” event and a discussion with the director of Stanford University’s anesthesiology residency program.The [...]

For all the benefits of electronic medical records, they have led to what one Cleveland physician calls an “egregious problem”: The practice of copying and pasting information in patients’ charts. Dr. Sarah Augustine, associate chief of medicine at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, said the practice–seen by busy residents as a time-saver–has the potential to perpetuate mistakes. So she and her colleagues are trying to put an end to it.

For the second time in a week, new guidelines call for less-frequent cancer screening for women. Today, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists will announce changes to its screening guidelines for cervical cancer. According to The New York Times, the group will advise women to get their first Pap tests at age 21, and then every two years until age 30. On Monday, the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommended that most women delay the start of routine mammograms until age 50.

Senate Democrats on Wednesday presented their version of health-care reform legislation, which carries a price tag of $848 billion over 10 years, The New York Times reported. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said the bill – called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – would extend coverage to 31 million uninsured Americans, while reducing the federal budget deficit by $130 billion.

The National Institutes of Health on Tuesday announced $8.5 million in grants to support 18 studies of pharmaceutical treatments for children, including two at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday that the H1N1 flu has killed nearly 4,000 Americans, including 540 children, and sickened about 22 million, the Associated Press reported. The numbers – from April through mid-October – are “a long-awaited better attempt to quantify the new flu’s true toll,” the AP said.

Pharmaceutical companies want to market drugs online, and today, they will push the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for guidelines on how to do so, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported Wednesday that drug companies have only dabbled in Internet advertising because of “fears of running afoul of regulators.” The FDA has not established specific rules for online advertising.

Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday they hope to bring a health-care reform bill to the floor next week, but meeting President Barack Obama’s end-of-the-year deadline will be difficult, Reuters reported. The new goal is to get the bill out of the Senate this year, according to the Senate’s second-highest ranking Democrat.

One day after the House of Representatives narrowly approved a health-care reform bill, President Barack Obama thanked members for their “courageous vote,” The New York Times reported. Speaking at the White House on Sunday, Obama said, “Moments like this are why they sent us here.” He also urged the Senate to “take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line.”

As a rally to defeat the House Democrats’ health-care reform plan took place outside the Capitol Thursday, President Barack Obama announced that the legislation has the support of the American Medical Association and AARP. A House vote on the bill is slated for Saturday.