(Washington, D.C.)  Bill Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will provide a keynote address on the opportunity of mobile technologies to improve health outcomes in the developing world at the 2010 mHealth Summit, the summit organizers announced today. The summit, organized by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the mHealth Alliance, will be held November 8-10 in Washington, D.C. (more…)

  (Cary, N.C.) Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) has received CEO Cancer Gold Standard™ accreditation, recognizing the organization’s commitment to reducing the risk of cancer for employees and their families by promoting healthy lifestyle choices, encouraging early detection through cancer screenings, and ensuring access to quality treatment. (more…)

(Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C.) North Carolina’s leader in home medical equipment advocacy and education, NCAMES, has launched the informational clearinghouse SaveJobsNC.com to educate state and local leaders as well as Medicare beneficiaries about the effects of pending job losses due to federal health care regulations. Industry experts are projecting 600 positions will be cut in the greater Charlotte area due to new Medicare bidding rules implemented by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in Washington, D.C.  Between 1,200-1,600 job cuts are expected statewide as HME providers across North Carolina are either blocked from servicing patients who use Medicare to pay for their essential equipment, or are forced by CMS to provide services at sub-industry prices. The first round of bidding for CMS approvals in Charlotte was just completed two weeks ago, with hundreds of HME providers left out in the cold, while others winning contracts are scrambling to provide services in the face of massive revenue cuts. (more…)

  (Cary, N.C.) Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq:INTU) has transformed its healthcare business by combining newly acquired Medfusion with its Quicken Health Group to create a new business unit called Intuit Health. Based in Cary, N.C., the group is committed to improving healthcare through innovative online connected services that make the clinical, administrative, and financial side of healthcare easier for everyone. (more…)

(Charlotte, N.C.) Medical Advantage Group (MAG), provider of consulting and management services that drive improvements in healthcare provider efficiency and quality of care, has chosen Mariner to develop and implement data analytics that will enhance their current system. (more…)

(Bethesda, Md.) The Board of Directors of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), after an extensive search, has named Dr. Scott Campbell as its new executive director and chief executive officer. (more…)

(Research Triangle Park, N.C.) The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences (www.thehamner.org), an independent, nonprofit organization that offers an open, collaborative and cross-disciplinary approach to translational biomedical research, has announced that recent studies at The Hamner have provided a new method to assess the health of the liver, a vital organ that can be injured by a variety of diseases, alcohol, and certain drugs. (more…)

(Washington, D.C.) Industry leaders Abbott, Microsoft Research, Pfizer, Qualcomm, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Skype and Verizon Wireless have joined the 2010 mHealth Summit as sponsors, the conference organizers announced today. (more…)

(Charlotte, N.C.) Leaders from the Premier healthcare alliance will speak across the country in July discussing methods to succeed under new healthcare reform scenarios by improving care quality, safety and cost-effectiveness. Premier President and CEO Susan DeVore will speak at the Health Forum and American Hospital Association Leadership Summit in San Diego on July 22. DeVore will discuss results from Premier’s QUEST: High Performing Hospitals® initiative and how it helps hospitals optimize performance in five critical areas: cost-effectiveness, evidence-based care delivery, mortality, harm reduction and patient satisfaction. (more…)

(Wrightsville Beach and Raleigh, N.C.) Hundreds of small business owners from across the state rallied together June 23-25 at the annual Summer Meeting of NCAMES, North Carolina’s leader in home medical equipment advocacy and education. Attendees from as far away as Winston-Salem, Rocky Mount, Charlotte, and Asheville travelled to the three-day conference in Wrightsville Beach to learn how to survive Federal Medicare bidding rules devastating the home medical equipment industry. (more…)

(Cary, N.C.) Publicis Healthcare Communications Group (PHCG), the world’s largest healthcare communications group, has received CEO Cancer Gold Standard™ accreditation, recognizing the organization’s commitment to reducing the risk of cancer for employees and their families by promoting healthy lifestyle choices, encouraging early detection through cancer screenings, and ensuring access to quality treatment. (more…)

(San Antonio, Texas, and Charlotte, N.C.) AirStrip TechnologiesTM was recognized this week at the Premier healthcare alliance’s annual Innovation Celebration, an event to highlight both advances in healthcare and industry suppliers committed to improving patient outcomes. AirStrip Technologies is a medical software development company with solutions that deliver real-time critical patient data to healthcare providers anytime, anywhere over a smartphone connection. Premier recognized AirStrip OBTM, the FDA-cleared solution that uses proprietary waveform engines and charting controls to capture waveform data and deliver it securely to mobile devices. (more…)