Compliance Resources to Help you Stay Current

Employers are taking initiatives to enforce their employees in following medical prescriptions so as to prevent future expenses on high cost medical treatment. This forms a part of what is called Medication Compliance or Medication adherence which means to follow a medicine treatment plan provided by an individual's health care provider, filling prescriptions and taking medications as prescribed. Employers are taking key interest in enforcing this based on surveys that have shown that serious non-compliance has resulted in huge productivity loses. The key focus is on diabetes along with heart diseases and blood pressure. Preventive healthcare and lifestyle behaviors have been rated as factors high on importance to manage costs on employee healthcare.

Citigroup has decided to repay the government provided bailout money. This decision to repay has risen from the fact that the government had imposed stringent conditions on the payout. Citigroup is looking to go about this payment in two phases. It will raise investor money worth $20 million and gradually the Treasury Department will sell its stake with Citigroup worth $25 million over the next year. Wells Fargo is another of the large bank which has decided to repay the federal rescue money. All of the nine banks which recieved federal bailout funds have repaid their fed loans.

Insider Trading, the term defines the act of trading of company stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company. In most countries this kind of trading by company insiders is most common and is legal provided it adheres to all legal sanctions and does not take undue advantage of non-public information about the company.

Green energy is the term used to describe sources of energy that are considered to be environmentally friendly and non-polluting, such as geothermal, wind, solar, and hydro. Sometimes nuclear power is also considered a green energy source. All energy producing technology has some impact on the environment, but Green energy sources are often considered "green" because they are perceived to lower carbon emissions and create less pollution.

The increased awareness on global warming and the alarming statistics on environment depletion by human activity over the years, has increasingly motivated people to engage in green activities. All sectors are contributing their might to this cause. The way you build your buildings to living in them, alternate energy use, conservative use of resources, recycle and reuse are all part of the initiatives to reduce the impact on environment.

Institutional Review Boards have been constituted to approve, monitor, and review biomedical and behavioral research involving humans with the aim to protect the rights and welfare of research subjects. They are vested with the responsibility of enforcing federal regulations that apply to clinical trials. IRBs are responsible for the following

•     Annual reviews of research (or more regularly based on risk)
•     Determining if independent review of the investigator is required to determine if material changes have occurred since previous review
•     Ensuring that any changes to research plans are communicated to and approved by the IRB
•     Suspending or terminating approval of research that is being conducted outside of IRB requirements
•     Approval of informed consent documents

IRBs are expected to be mindful of their role in protecting human subjects and must carefully screen all documents received by them from sponsors for their efficacy.

Senior officials from some of the big companies in the insurance sector are testifying in front of the Department of Insurance. This is an ongoing month long probe by state regulators after they observed disproportionately high rates of insurance paid by small businesses. Well most of the questions were skirted around by the officials citing confidentiality contracts signed with the clients. But state regulators are strong on receiving an explaination which they say will not be made public as is but a summary would be released after the completion of the probe.

Sickle-cell disease, or sickle-cell anaemia (or drepanocytosis), is a genetic life-long blood disorder characterized by red blood cells that assume an abnormal, rigid, sickle shape. Sickling decreases the cells' flexibility and results in a risk of various complications. The sickling occurs because of a mutation in the hemoglobin gene. Life expectancy is shortened, with studies reporting an average life expectancy of 42 and 48 years for males and females, respectively.

This condition has been successfully treated in children by way of bone marrow transplants. Treatment has been evading adults as there has been a lack of healthy sibling donors as there is a risk rejection when transplants are made from unrelated donors. The current treatment has been found to be very harsh on adult patients. Researchers have successfully conducted a bone marrow transplant to cure this sickness in adults which has raised hopes for a big number of US patients. The initial results have been promising as the researchers claim to have cured 9 out of 10 patients. Research is still on to test similar treatment from unrelated donors.

The most debated Health Reform Bill inches towards getting a senate nod. The expansion of health coverage to a broader spectrum of people (age 55 and older) has worked to the health reform bill getting a thumbs up. The expansion of coverage has brought the bill closer to the hugely popular federal health insurance program for seniors. The ideas has garnered support from democrats who have hailed the idea of expansion.

Toxicology, Pharmacovigilance, Drug Safety Evaluation - Explained

Toxicology is the study of adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms. It is the study of symptoms, treatments and detection of poisoning. The relationship between the dosage and its effect on the exposed organism is of high importance in toxicology. Investigative toxicology focus on making drugs safe for human use. It involves a series of clinical tests on lab specimens (mostly rats) to access the risk of any toxic reactions before human trials. Drug safety evaluation or more so known as Pharmacovigilance is the science relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects of medications, biological products, herbalism and traditional medicines, particularly long term and short term side effects. The aim is to collect new information on hazards of medicines and to prevent harm to patients.

Rapid Microbiological Methods (RMMs) are methods designed to provide performance equivalent to the sterility testing methods described in 21 CFR 610.12, while providing results in significantly less time. In general, RMMs are based on technologies which can be growth-based, viability-based, or surrogate-based cellular markers for a microorganism (i.e., nucleic acid-based, fatty acid-based). RMMs are frequently automated, and many have been utilized in clinical laboratories to detect viable microorganisms in patient specimens. These methods reportedly possess increased sensitivity in detecting changes in the sample matrix (e.g., by-products of microbial metabolism), under conditions that favor the growth of microorganisms.

Electronic waste (e-waste) now makes up five percent of all municipal solid waste worldwide, nearly the same amount as all plastic packaging, but it is much more hazardous. Not only developed countries generate e-waste; Asia discards an estimated 12 million tonnes each year.

The economic crisis across the globe has resulted in a spate of job losses. Companies have resorted to bulk lay-offs to save their bottom-line or stay afloat. But companies are bound by federal and state employment laws that protect against discrimination, whistle blowing and layoff notices.

When an employee is laid-off, he or she needs to understand very well if it is justified or any kind of unfair treatment is meted out to them. Five laws protect the interests of laid-off employees.

• Discrimination Laws
  • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
  • Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disability Act of 1990
  • The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
  • The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act
• Big Company Layoffs
  • The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act
• Handbooks, Severance not binding
• Severance Releases
• Layoff Lawsuits

Human Resources are known to be as enforcers of the management. They are not understood as professionals who can actually make difference to the business. They are projected as not easily approachable. But overtime the role of HR is fast changing. If your company is thinking on these lines, then it is time to understand what the shortcomings are and how to deal with it

The U.S. General Services Administration has awarded its City Pair Program contracts, which the agency estimates will save taxpayers more than $6 billion in fiscal year 2010. City pairs are sets of origins and destinations that form the basis for one-way ticket pricing for travel between cities. The City Pair Program contracts set average federal rates at 68 percent below full commercial fares, providing federal travelers the flexibility to book one-way, multileg and round-trip airline flights. The annual contracts cover 3,750 domestic and 1,223 international city pairs.

The onset of technology has helped businesses move to being paperless offices. Availability of real-time information has all the more increased efficiency and control. Financial institutions are able to exercise more control in terms of transactions. This has helped to integrate all the functional partners for the smooth conduct of trade across borders. Transperancy in global trade has increased which has brought to the fore many ineficiencies of the old system.

All eyes on President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform bill. Implementation of this will prove beneficial for healthcare providers in terms of cost reduction, improved cash flows and increased focus on patient care. It will prove beneficial to health plan providers by way of more economies of scale and improved cash flows. Overall, there is an expected improvement in cash flows for the service providers by way of faster payment reconciliation.

Global economic sloowdown had its repercussion on all factes of market including trade. Trade pricing have seen downward trend in the last year. Recovery has been slow but experts feel the price will reach a more realistic level based on the demand-supply trend. Onus is on the banks to better understand the nature of business of their clients so as to make a detailed risk assessment and provide needed financial support.

Stem cells have been researched for more than a decade now to realise their capabilities in fighting diseases from within. The challenge of isolating and growing these cells in lab environments has resulted in further research of how these can be applied to treat diseases. Till date stem cells have been isolated form the marrow and has been used in regenaeration of blood cells post leukemia or lymphoma. More intense research is on to understand the potential of adult stem cells in treating various diseases.

Stem cells are being researched for treatment of various diseases due to their regenerative capabilities. They function as internal repair systems. Stem cells differ from other cell types by two important characteristics. First, they are unspecialized cells capable of renewing themselves through cell division, sometimes after long periods of inactivity. Second, under certain physiologic or experimental conditions, they can be induced to become tissue- or organ-specific cells with special functions. In some organs, such as the gut and bone marrow, stem cells regularly divide to repair and replace worn out or damaged tissues. In other organs, however, such as the pancreas and the heart, stem cells only divide under special conditions. Recent developments in stem cell research wherein cells derived from umbelical cord blood has shown promising results in lab tests for regeneration of damaged lungs and further research is being made to extend this to repair disfunctional heart.