Tag: NIH

ATLANTA - Brightree has acquired McKinney, Texas-based MedAct, adding 330 HME providers to its customer base. “With the addition of MedAct, we are expanding our market reach to include some of the industry's most nimble HME providers,” said Dave Cormack, president and CEO of Brightree, in a release. MedAct's customers will join Brightree's more than 3,000 customers. Under the terms of the agreement, MedAct CEO Gregg Timmons joins Brightree as executive vice president,...

BETHESDA, Md. - To more effectively treat COPD, patients and their doctors need to have open, detailed conversations, a web-based study by the National Institutes of Health has found. Current smokers are likely to talk with their doctors about COPD symptoms (82%), but former smokers, who are also at risk, are not (37%), according to the study, which was released Nov. 15. "A good conversation between patients and providers about COPD can make a real difference for disease sufferers,” said James...

WASHINGTON - Fifteen million adults in the United States have been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and many more may have the debilitating condition but don't know it, according to a government study. The highest prevalence for the disease is clustered around the Ohio and lower Mississippi rivers, according to data compiled by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who studied the prevalence of COPD...

WASHINGTON - Although the number of cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is on the rise, awareness has returned to 2008 levels, according to a survey conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Sixty-five percent of adults reported they had heard of COPD in 2012, compared to 71% in 2011. Among current and former smokers, the two groups most at risk for developing COPD, 2012 awareness levels stood at 74% and 73%, respectively, while 2011 awareness levels were at 78% and...