Thomson published its Top 100 Hospitals list this week, which felt like a déjà vu all over again. Didn’t I just see AARP’s top hospitals, along with similar rankings from US News and HealthGrades in recent months?Is this an embarrassment of riches? Or just more heavy-lifting for confused American health citizens?The Thomson Reuters 100 Top [...]

Two of the top new products launched in 2008 were Zyrtec and alli, according to IRI in their March report, 2008 New Product Pacesetters: The Role of Innovation in a Down Economy. In fact, non-food new product introductions were more successful than food intros in 2008. IRI says this is due to shoppers “taking their [...]

In 2009, the cost of health care for a 65-year old couple entering retirement is 50% more than it was in 2002, according to Fidelity Investments. The nest-egg required for retirement health is $240,000, give or take tens of thousands depending on your health risks. In just the past year, this cost increased 6.7%, from [...]

This week’s New England Journal of Medicine provides something of a real-world mini-primer for everyone’s radar on electronic health records and the HITECH funding included in ARRA, the economic stimulus bill. The cautionary paragraph, offered by Mandl and Kohane in their essay, No small change for the health information economy, is: “We take it as [...]

The economy is re-shaping both employers’ and employee’s views on workplace benefits. Most employers continue to value their most important asset: the human capital that is inherent in their employees. This is good news. Retaining employees is the #1 benefits objective for American employers, according to MetLife’s 7th annual Employee Benefits Trends Study. Now, for [...]