Patients whose hypertension is managed by a physician-pharmacist team have lower blood pressure levels and are more likely to reach goals for blood pressure control than those treated without this collaborative approach, according to a report in the November 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

New core standards for Assistant Practitioners are published today by Skills for Health, the Sector Skills Council for healthcare.
The standards were developed in response to requests from employers and commissioners concerned at variation in the responsibilities, education and training of staff employed in the role.

UGL Unicco, a subsidiary of United Group Limited (UGL), today announced its UGL Unicco Flu Preparedness and Business Continuity Plan. It is a comprehensive set of procedures and cleaning services that are designed to help ensure the health and safety of customers’ personnel, the public and UGL Unicco employees during flu events, up to and [...]

Medical device pioneer Stentys announced that it has extended its ’self-expanding’ and ‘disconnectable’ technology platform to include a second major indication-acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Two patients were successfully treated during acute myocardial infarction procedures last week by Drs. S. Verheye (Antwerp, Belgium) and K. E. Hauptmann (Trier, Germany).

The Healthcare Commission said that Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has made necessary improvements in infection control. It said the trust is now compliant with the requirements of an improvement notice, issued on 22 December 2008, which required immediate changes to infection control practices. The Commission issued the improvement notice after a two-day, unannounced [...]