(March 22, 2010 - Insidermedicine)

From Washington - The United States House of Representatives has approved a landmark legislation aimed at overhauling the American health care system. The legislation intends to provide health care for the 32 million Americans currently uninsured, aiming to create new regulations to preclude insurance companies from denying coverage and making insurance premiums unaffordable.

From Boston - According to a report published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, African Americans are less likely to receive evidence-based care following a stroke than Caucasians or Hispanics. For five years, researchers studied nearly 400,000 black, white and hispanic stroke patients. Results showed that black stroke patients were 10% less likely than white patients to receive 'defect free care'--or, to receive all of the treatments that they are eligible for.

And finally, from North Carolina - According to a report published in the American Journal of Roentgenology, x rays are frequently inaccurate in diagnosing pelvic and hip fractures. Researchers studied nearly 100 patients who underwent both x ray and MRI for suspected hip and pelvic fractures. Of 13 patients with a normal x ray, MRI found 23 fractures; while 11 patients who had an x ray that suggested a fracture had an MRI that showed none at all.