The House Health Policy Committee Sept. 20 reported a bill to license and regulate nurses with a masters, post-masters or doctoral degree in a nursing specialty, called advance practice registered nurses (APRNs).

APRNs may be nurse-midwives, nurse practitioners or clinical nurse specialists. Currently, the Michigan Board of Nursing may grant specialty certification to a registered professional nurse who has training beyond the requirements of initial licensure.

The bill, HB 5400, would add a list of protected terms, restricted to be used only by individuals authorized to use them: “certified nurse midwife,” “CNM,” “advanced practice registered nurse,” “APRN,” “NP” “certified nurse practitioner,” “CNP,” “clinical nurse specialist,” “CNS,” “clinical nurse specialist-certified,” and “CNS-C.”

These nurses [Read More]

For the first time since voters said “yes” to medical marijuana in 2008, the state will be legalized freestanding shops where the product can be sold, under legislation Gov. Rick SNYDER signed into law Sept. 21.

A five-tier regulatory structure will now co-exist with the current distribution model, in which a caregiver can grow plants for him or herself and five others.

The bills, HB 4209, HB 4210 and HB 4827, create a license structure for the growing, testing, processing and transporting of medical marijuana, as well as legalize medical marijuana in non-smokable forms.

Those with any of the five state licenses, however, will not be allowed to a license for any of [Read More]

The University of Michigan Health System has established a new partnership with Meijer pharmacies to provide hypertension management services for adult patients.

U-M patients will be able to visit participating Meijer pharmacy locations to receive a blood pressure check and assessment. If the patient’s blood pressure is elevated, the clinically trained Meijer pharmacist will communicate directly with the patient’s U-M Health System provider. The patient will also receive appropriate follow-up and education about disease, clinical goals, medications and lifestyle.

In addition, documentation of the patient’s visit to their Meijer pharmacy will be recorded in their electronic medical record so the patient can easily discuss the reading and assessment with their U-M Health [Read More]

ICD-10, which contains more than 70,000 diagnostic codes, replaced the ICD-9 code set, which relied on just 11,000 codes.

The grace period had only applied to claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid, and while many commercial insurers offered similar flexibility, the majority did not, according to a report in Healthcare IT News.
The lead-up to the ICD-10 had many healthcare providers worried that the exponential increase in diagnostic codes would lead to more errors in medical claims, and ultimately denials, due to the new specificity required. But the years of lead-up to the launch due to a handful Congressional delays gave healthcare providers more time to prepare. The years of training, and [Read More]

Researchers in the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences will use a new five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to explore the underlying mechanisms of impaired learning and memory in schizophrenia from the perspective of brain plasticity, function and network dynamics.

The NIMH defines schizophrenia as a chronic and disabling mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels and behaves, including loss of reality due to hallucinations, delusions, unusual or dysfunctional ways of thinking, and agitated body movements. People with the condition also have difficulty beginning or sustaining activities, focusing or paying attention, or remembering information immediately after learning [Read More]

If technology and data was the last $1 trillion industry, data-driven advancement in biotechnology will be the next and West Michigan is positioned to take advantage, said former Hillary CLINTON innovation aide Alex ROSS.

Ross was a keynote speaker at the Grand Rapids Economic Club luncheon and drew on his experience as former senior innovation aide to Clinton while she was Secretary of State. Ross said the data collected mapping the human genome over the last 15 years will likely be used next to conduct “liquid biopsies”—an early cancer detection test–and pharmaceutical therapies tailored to a patient’s specific genetic needs.

“In five years, 95 percent of the hands in this room will [Read More]