As a nation, America seems to want it all. Patients want the best medical treatment. But some, like Jarene Williams whose young son was sick with a congenital defect, are shocked when the bill comes in.  
"We started getting these surprise bills," she said. "I said 'wait a minute. We're insured.'"
Family physician David Ellington says doctors want to provide the latest medical treatment, but reimbursements they receive from health insurance companies are not enough to cover their expenses or keep them in practice.
"There is going to have to be some type of arrangement in the way doctors are paid," he said. Too Costly
Small business owners say they want to provide medical coverage for their employees, but are finding it hard to sustain their share of the cost.
Amy Milstead Ellzey is president of family-owned Milstead Automotive Ltd. She says struggles to provide an affordable plan for her employees.  
"It is terrible," she said. "We cannot afford a 44 percent increase in medical insurance, so that, in turn, makes us have to start looking elsewhere for different plans and it makes us have to cut the plan back some."
Nationwide polls have shown that most Americans want improvements made in their health care system. President Barack Obama signaled to Congress recently that decades of rising costs for a medical system which does not treat everyone fairly must end.
The cost of our health-care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough," said Mr. Obama. "So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year." Everyone should be included
Jonathan Weiner is a professor of health policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.  
He says the biggest challenge in health reform is making sure that everyone is included: that no American be shut out from some kind of medical coverage, whether it be private insurance or government funded, because of a pre-existing medical condition or low income.
"For the many 40-50 millions of Americans who don't have health insurance, of course, that's the number one issue, getting them covered," noted Weiner. " Without a health insurance card, it's not as if we don't care for people without insurance cards, the care is sporadic and often incomplete. And they get half the health care coverage that everyone else gets."New program for working poor
Weiner believes the eventual legislation will include the working poor who earn too much to qualify for the government assistance program called Medicaid. He says they will be enrolled in some kind of other public option program or private insurance plan.
"That's going to be one of the most positive changes in health care that I think every American should be pleased to see, that health insurers must take you without regard to your disease," he said. "Weiner also says for too long the American health care system has paid medical fees based on the severity of the patient's illness and far less for prevention of chronic diseases.


"I definitely would find it more convenient for myself if I had a whole bunch of books just on this little computer," says digital-reader owner Pauline Camden.
Online retailer Amazon.com says it stocks more than 300,000 e-book titles. It charges about $10 each for best sellers and new releases in e-book form. Hardback versions often cost much more.  
Some authors and publishers have moved to digital releases to save on the costs of producing a book, such as printing, delivery and storage. These costs account for more than 12 percent of the retail price of a traditional book.
Mystery novelist Debbi Mack's (author of Identity Crisis) books are sold in electronic form. She says digital publishing is a valuable tool for authors.
"I think that it provides a lot of opportunities for people to get old, out-of-print work back out on the market. If you can't find a publisher, but you know that you have a quality product, it gives you a means of doing that," she says.
But critics say e-books are not as engaging as traditional paper books.
Author Eugenia Kim's (author of The Calligrapher's Daughter) new novel is available in both formats. But she says she prefers the feel of a traditional book.
"There is something wonderful about the tactile act of turning a page," she says, "and having that whole business of having the story reveal itself as you turn a page. I think it comes from a childhood experience with books."
Others shun electronic book publishing. Richard Peabody publishes poetry and short stories in traditional form only.
"I really think that some people just don't want to read on the screen. If you work all day and you read [computer] screens all day long, it's like the last thing you want to do," he says.
Meanwhile, technology corporations are already battling over who should own the digital rights to many books. Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo oppose a legal settlement giving rival Google the rights to millions of copyrighted titles.
The companies say the settlement could hurt competition in the e-book market as more consumers choose to use electronic readers.
6. China Moves to Internationalize Currency
China says it will sell $880 million worth of yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong, in what analysts say is a first step toward widening the use of the currency outside the country.
Starting September 28, investors in Hong Kong will be able to buy bonds issued by the Chinese government. It marks the first time that the Chinese government is borrowing money offshore and paying it back in its own currency.
The Chinese finance ministry says the bond is meant to encourage acceptance of the yuan in international transactions and to encourage Chinese companies to tap the territory's debt market.
Kevin Lai, an economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research in Hong Kong, says it is a step toward gradually widening the use of the yuan, or renminbi, outside China. Currently, the currency cannot be traded freely outside the country, and its exchange rate is restricted to a narrow trading band.


"The next step will be to increase renminbi liquidity regionally, and in the end a step toward internationalizing the renminbi??. The renminbi has to be fully convertible at some stage," Lai explained. "Building a bond center, or increase bond issuances for renminbi is just one of those steps."
China's step to internationalize the yuan comes after recent comments from Chinese officials calling for a global alternative to the weakened U.S. dollar as a reserve currency. As a way to diversify its debt holdings, Beijing said earlier this month that it will buy $50 billion worth of bonds issued by the International Monetary Fund denominated in special drawing rights - a unit that is based on a basket of currencies.
China is the United States' biggest creditor and holds hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. bonds. The dollar's weakness because of the global financial crisis has angered Beijing, because it undermines the value of China's holdings.
But the yuan's exchange rate has long been a sore point between Beijing and Washington, as well as China's other trading partners. They accuse China of maintaining an unfair trading advantage by setting its currency's value too low, making Chinese exports artificially cheap.
Once pegged to the U.S. dollar, the yuan has been allowed to slightly appreciate since 2005. But the U.S. says the yuan's value should be determined by market forces.
Beijing had indicated in the past that Hong Kong will be a center for offshore yuan trading. Five state-owned Chinese banks, including Bank of China and China Construction Bank, have issued yuan bonds in Hong Kong since 2007, when the government began allowing such deals. HSBC, Hong Kong's biggest bank, this year became the first foreign bank to issue yuan-denominated bonds.
7. Mobile Device Could Detect Brain Injuries in Field
If you sustain a head injury today, even a mild one, you only have one choice: a trip to the hospital to determine the severity of your injury.   But now, the development of a new mobile brain scan device could change all that.   The device, under development, scans brain waves and will be able to, its developers say, prevent death in many cases.
British actress Natasha Richardson lived in the limelight.   She was the daughter of famed actress Vanessa Redgrave and wife of Irish-born actor Liam Neeson.   But at 45, she died of a brain injury, after falling down on a beginner's ski slope and walking away feeling fine.
"She suffered from what some people call a walk, talk and die syndrome," explained Michael Singer,the chief executive of BrainScope, part of a holding company owned by AOL (America Online) founder Steve Case.  
Singer says a mobile brain scan device, like the one his company is developing, could have saved the actress's life.
"Our device had it been employed - we believe - would have detected that it would have been a relatively severe traumatic brain injury, and therefore, would have clarified for her and everyone on the scene that she had a very severe problem," he added.


Singer says that BrainScope's device, which is still being developed, will be portable, battery-operated, inexpensive and user friendly whether by coaches on the sidelines or army medics in the field.   Today, brainwave detecting EEG machines are found mainly in hospitals.   They are costly and require advanced technicians to use.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.4 million people suffer from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) each year.   But that number could be much higher because many mild brain injuries go undetected and undiagnosed.  
"We don't know how many people encounter mild traumatic brain injury.   There are many people who get bumped on the head and are woozy for a minute but they never get an evaluation," said Dr. Dan Cohen, a former U.S. Defense Department physician now working as a healthcare consultant.  
He says prompt diagnosis for even mild brain injuries is crucial since, if repeated over time, they can lead to life-altering cognitive defects.   Singer's group says twenty percent of soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are returning with varying degrees of TBI's.   Since they often tend to underplay their injuries, eager to get back to work, knowing their level of brain injury quickly could mean a trip to the hospital instead.
"Right now there's no gear," said Dr. Cohen.   "The medics are doing battlefield assessments you know can you count my fingers can you recite a few things by memory you know they are doing very primitive limited tests, tests of limited applicability."
Cohen says it's too early to endorse BrainScope's device, but the research looks promising.   He compares it to mobile external defibrillators now in widespread use today.  
"Whoever would have thought that you would have a device on the wall that you could grab off the wall when someone drops down and seems to have had a heart attack, you wrap it around the chest," he added.   "The machine [portable defibrillator] tells you what to do and you stand back and the machine delivers electricity and saves somebody's life.   Whoever thought we would have had that?"
BrainScope is gathering head injury data from patients around the country.   Their mobile device could be submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review and clearance within a year.
8.
Michael Jackson's Death Ruled a Homicide
The Los Angeles County coroner says the death of pop star Michael Jackson was homicide primarily caused by two drugs: propofol, a powerful anesthetic, and Lorazepam, a sedative.
Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, told investigators that he gave the pop star a series of drugs starting with Valium and then Lorazepam, followed by a sedative - all so Jackson would be able to sleep. The drugs didn't work.
Early the next morning, Dr. Murray gave Jackson propofol intravenously. The drug is designed for hospital use only.
Dr. Rick Levy is vice chief of anesthesiology and pain medicine at Children's National Medical Center in Washington. He says propofol is a drug of choice for anesthesiologists.
"Anesthesiologists generally do like it around the world because it's designed for faster onset, going off to sleep, and faster offset in terms of waking up, so for outpatient, ambulatory surgery, that really was the niche market it was designed for," he explained.
Propofol puts patients to sleep in seconds. The drug is also used with other anesthetics.
"Because it's not a controlled substance yet, it's much easier to access within the operating room," he added.
And because propofol is not a controlled substance, other doctors can get it, even if they are not trained in using it, and that's where they can get in trouble.
Propofol can cause patients to stop breathing, but in the operating room, anesthesiologists are equipped to resuscitate them. Propofol can also lead to trouble with blood pressure and heart function.
"Much of anesthesiology and intensive care is being able to manage those patients and those responses that are outside what the expected is so that you still keep the patient safe," he explained.
Propofol is not designed to be a sleep aid.
Jackson's personal physician at the time, Dr. Conrad Murray, as well as other doctors who were caring for the singer, are the focus of the criminal investigation.
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杯具的作业。。。


灭楼之审判……

我想说，楼主好久不见..

破碎剑无双

太长
麻烦

这么长。。。

我以为就几句话，想进来冒充下高手，算了，我逃匿了

.....