Kaiser Permanente Hiring Event

Health care provider Kaiser Permanente will soon be hiring for its Capitol Hill Medical Office,which will open in January 2011.The office,located next to Union Station in Washington,will have 200,000 square feet and offer a full range of outpatient services,from primary and specialty care to surgery and nuclear medicine.A hiring event will be held in mid-November at an offsite location yet to be determined.There are openings for management,nursing,technicians,support services,imaging/radiology,laboratory,pharmacy,and rehab/therapists.
To register for the event or learn about qualifications and job submission details if you cannot attend,please visit www.kpcareerevents.com

From Lab To L.A.:Keck School Uses NIH Award

USC's Keck School of Medicine will be putting a 58 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health to good use in the communities of the Los Angeles Basin.The Clinical and Translational Science Award supports and promotes scientific discoveries and their health care applications in the real world.The Keck School will focus the award on the health problems of people in the densely populated urban environment of the Los Angeles Basin.The Clinical and Translational Science Institute already exists at Keck,presided over by Dr.Thomas A. Buchanan,Associate Dean for Clinical Research at Keck.USC competed with 38 other institutions for one of the nine awards.
Clinical and translational research connects basic scientists to clinical and community researchers and practitioners with the goal of accelerating the translation of lab discoveries into practical help for citizens.It can take up to 20 years for such discoveries to make their way into communities without the benefit of the perspective of clinical and translational research..Some of the many problems Keck and its several partners in academia,government and other realms are addressing include:
1.Relationship between childhood obesity and leukemia;
2.Disparities in health outcomes between sickle cell disease patients in L.A. and those elsewhere;and
3.Relationship between air pollution and the prevalence of chronic disease in urban communities.
Besides other professional schools at USC,among Keck's research partners are Kaiser Permanente of Southern California,the L.A. County health system and Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Study Shows Canadians Healthier

A Kaiser Permanente researcher,David Feeny,and his American colleagues have concluded that older Canadians experience better health than their American peers.Published in the journal "Population Health Metrics,"the study,based on data from a joint Canadian/U.S. survey from 2002-2003,suggests the longer lifespan of Canadians may be related to two potential factors:access to health care and the prevalence of poverty.While Canadians have universal access to health care,Americans do not;and,the gap between rich and poor is not as wide in Canada as in the U.S.Discriminating between the possible factors would require further study,Mr.Feeny observes.
In any event,Canadians over 40 have,on average,2.7 more years of better health than their southern neighbors.The life expectancy and overall health-related quality of life appears to be greater for Canadians,and factors that account for the difference may include their access to health care over the full lifespan and lower levels of social and economic inequality,especially among the elderly.
The new health insurance reform law in the U.S. is intended to greatly broaden access to care,bringing tens of millions more Americans into the health care system,and improve the quality of care for many of those already within it.
It has long been noted in the media that the U.S. lags behind many other countries in several health care metrics.