The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee is questioning Merck and Schering- Plough for details about the early release of study data related to the cholesterol drug Vytorin.

Healthcare in the United States is often fragmented and uncoordinated and it is common for patients to receive episodic care from different physicians. A study in the March 3 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that patients who are connected to a primary care physician are more likely to receive guideline-consistent care than those who are connected to a practice but not a physician.

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius has accepted President Barack Obama's offer to be his nominee for the position of Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

A new study in the journal HeartRhythm reveals that the potential of Sprint Fidelis lead failure increases, mainly due to the device's "fatigue mechanism," while the failure rates of other defibrillator leads are low and stable, lead researcher Robert G. Hauser, MD, told Cardiovascular Business News.

Sanofi-Aventis has made a series of changes within its top-level executive ranks, including the appointment of Jean-Pierre Lehner, MD, as chief medical officer; Laurence Debroux as chief strategic officer; and named Elias Zerhouni, MD, as scientific advisor to its CEO Christopher A. Viehbacher and to its senior vice president of research and development, Marc Cluzel.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) reported a decline in its fiscal 2008 fourth quarter net income, and confirmed that itplans tocut more jobs over the next two years.

Patients with high cholesterol levels who continually take statins appear to have a lower risk of death, regardless of whether they already have diagnosed heart disease, according to a report of a 4.5-year follow-up in the Feb. 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

The use of CT advanced visualization software enables the safe and effective placement of fiber-coated microcoils used to guide video-assisted thoracoscopic surgical (VATS) excision of small peripheral lung nodules, according to a study published in this months issue of Radiology.