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The World Health Organization said that a cluster of bird flu deaths in the village of Kabu Sebalang on the Indonesian island of Sumatra is a potentially seminal event. The Associated Press quotes WHO spokesman Peter Cordingsly, who alarmingly calls the six deaths "the mother of all clusters." Cordingsly state, "This is the first time that we've been completely stumped about possible single-source infection."

International health experts suspect that H5N1, the virus that …

The New York Times reports on compliance programs that are designed to get patients to stick to their drug regimens. These are both good for the patients' health and for pharmaceutical company profits, as many patients do not take all their prescribed drugs properly--especially for conditions for which symptoms are not obvious such as high-blood pressure. Several companies like McKesson and subsidiaries of manufacturers such as Pfizer Health Solutions have call centers …

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City has launched a pilot program that allows members to consult with their physicians via email. Blue Care and Blue Advantage plan members will be able to contact their physicians for consultations on non-urgent medical matters. As many as 500 physicians are expected to be participating in the project by the end of 2006. RelayHealth will provide the technology and manage the compensation plan for participating physicians.

This is an idea that …

As expected, ex-HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy appears to be moving quickly on his plan to get his old job back. The Wall Street Journal reports that Scrushy plans to contact large shareholders in an effort to convince them he should be brought back on. The HealthSouth board has said it has no intention of allowing him to return. At an investor meeting in New York, current CEO Jay Grinney attempted to reassure shareholders saying, "the board has made it absolutely clear he will …

Officials at Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey did not contact the police for more than three months after learning from state poison control officials that "somebody at the hospital was probably killing people." In that time convicted serial killer Charles Cullen killed five additional patients by poisioning them while working as a nurse at the facility. Story

Jacobi Medical Center in New York City is the subject of controversy after word that the hospital failed to inform patients of positive test results for a routine cancer screen. The hospital did not inform more than 300 women that they had positive results in a pap smear test, a routine test used to screen for possible cases of cervical cancer. Hospital officials say the error happened due to an administrative snafu, caused by staffing cutbacks. The one clerk assigned to process test …