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One of the arguments for health information technology is that it will lower the cost of care. For example, if physicians could only get easy access to patients’ prior lab and imaging tests, they would be less likely to order up possibly redundant new ones.

A diet rich in fish may help an aging brain, Mark Long reports on Lunch Break. Photo: Getty Images.

Read the original: Aging Brains Benefit from Fish/a>

Teen birth rates in the U.S. have been generally declining since 1991, but are still higher than in other developed countries.

Now, new stats from the CDC show that about half of teen moms who got pregnant unintentionally weren’t using any form of birth control at the time of conception. The survey also asked the next question that might spring to mind: For the love of Mike, why not?

For patients diagnosed with cancer and other serious diseases, a second opinion can make the difference between getting the right and the wrong care, today’s Informed Patient column reports.

It’s the time of year where refrigerators are stuffed to the brim with holiday leftovers. But is that aging food safe from bacterial contamination?

That depends on how you prepare and store it, says Elizabeth Scott, an assistant professor at Simmons College and co-director of the school’s Center for Hygiene and Health in Home and Community.

Now that he’s not running the Medicare and Medicaid programs, Donald Berwick is taking off the gloves to attack his Washington critics.

Berwick, a pediatrician, ran the two programs until last week, when he stepped down because his recess appointment was about to run out. Senate Republicans showed no signs of confirming him, so Marilyn Tavenner, already a top official at the agency, took over.

We’ve written about some of the most common consumer questions about the newly launched generic version of Pfizer’s cholesterol-lowering Lipitor.

One remaining question is how much money will be saved from the generic iterations of the name-brand blockbuster — the U.S. sales of which were $7.8 billion in the year ended Sept. 30, according to IMS Health.

Managing HIV: New CDC research shows that the majority of patients with HIV in the U.S. aren’t receiving medications and care necessary to control the virus enough to prevent them from passing it to others or impacting their own health, partly because some don’t know they’re infected, the WSJ reports. Only about 28% of the 1.2 million infected people in the U.S. are estimated to get regular care and have their infections under control, the report says.

Retail pharmacies are usually thrilled when a popular brand-name drug rolls off patent. For the 180 days when a single manufacturer produces a generic pill and its wholesale price remains strong, drug stores reap a nice profit.

But Pfizer’s cholesterol-lowering blockbuster Lipitor is a different story.

Walmart wants to make a big push into primary health care — or does it?

As NPR and Kaiser Health News report, the retailing behemoth has sent out a 14-page request for information seeking vendors to help it become the “largest provider of primary healthcare services” in the U.S. That, Walmart says in its request, will expand access to health care while lowering costs — while “maintaining or improving outcomes.”