Heartland Health Monitor

Take 5 For Your Health

Kansas ‘Right to Try’ Bill Would Ease Access To Trial Drugs But Some See Peril Signs of the toll amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has taken on Kelli Johnsen’s body are scattered throughout the living room of her Emporia, Kansas, home. A wheelchair in one corner. A lift in another. A walker near the television. Next to her…

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Children o the floor listening to announcement.

Take 5 For Your Health

Children’s Mercy South Gets New Name To Reflect Its Statewide Reach Children’s Mercy Hospital, which opened its first clinic in Kansas nearly 30 years ago and now has eight spread across the state, has changed the name of its facility in Overland Park from Children’s Mercy South to Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas. Dr. Randall L….

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A 'pesticide free zone' sign hangs at the Somerset Ridge Vineyard and Winery near Paola, Kansas. Owner Dennis Reynolds says potential changes to the state's weed eradication laws could threaten his vineyard. (Andy Marso | Heartland Health Monitor)

Take 5 for your health

Weed Eradication Changes In Kansas Draw Environmental Concern The rows of grapevines at Somerset Ridge Vineyard and Winery near Paola, Kansas, are withering, with dying leaves and shriveling fruit. But that’s expected this time of year. The prospect of it happening in the middle of the growing season concerns owner Dennis Reynolds more. Grapes are a…

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Novel Cancer Treatment At KU Signals Start Of ‘Remarkable Revolution’

Carl Adams has an aggressive form of blood cancer that has resisted multiple attempts to treat it through chemotherapy. So in September, the 47-year-old father of two young daughters traveled halfway around the world with his family from their native Australia to The University of Kansas Cancer Center. There, a clinical trial is underway to…

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Truman Medical Centers and the University of Missouri-Kansas City operate University Health, a new outpatient clinic on Hospital Hill in Kansas City. (Photo: Andy Marso | Heartland Health Monitor)

Take 5 for your health | Nov. 3

Truman Clinic Aims To Fill Health Care Hole In Downtown Kansas City Downtown Kansas City, Mo., has a new outpatient surgical center and the University of Kansas School of Medicine has some local competition as it trains the next generation of KC doctors. Leaders of Truman Medical Centers and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School…

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Claudia Rivera (right) and her boyfriend, Jesùs Varela, stand in the yard of their Liberal, Kansas, home with their 1-year-old son, Fabian. (Photo: Esther Honig | Heartland Health Monitor)

Take 5 for your health

High Teen Birth Rates In Rural Kansas Pose Obstacles To Economic Advancement Nineteen-year-old Claudia Rivera shares a single-story tract home in Liberal, Kansas, with her boyfriend, 20-year-old Jesùs Varela. Last month, Varela’s mother moved in so she could watch Rivera’s baby boy, Fabian, while Rivera works at the Dollar General store and Valera pulls down a shift at…

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Obesity And Diabetes Rate High In Kansas And Missouri

Almost one in three adults in Kansas and Missouri is not just overweight but obese, according to a new report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America notes that obesity rates nationwide have stabilized, but at a level that’s still…

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Take 5 for your Health

NURSES RALLY TO PROTEST STAFFING AND COMPENSATION AT RESEARCH MEDICAL CENTER Dozens of registered nurses and supporters marched and chanted outside of Research Medical Center in Kansas City on Thursday evening to draw attention to labor issues. The picketers, who were organized by the National Nurses United union, say the hospital is failing to comply…

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Rankings show Kansas up in child health, but down in child poverty

Kansas improved its ranking in child health but dropped in child poverty in the latest data released by a national nonprofit that advocates for children. The state retained its No. 15 overall ranking from the Annie E. Casey Foundation in its 2015 Kids Count survey published Tuesday. The latest information comes from 2013 and shows…

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Missouri’s Refusal To Expand Medicaid Leaves Hospitals Feeling The Pain

It’s a sweltering Monday afternoon, and in the emergency room of Truman Medical Centers near downtown Kansas City, a patient complains of excruciating abdominal pain. The attending physician advises her there’s only so much he can do. “The reality is you can get whatever pain medication I’m able to give you in an effort to…

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