Allina News

[Minnesota Public Radio, April 28, 2012] A new initiative kicking off at the Minneapolis Farmers Market on Sunday hopes to support healthy communities. Allina Health said its new Neighborhood Health Connection program will allow community members to apply for grants to support activities like building a community garden or starting a yoga group. They can [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, April 26, 2012] University of Minnesota Gophers football player Gary Tinsley died of an enlarged heart April 6, according to a Hennepin County Medical Examiner report released Wednesday. Minneapolis Heart Institute researcher Dr. David Feldman told Tom Crann of All Things Considered that the condition could be caused by factors including genetic [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, April 12, 2012] Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis is one of 22 hospitals across the country being asked to get rid of its McDonald’s restaurant. Corporate Accountability International, a corporate watchdog group that has gone after companies such as Coca-Cola, said hospitals shouldn’t be letting McDonald’s market unhealthy foods in health care [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, March 26, 2012] There’s new research showing that people suffering from heart disease might be able to use their own stem cells to repair the damaged areas of their heart. The study was conducted by a network of five research facilities, including the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. Timothy Henry, [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, Feb. 14, 2012] A prominent Minneapolis cardiologist, Robert Hauser, MD, says St. Jude Medical isn’t doing enough to study how to treat patients whose implanted heart rhythm devices could fail due to faulty equipment. Hauser, with the Minneapolis Heart Institute® at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, writes in the current issue of the New England [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, Oct. 27, 2011] A partnership between two rivals offers a glimpse of the future under a cornerstone of the federal health care overhaul. Allina Hospitals & Clinics and HealthPartners together tested strategies to improve care and reduce health costs for some 27,000 patients in the northwest metro area. Listen to the full [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, Oct. 26, 2011] A day after a new study revealed that flu vaccines are not as effective as once thought, doctors report that their patients are asking questions about the findings. Still, it doesn’t appear that the downgrade in the vaccine’s effectiveness is altering many patients decision to get immunized against flu. [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, June 29, 2011] Minnesota cancer patients are part of a national study to understand how cancer occurs. Genetic testing will shed light on the role of family history and cancer. Oncologist Thomas Amatruda, MD, of Allina’s Virginia Piper Cancer Institute and Minnesota Oncology, talks about a tissue banking program at Abbott Northwestern Hospital [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, June 23, 2011] An effort that was pioneered in Wisconsin in the 1980s to get more people to prepare for the end of their lives has moved into the Twin Cities, serving as a model to create Minnesota’s first large-scale program for end-of-life planning. The Twin Cities program, called Honoring Choices Minnesota, [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, May 16, 2011] Later this week, the Minnesota Twins will travel to Phoenix for a series against the Diamondbacks. While they are in Arizona, some members of the team are hoping to visit former Twin Harmon Killebrew. Killebrew announced last week that his cancer of the esophagus has reached the point that [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, March 31, 2011]  The Obama administration has filled in some of the blanks in a key part of the health care overhaul. The administration proposed rules Thursday to define Accountable Care Organizations, which are meant to save hundreds of millions of dollars in the Medicare program while improving quality for patients. ACOs [...]

[Star Tribune, Dec. 3, 2010] Minnesota hospitals and clinics are reporting episodic shortages of chemotherapy drugs. While drug shortages happen from time to time, the chemo shortfall is worrisome because it could disrupt strict treatment regimens that give cancer patients the best odds of survival. “It’s hard to just flip [cancer patients] onto something else,” [...]