HEALTH BRIEFING:CHILDREN CONCEIVED with fertility drugs tend to be shorter than their peers, according to research by a New Zealand-based Irish scientist.
Among children born at full term, those conceived with the help of fertility drugs are shorter than naturally-conceived children but overall are physically healthy, the study by Cork man Dr Tim Savage found.
The cause of the slightly short stature of fertility drug-conceived children is unclear, according to Dr Savage, who presented the research at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Houston, Texas, this month. It is not yet clear whether these children will catch up in stature when they reach their full adult height. “Reassuringly, these children remained well within the normal height range for both their sex and age,” he said.
Dr Savage, a paediatrician and clinical research fellow at the University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute, conducted the study as part of his PhD research.
Other studies have shown that children conceived using IVF (in vitro fertilisation) are taller than naturally-conceived children. Dr Savage and his fellow researchers then sought to determine whether there was a height difference for children conceived using only fertility drugs such as Clomid without IVF. Ovarian-stimulating drugs are part of IVF treatment, but the use of such drugs alone is twice as common as IVF, accounting for 5 per cent of all live births in the developing world. Of those studied, the fertility drug-conceived children were an average of 2cm shorter than the other children.
80% of adults not taking dental exam
LESS THAN 20 per cent of adults in Ireland availed of their entitlement to a free annual oral examination, according to figures from the Irish Dental Association. The association’s chief executive Fintan Hourihan (above) described as “shocking” the fact that fewer than 600,000 people had had the exam, saying suggestions by Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton that PRSI contributions should be raised “beggared belief”. He said: “As it is, people paying PRSI are already being short changed.”
Insurance program to be rolled out at hospitals
A SOFTWARE program which has dramatically cut the waiting times for private insurance claims to be paid to hospitals is to be rolled out nationwide.
Sláinte Technologies has won the contract, worth almost €5 million over five years, from the HSE to install its Claimsure software in 11 HSE-run institutions. The technology was developed four years ago and a pilot project at St James’s Hospital showed that cashflow from claims doubled and the time between procedures and payment from private health insurers halved after it was installed.
With hospital budgets under severe pressure, the HSE has set a target to reduce waiting time for private health claims from 70 days in 2010 to 30 days this year. At any one time an estimated €100 million is outstanding, with the biggest issue being the failure of hospital consultants to sign off on claim forms. They were responsible for €70 million in outstanding claims at the end of 2011.
Sláinte Technologies was founded in 2005 by former pharmaceutical executive Andrew Murphy and is based in Sandyford in Dublin.
The company is also active in the Middle East and hopes to expand its workforce from 65 to 100 by the end of the year. Mr Murphy believes the HSE will recover all the costs of the contract by the end of this year. He said there was a sense of urgency about ensuring the software is installed.
“The big element is to have those sites live as quickly as possible. Instead of hospitals closing wards to meet their budgetary targets, they can improve their income,” he said.
RONAN McGREEVY