Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center was named one of the nation's top cardiovascular hospitals in Thomson Reuters' annual ranking of U.S. hospitals for the fourth consecutive year, according to a DHMC press release. Thomson Reuters ranked DHMC in the top 30 teaching hospitals with cardiovascular residency programs based on a 2009 study of U.S. institutions, according to the organization's website. The hospitals recognized by the publication demonstrated 12 percent lower overall treatment costs for high quality care, lower mortality rates, more efficient clinical work and lower readmission rates for heart failure and heart attack patients than at similar hospitals, according to the organization's website. DHMC was also recognized for having one of the 51 top-performing health systems in the country, based on Thomson Reuter's analysis of 225 institutions, according to the release.
Learning management software provider Blackboard will expand its services by purchasing two software companies for $116 million, the company announced Wednesday, according to Inside Higher Ed. Wimba and Elluminate, whose software programs allow students to work together in real time, will be incorporated into the new Blackboard Collaborate platform, Inside Higher Ed reported. "There is significant academic research that says student collaboration, peer tutoring, group work prepare students better for the real world than traditional assignments," Blackboard Learn President Ray Henderson told Inside Higher Ed. Several of Blackboard's competitors, including Desire2Learn and Pearson's eCollege, currently have partnerships with Wimba and Elluminate, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Two Pennsylvania judges have rescinded orders that required local newspapers to remove mention of criminal charges against various defendants in archived stories, the Associated Press reported. Two newspapers the Centre Daily Times and Pennsylvania State University's The Daily Collegian were added to a list of organizations that were ordered to clear their records of individuals whose charges were dismissed or withdrawn by prosecutors, or who completed a probationary program, the Daily Times reported. The defendants in question included several college-aged males, two of whom were charged with assault-related crimes that took place in fraternities, according to the Daily Times. One of the judges, Centre County Judge Bradley Lunsford, ruled that the two newspapers were added to the list without the permission of the court, the Daily Times reported. Centre County Judge Thomas King Kistler said that the initial expungement orders were approved inadvertently, the AP reported. Defense lawyer Joseph Amendola, who requested the original orders, said that a staffer in his office added the two newspapers to the lists without his consent, according to the AP.
