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George Clooney learned a few basics about treating accident victims while playing a physician on "ER." Then he got a crash course in HIPAA when he became an accident victim in real life.

Employees of the Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, N.J., were suspended for a month without pay when the hospital discovered they had violated Clooney's privacy during his stay there. The star was treated at Palisades after his motorcycle collided with another vehicle on Sept. 21.

The hospital did not respond to repeated requests from AMNews for information on the suspensions. But reports indicated that Palisades investigated nearly 40 employees who were suspected of violating Clooney's privacy in ways that include snooping at his electronic medical files, peeking inside his room, and leaking information, including Clooney's emergency contact information, to the media.

Jeanne Otersen, director of Health Professionals and Allied Employees, which represents 700 Palisades employees, confirmed that 27 were suspended, seven of whom were union-represented nurses and clinical technicians.

Clooney, who had a broken rib, scrapes and bruises, said he did not know about the privacy breaches until he was contacted for comment when news broke of the suspensions.

"And while I very much believe in a patient's right to privacy, I would hope that this could be settled without suspending medical workers," said Clooney in a statement released by his publicist.

Health care attorneys said regardless of how forgiving the star might be, the hospital took the right course of action.

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For years, there has been talk about reimporting drugs from Canada to cut pharmaceutical costs. But now, the conversation has turned to reimporting patients from Canada to cut procedure costs.

Richard Baker, a Vancouver native and a public critic of Canada's single-payer health care system, started his business, Timely Medical Alternatives, in 2003 to negotiate rates with American doctors and hospitals so fellow Canadians could avoid long queues. But earlier this year Baker expanded his business to match Americans with U.S. doctors and hospitals, a subsidiary he calls North American Surgery. Baker said uninsured Americans were calling him, looking for the same discounted deals he got for Canadians.

Technically, U.S. patients don't have to go to Canada and come back, like with reimported drugs -- but the effect is the same.

Baker negotiates rates with U.S. hospitals, similar to the discounted rates insurers negotiate. He adds a percentage onto that rate for his own fee, collects the money from the patients, then pays the hospital cash up front before the patient is treated. In most cases, the negotiated rate is a package deal that includes facility fees as well as payment to all the surgeons and ancillary staff, and the hospital distributes the lump sum appropriately.

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Getting a passport in preparation for surgery isn't on the minds of most patients. But the medical tourism industry is betting that it will be soon, as a small but growing group of companies work to create a medical travel system that is so well-oiled, they brag that scheduling surgery abroad will be easier than booking a vacation.

Firms are offering perks from full-service bookings that include recuperation time at four- and five-star hotels, money-back guarantees and even liability insurance -- like the kind someone would buy for a rental car -- to lessen the trepidation for patients considering overseas care.

The companies aren't just waiting for that comfort level to rise, either. They are courting large employers and health plans by promising to find the best foreign hospitals they claim rival U.S. facilities in quality measures, all while saving them up to 80% in health care costs so they will offer employees and members incentives for seeking care abroad.

And the medical travel companies themselves are being courted by countries and overseas hospitals eager to take American patients. For example, the director of medical services for the Singapore Tourism Board said 555,000 tourists had received medical treatment in that country last year. Singapore would like to bring that number to 1 million per year by 2012.

Wockhardt Hospitals in India has posted a series of videos on YouTube targeted to specific procedures and specific countries patients might be coming from. Hospitals also are organizing tours for medical travel companies, hoping to be included in their networks.

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Flaxseed halted prostate-tumor growth in a recent Duke University Medical Center study.  Flaxseed is edible and rich in omega-3 fatty acids and fiber-related compounds known as lignans.  Researchers believe the seed possibly interrupts that chain of events that allows cells to divide irregularly and become cancerous.

In the study, researchers looked at men who were about to undergo surgical treatment for prostate cancer.  For 30 days prior to surgery the men took 30 grams of flaxseed daily.  The tumors revealed how the cells had multiplied.  Some men took flaxseed alone, some men took flaxseed in conjunction with a low-fat diet, some men followed a low-fat diet only and took no flaxseed, and some men did nothing and served as a control group.

Researchers found that men in the two groups who took flaxseed had the slowest tumor growth, proving that the flaxseed affected tumor growth rather than the low-fat diet.  Each group included 40 participants who ate ground flaxseed (the coating on whole flaxseed is not digestible) sprinkled in drinks and on food.

One out of six American men will develop prostate cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

Sugar-sweetened drinks can have a negative effect on preschool children, researchers at the University Of Ottawa Institute of Population Health say.  The study looked at 1,900 children’s consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks.

Researchers found that only 7 percent of children who did not consume these drinks between meals were overweight when they reached the age of 4—compared with 15.4 percent of those who did consume the sugar-sweetened drinks four to six times between meals per week.

Researchers are urging parents to limit the consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks because of the risk of weight gain in children.

The results were published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association.