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Daschle says GOP might defund health plan, and other overhaul news

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, tells Kaiser Health News that a Republican strategy to defund the health law may be an effective way for the plan's opponents to unravel it.

25 Oct 2010

NCRR awards 450 Recovery Act instrumentation grants to NIH-funded scientists

Leading-edge, shared technologies are an important component of advancing research to improve health. Specialized instruments such as high-powered electron microscopes, high-resolution mass spectrometers and supercomputers that rapidly process vast amounts of data can enable breakthrough discoveries in preventions, treatments and cures for diseases.

22 Oct 2010

PSST training helps mothers to cope with stress associated with child's disease

Mothers who have children diagnosed with cancer now have a better approach to address and cope with stresses associated with their child's disease. A new certified intervention has proven to be more effective long term compared to other psychological methods, as reported today at the 42nd Congress of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology.

22 Oct 2010

Researchers find new evolution of malaria-transmitting mosquito species

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have found that the major malaria-transmitting mosquito species, Anopheles gambiae, is evolving into two separate species with different traits, a development that could both complicate malaria control efforts and potentially require new disease prevention methods. Their findings were published in back-to-back articles in the October 22 issue of the journal Science.

22 Oct 2010

HHS did not violate federal law for Medicare ads, GAO says

The Hill Healthwatch: "The Department of Health and Human Services did not violate federal prohibitions on publicity and propaganda with its health reform advertising and technical assistance contracts, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. Two HHS television ads, however, 'overstate one of (the law's) benefits,' GAO writes in a letter to Reps. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). The lawmakers requested the office's legal opinion about the ads and HHS's contracts with MIT economist Jonathan Gruber.

21 Oct 2010

Health reform law news: HHS awards $30 million in consumer assistance grants

The Department of Health and Human Services says it will award $30 million in consumer assistance grants to help states and territories either establish or strengthen programs that provide direct services to patients related to their health insurance, Modern Healthcare reports.

21 Oct 2010

HHS announces new $30 million Consumer Assistance Grants program awards

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced new Consumer Assistance Grants program awards of nearly $30 million to help states and territories put patients in charge of their health care. These grants will support states' efforts to establish or strengthen consumer assistance programs that provide direct services to consumers with questions or concerns regarding their health insurance.

20 Oct 2010

NIAID announces four new contracts for clinical trials to address problem of antimicrobial resistance

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, today announced four new contracts for large-scale clinical trials that address the problem of antimicrobial resistance.

20 Oct 2010

Hospital mortality rates decline by 7.98% from 2007 to 2009

A new independent study by HealthGrades of patient outcomes at America's hospitals found that patients at 5-star rated hospitals had a 72% lower risk of dying when compared with patients at 1-star-rated hospitals -- an enormous gap that has held steady over the past years even as overall mortality rates have improved.

20 Oct 2010

Project LAUNCH receives $19 million from SAMHSA

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is awarding over $19 million in Project LAUNCH (Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children's Health) grants to tribal and community-based programs over the next five years. Project LAUNCH promotes the wellness of children from birth to eight years of age by addressing the physical, emotional, social, cognitive and behavioral aspects of their development.

20 Oct 2010

NHLBI launches multicenter study of body cooling treatment in infants and children after cardiac arrest

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has launched the first large-scale, multicenter study to investigate the effectiveness of body cooling treatment in infants and children who have had cardiac arrest. The Therapeutic Hypothermia after Pediatric Cardiac Arrest (THAPCA) trials total more than $21 million over six years.

20 Oct 2010

Feds ask Connecticut to reconsider rate hike approval, other health law implementation news

The Hartford Courant reports that a high-ranking health official in the Obama administration has asked Connecticut insurance regulators to reconsider allowing Blue Cross Blue Shield in Connecticut to raise health insurance rates by as much as 47 percent.

20 Oct 2010

First Edition: October 19, 2010

Today's major health policy headlines include reports about the latest developments in Virginia's court challenge against the health law, a U.S. government lawsuit targeting Michigan Blue Cross Blue Shield for anti-trust activities and a study about the Department of Health and Human Services' Hospital Compare.

19 Oct 2010

Iraqi Cultural Center to host first-of its-kind public discussion among behavioral health specialists

On Oct 21, 2010, the Iraqi Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. will host a first-of its-kind public discussion among behavioral health specialists from Iraq and the U.S. about Iraq's increasingly effective behavioral healthcare programs and how the lessons learned in treating severe trauma there can be applied in the U.S. and elsewhere.

19 Oct 2010

New ADNI-GO effort enables researchers to study Alzheimer's disease

Volunteers in New York, NY are being sought for a clinical study examining the subtle changes that may take place in the brains of older people many years before overt symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) appear. Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center are specifically looking for people with the very earliest complaints of memory problems that affect their daily activities. The study will follow participants over time, using imaging techniques specifically developed to advance research into changes taking place in the structure and function of the living brain, as well as biomarker measures found in blood and cerebrospinal fluid.

19 Oct 2010

Scientists complete genetic blueprints for 13 different strains of Lyme disease bacteria

Scientists supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have determined the complete genetic blueprints for 13 different strains of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. The achievement should lead to a better understanding of how genetic variations among strains may result in different courses of illness in people with Lyme disease, the most common tickborne disease in North America. The wealth of new genetic data will also help scientists develop improved ways to diagnose, treat and prevent Lyme disease.

19 Oct 2010

HHS awards $4.8 million grant for Teen Prevention Education Program

The Princeton Center for Leadership Training (PCLT), in collaboration with long-time partner HiTOPS, was awarded a five-year, $4.8 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to replicate and evaluate a teen sexual health peer education program, known as the Teen Prevention Education Program (Teen PEP), in 16 high schools in rural North Carolina communities with high teen birth rates.

18 Oct 2010

Possibilities of genetics research, personalized medicine, and behavioral intervention

Personalized medicine - improving the fit between patient and treatment - has become a major focus of research in fields from cancer treatment to the psychopharmacology of mental disorders. Genetic studies have suggested that an individual's genetic makeup renders him either more or less sensitive to stressful social environments - but can an individual's unique genotype also determine the effectiveness of preventative or therapeutic behavioral interventions?

18 Oct 2010

Health law's new patient-centered outcomes board takes shape; More insurance waiver requests expected

The Washington Post reports on a new entity: the Board of Governors of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. "If you're not familiar with the board, you're not alone. Created by the health-care overhaul law, it's one of the newest and least known panels in government. But the work of its 21 members, if successful, could increase the public's knowledge of medical treatments for everything from attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder to cancer.

18 Oct 2010

Oseltamivir reduces mortality in influenza A/H5N1 patients

A study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases indicates that treatment with oseltamivir significantly reduces mortality in patients with influenza A/H5N1, or 'bird flu', even when given late in the course of illness.

15 Oct 2010