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Senate negotiators wrestle with employer mandate, unemployed have mixed feelings on health bills

News reports reflect how current reform plans are likely to affect employers as well as people who are unemployed.

24 Oct 2009

Washington Independent examines QDDR process, implications for State Dept., USAID

The Washington Independent examines the State Department's Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, or QDDR, announced in June by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Anne-Marie Slaughter, the State Department's director of policy planning; James Michael, a senior USAID official; and Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew are "in charge of creating the document — a process of managing five working groups chaired by top-level agency heads to produce an interim report in January and a final document by next September."

24 Oct 2009

SARRC awarded a $100,000 as the winner of the 2009 Arizona Benefits grant

The Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center (SARRC), a non-profit working to advance research and provide support for individuals with autism and their families, has been awarded a $100,000 grant as the winner of the 2009 Arizona Benefits grant, funded by health benefits company Humana Inc.

24 Oct 2009

New report on the true cost of ObamaCare released

Far from providing "affordable" care for everyone, ObamaCare would result in higher insurance premiums, more and higher taxes, fewer jobs, lower wages, a reduced standard of living and an erosion of privacy and individual liberty.

24 Oct 2009

Today's opinions and editorials

Increasing government oversight will not only hurt doctors in the pocketbook, as reimbursements are inevitably cut. It will also lead to greater bureaucratic inefficiencies (Marc Siegel, 10/22).

24 Oct 2009

Senate leaders close to including a version of public option in health bill

The New York Times: "In pushing to include a government-run health insurance plan in the health care bill, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is taking a calculated gamble that the 60 members of his caucus could support the plan if it included a way for states to opt out."

24 Oct 2009

Women and children important during groundwater arsenic pollution fieldwork, says geologist

A Kansas State University geologist and graduate student are finding that the most important tools in their fieldwork on groundwater arsenic pollution are women and children armed with pamphlets and testing kits.

24 Oct 2009

Recent releases in Global Health

"The spread of dengue virus throughout the tropics represents a major, rapidly growing public health problem with an estimated 2.5 billion people at risk of dengue fever and the life-threatening disease, severe dengue," write the authors of a Lancet Infectious Diseases review that examines what is known about the virus and progress in the development of a dengue vaccine (Webster et. al, 11/09).

24 Oct 2009

Egypt Race for the Cure supports breast cancer programs

Susan G. Komen for the Cure® is expanding its global breast cancer mission to Egypt this October, working with Egyptian government agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to break the silence and stigma around breast cancer.

24 Oct 2009

AFER and Pfizer Ophthalmics initiate awards recognizing the achievements of Dr. Carl B. Camras

The ARVO Foundation for Eye Research (AFER) and Pfizer Ophthalmics are pleased to announce a series of awards named in honor of Carl B. Camras, MD. Up to three awards of $10,000 each will be presented annually for a period of 10 years to early career researchers.

24 Oct 2009

LifeLock and Arthritis Foundation announce new partnership deal

With identity theft complaints reaching a 5-year high, and the cost to consumers increasing, the longer the fraud goes undetected, according to Javelin Strategy & Research, the urgency to guard against this crime has increased as well.

24 Oct 2009

MPI Research to assist Kineta in autoimmune drug development program

MPI Research, a preclinical Contract Research Organization (CRO), announced that it will be collaborating with Kineta, Inc, a Seattle-based privately held biotechnology company specializing in clinical advancement of drugs that modulate and enhance the human immune system.

24 Oct 2009

Researchers question the necessity of duodenal biopsy for celiac disease diagnosis

Duodenal biopsy remains the gold standard for celiac disease (CD) diagnosis. However, it has several pitfalls and requires an invasive procedure in children. In the past few years, a more prominent role for a definitive diagnosis based solely on serology has been proposed. The predictive value of high levels of anti-tissue transglutaminase (tTG) antibodies has also been reported in retrospective CD cohorts.

24 Oct 2009

New law speeds up VA's beleaguered budget process

President Obama signed a law Thursday to grease the Veterans Affairs Department's troubled budgeting process by changing the schedule to allocate funds a year in advance, the Washington Post reports.

24 Oct 2009

Officials question validity of community research center cancer studies

The New York Times reports that the whistleblowing of a former vice president of a research hospital in Urbana, Ill., has highlighted some questionable research practices at certain community cancer research sites.

24 Oct 2009

Inhibitex to raise $23 million through private placement

Inhibitex, Inc. today announced that it has entered into definitive purchase agreements with institutional investors for the sale of approximately $23 million of its common stock, and warrants to purchase common stock, in a private placement.

24 Oct 2009

Health care changes forcing companies to adapt, could cost doctors

"Although thousands of doctors are converting their offices to electronic health records, a change the federal government supports with $19 billion in grants, there is a major catch — the government is still working on establishing a standard for e-records," the Las Vegas Sun reports. "Doctors who buy a software program could lose hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, if their systems aren't compatible with the future government standard."

24 Oct 2009

NIH awards $1.4 million Small Business Technology Transfer grant to BloodCenter of Wisconsin

BloodCenter of Wisconsin (BCW) today announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $1.4 million Small Business Technology Transfer grant to fund continued research into the deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to enhance safety and reduce hospital costs related to the collection, manufacture and transfusion of blood products. The NIH grant allows the first-ever research into the potential clinical and financial benefits of RFID technology for automatic identification, tracking, and status monitoring of blood and blood products across the entire transfusion medicine supply chain.

24 Oct 2009

Poll: Public expects big changes sooner than Congress plans

"Democrats are promising significant changes in the health insurance market with the passage of their health care legislation, but they may not be able to deliver as quickly as most Americans would expect," CBS News reports.

24 Oct 2009

University neurologists launch multiple sclerosis research study

Neurologists at the University at Buffalo are beginning a research study that could overturn the prevailing wisdom on the cause of multiple sclerosis (MS).

24 Oct 2009