Speech News and Research

RSS

Obama, Romney spar over Medicare, health reform policies

News outlets offer a variety of coverage on these issues - including how Medicare is playing in the polls and what motivates senior voters. And a new Families USA study offers a critical assessment of Mitt Romney's health policies.

29 Sep 2012

First Edition: September 28, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about political and policy-oriented health care developments.

28 Sep 2012

Obama's U.N. speech could be 'turning point' in fight against human trafficking

"When President Obama made a landmark speech against modern slavery on Tuesday, many of us in the news media shrugged," but women survivors of human trafficking "noticed," Nicholas Kristof writes in his New York Times column.

28 Sep 2012

Unclear whether Romney would increase or decrease current foreign aid budget

"In a speech to the Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney acknowledged the value of foreign aid and its purpose: providing humanitarian assistance, improving security and encouraging economic growth," but "we don't know whether he would really protect the current budget ... from further cuts if he is elected," a New York Times editorial states.

28 Sep 2012

African leaders renew commitment to providing HIV treatment, prevention services

"African leaders meeting on the sidelines of the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly called Wednesday for innovative solutions to accelerate the response to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and to advance health for people on the continent," the U.N. News Centre reports.

28 Sep 2012

Talk on the trail: Romney praises his own Mass. health reforms, denounces the 2010 health law

In what The Washington Post describes as "political flexibility," GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney touted the state health law he signed while Massachusetts governor as proof of compassion and empathy, while also sharply criticizing the federal health law, which is viewed as President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement.

28 Sep 2012

First Edition: September 27, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about how the health law and Medicare are buzz words in public opinion polls and on the campaign trail.

27 Sep 2012

World working together to end polio

In a post on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, foundation Co-Chair Bill Gates writes about traveling to New York this week to deliver a speech to the U.N. on polio eradication, one of the top five global health priorities as described by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

27 Sep 2012

New technological tools automatically measure relevant behaviors of children with autism

Researchers in Georgia Tech's Center for Behavior Imaging have developed two new technological tools that automatically measure relevant behaviors of children, and promise to have significant impact on the understanding of behavioral disorders such as autism.

26 Sep 2012

Clinton delivers remarks on diplomacy, development at Clinton Global Initiative

The State Department provides a transcript of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.

26 Sep 2012

Cochlear implant an option for unhappy stapes patients

Cochlear implantation is a safe and effective treatment option for patients with far advanced otosclerosis who have not benefitted from stapedectomy, report US researchers.

25 Sep 2012

Tips for health care providers when communicating with deaf or hearing impaired

This week is the International Week of the Deaf, held to draw attention to deaf and hearing-impaired people, their accomplishments and challenges they face. One health care issue is a potential communication barrier between medical providers and deaf or hard-of-hearing patients.

25 Sep 2012

'Reaching the moon' in global public health

Citing President John F. Kennedy's "moon speech" -- in which Kennedy said, "We choose…because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win" --

24 Sep 2012

Medicare takes center stage as president, Ryan address AARP

GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's plan to overhaul Medicare returned to the political spotlight Friday as both presidential campaigns jabbed each other during a summit of the AARP, the country's top advocacy group for seniors. Both Ryan, who addressed the group in person, and President Obama, who spoke ahead of Ryan via a video feed ..., accused the other side of advancing ideas that would undermine and destroy the popular health-care program for the elderly and the disabled.

24 Sep 2012

Bilateral cochlear implants may restore binaural sound processing in the brain

Cochlear implants - electronic devices surgically implanted in the ear to help provide a sense of sound - have been successfully used since the late 1980's. But questions remain as to whether bilateral cochlear implants, placed in each ear rather than the traditional single-ear implant, are truly able to facilitate binaural hearing. Now, Tel Aviv University researchers have proof that under certain conditions, this practice has the ability to salvage binaural sound processing for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

24 Sep 2012

USA Today/Gallup Poll shows Obama more trusted on Medicare

Other polls indicate President Barack Obama is faring well in some swing states. GOP nominee Mitt Romney's campaign hopes to shift the focus to federal spending and Medicare issues as Obama and GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan speak today to the AARP.

21 Sep 2012

First Edition: September 21, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about recent polling results indicating that, despite GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's efforts to frame the Medicare debate, President Barack Obama still has the advantage on this issue.

21 Sep 2012

New mouse models can help scientists study MCT8 deficiency

New mouse models can help scientists study MCT8 deficiency, an inherited genetic disorder affecting children, according to new data presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) in Québec City, Québec, Canada.

21 Sep 2012

MD Anderson introduces Moon Shots Program to reduce cancer deaths

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announces the launch of the Moon Shots Program, an unprecedented effort to dramatically accelerate the pace of converting scientific discoveries into clinical advances that reduce cancer deaths.

21 Sep 2012

Bill Gates describes how 'catalytic philanthropy' can help bring vaccines, medicines to untouched markets

In an essay adapted for Forbes magazine from a speech given at the Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy in June, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses how "innovations for the poor suffer from ... market limitations" and his idea of "catalytic philanthropy." Gates writes, "The market is not going to place huge bets on research when there are no buyers for a breakthrough. This explains why we have no vaccine for malaria today, even though a million people die from it every year."

20 Sep 2012