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USAID foreign assistance data available in online tool

In a media note, the State Department and USAID announce that "USAID's foreign assistance obligation and expenditure data is now available on the Foreign Assistance Dashboard."

27 Jun 2012

Scientists discover serum biochemical signature that predicts Alzheimer's

Scientists from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland in collaboration with the University of Eastern Finland have recently discovered a serum biochemical signature which predicts progression to Alzheimer's disease months or even years before the first symptoms of the disease occur. The goal of the new collaboration between VTT and GE Healthcare is to validate this biomarker in a large patient cohort as well as to discover novel biomarker candidates.

27 Jun 2012

Preventable ER dental care in Florida cost $88M in 2010

In Florida, preventable ER visits for dental care cost that state $88 million, a new report said. In the meantime, California lawmakers sent the governor a bill for his approval that would give low-income children a new way to get dental care.

27 Jun 2012

State roundup: Rules would ban collections in nonprofit ERs

The U.S. Department of Treasury released proposed regulations Monday that would ban debt collection activities in the emergency rooms of non-profit hospitals. The proposed restriction comes in the wake of a lawsuit by Minnesota's attorney general alleging Fairview Health Systems former contractor, Accretive Health hit up patients in emergency rooms for payment before treatment. The Treasury Department has proposed adding regulations to a part of the federal health care law to protect patients from abusive collection practices.

27 Jun 2012

Analyzing the FDA bill's course: Bipartisanship or something else?

The bipartisan treatment the FDA user fee bill has enjoyed did not fall like manna from heaven. It came at the insistence of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, the FDA and legislators on both sides of the aisle who agreed early on they would get a deal done. And then actually did it.

27 Jun 2012

New issue of Global Health Governance journal available online

Volume V, Issue 2 of the online journal Global Health Governance is now available online. Among other articles, the issue features a piece examining the sustainability of sub-regional disease surveillance networks, a piece examining the impact of regional health meetings in the Pacific on health governance, and a commentary on investing in strengthening health systems.

27 Jun 2012

New York Times examines bird flu studies, history of controversy

The New York Times examines several studies published in the journals Nature and Science looking at how the H5N1 bird flu virus could mutate to become more virulent among humans and outlines the history of controversy surrounding the studies.

27 Jun 2012

Examining how mobile gaming could improve sanitation practices

Ben Armstrong and Luis Arbulu of Hattery Labs, a collaborative design firm, write in this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog about how they are beginning "to explore how games might improve sanitation practices."

27 Jun 2012

USA Today features Q&A on Truvada's potential as prevention tool

USA Today features a Q&A on Truvada, an antiretroviral drug that a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel in May recommended be approved for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV among healthy people at risk of contracting the virus.

27 Jun 2012

Federal task force urges docs to screen for obesity, offer counseling

An advisory panel on Monday recommended that obese adults receive intensive counseling. This step could lead to an expansion of insurance coverage for weight-loss treatments.

27 Jun 2012

PLoS blog interviews guest editor of journal's series on 'Big Food' industry

"Following the launch of the PLoS Medicine series on Big Food and the publication of the first three articles in the series last week," Clare Weaver of the journal's "Speaking of Medicine" blog interviews David Stuckler, a lecturer in sociology at the University of Cambridge and one of the guest editors of the series, about his research background and some of the issues related to the series.

27 Jun 2012

Two major organizations partner in new vendor-neutral health IT innovation network

Two major non-commercial health information technology organizations are working together in a new vendor-neutral health IT innovation network designed to stimulate development of new ideas and shorten the time required to bring new solutions into practice.

27 Jun 2012

London summit 'best opportunity' to address lack of access to family planning

In the first of a series titled "Imagine a world...," posted on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Paula Franklin, U.K. medical director for Marie Stopes International, writes, "For the most part, only people who really need or want something care much about it being available, and that's why it can be hard to make people in the developed world tune in to the huge unmet need for contraception globally -- 222 million people who want to use contraception can't get it, at the last count."

27 Jun 2012

IRIN examines efforts against malnutrition amid increasing food insecurity in Chad

IRIN examines efforts to tackle malnutrition amid increased food insecurity in Chad. "Like in the rest of the Sahel region, a mix of drought, poor rains and harvests as well as rising food prices have resulted in food insecurity and subsequent malnutrition," the news service writes, noting, "Chad's 'embryonic' economy is among factors limiting the local diversity of food sources and income, notes USAID's Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), adding that sociocultural care practices and poor health systems are also to blame."

27 Jun 2012

How far will the ruling reach?

What the Supreme Court decides will impact the billions of dollars that have already been spent to implement the measure, as well as consumers, employers, small businesses, the health care industry, the insurance marketplace, and, of course, politics and K Street.

27 Jun 2012

Doctors' use of electronic records expanding quickly; Decline in malpractice claims also noted

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported that the number of physicans and other providers using electronic health records doubled in three months. Meanwhile, a small study finds that the number of malpractice claims is lower among doctors using those electronic records.

27 Jun 2012

U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator discusses lessons learned from U.S. response to HIV/AIDS worldwide

U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby "discussed lessons learned from the U.S. response to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic over the past decade at an event hosted by the Brookings Institute Monday morning," the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports.

27 Jun 2012

GlobalPost blog interviews GAVI Board Chair about role of vaccines in ending preventable child deaths

At the Child Survival Call to Action summit in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog spoke with Dagfinn Hoybraten -- Norway's former health minister, current vice president of the Norwegian Parliament, and the Board chair of the GAVI Alliance -- "about why he believes vaccines are essential to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's goal of ending preventable child deaths."

27 Jun 2012

Women more likely to support health insurance requirements than men

As the Supreme Court prepares to issue its ruling on Thursday, Americans are divided along party, ideology and gender lines on a key provision of the healthcare law. A new National Agenda Opinion Poll by the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication reveals women are significantly more likely to support health insurance requirements than men.

27 Jun 2012

Medela, King West Pictures and NWMMB partner to increase awareness of human milk banks

Medela, Inc., today announced a partnership with King West Pictures and the Northwest Mothers Milk Bank (NWMMB) to increase awareness of human milk banks and the value of breastmilk feeding, especially for preterm babies. The collaborators will launch the film screening series this summer to showcase families helping to provide the life-saving benefits of breastmilk including to preterm babies in neonatal intensive care units.

27 Jun 2012