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Devex examines closing of Global Health Council

Devex examines the April 20 announcement by the Global Health Council (GHC) that it will cease operations in the year of its 40th anniversary, discussing possible reasons why the organization is closing and what lies ahead for its members. According to Devex, a lack of funding, operating challenges, and "a lack of focus" all potentially contributed to the organization's impending closure.

5 May 2012

Group says it has Kansas clinic abortion records; Iowa preps for abortion battle in budget

An anti-abortion group says it has patient records of dozens of women and girls who sought treatment at a Kansas abortion clinic last month. In the meantime, Iowa lawmakers prepare to tackle the state's health spending, including whether victims of rape or incest may get abortions through its Medicaid program.

5 May 2012

Romney plan could hurt Mass. Medicaid; States scramble to consider place in health law

Mitt Romney hasn't released details of his health plan, but his views on Medicaid seem clear. Meanwhile, residents in Maine consider what the federal health law means for them and 90 Washington state women are suing their Republican attorney general.

5 May 2012

China joins Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

"Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo announced that China has joined the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves during a tour of a clean cookstove exhibit with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Beijing today," a U.S. Department of State press release reports.

5 May 2012

High profile judge hints that Supreme Court decision to strike health law 'would be a mistake'

The Wall Street Journal reports that Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson said the high court should "think twice" about overturning the law. In other health law news, the White House's under-the-radar effort to build support for the overhaul appears to be working.

5 May 2012

UNFPA, International Confederation of Midwives recognize International Day of the Midwife

In a joint statement, UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin and Agneta Bridges, secretary-general of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), recognize the International Day of the Midwife on May 5.

5 May 2012

Sierra Leone has made progress in improving maternal, child health care, but 'much more to do'

"Just two years ago, our country had one of the worst maternal and infant death rates in the world," Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma writes in a Huffington Post U.K. "Impact" blog post, adding, "We knew something had to be done." So in September 2009, the government announced "that all health user fees would be removed for pregnant and lactating women and children under the age of five" and "introduced the Free Health Care Initiative [FHCI] in April 2010, which would give around 460,000 women and a million children a much better chance of having a longer and happier life," Koroma writes.

5 May 2012

Oregon gets $1.9B to launch Medicaid Coordinated Care Organizations to try to cut health spending

The federal support will help Oregon's Medicaid Coordinated Care Organizations as they try to cut health costs by 2 percent over two years using preventive care to keep patients healthy.

5 May 2012

Copenhagen Consensus report argues for expanding family planning programs in 'high-fertility' countries

As part of a series of Slate articles highlighting issues being examined by the Copenhagen Consensus Center, Bjorn Lomborg, director of the center, examines the implications of population growth on development indicators.

5 May 2012

HIMSS Analytics recognizes 17 Banner Health facilities with Stage 7 award

Seventeen Banner Health facilities have achieved Stage 7, the final stage in the adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) as acknowledged by HIMSS Analytics, a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

5 May 2012

Viewpoints: Limited choices for prescriptions; Health mandate is about liberty; VA fails to serve vets' mental health needs

Just a few years ago, so-called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, like Medco would contract with most leading drugstore chains so people could fill their prescriptions almost anywhere they pleased. Then the PBMs realized they could operate more efficiently and profitably by limiting people's choices to a single drugstore - their own. So they laid down the law with consumers.

5 May 2012

USAID's Shah speaks about agency's operations, efforts to build sustainable solutions to hunger in Foreign Policy interview

In an interview with Foreign Policy, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah speaks "about how he is reinventing USAID, an often-embattled agency charged with helping the world's poorest countries develop, while at the same time dealing with crises around the globe," the magazine reports.

5 May 2012

KFF issues new brief on statutory requirements & policies governing U.S. global family planning and reproductive health efforts

The Kaiser Family Foundation on Thursday released a new issue brief that "provides a summary of the major policies and statutory requirements governing U.S. participation in international family planning and reproductive health efforts," according to the website.

5 May 2012

Highlights: D.C. may have funds for illegal immigrant health care; Fla. passed up $200M because it comes from health law; Texas to build 2 new med schools

D.C. Council member David A. Catania has found an additional $20 million in the budget to continue offering free health insurance to 19,000 undocumented immigrants, reversing a proposal by Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) that could have restricted them from receiving emergency care. Catania (I-At Large) … has made full funding of the Alliance Insurance program a chief priority as the council prepares for final budget deliberations.

5 May 2012

Primary-care physicians hard to find in low-income Hispanic metropolitan neighborhoods

New research into "health care deserts" finds that primary-care physicians are especially hard to find in predominantly Black and/or low-income Hispanic metropolitan neighborhoods.

5 May 2012

Research roundup: Chronic disease interventions could save states money; Drilling into childhood cancer disparities; National heart emergency care system proposed

Urban Institute: Potential Savings Through Prevention Of Avoidable Chronic Illness Among CalPERS State Active Members -- California is one of many states in financial crisis, and according to this report, it could save millions of dollars on state employee health benefits by preventing chronic disease.

5 May 2012

More than 15000 health-care facilities to participate in WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands Initiative

On Hand Hygiene Day (5 May), more than 15 000 health-care facilities from 156 countries are participating in the WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands Initiative by committing to improve patient safety by practicing better hand hygiene.

5 May 2012

Political cartoon: 'Over The Top?'

Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Over The Top?" by Lee Judge.

5 May 2012

Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice launched at EuroPRevent2012

The latest cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention guidelines have been overhauled to produce a user friendly document with concise messages that awards greater weight than ever before to evidence from clinical trials and observational population studies. The "European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice (version 2012)" - were launched at the EuroPRevent2012 meeting in Dublin, Ireland.

4 May 2012

U.N.-sponsored report finds 1 in 10 infants born prematurely worldwide

Fifteen million infants, or nearly one in 10 worldwide, "are born premature every year, and 1.1 million of those infants die, according to a U.N.-sponsored report released Wednesday," Agence France-Presse reports.

4 May 2012

Health Care News and Research

Devex examines closing of Global Health Council

Group says it has Kansas clinic abortion records; Iowa preps for abortion battle in budget

Romney plan could hurt Mass. Medicaid; States scramble to consider place in health law

China joins Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

High profile judge hints that Supreme Court decision to strike health law 'would be a mistake'

UNFPA, International Confederation of Midwives recognize International Day of the Midwife

Sierra Leone has made progress in improving maternal, child health care, but 'much more to do'

Oregon gets $1.9B to launch Medicaid Coordinated Care Organizations to try to cut health spending

Copenhagen Consensus report argues for expanding family planning programs in 'high-fertility' countries

HIMSS Analytics recognizes 17 Banner Health facilities with Stage 7 award

Viewpoints: Limited choices for prescriptions; Health mandate is about liberty; VA fails to serve vets' mental health needs

USAID's Shah speaks about agency's operations, efforts to build sustainable solutions to hunger in Foreign Policy interview

KFF issues new brief on statutory requirements & policies governing U.S. global family planning and reproductive health efforts

Highlights: D.C. may have funds for illegal immigrant health care; Fla. passed up $200M because it comes from health law; Texas to build 2 new med schools

Primary-care physicians hard to find in low-income Hispanic metropolitan neighborhoods

Research roundup: Chronic disease interventions could save states money; Drilling into childhood cancer disparities; National heart emergency care system proposed

More than 15000 health-care facilities to participate in WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands Initiative

Political cartoon: 'Over The Top?'

Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice launched at EuroPRevent2012

U.N.-sponsored report finds 1 in 10 infants born prematurely worldwide

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

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