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Mission to curtail unnecessary medical testing

Dr. Christine K. Cassel, president and CEO of the ABIM claims to be looking at the big picture. "The campaign is not about rationing or withholding proper care. On the contrary; if waste is not reduced, there will be less money for the care that is necessary," she said. "If we don't as a community collectively address this cost issue, then there's a whole lot of people that aren't going to get the care that they need."

17 Apr 2012

Flu outbreak at veterans home

State Veterans' Affairs Commissioner Linda Schwartz told The Associated Press that the veterans were taken to Hartford Hospital after a number began complaining of flu-like symptoms. The 18 men live at the Connecticut State Veterans Home in either the Sgt. John L. Levitow Veteran's Health Center or a residential facility.

17 Apr 2012

First Edition: April 17, 2012

Today's health policy headlines include reports from the presidential campaign trail as well as news from the states regarding abortion laws.

17 Apr 2012

Responses to U.S. nomination of Jim Kim for World Bank presidency

The following is a summary of several recent pieces published in response to the U.S. nomination of Jim Yong Kim to be the next president of the World Bank.

17 Apr 2012

Entitlement programs at center of Capitol Hill's gathering budget storm

The likely and emerging partisan clash in Congress could force GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to take difficult policy positions in the fall -- just as the campaign is coming to an end. Meanwhile, this week on Capitol Hill, lawmakers will wrestle with a number of health care issues.

17 Apr 2012

Politics in play as April marks the end of the Texas Women's Health Program

Texas' fight with the federal government over funding for its Texas Women's Health Program, which will end this month and leave 130,000 low-income women paying for their own birth control or going without it, must include a discussion of politics -- even for the judges considering the case, The Associated Press reports.

17 Apr 2012

Medicaid news: Neb.'s prenatal care flap; Texas' 'ticking time bomb'

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman vetoed a proposal to restore Medicaid-funded prenatal care for illegal immigrants on Friday, but the initiative could still survive if the state legislature rejects his move next week. Nebraska state senators voted 31-15 on Wednesday to restore the program, which was eliminated two years ago after providing prenatal care for decades.

17 Apr 2012

'Starvation Protocol' guidelines would help India's hunger problem

In the final article of a six-part series titled "Starving in India" in the Wall Street Journal's "India Real Time" blog, series author Ashwin Parulkar of the Centre for Equity Studies writes that the research conducted for the articles shows "that India needs a new legal framework for dealing with chronic hunger and starvation."

17 Apr 2012

WHO, U.N.-Water report examines access to safe drinking water, improved sanitation

"Nearly 780 million people are deprived of safe drinking water -- and 2.5 billion lack access to improved sanitation -- all because governments aren't spending scarce resources wisely, according to a joint report of the World Health Organization and U.N.-Water," VOA News reports.

17 Apr 2012

WHO report discusses financing, coordinating R&D for health needs in developing countries

This post on IntraHealth International's "Global Health Blog" discusses a new report from the WHO, titled "Research and Development to Meet Health Needs in Developing Countries: Strengthening Global Financing and Coordination," which "concludes that 'all countries should commit to spend at least 0.01 percent of GDP on government-funded R&D [research and development] devoted to meeting the health needs of developing countries.'"

17 Apr 2012

ACS, CDC partner to improve surgical patient safety

A joint, strategic partnership to improve surgical patient safety at the national level was announced today by leaders of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

17 Apr 2012

Genetically modified mosquitoes offer hope of malaria eradication amid growing drug resistance

"In recent weeks, the emergence on the Thai-Myanmar border of malaria strains resistant to artemisinin, a plant-derived drug, have led to pessimistic headlines and reminders of the setback caused by resistance to the drug chloroquine, which began in the 1950s," columnist and author Matt Ridley writes in the Wall Street Journal's "Mind & Matter," noting, "April 25 is World Malaria Day, designed to draw attention to the planet's biggest infectious killer."

17 Apr 2012

Health news from the campaign trail

News outlets offer a fact check on how some health issues are being characterized in the presidential contest, as well as a report about an attack on the health law in what The Associated Press terms "bizarre videos."

17 Apr 2012

Feds ask court to 'force' J&J executive to testify in lawsuit alleging kickbacks and Medicaid fraud

The federal government has asked a court to force Johnson & Johnson executive Alex Gorsky to testify in a lawsuit involving allegations of kickbacks and Medicaid fraud.

17 Apr 2012

Use of sewage-contaminated water to irrigate crops poses disease risk in Zimbabwe, IRIN reports

IRIN examines how local Zimbabwean farmers' usage of water containing raw sewage to irrigate their crops poses a risk of disease transmission to people who consume the vegetables.

17 Apr 2012

First study to measure walking after surgery in gynecologic patients

Despite the well-documented benefits of walking after surgery, some patients are reluctant to make an attempt even with the encouragement of medical staff. Loyola University Health System researchers reported these findings at the prestigious 38th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons in Baltimore.

17 Apr 2012

U.S. should separate diplomatic pressures on N. Korea from humanitarian assistance, provide food aid

A Seattle Times editorial says a "radical response" to North Korea's rocket launch would be to "keep diplomatic channels open with the 240,000 tons of food aid planned before" the launch. "Providing food aid is wholly apart from maintaining political and economic pressure on the country," the editorial says, adding, "Sending food does not preclude international sanctions to deny North Korea access to electronic technology and military hardware."

17 Apr 2012

Viewpoints: The missing debate on women; The true cost of care; Fair wages for home health aides

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just reported that the nation's teen pregnancy rate is at an all-time low. Increased contraceptive use appears to have played a significant role in the decline. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that without Title X services, hundreds of thousands more teenagers would become pregnant every year. Why does GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney think eliminating the federal money for family planning - $327 million annually - is wise?

17 Apr 2012

Study looks at quality measures provided by nursing homes

While nursing homes are the place where an estimated 30 percent of Americans die, there currently exists no way to compare which institutions do a better job at managing end of life care. A new study appearing this week in the Journal of Palliative Medicine is starting a discussion over the need to create end of life quality measures in order to both inform consumers and provide nursing homes with incentive to improve care.

17 Apr 2012

Study says Mass. health reform not 'budget buster;' Some struggling cities opt out of state's health law

A study from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation says that the commonwealth's health law has amounted to only a small increase in spending on health care. In the meantime, some struggling municipalities in Massachusetts have opted out of a new law that reduces local government's share of health care costs for employees.

17 Apr 2012

Health Care News and Research

Mission to curtail unnecessary medical testing

Flu outbreak at veterans home

First Edition: April 17, 2012

Responses to U.S. nomination of Jim Kim for World Bank presidency

Entitlement programs at center of Capitol Hill's gathering budget storm

Politics in play as April marks the end of the Texas Women's Health Program

Medicaid news: Neb.'s prenatal care flap; Texas' 'ticking time bomb'

'Starvation Protocol' guidelines would help India's hunger problem

WHO, U.N.-Water report examines access to safe drinking water, improved sanitation

WHO report discusses financing, coordinating R&D for health needs in developing countries

ACS, CDC partner to improve surgical patient safety

Genetically modified mosquitoes offer hope of malaria eradication amid growing drug resistance

Health news from the campaign trail

Feds ask court to 'force' J&J executive to testify in lawsuit alleging kickbacks and Medicaid fraud

Use of sewage-contaminated water to irrigate crops poses disease risk in Zimbabwe, IRIN reports

First study to measure walking after surgery in gynecologic patients

U.S. should separate diplomatic pressures on N. Korea from humanitarian assistance, provide food aid

Viewpoints: The missing debate on women; The true cost of care; Fair wages for home health aides

Study looks at quality measures provided by nursing homes

Study says Mass. health reform not 'budget buster;' Some struggling cities opt out of state's health law

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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