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Opinion pieces, blog posts, editorial respond to nomination of Jim Yong Kim to lead World Bank

On Friday, March 23, President Obama nominated Jim Yong Kim, a global health expert and president of Dartmouth College, to be the next president of the World Bank.

28 Mar 2012

South African mines must have HIV, TB, workplace safety policies to receive license, Minister says

Speaking at an event where South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe urged the mining industry to take greater steps to address tuberculosis (TB) and HIV among its employees, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu "announced that mining companies, whose HIV, TB and workplace safety policies are being audited by her department, will have to submit their policies as a prerequisite for renewing their mining licenses," PlusNews reports.

28 Mar 2012

Viewpoints on health law: Court decision will determine federal role 'in caring' for people; Law is scaring business

The Supreme Court's epic oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act began Monday with a kind of tease. The 90-minute exchange explored a technical side issue about taxes, but even so it suggested that the Justices will rule on the merits and are skeptical of some of the Obama Administration's claims.

28 Mar 2012

Inadequate government TB program, lax drug sale regulations contributing to MDR-TB cases in India, health groups say

"India's inadequate government-run tuberculosis [TB] treatment programs and a lack of regulation of the sale of drugs that fight the disease are responsible for the increasing number of drug-resistant cases that are difficult to treat," health advocacy organizations said in India last week, the Associated Press/Huffington Post reports.

28 Mar 2012

CABG offers higher survival rates for older adults with CHD than PCI

A new comparative effectiveness study found older adults with stable coronary heart disease (CHD) who underwent bypass surgery had better long-term survival rates than those who underwent a non-surgical procedure to improve blood flow to the heart muscle, also called revascularization.

28 Mar 2012

United Nations Foundation launches Nothing But Nets campaign

Since last June, more than 130,000 refugees—and counting—have entered South Sudan and neighboring countries to escape fighting on the border of Sudan. As the situation worsens, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is providing food, water, and shelter. Living in a country where malaria is the leading cause of death among children under five, the refugee families in South Sudan need another life-saving tool: insecticide-treated bed nets.

28 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Opposition from the right weakening support for Ryan's budget plan; Doctors need to confront overweight patients

It's no surprise that the White House has denounced Paul Ryan's new House budget as the end of welfare-state civilization. The puzzle is why some conservatives are taking shots at the best chance in decades for serious government reform.

28 Mar 2012

Roundup: Abortion-restriction bills stopped in Ga.; Minnesota can cut health care aide pay; Guidelines for Ore. coordinated care released

One of the most controversial bills this legislative session, that sought to put new restrictions on late-term abortions, was all but gutted Monday after a bipartisan coalition in the state Senate forced key changes. The original proposal would have cut by about six weeks the time women in Georgia may have an elective abortion. With the changes, it would now also include an exemption for "medically futile" pregnancies, giving doctors the option to perform an abortion when a fetus has congenital or chromosomal defects. The change hits at the heart of the controversy: Should fetuses once they hit 20 weeks be protected even if those protections mean women are forced to continue medically risky pregnancies?

28 Mar 2012

Research briefs analyze health centers' and Medicaid's role in growth

Two new policy research briefs analyze health centers' growth over the past two decades and Medicaid's role in propelling and sustaining that growth. The analyses chronicle federal health center growth initiatives pursued by Republican and Democratic Administrations alike, as well as the 2011 retrenchment in the growth trajectory.

27 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Keeping high court arguments away from TV is 'national shame'

Why the U.S. Supreme Court continues to hold its oral arguments away from television cameras remains a mystery and national shame. The court is about to begin hearing six hours of arguments over three days in a lawsuit brought by more than half of the states in the nation to challenge the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, one of the most important pieces of economic legislation passed by Congress since the New Deal.

27 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 27, 2012

In today's headlines, the Supreme Court chronicles continue, with reports detailing what happened during yesterday's opening-day oral arguments and previewing what's on tap for today.

27 Mar 2012

National biosecurity panel to hold closed-door meeting on bird flu research

The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) is scheduled this week to hold "a closed-door meeting to once again look at unpublished manuscripts describing" two studies that showed how H5N1 bird flu virus could be manipulated to become transmissible among ferrets, a model for humans, NPR's health blog "Shots" reports, noting that the meeting "will include a classified briefing from the intelligence community."

27 Mar 2012

Improved clinical quality leads to decline in quality of patients' experiences

Hospitals that adopt strategies to reduce errors and meet government requirements face an initial tradeoff between improved clinical quality and a decline in the quality of individual patients' experiences, according to new research.

27 Mar 2012

U.S. has ability to help curb effects of HIV among women at home, abroad

The U.S. has "been working toward integrating HIV, sexual and reproductive health, and gender-based violence services for women overseas," and "[i]t's time we did the same at home," Serra Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, writes in this Huffington Post "Impact" blog post.

27 Mar 2012

N.Y. seeking Medicaid waiver; Calif. adult services lawsuit now 'unsettled'

New York plans to overhaul the nation's most expensive Medicaid health care system to save $18.3 billion over five years, and will ask the federal government for half of those savings.

27 Mar 2012

Editorials: Newspapers call for justices to dismiss challenge to health law

We don't believe the law is the threat to individual liberty that its critics claim it is. Instead, the most controversial provision - the requirement that almost all adult Americans obtain insurance coverage - is a key piece of a broad effort to fix a healthcare system that is too expensive, inefficient and inaccessible to too many Americans. The justices should dismiss the challenge to this individual mandate, as well as the other claims against the law.

27 Mar 2012

Hospital happenings: Arizona nurse shortage complication, other news

Many hospitals in downtrodden areas of New York City and across the state are faltering, raising concerns that a wave of closings will deprive poor people of badly needed care. A three-month investigation by The New York Times into Wyckoff, based on dozens of interviews and an examination of internal documents, offers a sobering portrait of how one such hospital has been undermined by the very people entrusted to run it.

27 Mar 2012

BRICS countries increasing global health, development aid, report says

As their economies grow, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- known collectively as BRICS -- "are injecting new resources, innovation and momentum into efforts to improve health in the world's poorest countries, according to a report by Global Health Strategies initiatives [GHSi]" released on Monday, Business Live reports.

27 Mar 2012

On Capitol Hill, both parties see political advantage in Rep. Ryan's newest plan

The budget proposal offered last week by the Wisconsin Republican would revamp the Medicare system.

27 Mar 2012

U.N. SG Ban calls for global effort to fight TB on World TB Day

Speaking on Saturday at a World Tuberculosis (TB) Day event, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "called for a global effort to diagnose and treat tuberculosis," United Press International reports.

27 Mar 2012