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Report finds 42% of children under 5 malnourished in India; Prime Minister deems child malnutrition 'national shame'

"Roughly 42 percent of all Indian children under age five suffer from malnutrition, a sobering reminder of the persistence of poverty and hunger in the world's largest democracy, according to a major report released" on Tuesday by the Naandi Foundation, an independent charitable organization, the New York Times reports.

11 Jan 2012

HHS to spend nearly $1.8M to review research volunteer rules, fight STDs in Guatemala; DOJ asks related lawsuit to be dismissed

"Responding to U.S. experiments that infected Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea in the 1940s, the Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will spend $1 million to study new rules for protecting medical research volunteers," and "an additional $775,000 will go to fighting sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala," the Washington Post reports.

11 Jan 2012

DNA decoder – cheaper and faster

Life Technologies Corp. – a biotechnology company announced Tuesday that it has developed a machine to decode an individual's DNA in a day for just $1,000. The company said it was taking orders for the technology, which it expects to deliver in about a year. The Carlsbad, California, company said three major research institutions had already signed up for the $149,000 machine: the Baylor College of Medicine, the Yale School of Medicine and the Broad Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

11 Jan 2012

Findings support 'medical home' movement to improve health outcomes

Greater access to features of high-quality primary care -- comprehensiveness, patient-centeredness and extended office hours -- is associated with lower mortality, according to a new national UC Davis study. Published in the January-February issue of the Annals of Family Medicine, the research is the first to link the availability of three specific attributes of primary care with reduced risk of death.

11 Jan 2012

Study finds home-visit program could keep diabetes patients out of the hospital

A special Medicare program that stresses home health visits for patients with chronic diseases helped keep diabetes patients out of the hospital and may have lowered costs using time-honored prevention methods, researchers reported on Monday.

11 Jan 2012

Restricting publication of H5N1 research 'more perilous' than threat of biological warfare

In this Reuters opinion piece, New York-based writer Peter Christian Hall responds to "the U.S. government's move to restrict publication of vital research into H5N1 avian flu," writing, "This unprecedented interference in the field of biology could hinder research and hamper responsiveness in distant lands plagued by H5N1," yet "no one seems to be challenging a key assumption -- that H5N1 could make a useful weapon. It wouldn't."

11 Jan 2012

First Edition: January 11, 2012

In today's headlines, the 26 states opposed to the health law have filed their Supreme Court arguments against the measure's Medicaid expansion.

11 Jan 2012

Social media faster than traditional sources in tracking cholera in Haiti, study says

"Internet-based news and Twitter feeds were faster than traditional sources at detecting the onset and progression of the cholera epidemic in post-earthquake Haiti ..., according to a new study published in the January issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (AJTMH)," an AJTMH press release states.

11 Jan 2012

Questions continue about the health law's future

CQ HealthBeat reports on the courses available for the law's implementation as stakeholders await the Supreme Court's rulings. Politico Pro reports that the recent denials by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding state medical-loss ratio adjustment requests is very different than earlier experiences.

11 Jan 2012

OMB Chief Jack Lew tapped as new White House chief of staff

Jack Lew will replace Bill Daley in the post later this month after work is completed on the 2013 budget. Democrats and progressives are cheering this Obama administration pick because he has a long record of protecting entitlement programs, especially Medicaid.

11 Jan 2012

Prevalence of cirrhosis may climb among older Americans

Older patients with cirrhosis have significant functional disability, require twice the amount of informal caregiving, and contribute added strain on the health care system, according to U-M research published in Hepatology.

11 Jan 2012

Viewpoints: Renewing the call for a public option; Keep all justices on health law case

In Washington, the three major health insurers - Premera Blue Cross, Regence BlueShield and Group Health Cooperative - are sitting on a total of more than $2.4 billion above and beyond what they expect to ever pay out in claims.

11 Jan 2012

Roundup: States facing across-the-board cuts; Gov. opposes Kentucky hospital merger

As a result of last summer's deal to raise the federal debt ceiling, and the consequent failure of the congressional "super committee" to decide on budget cuts, states are bracing for automatic across-the-board cuts in education, social welfare and other programs for the upcoming 2013 fiscal year.

11 Jan 2012

NSU's medical school adds more developing countries to medical outreach programs

Nova Southeastern University's medical school recently expanded its international medical outreach programs to more developing nations with medical and humanitarian aid from students.

11 Jan 2012

Rwanda working to meet 2013 goal to medically circumcise 50% of men for HIV prevention

Rwanda is expanding its medical male circumcision program this year, "as the country attempts to reach its goal of medically circumcising 50 percent of men by June 2013 as part of HIV prevention efforts," PlusNews reports.

11 Jan 2012

TB screening, treatment program working to decrease caseload in Kenya

Al Jazeera examines how "[a] series of public-health campaigns, including more aggressive screening, have been credited with a drop in tuberculosis [TB] cases in Kenya" in this video report.

11 Jan 2012

Health Affairs assesses real-world lifestyle interventions to help prevent diabetes

An Emory University study published in the January issue of Health Affairs assesses real-world lifestyle interventions to help delay or prevent the costly chronic disease that affects nearly 26 million Americans.

11 Jan 2012

Melinda Gates, Nicholas Kristof answer readers' questions about development issues

Last week in a Huffington Post "Impact" blog post, Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, asked readers to submit questions about her recent trip to Bangladesh.

11 Jan 2012

Examining GOP presidential candidates' global health positions

In this article in the online journal Global Health Governance, David Fidler, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, writes about the Republican presidential candidates' positions on global health, saying, "I doubt whether many votes in subsequent GOP primaries will be cast because of global health considerations."

11 Jan 2012

In New Hampshire, Romney's comments draw fire from rivals

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is under the microscope for his comments during a campaign appearance in which he said he liked "being able to fire people." Romney made the comments while he was talking about why he wants people to be able to choose their own health insurance.

11 Jan 2012

Health Care News and Research

Report finds 42% of children under 5 malnourished in India; Prime Minister deems child malnutrition 'national shame'

HHS to spend nearly $1.8M to review research volunteer rules, fight STDs in Guatemala; DOJ asks related lawsuit to be dismissed

DNA decoder – cheaper and faster

Findings support 'medical home' movement to improve health outcomes

Study finds home-visit program could keep diabetes patients out of the hospital

Restricting publication of H5N1 research 'more perilous' than threat of biological warfare

First Edition: January 11, 2012

Social media faster than traditional sources in tracking cholera in Haiti, study says

Questions continue about the health law's future

OMB Chief Jack Lew tapped as new White House chief of staff

Prevalence of cirrhosis may climb among older Americans

Viewpoints: Renewing the call for a public option; Keep all justices on health law case

Roundup: States facing across-the-board cuts; Gov. opposes Kentucky hospital merger

NSU's medical school adds more developing countries to medical outreach programs

Rwanda working to meet 2013 goal to medically circumcise 50% of men for HIV prevention

TB screening, treatment program working to decrease caseload in Kenya

Health Affairs assesses real-world lifestyle interventions to help prevent diabetes

Melinda Gates, Nicholas Kristof answer readers' questions about development issues

Examining GOP presidential candidates' global health positions

In New Hampshire, Romney's comments draw fire from rivals

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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