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USAID infographic on how to save 5M children by 2015

USAID provides an infographic describing how, "under President Obama's Global Health Initiative, USAID will work with other global leaders in child health to help save five million children between 2010 and 2015" through targeted interventions for the leading causes of preventable death among children.

14 Dec 2011

TV cameras and the Supreme Court: Health law adds pressure to the mix

Now that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a dispute over the federal health care law, the justices are facing the strongest challenge to their ban on televised hearings. Members of Congress and news industry leaders have asked the court to allow the televising of oral arguments, to be held over five and a half hours during two days in March.

14 Dec 2011

Kansas finds prison clinics help control costs

The Kansas Health Institute News offers a series of stories about caring for the health needs of state prisoners.

14 Dec 2011

Lobbying reports highlight focus on health care rules, calorie-count laws

The world's biggest burger chain lobbied Congress, the White House, the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services on the sweeping health care changes that were signed into law in March 2010. In general the new health care rules will require more companies to offer health care insurance to employees. McDonald's also homed in on a part in the law that would require more restaurants to add calorie information to their menus.

14 Dec 2011

Canadian researchers develop portable device to monitor HIV in rural areas

A team of Canadian researchers has "created a portable device that uses a computer chip with software capable of analyzing blood tests outside the lab ... that could make it easier, faster and cheaper to track the progression of HIV in patients living in the developing world," Postmedia News/Vancouver Sun reports.

14 Dec 2011

RHUL researchers call for more unified lower back pain guidelines

Researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London are calling for more unified guidelines about returning back pain patients to work as currently the advice can be contradictory and confusing.

14 Dec 2011

U.S. investments in HIV treatment internationally, domestically 'should pay off'

"We welcome the Obama administration's announcement of a farsighted effort to treat millions more people living with HIV abroad, especially in sub-Saharan Africa," a New York Times editorial writes.

14 Dec 2011

People in Swaziland protesting shortages of ARVs amid government financial crisis

In Swaziland, where a "deepening financial crisis is taking a toll on service delivery, and the country is experiencing an unprecedented number of protests over issues such as school closures and a lack of HIV treatment," "a new wave of HIV activism is rising ... as people living with HIV take to the streets in protest, many for the first time in their lives, over continued shortages of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment," PlusNews reports.

14 Dec 2011

Central African Republic in state of 'chronic medical emergency,' MSF report says

"The Central African Republic (CAR) is in the grips of a chronic medical emergency, according to a report released today by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)," an MSF press release states.

14 Dec 2011

With federal court action looming, Sebelius says Plan B decision 'not about politics'

A federal judge in Brooklyn will hear arguments Tuesday afternoon on the constitutionality of the federal decision regarding the access teenage girls should have to morning-after contraceptive pills. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the decision about Plan B's over-the-counter status was not a political one.

14 Dec 2011

Viewpoints: The high cost of treating patients who may die; Young girls and Plan B

You've probably heard that we spend a lot of money on patients who die. It's true. ... But what about my patient? How could it be that we were prudent with health care dollars because he lived, but would have been described as wasteful had he died? Doctors in an emergency room cannot know which will occur. They do not have divining rods that direct them to patients they can save and away from those they can't. Rather, caring for the sick means caring for people who may die.

14 Dec 2011

Donors must continue funding R&D to bring new global health technologies to patients

In this post in the Hill's "Congress Blog," Kaitlin Christenson, the coalition director of the Global Health Technologies Coalition; Jim Connolly, president and CEO of Aeras; and Mel Spigelman, president and CEO of the TB Alliance, respond to a recently released G-FINDER report that shows "overall global investment in the research and development (R&D) of new global health technologies has declined for the first time since 2007, when the tracking of such funding began."

14 Dec 2011

Medtronic agrees to $23.5 million settlement in Kickback case

Medtronic Inc. has agreed to pay $23.5 million to resolve allegations that it paid illegal kickbacks to physicians who participated in its postmarket studies and device registries to induce doctors to implant the company's pacemakers and defibrillators, the Department of Justice said Monday.

14 Dec 2011

FDA allows marketing of Infrascanner Model 1000 for intracranial hematomas diagnosis

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today allowed marketing of the first hand-held device intended to aid in the detection of life-threatening bleeding in the skull called intracranial hematomas, using near-infrared spectroscopy.

14 Dec 2011

Nighttime satellite images could provide clues to disease outbreaks, researchers suggest

"The intensity of light shining from cities at night could help identify hot spots where outbreaks of infectious disease are likely to take place," PBS NewsHour's "The Rundown" reports.

14 Dec 2011

Early warning systems helping aid agencies respond to potential 'food crisis' in Sahel region

Africa's Sahel region is facing a potential "food crisis," "but the good news is that the world's Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) is giving West African countries and donor nations a period of time to prepare, says the aid group Oxfam," the Christian Science Monitor reports.

14 Dec 2011

Unexplained kidney disease affecting rural workers across Central America, PRI's 'The World' reports

PRI's "The World" reports on an epidemic of an unexplained kidney disease that is affecting rural workers across Central America, writing, "[I]t's the second biggest cause of death among men in El Salvador, and in Nicaragua it's a bigger killer of men than HIV and diabetes combined," and "the latest theory is that the victims are literally working themselves to death."

14 Dec 2011

Roundup: FBI reportedly questioning Prime Healthcare billers in Calif.; Uninsured ranks grow in Wash.

The FBI is interviewing witnesses about billing practices at Prime Healthcare Services, the hospital chain that has charged Medicare for treating elderly patients with rare medical conditions at far higher rates than other California hospitals. The FBI would neither confirm nor deny an investigation, but at least two former Prime medical coders say they were approached by the agency to discuss the chain's billing practices. ... A spokesman for Prime said the chain is unaware of an FBI probe.

14 Dec 2011

Medicaid news: HHS grants Texas waiver for managed care, denies family planning request; Florida pilot program criticized

The federal government on Monday granted Texas a waiver that could mean billions more in Medicaid dollars to hospitals over the next few years in return for having them work together to provide better care for the poor. ... State lawmakers cut deeply into the Medicaid budget this year, in part by requiring all Texas Medicaid patients to be enrolled in private health maintenance organizations for their doctor care. In recent years, patients in most urban areas were covered by HMOs, while patients in many rural counties and the Rio Grande Valley had their doctor bills paid directly by Medicaid.

14 Dec 2011

Berwick places blame for health system's ills on delivery system

The now-former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is speaking out about what he might do next and what is wrong with the health care system.

14 Dec 2011

Health Care News and Research

USAID infographic on how to save 5M children by 2015

TV cameras and the Supreme Court: Health law adds pressure to the mix

Kansas finds prison clinics help control costs

Lobbying reports highlight focus on health care rules, calorie-count laws

Canadian researchers develop portable device to monitor HIV in rural areas

RHUL researchers call for more unified lower back pain guidelines

U.S. investments in HIV treatment internationally, domestically 'should pay off'

People in Swaziland protesting shortages of ARVs amid government financial crisis

Central African Republic in state of 'chronic medical emergency,' MSF report says

With federal court action looming, Sebelius says Plan B decision 'not about politics'

Viewpoints: The high cost of treating patients who may die; Young girls and Plan B

Donors must continue funding R&D to bring new global health technologies to patients

Medtronic agrees to $23.5 million settlement in Kickback case

FDA allows marketing of Infrascanner Model 1000 for intracranial hematomas diagnosis

Nighttime satellite images could provide clues to disease outbreaks, researchers suggest

Early warning systems helping aid agencies respond to potential 'food crisis' in Sahel region

Unexplained kidney disease affecting rural workers across Central America, PRI's 'The World' reports

Roundup: FBI reportedly questioning Prime Healthcare billers in Calif.; Uninsured ranks grow in Wash.

Medicaid news: HHS grants Texas waiver for managed care, denies family planning request; Florida pilot program criticized

Berwick places blame for health system's ills on delivery system

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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