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UMass Amherst SPHHS wins HHS award to create Public Health Training Center

Training to improve the nation's public health system by strengthening the technical, scientific, managerial and leadership competence of current and future public health workers will soon be underway in Springfield, Holyoke, Pittsfield and the Berkshires, supported by a four-year, $2.5 million grant to the School of Public Health and Health Sciences (SPHHS) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

10 Oct 2011

Experts take study on contraceptive use, HIV risk seriously but warn about drawing conclusions prematurely because of study's 'methodological weaknesses'

In this post in RH Reality Check, Jodi Jacobson, editor-in-chief of the blog, responds to an article published in the New York Times on Tuesday regarding a study suggesting that "HIV-negative women using injectable contraception might face a two-fold risk of acquiring HIV from their infected partners, and that HIV-positive women using injectable contraceptives may be twice as likely to pass the virus on to their uninfected partners."

10 Oct 2011

Sports head injuries among teens and youth on the rise

According to a latest CDC report, there was about a 60% increase in the estimated number of concussions and other traumatic brain injuries (TBI) seen among young athletes during the past decade.

9 Oct 2011

Coalition calls for affordable and flexible essential health benefits package

The newly-formed Essential Health Benefits Coalition today urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to hold the cost and affordability of the essential health benefits package paramount as recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

7 Oct 2011

Gates Foundation accepting nominations for vaccine innovation award

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Thursday that "it is accepting nominations for the first Gates Vaccine Innovation Award to recognize, celebrate, and spur transformative ideas for achieving impact through the delivery of vaccines," according to a Gates Foundation press release.

7 Oct 2011

IOM: Essential benefits package must be developed with affordability in mind

In its 297-page report, the Institute of Medicine recommended that cost should be a factor in deciding what benefits would be included in plans sold on the health law's new insurance exchanges.

7 Oct 2011

DfID's reduction in bilateral AIDS spending may increase need for funding later

In a letter to the Guardian in response to the news that the U.K. Department for International Development (DfID) plans to cut bilateral aid for HIV/AIDS by nearly one-third, Nathan Ford, medical coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres, writes that the agency's decision "comes at a critical moment," after "[v]arious studies published in the past year have shown widespread access to treatment and prevention can dramatically cut HIV/AIDS transmission, and allow for consideration of an end to the epidemic."

7 Oct 2011

MedPAC approves draft proposal to junk Medicare's physician pay formula

The MedPAC plan, which relies on cuts to provider reimbursements to offset its proposal, has drawn opposition from physician groups and other provider organizations, which argue the approach would impact patients' access to care.

7 Oct 2011

Huffington Post profiles UNITAID chair

The Huffington Post profiles Philippe Douste-Blazy, U.N. under-secretary-general of Innovative Financing for Development and chair of UNITAID, a financing mechanism he conceived in 2004 to help provide medicines for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries.

7 Oct 2011

Cuts to U.S. military's HIV research program threaten HIV vaccine progress

Fred Sawe, deputy director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Walter Reed Project HIV Program in Kericho, Kenya, and Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention, report in Global Health Magazine that "[t]he Department of the Army is set to slash 73 percent of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program's (MHRP) Army research budget for FY13 through FY17," a move they write is a threat to HIV vaccine progress.

7 Oct 2011

Indonesia's infant mortality rate has declined, but health services must be improved, official says

UNICEF representative for Indonesia Angela Kearney said at a workshop on household to hospital continuum care on Thursday that although Indonesia's infant mortality rate showed a downward trend in the past few years, it is still high, Xinhua reports.

7 Oct 2011

IPS examines the issue of gender-based violence against women fleeing Somalia for Dadaab

Inter Press Service examines the issue of gender-based violence (GBV) against women as they make the journey from their homes in Somalia to Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp in search of food aid and refuge, calling it a "hidden side" of the famine crisis in the Horn of Africa.

7 Oct 2011

Many cancer screenings may be unnecessary

Forty Percent Of Medicare Spending On Common Cancer Screenings Unnecessary, Probe Suggest Cancer screening tests are vastly overused in the United States, with about 40 percent of Medicare spending on common preventive screenings regarded as medically unnecessary, an iWatch News investigation reveals.

7 Oct 2011

Healthy people analysis: Nation's overall health improves, but disparities persist

Minorities and low-income groups continue to be less likely to have a regular source of medical care, despite a decade of efforts to reverse this circumstance.

7 Oct 2011

How will NTDs suffer as global health agenda adds NCD focus?

In this post in the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog, Charles Ebikeme, a writer for the All Results Journals who has worked as a research scientist on African sleeping sickness, examines a "blurring" link between non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), writing, "The topsy-turvy nature of NTDs extends far beyond infectious diseases and is becoming increasingly more complicated."

7 Oct 2011

Public perceives health law parts better than whole; Obama increasingly critical to measure's future

Some of the law's specific provisions draw stronger support than the entire package, but the real key to the measure's future is increasingly linked to President Barack Obama's polling numbers.

7 Oct 2011

Roundup: Brewer defends request for exchange funds; Calif. governor signs maternity benefit bill

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona said Thursday that despite opposition from legislators from within her own party, she's seeking money from the federal government to implement a key part of the health care overhaul she opposes in order to prepare her state in case the law is upheld.

7 Oct 2011

MSF calls on Brazilian government to step up production of only drug for Chagas disease

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has called on the Brazilian government "to ensure its state-owned drug company steps up production of the only drug for Chagas disease, which affects 10 million people in Latin America," Guardian Health Editor Sarah Boseley writes in her "Global Health Blog" (10/6).

7 Oct 2011

FAO report warns increases in cereal production may not be enough to offset global economic downturn

Worldwide cereal production is expected to increase in 2011-2012, but "there is uncertainty about the improvement's impact on food security because of the global economic slump and increased risks for recession," according to a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report released on Thursday, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

7 Oct 2011

Chicago Council on Global Affairs report calls on agriculture, food sectors to fight global rise in NCDs

"A new report released by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 'Bringing Agriculture to the Table: How Agriculture and Food Can Play a Role in Preventing Chronic Disease,' calls on the agriculture and food sector to play a role in mitigating the global rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and identifies new opportunities for those in health and agriculture to work together to promote better health."

7 Oct 2011

Health Care News and Research

UMass Amherst SPHHS wins HHS award to create Public Health Training Center

Experts take study on contraceptive use, HIV risk seriously but warn about drawing conclusions prematurely because of study's 'methodological weaknesses'

Sports head injuries among teens and youth on the rise

Coalition calls for affordable and flexible essential health benefits package

Gates Foundation accepting nominations for vaccine innovation award

IOM: Essential benefits package must be developed with affordability in mind

DfID's reduction in bilateral AIDS spending may increase need for funding later

MedPAC approves draft proposal to junk Medicare's physician pay formula

Huffington Post profiles UNITAID chair

Cuts to U.S. military's HIV research program threaten HIV vaccine progress

Indonesia's infant mortality rate has declined, but health services must be improved, official says

IPS examines the issue of gender-based violence against women fleeing Somalia for Dadaab

Many cancer screenings may be unnecessary

Healthy people analysis: Nation's overall health improves, but disparities persist

How will NTDs suffer as global health agenda adds NCD focus?

Public perceives health law parts better than whole; Obama increasingly critical to measure's future

Roundup: Brewer defends request for exchange funds; Calif. governor signs maternity benefit bill

MSF calls on Brazilian government to step up production of only drug for Chagas disease

FAO report warns increases in cereal production may not be enough to offset global economic downturn

Chicago Council on Global Affairs report calls on agriculture, food sectors to fight global rise in NCDs

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