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Progress in reducing child mortality rates at Somalia, Ethiopia border refugee camps is slow, U.S. official says

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Reuben Brigety, "the top U.S. official for refugee issues, ... says that despite intensive efforts, relief agencies have made little progress in reducing child mortality rates at refugee camps along Somalia's border with Ethiopia," VOA News reports.

3 Sep 2011

Viewpoints: What price for a life?; Texas tort reform; health law and job creation

Bob Iritano died Thursday morning. He was 51. ... His insurer, Health Net, decided last year not to cover a life-extending procedure that had worked just a few months earlier. ... Iritano faced a situation that many others with terminal illnesses or chronic diseases face: What price do you put on a life? How much money and medical resources are too much when it comes to prolonging a doomed existence?

3 Sep 2011

Health care politics: Perry's stem cell controversy, presidential contenders and health law; Biden Medicare fact check

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who recently underwent an experimental injection of his own adult stem cells to relieve back pain, pushed a bill through the Legislature in June that paves the way for a company co-owned by his doctor to become the first state-approved "bank" to store and cultivate such cells for medical treatment that fact illustrates two aspects of his record that are drawing increasing attention as he pursues the presidency: his enthusiasm for ideas that are sometimes outside the scientific mainstream and what critics view as his willingness to use the levers of state government to benefit friends and political benefactors.

3 Sep 2011

Capsules: Trade group, other 'association' health plans to face rate hike scrutiny

On Kaiser Health News' blog, staff writer Julie Appleby writes: "Insurers who offer 'association health plans,' which are often sold through trade groups or other organizations of affiliated members, will face the same scrutiny of premium rate hikes as other types of insurance, federal officials said Thursday."

2 Sep 2011

Research roundup: Health IT and diabetes care; Kids' care on insurance exchanges; Medicare and the 'super committee'

Electronic Health Records And Quality Of Diabetes Care -- This study focuses on one chronic condition to examine how EHRs could improve the quality of health care. Researchers "analyzed data from a retrospective cohort of primary care practices of seven diverse health care organizations that publicly reported achievement of quality standards for adults with diabetes between July 2007 and June 2010."

2 Sep 2011

New federal study spotlights heavy soda use

CDC finds that half of Americans consume drinks containing sugar, such as soda and energy drinks, and that teenagers and young adults drink the most.

2 Sep 2011

Wis. patients getting tested for HIV after misuse of equipment

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that a nurse misused equipment to teach diabetic patients how to inject insulin. Meanwhile, researchers look at how hospital uniforms can carry germs.

2 Sep 2011

Using high-speed lasers to zap mosquitoes in the fight against malaria

In this post on CNN's Global Public Square, journalist Amar Bakshi interviews Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer of Microsoft and co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, about an anti-malaria project "that use[s] lasers and digital image processing techniques to not only find mosquitoes.

2 Sep 2011

UNICEF, NGOs in West Africa work to encourage better sanitation in rural areas

UNICEF and non-governmental organizations "operating in West Africa say the main barrier to more pit latrines in rural areas is not poverty or lack of resources, but a lack of understanding about costs and benefits," IRIN reports.

2 Sep 2011

UnitedHealthcare to administer major Calif. physicians groups

UnitedHealth Group continues to expand its Optum health services division, entering into an agreement to handle non-clinical operations at one of California's largest physicians groups.

2 Sep 2011

NCD summit negotiations must get back on track to help millions worldwide

With negotiations over the outcomes for the U.N. High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) stalled, "[i]t is feared that sound proposals for clear goals and timelines to tackle these devastating diseases are being systematically deleted, diluted and downgraded by some U.N. Member States and urgent action is needed to put the negotiations back on track, when they recommence on September 1," Rob Moodie, chair of Global Health at the Nossal Institute of Global Health, writes in the Crikey health blog "Croakey."

2 Sep 2011

Hospital growth slows, NLRB issues nursing home union decision

Hospital revenue growth continued to slow down in 2010 and is projected to cool further during the next few years... Median operating revenue and expense growth last fiscal year dropped to a pace not seen in the last decade, said [said Moody's Investors Service's] analysis of 401 not-for-profit hospitals that operate alone or within single-state health systems.

2 Sep 2011

Insomnia prevalent in 23% of US workers

Insomnia is costing the average U.S. worker 11.3 days, or $2,280 in lost productivity every year, according to a study in the September 1 issue of the journal Sleep. As a nation, the total cost is 252.7 days and $63.2 billion.

2 Sep 2011

NAIC members raise concerns about exchange waiver process

The nation's insurance commissioners are raising concerns about how much flexibility states will have to tweak their exchanges once the new insurance markets are up and running. Under the first set of exchange rules, released in July, states that want to alter their exchange plans would have to get permission from HHS.

2 Sep 2011

Florida steps up efforts against pill mills; Hospital executives under scrutiny

The New York Times looks at Florida's efforts to stop illegal sales of prescription drugs while other outlets examine local hospital issues.

2 Sep 2011

Investments in EHRs could reap major benefits in better patient care, health outcomes

Research published today in the New England Journal of Medicine gives cause for optimism that federal investments in electronic health records (EHRs) could reap major benefits in better patient care and health outcomes.

2 Sep 2011

STTI selects AJN as 2011 recipient of Nursing Media Award for Print

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), part of Wolters Kluwer Health, is pleased to announce that the American Journal of Nursing (AJN) has been selected as the 2011 recipient of the Nursing Media Award for Print by Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), the Honor Society of Nursing.

2 Sep 2011

First Edition: September 2, 2011

2 Sep 2011

SAMHSA awards $12.2M in grants to train behavioral health care providers

Five minority fellowship program grants are being awarded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for a total of up to $12.2 million. These three-year grants will be used to train a new wave of behavioral health care providers. The program focuses on increasing the number of culturally competent behavioral health professionals available in underserved racially and ethnically diverse communities.

2 Sep 2011

African-Americans even outside 'stroke belt' face higher risk of death

African-Americans and country folk outside the so-called "stroke belt" are at higher risk for stroke death than other populations, a large new study finds.

2 Sep 2011