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First Edition: July 26, 2011

In her latest Kaiser Health News consumer column, Michelle Andrews writes: "In the controlled chaos of an hospital emergency department, ensuring that patients are pain-free and can make informed choices about their care often takes a back seat to assessing and stabilizing them and moving them through the system as fast as possible.

26 Jul 2011

Physician-targeted education campaign reduces outpatient antibiotic use in Quebec

Antibiotic overuse and resistance have emerged as major threats during the past two decades. Following an outbreak of Clostridium difficile infections, which often result from antibiotic use, health care professionals in Quebec, Canada targeted physicians and pharmacists with an education campaign that reduced outpatient antibiotic use, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and now available online.

26 Jul 2011

Rwandan government pushing for sanitation facilities in every household

Rwanda "is one of only four countries in Africa which look set to achieve Millennium Development Goal 7 to ensure environmental sustainability, which includes halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation," Inter Press Service reports in an article examining hygiene and sanitation in the country.

26 Jul 2011

Rwanda testing non-surgical circumcision device in national campaign

BBC News on Sunday looked at Rwanda's national circumcision campaign, which began in December 2010 to help lower the incidence of HIV in the country.

26 Jul 2011

East Africa famine highlights need for better science communications

The drought in the Horn of Africa "emphasizes the gap between our rapidly increasing ability to predict disasters, thanks largely to advances in science and technology, and our capacity to generate the political will to carry out effective mitigation strategies," according to a SciDev.Net opinion piece by editor David Dickson.

26 Jul 2011

The evolution of hospice from its charitable roots to big business

As hospice care has evolved from its charitable roots into a $14 billion business run mostly for profit, patients ... and their families have paid a steep price, according to lawsuits and federal investigations.

26 Jul 2011

Gridlock continues despite push to reach debt-ceiling deal

Democratic and Republican leaders are preparing their own backup plans as possibilities for a bipartisan approach appear increasingly dim. Both political and policy-oriented differences are making the process difficult. Medicare, Medicaid, other entitlement programs and even Tricare are in play. All the while, the deadline continues its approach.

26 Jul 2011

Britain, Australia urge international community to assist in drought relief

Andrew Mitchell, Britain's international development secretary, and Kevin Rudd, Australia's foreign minister, describe their countries' responses to the drought and famine in East Africa in an Independent opinion piece.

26 Jul 2011

House GOP, Senate Dems unveil rival debt-ceiling plans

With the clock ticking toward the Aug. 2 deadline, details of the two very different plans emerged. Significant savings in the House GOP plan would be squeezed for government entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid, while the Senate Dems' approach would leave Medicare unchanged.

26 Jul 2011

Foot care tips for diabetes patients

With the peak of summer now upon us, many of us will take time to kick off the shoes and take a walk on the beach or maybe on a grassy field in the local park. Some may even hop into a river or creek to cool off. No worries, right? Well, for some people, relaxing barefoot comes with some concern. Specifically, those with diabetes need to pay close attention to their feet.

26 Jul 2011

Tumor marker, endoscopic ultrasound more likely to detect stage 1 pancreatic cancer

Researchers from New England report in a new study that using a tumor marker, serum CA 19-9, combined with an endoscopic ultrasound if the tumor marker is elevated, is more likely to detect stage 1 pancreatic cancer in a high-risk population than by using the standard means of detection.

26 Jul 2011

U.N. emergency meeting recognizes need for urgent response to Horn of Africa drought

At an emergency meeting at the Rome headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday, the agency announced "there will be a donors pledging conference Wednesday in Nairobi to raise as much as $1.6 billion to help fight famine in Somalia and other drought-stricken populations in East Africa," the Associated Press/Forbes reports.

26 Jul 2011

CHroniCles site aims to document important stories of health centers

The RCHN Community Health Foundation and the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services today announced the launch of CHroniCles, a dynamic, multi-media website dedicated to the living history of the community health center movement.

26 Jul 2011

State roundup: Doctor supply at issue in several states

Laramie, Wyoming, is a long way from Waycross, Georgia. Dr. Joel Higgins has mixed feelings about departing the Peach State. Born in Augusta, he practiced in Waycross as an ob/gyn from 2001 until last December. ... But a deteriorating financial situation drove him to move to Wyoming, he says. ... Roughly 70 percent of Higgins' Waycross patients were on Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor and disabled.

26 Jul 2011

Healthcare IT Technician certificate now available from CompTIA

A new professional credential aimed at information technology (IT) professionals who install, manage and troubleshoot electronic health records systems for the nation's healthcare providers is now available from CompTIA, the non-profit trade association for the IT industry.

26 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: Van Hollen on Medicaid cuts; debate on rising Medicare age; women's health issues

Walking away from the federal commitment to Medicaid doesn't solve the problem; it just passes health care costs down to states. Because almost every state, including Maryland, is required by law to balance its budget every year, it means cuts in services and more financial strains for already suffering families, cuts in provider payments, lost jobs in the health care sector, and dampened business activity as the consequences of lost jobs and unmet health care needs ripple through the economy.

26 Jul 2011

More Americans now support woman's right to choose abortion

Despite recent moves by some states to restrict access to abortion, more Americans now support a woman's right to choose than they did two years ago, a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll finds.

25 Jul 2011

Health law changes present enrollment challenges

Meanwhile, news outlets report on a range of other implementation issues, including the decision of Ohio Gov. John Kasich to follow through on forming a state-based exchange despite his opposition to the overhaul, changes to FSAs and the measure's impact on farmers.

25 Jul 2011

Media outlets examine mobile phones' effect on health, development in Africa

PBS NewsHour examines how the Canadian organization MEDA is using text messages to track malaria supplies in local clinics and retailers in Tanzania. The piece includes a related video featuring a MEDA employee giving a tour of the program (Cheers, 7/22).

25 Jul 2011

Haitian cholera epidemic worsening with start of rainy season

According to the Haitian government, more than 5,800 people have died of cholera since the epidemic began in October, and health care workers have seen an increase in cases "[w]ith the rainy season now in progress," the Los Angeles Times reports (Gaestel, 7/24).

25 Jul 2011