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Guinea including nutrition component for first time in agricultural plan

For the first time, Guinea is including a nutrition component in its agricultural investment strategy, a move that experts "say … stems from an increasing recognition that agriculture must be harnessed to improve nutrition and health," IRIN reports.

8 Jul 2011

Critical principles to preserve patient access and reduce health care spending

"A debt ceiling agreement must be reached in time to avert an unprecedented suspension of funding for the millions of patients who rely on Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health programs," Virginia Hood, MBBS, MPH, FACP, president of the American College of Physicians (ACP) told the president, vice president and Congressional leaders today.

8 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: Debt ceiling & entitlements; Pharmaceutical dilemmas; Bishops 'misunderstand' death with dignity

Democrats have already proposed a 3-1 formula that would allow for $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in new revenue. So we have met our Republican colleagues more than half-way in this painful process. We are even willing to discuss significant savings in Medicare and Medicaid — as long as essential benefits for seniors and the most vulnerable are preserved (Rep. William Lacy Clay, 7/7).

8 Jul 2011

Top USAID Africa official vacancy highlights Obama administration's low priority for the continent

"Despite the apparent burst of White House attention to Africa from the First Lady's tourism-heavy visit to South Africa and Botswana last week, there are still plenty of reasons that many (including me) remain disappointed by the administration's efforts so far," Todd Moss, vice president for corporate affairs and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, writes on the "Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Blog."

8 Jul 2011

Donors need to give to fight hunger in East Africa

"[T]he problem is not just assessing the size of the current crisis" of drought and hunger in East Africa, "[i]t is also the fact that the droughts in this region have become an almost annual occurrence," a Guardian editorial states.

8 Jul 2011

Is GOP rhetoric putting IPAB repeal effort at risk?

As Republicans prepare to turn up the heat next week on health care reform's controversial independent Medicare advisory board, some provider groups are worried that the GOP's harsh rhetoric could ruin the chances that Democrats will help the repeal effort.

8 Jul 2011

Roundup: Ineffective malpractice suits; Medicare hospital funding error; D.C. abortion report

A study published today in the journal Health Affairs looked at the outcomes of 3,695 malpractice claims filed in Massachusetts courts against hospitals, doctors, and other medical providers between 2006 and 2010.

8 Jul 2011

Negotiators set sights on 'grand debt deal'

At stake are trillions of dollars in government spending and taxes. One of the proposals in play is an increase in payments by upper-income seniors for Medicare. Sweeping reductions in domestic spending are also on the table. After a Thursday meeting, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders agreed to reconvene Sunday.

8 Jul 2011

Congress should take the lead in foreign aid reform

Citing PEPFAR, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the President's Malaria Initiative as pieces of the "remarkable success story" of U.S. foreign aid over the past decade, former Congress member and Ambassador to Tanzania Mark Green writes in a post on the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network's "ModernizeAid" blog.

8 Jul 2011

Calif. hospital system pays $865,500 to settle celebrity allegations of privacy breaches

The complaints were generated between 2005 to 2009, a time during which hospital employees were, in various instances, caught and fired for sneaking looks at celebrity medical records.

8 Jul 2011

Democrats fear political pain from entitlement cuts

Though some Democrats view the Obama's strategy to reach a budget deal as a positive development, others are making pleas to take Medicare and Social Security cuts off of the bargaining table — fearing that changes to these programs would make them vulnerable in the upcoming election cycle.

8 Jul 2011

U.N. set to highlight challenges of growing global population

As the United Nations prepares to recognize World Population Day on July 11, with the global population is expected to reach seven billion by October, U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin told Inter Press Service that "seven billion represents a challenge, an opportunity and a call to action."

8 Jul 2011

Calif. and Colo. move forward on building exchanges

California Healthline looks at efforts in that state to meld an insurance exchange with an information exchange to help consumers, while Colorado officials set the first meeting of the new exchange board.

8 Jul 2011

U.S. leading fight against NTDs

Bernard Pecoul, executive director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, and Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and editor-in-chief of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, write in this PLoS "Speaking of Medicine" blog post that the first-ever neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) meeting of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, which is taking place this weekend in Boston, "offers an opportunity for U.S. policy-makers...

8 Jul 2011

Advocacy group messages, concerns emerge as deficit talks continue

The drug industry and teaching hospitals are among the health industry sectors that are bracing for hits from the budget deal. Meanwhile, other health care providers are watching and waiting -- trying to figure out what might become of their interests as the negotiations go forward. And Democrats and liberal advocates, the staunchest supporters of the health law, fear President Barack Obama could give up too much in the ultimate agreement.

8 Jul 2011

First Edition: July 8, 2011

In today's headlines, reports that budget negotiators are setting their sights on a "grand debt deal" -- a concept that is causing some Democrats concern regarding how safety net programs will fare.

8 Jul 2011

Federal appeals court rules government cannot force health groups to take anti-prostitution pledge

"A federal appeals court has ruled that the United States cannot force partners in its international fight against AIDS to denounce prostitution as a condition for receiving funding," the Associated Press reports. Three health organizations sued the government in 2005, saying some groups "advocate for a reduction in penalties for prostitution to prevent interference with outreach efforts," according to the news agency (7/6).

8 Jul 2011

Mass administration of common anti-parasitic is possible new tool in fight against malaria

Ivermectin - an inexpensive, common medication already being used in Africa to treat roundworms that cause river blindness and parasites that cause elephantitis - could also be used to kill mosquitoes carrying malaria parasites, potentially "provid[ing] another useful weapon in the armory against a disease that kills around 800,000 a year, most of them small children and pregnant women," the Guardian's "Global Health Blog" reports (Boseley, 7/6).

8 Jul 2011

Federal incentives not necessarily moving physicians to adopt health information technology

In Dr. Sandra Berglund's well-stocked waiting room, there's a box of children's toys and picture books and, on either side of a magazine rack, framed photographs of sacred places: the stadiums of the Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians.

8 Jul 2011

USAID's Nairobi-based DART to expedite additional U.S. humanitarian aid to the Horn of Africa

In the wake of the worst drought in the Horn of Africa since the 1950s, more than 10 million people—primarily in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia—are in need of emergency assistance. In response to this urgent need, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is standing up a Nairobi-based Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to help expedite additional U.S. Government humanitarian aid to the Horn.

8 Jul 2011

Health Care News and Research

Guinea including nutrition component for first time in agricultural plan

Critical principles to preserve patient access and reduce health care spending

Viewpoints: Debt ceiling & entitlements; Pharmaceutical dilemmas; Bishops 'misunderstand' death with dignity

Top USAID Africa official vacancy highlights Obama administration's low priority for the continent

Donors need to give to fight hunger in East Africa

Is GOP rhetoric putting IPAB repeal effort at risk?

Roundup: Ineffective malpractice suits; Medicare hospital funding error; D.C. abortion report

Negotiators set sights on 'grand debt deal'

Congress should take the lead in foreign aid reform

Calif. hospital system pays $865,500 to settle celebrity allegations of privacy breaches

Democrats fear political pain from entitlement cuts

U.N. set to highlight challenges of growing global population

Calif. and Colo. move forward on building exchanges

U.S. leading fight against NTDs

Advocacy group messages, concerns emerge as deficit talks continue

First Edition: July 8, 2011

Federal appeals court rules government cannot force health groups to take anti-prostitution pledge

Mass administration of common anti-parasitic is possible new tool in fight against malaria

Federal incentives not necessarily moving physicians to adopt health information technology

USAID's Nairobi-based DART to expedite additional U.S. humanitarian aid to the Horn of Africa

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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