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Global Health Council Conference panel discusses country ownership

"The Global Health Initiative [GHI] will focus more heavily on countries' own goals for development, explained Amie Batson, deputy assistant administrator for Global Health at USAID at a panel at the Global Health Council Conference on Thursday," GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog reports.

18 Jun 2011

Report outlines lessons from AIDS advocates

A new report from the consulting firm HCM Strategists and the nonprofit group FasterCures "analyzes the factors that helped patient advocates drive research into and drug development for HIV/AIDS, and tries to figure out whether there are lessons to be learned for other disease advocates," the Wall Street Journal's "Health Blog" writes.

18 Jun 2011

UNICEF calls on governments to improve status of children on Day of the African Child

"African governments need to provide 'more protective environments' to keep children safe and free from harm and exploitation," UNICEF said in a statement marking the 2011 Day of the African Child on Thursday, the U.N. News Centre reports.

18 Jun 2011

HPV vaccine shows success in young Australian women, study says

"A vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, triggered by the human papillomavirus (HPV), has helped reduce the number of teenage girls developing abnormalities in their cervix by as much as 50 percent in a study in Australia," according to a report published Friday in the Lancet, Reuters reports.

18 Jun 2011

Important to fund the GAFSP now

In a Guardian opinion piece, Lael Brainard, under-secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Treasury, writes about the importance of funding the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) and investing in small farmers in the developing world.

18 Jun 2011

Justice Department sides with Planned Parenthood in Indiana case

The U.S. Justice Department entered the court battle over a tough new Indiana abortion law that disqualifies Planned Parenthood of Indiana from the Medicaid program, siding with the organization in its request Thursday for a court order blocking the statute as unconstitutional.

18 Jun 2011

Dems introduce bills to push for Medicare negotiated drug pricing

Congressional Democrats have introduced legislation to let Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices - a move that could result in significant savings, the bill supporters say. They are urging that their measure be included in the effort to raise the debt ceiling.

18 Jun 2011

Food prices projected to rise over next decade, FAO/OECD report says

Food prices are likely to continue to rise over the next decade, "putting the poor at an increasing risk of malnutrition and hunger," according to a joint report from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

18 Jun 2011

Economist examines decade of changes in vaccine field

The Economist examines how "the past decade has seen changes in how vaccines are developed, financed and delivered - solving, at least partially, the conundrum of the vaccine market: poor regions have ample demand for vaccines but little ability to pay for them. As a result, immunisation rates in the poor world have soared."

18 Jun 2011

Integrating AIDS fight with other global health efforts is next step

An "invisible turning point" in the fight against HIV/AIDS recently occurred: "the realisation that simply strengthening the vertical programme that is AIDS has to end. The new opportunity is integration," a Lancet editorial states.

18 Jun 2011

Technology aids in maintaining quality of life in aging

Dorothy Rutherford is anxiously typing at her home computer, filling in answers to an online spelling game. Gerontologists say aging in place vastly improves the quality of life for seniors and is a lot cheaper for society than group homes and institutions.

18 Jun 2011

Cooperation needed to fight NCDs, U.N. officials note

Speaking Thursday at an informal civil society hearing that is a precursor to the first-ever high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), top U.N. officials "stressed the need for governments, the private sector and civil society to work together and more effectively to address cancers, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases, which account for nearly two thirds of global deaths each year," the U.N. News Centre reports.

18 Jun 2011

Baucus challenges McKinsey & Company on employer insurance survey

The survey concluded that an estimated 30 percent or more of businesses would drop employer-sponsored health coverage after 2014 because of the health law. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is demanding that the consulting firm release its methodology.

18 Jun 2011

CRMH hosts educational conference to close the gap in health disparities

Health care reform, environmental disasters and access to care are just a few of the topics offered at the 9th Annual Disparities in Health in the Global Context Summer Workshop.

18 Jun 2011

Budget talks focus on 'the hard stuff' with tough decisions in play on health care, new revenues

Partisan differences on core issues such as taxes and Medicare spending continue to be a part of the deficit-reduction negotiations being led by Vice President Joe Biden, who says the talks will go on "around the clock" next week as lawmakers work to resolve the stand-off over raising the nation's debt limit.

18 Jun 2011

House appropriators ok measure that prohibits feds from enforcing individual mandate

By defunding this health law provision next year, even though it doesn't actually kick in until 2014, the measure could prevent the administration from hiring and training the necessary Internal Revenue Service personnel.

18 Jun 2011

News highlights: Report urges smoke-free laws; N.J. state workers rally against pension and health care changes

A million people would quit smoking, nearly 400,000 teenagers would never start, and more than 700,000 lives would be saved if the 27 U.S. states that don't have good antismoking laws would adopt them, the American Cancer Society projected on Wednesday.

18 Jun 2011

Post-war trend of falling birth rates has been reversed across Europe

The post-war trend of falling birth rates has been reversed across Europe, according to a new study. However, despite an increasing emphasis on family and fertility policies in Europe, this recent development involves social, cultural and economic factors more than individual policy interventions.

18 Jun 2011

Viewpoints: 'Two great dangers' of Obamacare; Sen. Klobuchar and Rep. Paulsen on wellness; 'McKinseyGate'

Obamacare poses two great dangers to our nation: lower quality of care and runaway costs. It will stifle innovation and lead to rationing. But the overwhelming cost and the damage it will do to our nation's finances at a pivotal moment in our history deserve greater scrutiny.

18 Jun 2011

OptumHealth names Women & Infants as Center of Excellence for Reproductive Resource Services

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island has been named a Center of Excellence for Reproductive Resource Services by OptumHealth, an independent audit company.

18 Jun 2011