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Ryan Medicare revamp continues to be political flashpoint

A congressionial Democrat holds a town hall meeting on the budget plan by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., which includes significant changes to the Medicare program. Republicans see the budget blueprint as a litmus test.

9 Jun 2011

Viewpoints: Blue Shield's profit cap; employees could be surprised by loss of health benefits; involving patients

Blue Shield of California announced Tuesday that it will cap its profits for the sake of making health insurance more affordable. Richer in symbolism than in economic impact, the move seems designed to deflect scrutiny and blame from insurers onto others in the industry, particularly doctors and hospitals. All the same, the steadily rising cost of medical care is where the real challenge lies for the sustainability of the healthcare system.

9 Jun 2011

Childhood trauma linked to higher rates of mental health problems and obesity, says Stanford/Packard psychiatrist

New research has shown that children’s risk for learning and behavior problems and obesity rises in correlation to their level of trauma exposure, says the psychiatrist at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital who oversaw the study. The findings could encourage physicians to consider diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder rather than attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, which has similar symptoms to PTSD but very different treatment.

8 Jun 2011

First Edition: June 8, 2011

Health insurer Blue Shield of California, under fire for a series of recent rate hikes and the pay of its chief executive, plans to cut this year's premiums by 2.5% for many of its 3.3 million policyholders as part of a new initiative to hold down costs (Helfand, 6/8).

8 Jun 2011

Health-care professionals, researchers to attend Sixth World Conference on Breast Cancer

Today launches the sixth World Conference on Breast Cancer in Hamilton, Canada. The Conference is the only one of its kind to bring together breast cancer survivors, advocates, health-care professionals and researchers from developing and developed countries.

8 Jun 2011

Stop TB partnership releases 5 TB prevention steps

Ahead of the U.N. High Level Meeting on AIDS, the Stop TB Partnership released five guidelines aimed at preventing tuberculosis, which results in one in four AIDS-related deaths, the U.N. News Centre writes.

8 Jun 2011

NYU Cancer Institute scientists present new research findings at ASCO 2011

Experts from The Cancer Institute, an NCI-designated cancer center, at NYU Langone Medical Center presented new research findings at the 47th American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2011 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL.

8 Jun 2011

Global Fund's transparency is essential and saves lives

In the Huffington Post, Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, discusses the Global Fund's latest report on its investigation of its grants in Mali.

8 Jun 2011

GSK, Crucell to test second-generation malaria vaccine

GlaxoSmithKline and drug company Crucell, a division of Johnson & Johnson, will collaborate with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to test a second-generation malaria vaccine "within the next couple of months," Reuters reports.

8 Jun 2011

Withdrawal of aid from Madagascar hitting poor hard

The Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog" examines the effects of the withdrawal of international aid and debt relief from Madagascar following the country's last coup in 2009. According to the article, "80% of the population is classed as living in poverty. A household survey last year by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) found that aid sanctions are biting the wrong people: school enrolment has plummeted and health indicators are in decline."

8 Jun 2011

Conference panel examines manufacturing of nutrition-rich foods

IRIN reports on a World Conference on Humanitarian Studies panel discussion about the manufacturing of nutrition-rich foods to treat malnutrition in the developing world.

8 Jun 2011

Articles on health trajectories now available in Nursing Research journal

Health care research typically focuses on final outcomes such as cure or death—overlooking the fact that health and illness are dynamic states that evolve and change over time. A special collection of articles on health trajectory research is now available in a supplement to Nursing Research, official journal of the Eastern Nursing Research Society and the Western Institute of Nursing.

8 Jun 2011

Dems push for debt deal that doesn't include Medicare cuts

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., sent an email to House Republicans Monday saying he is optmistic that ongoing budget talks will meet the standard set by Speaker John Boehner -- meaning legislation to raise the debt limit will be accompanied by deficit reduction. Some Democratic senators, though, are pressing Vice President Joe Biden, who is overseeing budget negotiations, to steer clear of the GOP Medicare plan.

8 Jun 2011

Doctors' move to electronic records requires serious commitment

The federal stimulus and health care laws are pushing medical providers to go electronic as a way to improve patient safety and track health care quality. ... But moving away from paper files to an electronic health record system requires serious commitment on several levels. First, they're expensive. ... Second, the learning curve can be painful.

8 Jun 2011

Health care costs are eating away at the nation's military budget

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that pension and health care costs are eating the U.S. military alive.

8 Jun 2011

Study identifies factors that increase bankruptcy risk among people with common cancers

An analysis linking federal bankruptcy court records to cancer registry data from nearly 232,000 adult cancer cases in western Washington during a 14-year period has found a hidden cost to survival: Insolvency rates increase along with the length of survival.

8 Jun 2011

Cooperation is key to finding global food security

"We need a global approach to achieving food security," Tom Daschle, former Senate majority leader and chair of the DuPont Advisory Committee on Agricultural Innovation and Productivity for the 21st Century, writes in a Politico opinion piece.

8 Jun 2011

University of Maryland School of Pharmacy to host National Leadership Roundtable on June 9

With a collective eye on ongoing health care reform efforts, the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy on June 9 will be hosting a timely and wide-ranging National Leadership Roundtable on how an expanded role for pharmacists is improving health outcomes and health care expenditures in communities nationwide.

8 Jun 2011

South African researchers examine cash incentive HIV prevention program

In South Africa, where 17 percent of the world's HIV-positive population lives, researchers from the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) in Durban are examining whether providing cash payments as a reward for good grades and undergoing annual HIV testing, along with teaching life skills, might help change young men's and women's risky sexual behavior, Nature News reports.

8 Jun 2011

Maternal-child health disparities need to be addressed in the U.S., says expert

Despite billions of dollars spent on health care each year, the United States ranks 27th out of 33 developed countries for life expectancy at birth. Leading causes of infant mortality are complications related to pre-term birth or low birth weight-outcomes that have been linked with domestic violence.

8 Jun 2011