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African-Americans more likely to use 'quitlines' than white smokers

African-Americans are consistently more likely than white smokers to use telephone help lines to quit smoking, and are more responsive to mass media messages promoting the "quitline," finds a long-term California study.

30 Apr 2011

Penn Nursing, Surgeon General partner to promote breastfeeding awareness in the U.S.

While 75 percent of U.S. babies start out breastfeeding, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports only 13 percent are exclusively breastfed at the end of six months. Six months of exclusive breastfeeding is the American Academy of Pediatrics' minimum recommendation.

30 Apr 2011

Health practitioners need to assess health literacy to overcome barrier to quality care: MD Anderson nurse

Low health literacy is a significant barrier to quality care, especially among elderly patients, but increased use of simple and effective health literacy assessment tests by nurses and clinicians can help improve communication and health outcomes.

30 Apr 2011

North Dakota moves forward on health law's insurance exchange

other news related to the health law, NPR reports that emergency room docs predict that the health law will worsen ER crowding.

30 Apr 2011

Opinions: NCDs must be tackled worldwide; myths surround usefulness of foreign aid

Jake Marcus, a post-bachelor fellow at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, examines why non-communicable diseases have been a neglected part of global health care in a New Republic opinion piece.

30 Apr 2011

Abortion-rights supporters face tough choices about where to focus efforts

News outlets also report on restrictive legislation advancing in the Florida and Kansas legislatures. Meanwhile, funding issues related to Planned Parenthood continue to receive attention.

30 Apr 2011

Unintentional injury deaths of young children can be prevented: Study

Patricia Schnitzer, associate professor in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing, says that most unintentional child injury deaths of young children result from inadequate supervision or failure to protect children from harm. Although injuries to children may be unintentional, they can be prevented and should not be considered accidents.

30 Apr 2011

Research roundup: Saving lives through health literacy

Health Literacy And Outcomes Among Patients With Heart Failure -- This study examines the correlation between health literacy, or the ability to understand basic health information, and the mortality rate among patients with heart failure, which is a condition that "requires self-management and frequent interactions with the health care system."

30 Apr 2011

Viewpoints: Suggestions for modifying proposals on Medicare

In recent weeks, our country has continued an important conversation about our fiscal future. Washington doesn't agree on much, but we all agree that we need to reduce our deficit and debt. Reforming Medicare and reducing health-care spending is crucial to meeting that goal. But there's a right way to reform Medicare and a wrong way.

30 Apr 2011

HHS launches Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program

The Department of Health and Human Services today launched a new initiative which will reward hospitals for the quality of care they provide to people with Medicare and help reduce health care costs.

30 Apr 2011

Magellan reports net revenue of $692.8 million for first quarter 2011

Magellan Health Services, Inc. today reported financial results for the first quarter of 2011, as summarized below, and increased guidance for the full year.

30 Apr 2011

Annual mammogram sufficient follow-up after BCT for breast cancer patients

An annual mammogram is sufficient follow-up after breast conserving therapy (BCT) for breast cancer patients, according to a study presented today, at the Cancer Imaging and Radiation Therapy Symposium in Atlanta. This symposium is co-sponsored by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

29 Apr 2011

Harvard Engineering School receives $100,000 grant to develop microbial-based cell phone charger

A project to use dirt-powered batteries to charge cell phones in Africa won a $100,000 grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today.

29 Apr 2011

USAID announces shift in gender programming, organizational structure

USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah this week announced the agency has transformed its Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade (EGAT) Women in Development Office into a new Office of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, Devex reports (Leonzon, 4/27).

29 Apr 2011

China's census shows aging population; Officials say family planning policies to be maintained

China's latest census shows that the proportion of elderly people in the country has increased, while the proportion of young people dropped significantly, but "leaders are refusing to relax strict family planning controls that are part of the cause," the Associated Press reports (4/28).

29 Apr 2011

Public opinion polls uncover differing views on plans for Medicare's future

NPR reports that the answer to how the public is reacting to plans to transform the Medicare program depends on precisely how the question is posed. Meanwhile, different polls are finding varying impressions among Americans. A Gallup poll released Wednesday found the public evenly divided over how to handle the budget, but a Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found that seniors seem to prefer Medicare as it is.

29 Apr 2011