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Officials ask for U.S. to continue support for U.N. in Capitol Hill meetings

The U.N. needs the U.S. to continue providing strong financial support, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told U.S. lawmakers in Washington on Thursday, "as President Barack Obama and Congress negotiate federal budget cuts to try to avoid a government shutdown," Reuters reports. "We need to have robust financial support from the United States," Ban said.

11 Apr 2011

NIDA, ASAM launch new screening resources for primary care providers

A free, nationwide service was launched today to help primary care providers seeking to identify and advise substance-abusing patients.

11 Apr 2011

New point-of-care trial can reduce cost and length of studies

Doctors at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System are testing a new kind of clinical trial that's not only less costly but guides doctors to switch to the best treatment even before the trial is completed.

11 Apr 2011

Alcohol misuse in pregnancy linked to high risk of premature birth

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage, premature birth, and low birth weight. But there are conflicting reports about how much alcohol, if any, it is safe for a pregnant woman to drink. New research published in Biomed Central's open access journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth looked at the amounts of alcohol women drank during their early pregnancy and showed the effect this had on their babies.

11 Apr 2011

U.S. health system 'ill-prepared' to deal with major radiation event, Washington Post reports

The U.S. health system is "ill-prepared to cope with a catastrophic release of radiation, despite years of focus on the possibility of a terrorist 'dirty bomb' or an improvised nuclear device attack," according to U.S. officials, the Washington Post reports.

11 Apr 2011

IDSA, U.S. health officials describe ways to respond to global threat of antimicrobial resistance

To coincide with World Health Day on Thursday, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) released a policy paper with nine recommendations for how to control the "ever-growing threat of antimicrobial resistance," CIDRAP News reports.

11 Apr 2011

Obama adviser Plouffe, Rep. Ryan dispute Medicare, Medicaid reform

The Sunday talk shows brought out fundamental differences on what to do about entitlement programs.

11 Apr 2011

New dengue test receives FDA marketing clearance

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today allowed marketing of the first test to help diagnose people with signs and symptoms of dengue fever or dengue hemorrhagic fever, a leading cause of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics.

11 Apr 2011

Transitional care can improve health outcomes, reduce hospital readmissions

Currently, one in five elderly patients discharged from a hospital is readmitted within a month. Seeking to address the human and substantial financial burden of revolving door hospital readmissions, the Affordable Care Act proposes a number of initiatives to improve care and health outcomes and reduce costs for the growing population of chronically ill people in the U.S. While transitional care is a central theme in these provisions, there is little information available to guide those responsible for implementing these important opportunities.

11 Apr 2011

SpectraShield surgical respirator receives FDA clearance to reduce MRSA infections

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the SpectraShield 9500 N95 surgical respirator, a device that kills 99.99 percent of three different kinds of bacteria when exposed to its outer surface.

11 Apr 2011

Study: Unemployment linked to high risk of death in men than women

In a meta-analysis of 42 studies with data on 20 million people regarding the relationship between unemployment and the risk of death, a team of researchers at Stony Brook University found that the risk of death was 63 percent higher in those who experienced an episode of unemployment than those who did not.

11 Apr 2011

Opinions: Budget talks, foreign aid; making drugs more accessible to poor

"If the federal government shuts down at midnight on Friday - which seems likely unless negotiations take a sudden turn toward rationality - it will not be because of disagreements over spending. It will be because Republicans are refusing to budge on these ideological demands," argues a New York Times editorial, highlighting issues such as "foreign aid to countries that might use the money for abortion or family planning ... aid to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports family-planning services."

11 Apr 2011

Cepheid receives FDA clearance for new assay to detect C. difficile infection

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today cleared a test called the Cepheid Xpert C. difficile/Epi assay that is designed to rapidly detect the toxin B gene associated with Clostridium difficile infection, a cause of diarrhea that can lead to colitis, other serious intestinal conditions and death in severe cases.

11 Apr 2011

US should watch how UK adopts new, 'value-based pricing' policy

The United States should pay close attention to how the United Kingdom carries out plans to assess a new drug's worth using factors that go beyond clinical and cost effectiveness, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

8 Apr 2011

Doctors backing single payer system fault Vermont's plan

Physicians for a National Health Program suggest the proposal in Vermont falls "far short" of their goals, The Hill Reports. Meanwhile, The Boston Globe has an interview with one of the architects of the Vermont plan.

8 Apr 2011

Giffords' case leads to push for brain-injury care to be 'essential benefit'

A letter from the office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., urges HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to include such care in the health law's essential benefits package, despite budget pressures looming in Congress.

8 Apr 2011

Medicare doctor payments sometimes pit specialties against each other

One of the biggest disputes in the Relative Value Scale Update Committee came in 2005, when members clashed over primary-care groups' push for increases in the payments for doctor office visits, which are among the most commonly-billed Medicare services.

8 Apr 2011

Ryan's plan to reshape Medicare triggers cost, political concerns

News outlets report on how the plan to privatize Medicare may actually increase costs and how the GOP plan could turn out to be a "front-burner" issue during the presidential primary.

8 Apr 2011

Hospital-owned practices winning over physicians

[Many doctors] are giving up ownership of their practices to become part of hospital-owned practices or larger groups with multiple specialties. ... Young doctors in particular are choosing to work for larger organizations rather than starting their own practices, they say.

8 Apr 2011

Is the U.S. prepared for a nuclear emergency?

A blunt assessment circulating among American officials says "Current capabilities can only handle a few radiation injuries at any one time." That assessment [was] prepared by the Department of Homeland Security in 2010 ...

8 Apr 2011