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Pres. Obama, Indian PM Singh announce partnership to improve global food security

During a joint press conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, President Barack Obama announced a new partnership between U.S. and Indian agriculture sectors to help improve food security globally, Press Trust International/Livemint.com reports.

8 Nov 2010

Assaults on Victoria’s heath workers to be punished more severely under new laws

Victoria’s nursing and health care staff are among those most at risk of physical assault from violent patients and families and now the Victorian government has come up with new laws to protect them.

8 Nov 2010

On health law, election postmortems continue

In an analysis in The Washington Post, Chris Cillizza asks: "How much did the health-care law passed this year have to do with Republicans winning back the House and gaining six seats in the Senate?" Polls shed a little - deeply contradictory - light on the question. A Democratic strategist argued it was a neutral issue in an election-night memo, saying only 18 percent of voters believed health care was the most important issue, and that Demcorats won those by an eight percentage point margin.

8 Nov 2010

HHS cuts premiums for some high risk pools

Kaiser Health News staff writer Phil Galewitz reports: "Trying to spur enrollment in a new health insurance program for uninsured people with pre-existing medical conditions, the federal government is doing something private insurers almost never do: slashing rates" (Galewitz, 11/5).

8 Nov 2010

Thirteen myths about arthritis and rheumatic disease

A diagnosis of arthritis or another rheumatic disease can cause someone to feel anxious and even a little overwhelmed. Being a knowledgeable and empowered patient can help alleviate some of those feelings, and being able to navigate through the many misconceptions about arthritis and rheumatic diseases is vitally important.

8 Nov 2010

KHN column -- Attacking the health law: The GOP's confusing and incompatible arguments

In his latest Kaiser Health News column, Jonathan Cohn writes: "The Republicans and their allies spent a lot of time — and a lot of money — attacking the new health law and promising to undo it.

8 Nov 2010

Political cartoon: 'Prescription Medicine"

Kaiser Health News provides a fresh look at health policy developments with "Prescription Medicine" by Mike Keefe.

8 Nov 2010

Crescendo Bioscience launches multi-biomarker blood test for RA

Crescendo Bioscience announced today the commercial launch of Vectra DA, its first-in-class multi-biomarker blood test designed to aid physicians in managing patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Vectra DA analyzes 12 key serum biomarkers to produce a single objective score that quantifies RA disease activity.

8 Nov 2010

Parascript receives $244,479.25 federal grant under Affordable Care Act

Parascript, LLC, the image analysis and pattern recognition technology provider, today announced that it was awarded a cash grant of $244,479.25 under the U.S. Government's Affordable Care Act. Under this act, the therapeutic discovery project program targets projects that show significant potential to produce new therapies, address unmet medical needs, reduce the long-term growth of health care costs or advance the goal of curing cancer within the next 30 years.

8 Nov 2010

MedCath to sell Texsan Heart Hospital

MedCath Corporation announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell substantially all the assets of Texsan Heart Hospital, owned by MedCath and its physician investors, to Methodist Healthcare System of San Antonio. The transaction is expected to close during MedCath's second fiscal quarter of 2011, which ends March 31, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

8 Nov 2010

First Edition: November 8, 2010

Today's health policy headlines include more post-mortem reports about the health law's impact on the election.

8 Nov 2010

U.N. Human Development Report finds significant quality of life gains among many developing countries over last 40 years, but gaps persist

"People around the globe are healthier, richer and better educated than ever before, with most developing countries registering huge gains over the last 40 years, a U.N. report [.pdf] released Thursday shows," the Canadian Press reports.

8 Nov 2010

Officials discuss HIV/AIDS in Caribbean during PANCAP meeting

"Despite the gains associated with antiretroviral treatments (ART) over the last decade, HIV/AIDS remains the leading cause of death among young and middle-aged adults in the Caribbean, warns a new U.N. report" that was released during the 10th Annual General Meeting of the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) that concluded on Tuesday, Inter Press Service reports (Richards, 11/3).

8 Nov 2010

Global food security fund announces $97M in grants for Ethiopia, Mongolia, Niger

The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) has awarded a second round of grants worth $97 million to Ethiopia, Mongolia and Niger for projects aimed at fighting hunger and poverty, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday, Agence France-Presse reports.

8 Nov 2010

HHS gives states technical guidance for Medicaid system while some video game companies start to focus on medical field

Modern Healthcare: "HHS will give states financial aid and technical guidance to help them set up information technology systems to streamline enrollment in Medicaid or health insurance exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a news release from the department. HHS proposes that states will be able to receive federal dollars to cover 90% of design and development costs and 75% of operating and maintenance costs of Medicaid eligibility systems.

8 Nov 2010

Study suggests bacterial products contribute to autoimmune diseases

Researchers are using 21st century technologies to investigate the century old hypothesis that certain autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, are caused by bacteria living in the human body and will present their initial data this week at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Atlanta.

8 Nov 2010

Riding an elevator with Boehner: What would you say?

Kaiser Health News: Less than 24 hours after Republicans won control of the House, soon-to-be-speaker John Boehner denounced the new health care law, saying it would "kill jobs in America, ruin the best health care system in the world, and bankrupt our country"

8 Nov 2010

Angioblast Systems receives $1.2 million in grants under QTDP program

Regenerative medicine company, Mesoblast Limited, today announced that its United States associate company, Angioblast Systems, has been awarded $1.2 million in grants under the United States Government's Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP) program.

8 Nov 2010

Maine requests exemption from federal law, Southern Calif. hospital pays $5 million to resolve charges of false Medicare claims

Bloomberg: "Maine wants an exemption from the federal health-care law to keep a Wall Street-controlled insurer with a history of allegedly abusive practices from leaving the state. Mila Kofman, Maine's insurance superintendent, asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a three-year waiver from the law's requirement that insurers spend 80 percent of premium revenues on medical care." The

8 Nov 2010

Helical CT scanning reduces lung cancer deaths

In a major new study announced today by the National Cancer Institute, researchers including Brown University biostatistian Constantine Gatsonis and his colleagues found that screening for lung cancer using helical CT scanning reduced lung cancer deaths by 20 percent compared to using chest X-rays.

8 Nov 2010