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Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science's LABCON2010 to be held in Edmonton

LABCON2010, the national congress of the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science (CSMLS), will bring together laboratory professionals from across the country. The conference will be held in Edmonton, AB from May 28 - June 1, 2010 at the Mayfield Inn & Suites.

29 May 2010

Senate passes supplemental spending bill that includes Haiti relief, recovery funding

The Senate has passed a nearly $60 billion supplemental spending bill that includes funding for Haiti relief and recovery from the January 12 earthquake, Roll Call reports (Brady, 5/27). The total amount included in the bill for Haiti is $2.8 billion dollars, Agence France-Presse reports (5/28).

29 May 2010

Surveys find increased awareness about tobacco marketing among young women in Bangladesh, Thailand, Uruguay

"With half of all men in some developing countries already hooked on cigarettes, the tobacco industry is now courting lucrative new customers - young women," according to a report published Thursday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the Associated Press/Los Angeles Times reports.

29 May 2010

Developing countries must have food production capacity to avoid food price crisis, U.S. official says

Factors that resulted in higher food prices in several countries in 2008, such as food scarcity and the use of land for biofuels, are still present and could cause prices to rise again without food production improvements in developing countries, Ertharin Cousin, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. food agencies in Rome, said in an interview with Reuters.

29 May 2010

State roundup: Employees' insurance rates, a hospital merger, Florida and Mass. public health issues

Today's roundup of state news includes changes in insurance rates for Kansas state employees, problems with EMT certification in Massachusetts and a hospital merger in the Washington D.C. area.

29 May 2010

Research roundup: Reform's impact on health spending; Cultural/Racial differences in medicine; Swine flu lessons

The Impact Of Health Reform On Health Spending - This issue brief "projects the effect of national reform on total national health expenditures and the insurance premiums that American families would likely pay. We estimate that, on net, the combination of provisions in the new law will reduce health care spending by $590 billion over 2010-2019 and lower premiums by nearly $2,000 per family.

29 May 2010

Sebelius: Employers should quickly offer coverage to workers' children up to age 26

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Thursday urged employers to extend health insurance to children of their employees up to age 26 before a provision in the new law requiring them to do so takes effect later this year, The New York Times reports. Many insurers have already made the change, but many employers have demurred.

29 May 2010

UCSF studies describe wide reach of tobacco industry and its influence on national health care reform

Three new UCSF studies describe the wide reach of the tobacco industry and its influence on young people, military veterans and national health care reform. The analyses will be published in a special July edition of the American Journal of Public Health titled "Modeling to Advance Tobacco Control Policy."

29 May 2010

Safety rules lag in biotech industry

The New York Times reports that safety rules for biotechnology workers sometimes expose them to dangerous pathogens. "Whether handling deadly pathogens for biowarfare research, harnessing viruses to do humankind's bidding or genetically transforming cells to give them powers not found in nature, the estimated 232,000 employees in the nation's most sophisticated biotechnology labs work amid imponderable hazards. And some critics say the modern biolab often has fewer federal safety regulations than a typical blue-collar factory."

29 May 2010

Some states calling for ultrasounds to limit abortion

News outlets report on state initiatives to limit abortions by requiring an ultrasound before the procedure. "Over the last decade, ultrasound has quietly become a new front in the grinding state-by-state battle over abortion," The New York Times reports.

29 May 2010

Jobs bill: Dems keep 'doc fix' but jettison COBRA benefits, extra state Medicaid funding

House Democrats, under pressure from fiscal conservatives to cut spending, have dropped from a jobs bill both a COBRA subsidy extension to help newly laid-off pay for health coverage as well as more federal aid to boost state Medicaid budgets, The Associated Press reports. Although several programs covered by the bill will expire during the congressional recess that begins this weekend, final action isn't expected because even if House members reach agreement on the measure, it must still go to the Senate, which has not scheduled any votes today.

29 May 2010

Obama's National Security Strategy released, includes global health, food security priorities

"The Obama administration on Thursday released a sweeping statement of its national security goals," the Los Angeles Times reports. The 52-page document "calls for the United States to strengthen international institutions, to heed treaties and norms, and to build stronger ties to allies, including to the emerging powers of India, Brazil and China.

29 May 2010

FDA may seek criminal penalties against J & J for faulty recall of children's Tylenol, other medicines

The Wall Street Journal: "The Food and Drug Administration said it is weighing whether to seek criminal penalties against the Johnson & Johnson unit that made children's Tylenol and other over-the-counter kids' medicines recalled last month. Joshua Sharfstein, the FDA's principal deputy commissioner, told lawmakers at a hearing Thursday that J&J's McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit had a 'pattern of noncompliance' with good manufacturing practices.

29 May 2010

MU awarded $6.8M to help patients benefit from use of health information technology

Considered one the great advances of modern medicine, electronic health records can provide a patient's entire medical history and a wealth of other information at the click of a button. They also have the potential to save countless lives and billions of dollars. Now, the University of Missouri has a two-year, $6.8 million cooperative agreement to help patients throughout the state benefit from increased use of this health information technology.

29 May 2010

Republicans criticize CMS brochure on Medicare improvements

As the secretary of health and human services explains it, the government has an obligation to spread the word about the new health-care law. To that end, the department spent millions of dollars printing a glossy brochure and mailing it this week to 40 million Medicare beneficiaries detailing what Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called 'the facts.'

29 May 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

A Lancet Infectious Diseases Leading Edge article examines the history of the global efforts to control polio and the challenges associated with targets to globally eradicate the disease. "The eradication of polio seems imminent, but with so few cases, there is a temptation to think an acceptable level of infection has been achieved. Not so.

29 May 2010

Text of brochure mailed to Medicare beneficiaries

The federal government sent a brochure to more than 40 million Medicare beneficiaries, "Medicare and the New Health Care Law - What It Means for You," which is generating political controversy.

29 May 2010

Globe and Mail examines links between maternal health, HIV/AIDS ahead of G8 summit

"While the G8 is putting maternal health at the top of its agenda for next month's summit, fears are growing that the club of wealthy nations is neglecting one of the biggest killers of women: AIDS," the Globe and Mail reports in a piece that examines the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and what the newspaper describes as the G8's "backtracking" on previous pledges to provide universal access HIV/AIDS drugs.

29 May 2010

Health law implementation deadlines missed, GOP offers repeal bill

Politico reports that the Obama administration has missed a health reform law deadline to set up a task force on breast cancer and another on health care in Alaska.

29 May 2010

Medicare 'doughnut hole' rebate checks are in mail, Obama adminstration announces

Senior citizens who hit the so-called doughnut hole in Medicare's drug benefit will begin getting $250 rebate checks in two weeks, the Obama administration announced Thursday — providing one of the first tangible benefits of the recently enacted healthcare law. The rebates, designed in part to bolster support for the controversial law, are the first steps in a decade-long phase-out of the unpopular gap in Medicare Part D drug coverage.

29 May 2010

Health Care News and Research

Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science's LABCON2010 to be held in Edmonton

Senate passes supplemental spending bill that includes Haiti relief, recovery funding

Surveys find increased awareness about tobacco marketing among young women in Bangladesh, Thailand, Uruguay

Developing countries must have food production capacity to avoid food price crisis, U.S. official says

State roundup: Employees' insurance rates, a hospital merger, Florida and Mass. public health issues

Research roundup: Reform's impact on health spending; Cultural/Racial differences in medicine; Swine flu lessons

Sebelius: Employers should quickly offer coverage to workers' children up to age 26

UCSF studies describe wide reach of tobacco industry and its influence on national health care reform

Safety rules lag in biotech industry

Some states calling for ultrasounds to limit abortion

Jobs bill: Dems keep 'doc fix' but jettison COBRA benefits, extra state Medicaid funding

Obama's National Security Strategy released, includes global health, food security priorities

FDA may seek criminal penalties against J & J for faulty recall of children's Tylenol, other medicines

MU awarded $6.8M to help patients benefit from use of health information technology

Republicans criticize CMS brochure on Medicare improvements

Recent releases in Global Health

Text of brochure mailed to Medicare beneficiaries

Globe and Mail examines links between maternal health, HIV/AIDS ahead of G8 summit

Health law implementation deadlines missed, GOP offers repeal bill

Medicare 'doughnut hole' rebate checks are in mail, Obama adminstration announces

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

How ELRIG Is Helping Mid-Career Scientists Navigate Leadership, Career Change and Redundancy

The role of UV-Vis in biopharma QC

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