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Financial Times examines needs of smallholder farmers in developing countries

Reflecting on USAID's plans to reduce reliance on food aid to fight global hunger by investing in agricultural development through microloans, the Financial Times examines the needs of smallholder farmers throughout the world. The piece looks at the role that lenders and large suppliers can play in assisting smallholder farmers and ways to maximize the relationships between farmers and these groups.

4 Jun 2010

American Cancer Society and NPCRC award $1.8M for palliative care research

The American Cancer Society and the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) are awarding $1.8 million in research grants to researchers at 12 institutions for studies aimed at reducing suffering for seriously ill patients and their family caregivers. The studies will be conducted over the next two years. Since 2007, a collaborative effort by the organizations has awarded 51 grants totaling almost $7 million.

4 Jun 2010

State roundup: Health law could be critical for Miss.'s poor; Colorado passes end-of-life care laws, Penn. details plan for high risk pool

The health care overhaul, which "provides hundreds of billions of dollars to help states expand medical insurance for the poor," could prove critical for Mississippi, which "has the highest poverty rate in the nation and some of the sickest people, with the country's highest rate of heart disease and the second-highest rate of diabetes.

4 Jun 2010

States face budget scramble as chances for federal Medicaid assistance extension get slim

States are worrying that enhanced federal payments to help cover Medicaid expenses during the recession will soon end after the House opted not to include an extension of the funds in its recent jobs bill.

4 Jun 2010

Administration claims about Dartmouth Medicare analyses questioned

The New York Times, in a front page story, reports: "In selling the health care overhaul to Congress, the Obama administration cited a once obscure research group at Dartmouth College to claim that it could not only cut billions in wasteful health care spending but make people healthier by doing so.

4 Jun 2010

United Health, Cigna differ on how plans will change after exchanges begin

United Health's CEO Stephen Hemsley said he expects companies to keep offering benefits instead of pushing people to health exchanges created in 2014 by the federal government, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

4 Jun 2010

YM BioSciences raises $3.2M through non-brokered private placement of common shares

YM BioSciences Inc., announced today that it has raised approximately US$3.2 million through a non-brokered private placement of 2,500,000 common shares to be issued at US$1.27. The sale price is at no discount to the closing price of the shares on the NYSE Amex on June 1, 2010.

4 Jun 2010

WHO says H1N1 remains pandemic

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan on Thursday announced the WHO still considers H1N1 (swine) flu a pandemic, despite the fact "its most intense activity has passed in many parts of the world," Reuters reports (Lynn, 6/3).

4 Jun 2010

Report ranks best children's hospitals

U.S. News & World Report reports on the nation's best children's hospitals: "Out of all of the roughly 5,000 U.S. hospitals, only about 1 in 30 has deep expertise in caring for children with serious problems. For youngsters who need that quality of care, the Best Children's Hospitals rankings showcase the medical centers that see kids every day who have cancer, cystic fibrosis, defective hearts, and countless other life-threatening or rare conditions beyond the capabilities of most hospitals, even those with sizable pediatric departments.

4 Jun 2010

Sebelius to highlight geographic differences in Medicare hospital payments

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visits Rochester's Mayo Clinic Thursday morning. ... The visit comes after a recent report that Minnesota will receive money earmarked for states which provide low-cost, high-value health care. But just how much money Minnesota will receive is far from certain. Sebelius is expected to get a first-hand look at the clinic's technology for tracking health care information.

4 Jun 2010

Vermont regulator demands $3 million payback from insurer

Burlington Free Press: "Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont overpaid its former chief executive officer by $3 million over an eight-year period and has been ordered to pay the money back to its subscribers by 2012 in the form of reduced premiums, a top state regulator said Wednesday. The action by the state Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration Department follows last year's disclosure that William Milnes, the nonprofit firm's former CEO, received a $7.2 million payout when he stepped down in 2008."

4 Jun 2010

Latest version of LOINC for electronic health information exchange to be released

As the practice, regulation and reimbursement of health care become more complicated, and as the demand for electronic medical records and health information exchange grows, a universal method of identifying test results and other clinical measurement is essential.

4 Jun 2010

WisTa Laboratories announces collaborative R&D agreement with Bayer Schering Pharma

WisTa Laboratories Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of TauRx Pharmaceuticals, announced today that they have entered a collaborative R&D agreement with Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany, which could redefine the way Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorders are currently being diagnosed and treated.

4 Jun 2010

Poll says more than half of Californians support health overhaul

Half of Californian voters support the new health care law, but many say "it's only a first of many necessary changes," The Associated Press/San Jose Mercury News reports. "In 1,522 telephone surveys of registered voters conducted in April, Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo says 30 percent strongly support the nation's new health care law, and another 22 percent somewhat support it. Compared to previous national polls, the new law is more popular in California than the rest of the country."

4 Jun 2010

SERCA2a gene therapy proves effective in people with advanced heart failure: Researchers

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have developed a new gene therapy that is safe and effective in reversing advanced heart failure. SERCA2a (produced as MYDICAR-) is a gene therapy designed to stimulate production of an enzyme that enables the failing heart to pump more effectively.

4 Jun 2010

Government health IT advisers examine privacy policies

One of the latest hurdles government advisers helping to shape health information technology policy must jump is addressing the amount of control patients should have over their own records, Modern Healthcare reports.

4 Jun 2010

International development forum addresses U.S. foreign aid reform

USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah and Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.) discussed the need for a new foreign aid strategy and vision at an international development forum, hosted by InterAction on Wednesday, Congressional Quarterly reports.

4 Jun 2010

Study: Delays in seeking health care appear to be common for Latino women

Delays in seeking health care appear to be common for Latino women in upstate New York, a new study finds. In the latest issue of the journal Ethnicity & Disease, about 70 percent of a group of mostly Caribbean Latinas in the Albany area reported they put off getting health care. Insurance did not seem to be an issue, since 80 percent had insurance, yet 60 percent of the women said that they had a prior chronic medical condition.

4 Jun 2010

European countries focus on drug price cuts

"European governments grappling to reduce large budget deficits are focusing their cost-cutting on a large spending item — pharmaceuticals," The Wall Street Journal reports. "Several countries in recent weeks, including Spain, Germany and Italy, have proposed or enacted reductions in what they will pay or taken other cost-control measures for various drugs.

4 Jun 2010

Mass. insurers ask for double-digit rate hikes, again

Massachusetts' two largest insurers have again asked regulators for permission to increase their rates. "Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state's biggest health insurer, is requesting increases averaging 12 percent, on the lower end of the range it submitted earlier in the spring. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, the number two carrier, wants increases that range from 8.8 percent to 11.9 percent, about the same range it sought in the round that was rejected" (Weisman, 6/3).

4 Jun 2010