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'Homework assignment' could mean success, failure for health reform legislation

How well health care industry groups follow through on their "homework assignment" from President Obama to submit specific plans by early June on how they intend to reduce health care spending growth by $2 trillion over the next decade could determine whether current attempts to develop health care overhaul legislation are successful, the AP/Contra Costa Times reports (Alonso-Zaldivar, AP/Contra Costa Times, 5/25).

26 May 2009

Obama says he is 'absolutely committed' to health reform

During a C-SPAN interview on Saturday, President Obama said he remains "absolutely committed" to overhauling the U.S. health care system despite obstacles that might surface during reform efforts, the Los Angeles Times reports (Dorning, Los Angeles Times, 5/24).

26 May 2009

Meeting addresses mother-to-child HIV transmission in Africa

Health officials recently held a regional consultation in Kenya to examine mother-to-child HIV transmission services and pediatric HIV/AIDS care in nine Eastern and Southern African countries, IRIN/PlusNews reports.

26 May 2009

The future of migraine: beyond just another pill

Patients living with migraine have strong reason for new optimism concerning a positive future. Two review articles and an accompanying editorial, "The Future of Migraine: Beyond Just Another Pill," in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, are the basis for an ironic premise.

26 May 2009

Future cancer care, can we afford it?

When a cancer patient and his or her doctor discuss the value of a treatment option, the conversation usually centers on a consideration of the treatment's medical benefits versus its possible side effects for the patient. Increasingly, however, as the already high costs of cancer care continue to rise, a full view of the patient's welfare must also take into account the economic impact of the treatment on the patient and his or her family.

26 May 2009

WHO-International Atomic Energy Agency join forces to fight cancer in developing countries

WHO and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today announced the launch of a Joint Programme on Cancer Control, aimed at strengthening and accelerating efforts to fight cancer in the developing world.

26 May 2009

Poor attention in kindergarten predicts lower high school test scores

As thousands of students nationwide prepare to leave high school, a UC Davis study appearing online today in the June issue of the medical journal Pediatrics shows a clear link between attention problems early in school - as early as kindergarten - and lower high school test scores.

26 May 2009

Unvaccinated children 23 times more likely to get infected with whooping cough

Children of parents who refuse vaccines are 23 times more likely to get whooping cough compared to fully immunized children, according to a new study led by a vaccine research team at Kaiser Permanente Colorado's Institute for Health Research.

26 May 2009

New easier way to identify kids' high blood pressure

Pediatricians now have a new and simple way to diagnose a serious problem facing our nation's children - thanks to David Kaelber, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., MetroHealth System pediatrician, internist, and chief medical informatics officer and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher and faculty member. Nearly 75% of cases of hypertension and 90% of cases of prehypertension in children and adolescents go undiagnosed.

26 May 2009

Hospice care under-used by many terminally ill patients

Hospice, a well-established approach to palliative care, has enabled countless people worldwide to die with dignity. Through focusing on the patient rather than the disease, individuals can spend the last weeks of their lives in an environment where hospice caregivers minimize their pain, maximize their comfort, and provide bereavement services for loved ones and family members.

25 May 2009

Australian Government shies away from election promise to takeover control of hospitals

Kevin Rudd's Government appears to be backing out of another of its election promises - the financial takeover of public hospitals if they fail to come up to scratch.

24 May 2009

Indian Health Service releases $500 million in stimulus funding to improve health care for American Indian, Alaska native communities

The Indian Health Service on Wednesday announced it will release $500 million in federal economic stimulus funding to improve health care for American Indian and Alaska Native communities, Health Data Management reports.

22 May 2009

New Maryland law requires insurers to provide incentives for EHR adoption

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) on Tuesday signed a bill making the state the first to require private insurance companies to offer physicians financial incentives for adopting electronic health records, the Baltimore Sun reports.

22 May 2009

Connecticut House approves two health insurance pooling bills

The Connecticut House on Wednesday approved two separate measures to expand health insurance pooling in the state, the Hartford Courant reports. The first measure would create a public health insurance pool open to all residents.

22 May 2009

GM bankruptcy plan would use stock worth 39% of firm to fund half of VEBA obligation

General Motors and United Auto Workers on Thursday agreed to a tentative deal that would allow the automaker to use company stock to fund half of its obligation to a retiree health care fund, the Washington Post reports (Cho et al., Washington Post, 5/22).

22 May 2009

Sen. Baucus says health care overhaul will cover about 95% of citizens, will not cover undocumented immigrants

Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Thursday said that Congress' health care overhaul plan would cover 94% to 96% of the population but not undocumented immigrants, the AP/Las Vegas Sun reports (Alonso-Zaldivar, AP/Las Vegas Sun, 5/21).

22 May 2009

London Health Service begins offering rapid HIV tests

Barts and the London NHS Trust has become the first National Health Service provider in the United Kingdom to offer rapid, oral HIV tests, BBC News reports.

22 May 2009

FDA approves Samsca (tolvaptan) to treat hyponatremia

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Samsca tablets (tolvaptan) to treat hyponatremia, an abnormally low concentration of sodium in the blood.

22 May 2009

62nd World Health Assembly closes with resolutions on public health

The 62nd World Health Assembly, which brought together health ministers and senior health officials from WHO's Member States, closed today with the adoption of resolutions on a variety of global health issues including primary health care, the prevention and control of multidrug- resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, public health, innovation and intellectual property and pandemic influenza preparedness. The Health Assembly also passed the Programme Budget for 2010 -2011.

22 May 2009

AIDS treatment activists push UNAIDS and WHO to meet commitments to reduce HIV in women and newborns

In a dramatic meeting today at the UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva, members of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) and AIDS-Free World met with the leaders and approximately 100 staff members of UNAIDS and WHO to present ITPC's latest Missing the Target report, Failing Women, Failing Children: HIV, Vertical Transmission and Women's Health, which identifies the failure of the international community in preventing vertical transmission (also known as prevention of mother-to-child transmission or PMTCT).

22 May 2009