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Obama to drug industry: We still have a deal

"Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion," The New York Times reports.

6 Aug 2009

Insurance industry speaks up on health reform

The insurance industry expresses what they want to get out of health care reform as efforts progress and attacks against them increase.

6 Aug 2009

Monographs address health reform issues

Monographs addressing individual mandates, tax exclusion and a public plan option were released today by the American College of Physicians (ACP).

6 Aug 2009

Congressman’s visit to The American Legion beneficial to veterans

During a recent visit to The American Legion headquarters here, U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., said that the maintenance of high quality health care for veterans is at the very top of his list of priorities. Within a week, Filner, who is chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, has demonstrated his advocacy and response to Legion concerns by introducing legislation long championed by the Legion that would materially aid Medicare-eligible vets.

6 Aug 2009

Hillary Clinton to meet with Somali President

As part of her seven country, 11-day trip to Africa, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday in Nairobi will meet with Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed at the new U.S. embassy in Kenya, according to Associated Press (Lee, 8/6).

6 Aug 2009

Checking in with health insurers' chief lobbyist Karen Ignagni

This has become an especially rough-and-tumble time for Karen Ignagni, the health industry’s chief lobbyist. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has denounced insurers as “villains,” and President Obama has criticized the industry for its “windfall profits.” Earlier this year, Ignagni pledged to work with Obama and Congress to pass major health care legislation this year, but relations have cooled as the White House and congressional Democrats have begun citing the industry’s practices as a top reason to pass an overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

6 Aug 2009

Celera and Aurora to collaborate on cardiovascular genetics

Aurora Health Care, Wisconsin's largest health care provider, and Celera Corporation announced today that they have entered into an agreement to collaborate on the integration of genetic testing aimed at optimizing heart care for Aurora patients

6 Aug 2009

Bill Clinton, Pfizer, and Mylan announce new agreements to lower prices of antiretrovirals for HIV/AIDS in the developing world

President Bill Clinton announced two important and complementary agreements today to enable better, more affordable treatments for patients on second-line antiretroviral (ARV) therapy for HIV/AIDS in the developing world.

6 Aug 2009

Big business group urges cost cutting to pay for health overhaul

John Castellani, the president of the Business Roundtable, told reporters today that health reform legislation should include mechanisms to finance coverage expansions largely through cost savings inside the health care system and should preserve ERISA, the 1974 federal law that regulates most private employee health plans.

6 Aug 2009

Automated network could predict disease outbreaks that originate in animals

The AP/San Francisco Chronicle examines Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers' efforts to create an automated network to monitor animals in an effort to predict disease outbreaks because two out of every three human diseases "originated in animals."

6 Aug 2009

Huge cost of scaling up entire health system in Sub-Saharan Africa

Hiring the nearly 800,000 workers needed to eliminate the staggering shortage of health care professionals in sub-Saharan Africa by 2015 will cost $2.6 billion a year, or 2.5 times the annual funds currently allocated for health worker wages in the region, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and collaborators from the World Health Organization (WHO) and The World Bank.

6 Aug 2009

Baucus/Grassley relationship challenged, other Senators weigh in on Rreform

The old reliable relationship between Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) continues to "bedevil" their Senate colleagues as the Finance Committee nears a deal on health care reform, Roll Call reports.

6 Aug 2009

Fast-tracked H1N1 vaccines will not compromise safety, WHO says

Efforts to fast-track the approval of H1N1 (swine) flu vaccines will not compromise the safety or quality controls of vaccine production, the WHO said in a written statement Thursday, the Mail & Guardian reports.

6 Aug 2009

Bloomberg examines China plague cases, potential for disease spread

"Plague-spreading fleas are expanding their territory, putting more people at risk of catching the lethal illness, a WHO official said," Bloomberg reports, in an article that examines the recent deaths of three people in China from the pneumonic plague.

6 Aug 2009

House left unfinished business when it left for August break

House members left Washington last week with some unfinished business: 55 to 60 pending amendments in the Energy and Commerce Committee, which became the last of three House panels to report its version of the health care overhaul late Friday night, Congress Daily reports.

6 Aug 2009

CQ Politics examines delay in naming USAID head, Farmer's reported withdrawl

Paul Farmer’s withdrawal from consideration as head of USAID "would send the [Obama] administration back to the drawing board to fill a critical position that will be a centerpiece of efforts to overhaul foreign aid," CQ Politics reports.

6 Aug 2009

Importance of increased funding for molecular diagnostics

On July 9, 2009, the Society for Women’s Health Research convened experts on Capitol Hill to educate lawmakers on the importance of increased funding for new medical tests, called molecular diagnostics.

6 Aug 2009

A new startup at California Nanosystems Institute

UCLA's newly launched on-campus technology incubator at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) has opened lab space to MediSens Wireless, a startup company that develops and manufactures personal body-monitoring systems for medical and health applications.

6 Aug 2009

In Massachusetts, a radical idea for changing how doctors are paid

Dr. Richard Lopez is chief physician at Atrius Health in Boston. He says "global payments" allow health care providers to innovate to keep patients out of the hospital. (Richard Knox/NPR)

6 Aug 2009

Take Care Health Systems now offering nebulizer treatments for acute respiratory distress

Take Care Health Systems is now offering nebulizer treatments, when clinically appropriate, for clinic patients exhibiting acute respiratory distress.

6 Aug 2009