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Gender, ethnicity, class, age and level of dependency affect success in giving up smoking

Where you live, how old you are and whether you're male or female all affect your chances of giving up smoking. These are the findings of a study which suggests that while NHS stop smoking services are effective in supporting some smokers to quit there are significant differences in the longer term success rates for specific groups who are trying to give up smoking.

27 May 2011

Report: Budget impact of health law defunding unclear

A new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation found the actual impact of GOP proposals to defund the health law "unclear" because too many variables are involved in the calculation.

27 May 2011

States struggle to rein in medical costs

About half of all states are cutting public health care, an area that is already stretched thin by previous cuts in 31 states and a spike in Medicaid enrollment induced by high unemployment. Services for mental health, abused children, the elderly and the underinsured are the primary targets (Hube, 5/27).

27 May 2011

Roundup: Calif., Iowa hope to streamline mental health care delivery; Wis. battle with public employee unions continues

Over and over yesterday, in two separate Health and Human Services budget subcommittee hearings, officials insisted that eliminating the California Department of Mental Health was not a diminishment of services, but rather a reorganization.

27 May 2011

Severe drought in China putting pressure on drinking water, agriculture

"Chinese authorities will step up the release of water from the Three Gorges Dam in a bid to tackle a drought in southern China which has put pressure on drinking water, crops, shipping lanes and electricity production in what is traditionally China's most water-abundant region," the Financial Times reports.

27 May 2011

NILVAD consortium awarded €6 million grant to develop new Alzheimer's disease treatment

An international research consortium led by Trinity College Dublin that aims to develop a new Alzheimer's disease treatment has just been selected for grant funding of €6 million by the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

27 May 2011

Possible defense for community-acquired pneumonia among the elderly

Community-acquired pneumonia is the leading cause of infectious death among the elderly. Newly published research from The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio suggests why older people are vulnerable and offers a possible defense.

27 May 2011

Fallout from NY-26 election makes Dems gleeful, Republicans defensive

The results from the special congressional election in New York earlier this week have caused Democrats to feel that their political fortunes may be turning on the issues of the GOP proposal to revamp Medicare. Republicans are scrambling to refine their message.

27 May 2011

Kenya considers how PEPFAR technical guidance on MSM squares with laws against homosexuality

PEPFAR's recent release of its "Technical Guidance on Combination HIV Prevention" (.pdf) for men who have sex with men (MSM) "could force countries like Kenya who are strongly opposed to men having sex with men to backtrack," Nairobi Star/allAfrica.com reports. Because homosexual acts are illegal in some countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, "there are no policies or services targeting HIV interventions towards them," according to the publication.

27 May 2011

Nature special issue focuses on vaccines

The May 26 issue of Nature explores vaccines, which the journal says "are responsible for some of the world's greatest public health triumphs." Though new vaccines for deadly diseases have been developed in the past 10 years, and more are in development, "funding is tight, and unfounded doubts about the safety of vaccines persist." The issue features stories on polio, measles, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as issues surrounding vaccine rejection and hysteria about risk.

27 May 2011

Ten changes medical oncologists can do to flatten costs, improve care

The cost of cancer care is threatening to bankrupt our healthcare system. New drugs are prolonging life, but at staggering costs. This coupled with aging baby boomers and an increasing population mean the U.S. will spend $173 billion annually on cancer care by the year 2020. This trend is not sustainable; however, there are evidence-based ways to maintain or improve the quality of care while saving money for the new therapies being discovered every day.

27 May 2011

Everyone has an opinion about Dems' NY victory impact on Medicare, politics

Sooner or later, Democrats will have to admit that Medicare cannot keep running as it is — its medical costs are out of control ... not all Medicare cuts are the same.

27 May 2011

California's largest non-profit insurer releases details of executive pay

For the first time, California's largest nonprofit health insurer has released the salaries of its 10 highest-paid executives in response to a new state law intended to keep health care insurance costs under control.

27 May 2011

Switching to a newer electronic health record system reduces prescription errors

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the government is investing billions of dollars to encourage health care providers to use electronic health record systems. Many providers will probably switch from older systems to new systems to qualify for the federal incentives, but whether the upgrade improves patient care and safety has remained an open question.

27 May 2011

Study: Cardiovascular disease may be under treated in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Results of a study, involving 98,454 patients demonstrated that at 30 days following their first heart attack, RA patients were approximately 20% less likely to be prescribed standard MI treatments, such as statins and betablockers, compared to healthy patients.

27 May 2011

Senate Democrats force a vote on House-passed Republican budget, put GOP in hot seat

Just a day after Democrats claimed an upset win in the New York special election to fill a historically Republican-controlled congressional seat, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., held a vote on the GOP budget as a means to force Republicans to go on the record with their support. They responded by standing by the plan to revamp Medicare.

27 May 2011

First Edition: May 27, 2011

Kaiser Health News' Insuring Your Health columnist Michelle Andrews talks with Jackie Judd about the provisions in the health law that provide for free preventive tests. While the law doesn't apply to all insurance plans, it should cut costs for many people.

27 May 2011

Life Technologies launches new genomic analysis software

Addressing the issue of data overload from next-generation sequencers, Life Technologies Corporation today launched its LifeScope 2.0 Genomic Analysis Software, a significantly enhanced bioinformatics system for analyzing data from genomic sequencing instruments to study human disease such as cancer.

27 May 2011

Global health, development issues not likely to be focus of Deauville G8 meeting, IPS reports

"When leaders of the Group of 8 (G8) industrialised nations meet in Deauville, France, later this week, there is a strong possibility that politics will take precedence over traditional socioeconomic issues like food security and development aid, which are being overshadowed by the Arab revolution and Palestinian statehood," Inter Press Service writes of the G8 meeting, which begins on Thursday.

27 May 2011

Transgenomic secures exclusive license from Montefiore for cancer predictive markers

Transgenomic, Inc. announced today that it has acquired an exclusive worldwide license to Montefiore Medical Center's patent application, "Method of Determining the Sensitivity of Cancer Cells to EGFR Inhibitors including cetuximab, panitumumab and erlotinib".

27 May 2011

Research News and Research

Gender, ethnicity, class, age and level of dependency affect success in giving up smoking

Report: Budget impact of health law defunding unclear

States struggle to rein in medical costs

Roundup: Calif., Iowa hope to streamline mental health care delivery; Wis. battle with public employee unions continues

Severe drought in China putting pressure on drinking water, agriculture

NILVAD consortium awarded €6 million grant to develop new Alzheimer's disease treatment

Possible defense for community-acquired pneumonia among the elderly

Fallout from NY-26 election makes Dems gleeful, Republicans defensive

Kenya considers how PEPFAR technical guidance on MSM squares with laws against homosexuality

Nature special issue focuses on vaccines

Ten changes medical oncologists can do to flatten costs, improve care

Everyone has an opinion about Dems' NY victory impact on Medicare, politics

California's largest non-profit insurer releases details of executive pay

Switching to a newer electronic health record system reduces prescription errors

Study: Cardiovascular disease may be under treated in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Senate Democrats force a vote on House-passed Republican budget, put GOP in hot seat

First Edition: May 27, 2011

Life Technologies launches new genomic analysis software

Global health, development issues not likely to be focus of Deauville G8 meeting, IPS reports

Transgenomic secures exclusive license from Montefiore for cancer predictive markers

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