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Roundup: Calif. Report sets 10-year health goals; Conn. hospitals plead to stop cuts; Colo. lawmaker wants state universal health care on ballot

With the state facing rising medical costs and increasing rates of chronic disease, California health leaders issued a report Wednesday setting specific health targets to meet by 2022. The state's goals include reducing smoking rates, increasing vaccinations among children and improving depression screening and treatment. The report also describes ways to improve end-of-life care, by expanding palliative care at hospitals and hospice programs at home.

20 Dec 2012

Maneuvering toward a 'fiscal cliff' deal

Despite progress toward an agreement with the White House, House Republicans appeared to veer off course Tuesday with a "Plan B" if budget talks fail. Some media outlets suggested that both President Barack Obama and Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, are attempting to quell backlash within their own parties -- Boehner for agreeing to tax increases, Obama for ceding some entitlement cuts.

20 Dec 2012

Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan

"Three workers in a polio eradication campaign were shot in Pakistan on Wednesday, and two of them were killed, the latest in an unprecedented string of attacks over the past three days that has partially halted the U.N.-backed campaign," Reuters reports.

20 Dec 2012

WaterAid report urges integration of menstrual hygiene issues into aid policies

"Menstrual hygiene issues should be integrated into programs and policies across sectors, including water, sanitation and hygiene, reproductive health, emergency management, and education, notes a new report" by WaterAid, IRIN reports.

20 Dec 2012

Rwanda implementing programs to prevent cancer

In a Huffington Post "Impact" blog post, Tom Murphy, founder of the development blog "A View From The Cave," examines Rwanda's efforts to reduce cancer incidence by implementing screening programs for breast and cervical cancers and vaccinating girls and young women for human papillomavirus (HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancer.

20 Dec 2012

Newtown shooting spotlights gaps in mental health care

The elementary school massacre prompts an examination of mental health care policies and access to guns by the mentally ill.

20 Dec 2012

Study finds no clear indication 9/11 debris causes cancer

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examined the health of nearly 56,000 people.

20 Dec 2012

Journal of American College Health publishes special article on psychiatric advance directives

Rates of serious mental illness among university students are drastically rising, and universities are struggling with how to respond to students who show symptoms. Traumatic situations such as academics, financial problems, family problems, intimate and other relationship issues, and career related issues are leaving students overwhelmed, exhausted, sad, lonely, hopeless and depressed.

20 Dec 2012

U.S. preparedness for drug-resistant TB strains questioned

Multidrug-resistant TB is at epidemic proportions in some parts of the world -- a growing problem the U.S. is surprisingly unprepared for. The U.S. beat back multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the 1990s.

20 Dec 2012

QweCI and HEALTHY FUTURES project to host symposium on links between climate, VBDs

The HEALTHY FUTURES (Health, environmental change and adaptive capacity) and QWeCI (Quantifying Quantifying Weather and Climate Impacts on Health in Developing Countries) projects will jointly host a symposium on links between climate and vector-borne diseases (VBDs) at the upcoming 4th East African Community Health and Scientific Conference, scheduled for 27th-29th March 2013 in Kigali, Rwanda.

20 Dec 2012

Amgen to pay $762 million fine for improper drug marketing

Biotech giant Amgen Inc. pleaded guilty in federal court to improper marketing of its anemia drug Aranesp and has agreed to pay $762 million in criminal fines and civil settlements to resolve complaints from company whistle-blowers. Federal prosecutors in New York said the Thousand Oaks company was "pursuing profits at the risk of patient safety" by encouraging doctors to use its popular anemia drug for unapproved uses to boost sales and to take market share from a rival drug maker.

20 Dec 2012

GW nursing professors receive three-year $790,000 gerontology grant from HHS

Beverly Lunsford, a George Washington University assistant professor of nursing, believes a health care crisis is brewing.

20 Dec 2012

Negotiators eye short-term and long-term 'doc fix' options

Single-year and two-year fixes to the "sustainable growth rate" formula -- or even a permanent fix -- are floated as the White House and congressional republicans continue negotiations over taxes and spending.

20 Dec 2012

House Republicans seeking IRS response on health law subsidies

Prominent GOP committee chairmen are looking for documents that could affect the Internal Revenue Service rule about subsidies on the federal health insurance exchanges.

20 Dec 2012

Science supports early interventions for children in adversity

Neil Boothby, U.S. government special adviser and senior coordinator to the USAID administrator on children in adversity, writes in a USAID "IMPACTblog" post that the international community has scientific evidence and empirical data "that sho[w] investments made early in the lives of children yield greater returns than at any other point in the life cycle."

20 Dec 2012

Small, consistent changes in daily eating behavior can lead to sustainable weight loss

Making small easy changes to our eating habits on a consistent basis - 25 days or more per month - can lead to sustainable weight loss, according to research by Professor Brian Wansink in Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab.

20 Dec 2012

Speaker doesn't foresee increase in Medicare eligibility age this year

Congress doesn't need to raise the Medicare eligibility age this year, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday. Raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67 was on the table in earlier debt talks, and has been floated again as Boehner and President Obama look for a way to avoid the looming fiscal cliff.

20 Dec 2012

NPR's 'Shots' blog examines malaria drug resistance in Southeast Asia

"Global efforts to combat malaria are under threat from new strains of drug-resistant malaria, which are cropping up in Southeast Asia," particularly in Cambodia, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Thailand and Vietnam, NPR's "Shots" blog reports.

20 Dec 2012

Malaria Journal article reports on WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Committee meeting

Noting "the Malaria Policy Advisory Committee to the World Health Organization met in Geneva, Switzerland, from 11 to 13 September, 2012," an article published in the Malaria Journal on Wednesday "provides a summary of the discussions, conclusions and recommendations from that meeting," according to the article abstract.

20 Dec 2012

Hospitals with good work environment have low readmission rates

New research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing has found that Medicare patients treated in hospitals with a good work environment for nurses had up to ten percent lower odds of readmission than those treated in hospitals with a poor work environment.

20 Dec 2012