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Peace Corps official reflects on Global Health Service Partnership

In this post in the AIDS.gov blog, Buck Buckingham, director of the Peace Corps Office of Global Health and HIV, reflects on the Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP), launched by Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams in March, writing, "Although this partnership is an exciting innovation for the Peace Corps, the commitment to health which it reflects finds deep roots in our history, as Director Williams described at the launch on March 13."

8 Jun 2012

Magazine examines efforts to biologically alter bugs to fight human diseases

Pacific Standard magazine examines efforts by researchers around the globe to biologically modify bugs to fight human diseases, such as dengue fever. "Biologically altering bugs isn't entirely new; it's been done for nearly half a century to protect crops. ...

8 Jun 2012

Learning from successful women's health initiatives in India

"With almost 200 million people living in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, a state more populous than the entire country of Brazil, the sheer breadth of exciting, new ways to improve maternal and child health is enormous," Gary Darmstadt, head of the Family Health Division of the foundation, and Wendy Prosser, a research analyst with the division, write in this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog.

8 Jun 2012

States hold off on insurance exchanges; Medicare ACOs confront challenges

Marilyn Tavenner, the acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said Thursday that about 30 states will not move forward with state-based exchanges until after the Supreme Court rules and the November elections are finished. She also said her agency is working to streamline the process for early participants in Medicare ACOs.

8 Jun 2012

State news: Wis. insurers meet health law medical spending requirements

A selection of health policy stories from Wisconsin, Oregon, Arizona, New York, Virginia, Texas, Massachusetts, Florida and California.

8 Jun 2012

Policies aiming to improve health, promote sustainable development 'urgently needed'

In an article in the Lancet, Andy Haines of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues, write that, 20 years after the Earth Summit and as world leaders prepare to meet at the Rio+20 conference to advance sustainable development, "[i]mplementation of policies that both improve health and promote sustainable development is urgently needed."

8 Jun 2012

Study: U.S. Hispanics fare worse waiting for heart transplants

Hispanic patients in need of a heart transplant are 50 percent more likely to die before they get one that white patients, according to a U.S. study.

8 Jun 2012

Viewpoints: Bipartisanship on medical device tax; 'Overreach' in contraception fight

Bipartisanship arrived in Washington on Thursday, not that many in the media will hail it. That's because the sweet harmony involved a 270-146 House vote to repeal ObamaCare's 2.3% excise tax on medical devices.

8 Jun 2012

Forbes interviews UNFPA Executive Director regarding global progress in reducing maternal mortality

In this post in the Forbes "Leadership" blog, contributor Rahim Kanani interviews U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin about a report titled "Trends in maternal mortality: 1990 to 2010" -- released by UNFPA, WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank in May -- "which shows that the annual number of women who die in pregnancy or childbirth has dropped from more than 543,000 to 287,000, a decline of 47 percent."

8 Jun 2012

Premier healthcare alliance awards new agrements for spinal implants

The Premier healthcare alliance today announced new agreements for spinal implants and related products

8 Jun 2012

House passes repeal of tax on medical devices

The bill, which is likely to hit tough opposition in the Senate, would roll back a tax in the 2010 health law designed to help pay for the expansion of coverage to people who do not have insurance.

8 Jun 2012

Internists press lawmakers for Medicare formula fix

Several hundred internists and medical students were on Capitol Hill Thursday, meeting with their members of Congress to advocate for issues facing internal medicine.

8 Jun 2012

NCPA takes proactive steps against medication non-adherence

Under the leadership of its national trade association, community pharmacists are stepping up to the plate to take on the issue of medication non-adherence, a health care crisis currently adding to the nation's fiscal woes at a cost of nearly $300 billion each year.

8 Jun 2012

Bachmann calls for federal audit of Minnesota Medicaid program

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is asking for a federal audit of her state's Medicaid program after a congressional probe found a year's worth of alleged overpayments. In other news, insurers Molina and Centene have won back Medicaid contracts in Ohio after initially being rejected.

8 Jun 2012

Directly taking accident victims to a trauma centre increases chances of survival

People who are seriously injured in a car accident are more than 30 per cent more likely to survive at least 48 hours if they are taken directly to a trauma centre than those who are taken first to a non-trauma centre, new research has found.

8 Jun 2012

La. gov. signs bill increasing wait time between mandatory ultrasound, abortion

The bill signed by Bobby Jindal would also require abortion providers to offer women the opportunity to listen to the fetal heartbeat. In other abortion news, a Michigan legislative panel endorses a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

8 Jun 2012

High radon levels in Extremadura

Researchers at the University of Extremadura have measured levels of the radioactive gas radon in 130 workplaces in the Spanish region of Extremadura. The results revealed that 13% of shops, schools, offices, museums and other buildings exceeded EU recommended levels. The record for the highest level of radon is held by a cave in the north of Cáceres in Western Spain.

8 Jun 2012

Family planning summit next month 'could mark turning point for maternal health'

In this post in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters" blog, U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin discusses a family planning summit to be held in London next month, writing the UNFPA "is supporting the initiative so that it can gain traction and support among other donors and UN member countries."

8 Jun 2012

Battle to control malaria in Cambodia 'not over'

"Two years after some $22 million in donor funds were pumped into malaria control along the Cambodia-Thailand border to fight off suspected resistance to treatment, health workers say the battle is not over," IRIN reports, adding, "The government reported 103,000 malaria infections and 151 deaths nationwide in 2010.

8 Jun 2012

UNAIDS director calls for ARV production in Africa

"Executive Director of UNAIDS Michel Sidibe Wednesday called for the production of anti-retroviral drugs [ARVs] in Africa to make the life-saving medicines against AIDS accessible to patients and boost the medicines manufacturing sector on the continent," PANA/AfriqueJet reports.

8 Jun 2012