Healthcare News

RSS

FDA releases two draft guidance documents to help fight tobacco epidemic

Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released two separate draft guidance documents to help fight the tobacco epidemic and stop children from using tobacco. The draft guidance documents implement provisions of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act that will ultimately provide the public with previously unknown information about the chemicals in tobacco products and help prevent misleading marketing about the risks associated with tobacco products.

31 Mar 2012

Contemplating the options: What will become of the health law?

With the Supreme Court arguments complete, media outlets consider the various scenarios that could play out, and the complications that could arise. To quote the Tom Petty song: "The waiting is the hardest part."

31 Mar 2012

U.Va. establishes first college health database

The National Social Norms Institute and the Department of Student Health at the University of Virginia, with the help of funding from the Centers for Disease Control, have established the first college health database - representing more than 600,000 students at 19 schools.

31 Mar 2012

Course of state implementation efforts unchanged by high court's review

Politico reports that state plans appear unchanged by this week's events. Those that were moving ahead at full speed will likely continue to do so. Those who were taking a go-slow approach have no need to change strategies now.

31 Mar 2012

Justices hold first vote today on health law's fate

If past practice holds, the Supreme Court will meet privately today to cast a preliminary vote. No one else will be present, and drafts of opinions are likely to be written and rewritten many times in the next few months before the actual decision is issued, likely sometime in June.

31 Mar 2012

Sleep deprivation does not disturb performance of interventionists during PCI procedures

A single-center study found that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures performed during the middle of the night do not adversely affect the safety and effectiveness of procedures performed the next day by the same operator.

31 Mar 2012

USAID issues Scientific Integrity Policy to guide scientific, scholarly activities

"Spurred by a 2009 directive from President Obama and subsequent guidance from the White House," USAID on Wednesday "issued a new Scientific Integrity Policy to safeguard the quality and integrity of the Agency's scientific and scholarly activities," according to a USAID press release.

31 Mar 2012

Report examines political history of international AIDS conferences

In this post in the Center for Strategic & International Studies' (CSIS) "Smart Global Health" blog, Katherine Bliss, deputy director and senior fellow at the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, discusses a report -- titled, "The International AIDS Conference Returns to the United States" -- that "examines the political history of the international AIDS conferences from 1985 to the present."

31 Mar 2012

Home walking program can improve QOL, fatigue levels in post-surgery pancreatic cancer patients

Participation in a home walking program can lead to a significant improvement in quality of life, fatigue levels and physical functioning of post-surgery pancreatic cancer patients, according to findings from a randomized, controlled study by researchers at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson School of Nursing - set to appear in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons on April 1.

31 Mar 2012

House OKs Ryan budget -- with Medicare changes; Entitlement program cuts

The budget blueprint, advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is unlikely to gain passage in the Senate but will be a key marker in the upcoming election season.

31 Mar 2012

Three leading cancer researchers to chair symposia at ACCR meeting

Three leading cancer researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have been selected to chair symposia at this year's annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, which will be held in Chicago from March 31 to April 4.

31 Mar 2012

Oral arguments inspire RNC ad

The Republican National Committee uses audio from Supreme Court oral arguments to craft a campaign ad criticizing President Barack Obama and the health law. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has had a health law strategy of its own in place.

31 Mar 2012

New ACR guidelines recommend use of topical NSAIDs for older patients with knee OA

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Subcommittee on Osteoarthritis Guidelines has approved and issued several updates to clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA).

31 Mar 2012

India's success against polio is promising step in defeating disease worldwide

"That India is free of wild polio today is a testament to the commitment of the Indian government," which "invested more than $1 billion over the last decade and collaborated with community leaders, health workers, businesses, and parents," as well as governments, non-governmental organizations, and multilateral agencies, to fight the disease, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius writes in a Foreign Affairs opinion piece.

31 Mar 2012

USF Health opens $38M advanced medical learning and simulation center

Patients around the world will benefit from better training and testing of health professionals as USF Health opens its $38 million Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) in downtown Tampa.

31 Mar 2012

Study examines TB services in prisons in countries receiving Global Fund grants

According to a study recently published in a special supplement of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, half of countries receiving grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria provide tuberculosis (TB) services in prisons; "even when TB services were provided to prisoners, they were limited in scope; and "few of the programs receiving a grant from the Global Fund offered services dedicated to the treatment and prevention of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB)," an aidsmap news story reports.

31 Mar 2012

Insurers, employers react to idea of a health law without an individual mandate

Insurers' "worst nightmare" is that the Supreme Court would overturn the health law's insurance requirement but leave the rest of the overhaul intact. Employers are being advised to continue working toward meeting the law's deadlines.

31 Mar 2012

Epilepsy community welcomes IOM's new landmark study report

Responding to today's release of the Institute of Medicine 's (IOM) new report on the public health dimensions of the epilepsies, a cooperative group of professional and consumer organizations with special interest in epilepsy has issued the following joint statement.

31 Mar 2012

Perspectives: All this fuss about the word 'tax'; Civic lessons from the Supreme Court

It is now clear that the law will impose heavy burdens on state and family budgets and increasingly possible that its mandate that all Americans purchase health insurance or face penalties will be ruled unconstitutional. ... We and our Republican colleagues voted against the law two years ago and will continue to work toward a smarter, step-by-step solution that will make health care available to more Americans at a lower cost to the federal government, the states, and individuals seeking care.

31 Mar 2012

State roundup: Texas, Minn. scrutinize psychiatric care

U.S. Justice Department officials in Washington are weighing whether to investigate potential civil rights violations of psychiatric patients at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Sarah Saldaña, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said the review stems from news stories in The Dallas Morning News exposing cases of neglect, violence and questionable deaths.

31 Mar 2012