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Gates Foundation names Novartis AG executive to head global health program

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday announced that Trevor Mundel, a senior executive at the pharmaceutical company Novartis AG, will join the foundation on December 1 "as president of the philanthropy's global health group, a position that can influence the health of millions of people worldwide," the Wall Street Journal reports (Guth, 9/14).

15 Sep 2011

First Edition: September 15, 2011

In today's news, reports about what might be included in President Obama's detailed plan to tame the federal federal budget. Here's a hint: Social Security changes are unlikely, but what about Medicare?

15 Sep 2011

Study reveals correlation between suicide risk and number of convictions

"The association is clear, even when controlling for risk factors such as substance abuse and mental illness," says Emma Björkenstam of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare and Doctoral Student at the medical university Karolinska Institutet.

15 Sep 2011

Survey: State Medicaid programs increasingly reliant on managed care

The survey, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that states are turning to managed care programs to control their Medicaid costs.

15 Sep 2011

Census data trigger discussion about nation's uninsured population

The data, released yesterday, also focuses attention on issues of poverty in the United States, on the role of government programs and on the future of employer-sponsored insurance.

15 Sep 2011

Perry's HPV vaccine order still resonating, health officials slam Bachmann

The controversy over Texas Gov. Rick Perry's 2007 attempt to vaccinate girls against the human papillomavirus, which surfaced again at Monday's GOP presidential candidate debate, grew on Monday as a result of comments by Rep. Michele Bachmann.

15 Sep 2011

Kenya's Tenwek Hospital receives Aquilion 4 CT system as donation from Toshiba

In an effort to provide remote countries better access to medical imaging technology, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. has donated and installed a refurbished Aquilion 4 CT system at Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya. As the training hospital and the area's first CT system, physicians plan to use it to perform neurosurgical, thoracic and orthopedic studies, as well as provide training to future neurosurgeons.

15 Sep 2011

Integrated health, education and water/sanitation programs can defeat disease and poverty

As governments prepare to gather at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 19 and 20, a new report published by a group of six influential aid agencies provides clear and compelling evidence that a combined approach to tackling poverty and disease-that brings together work on water and sanitation, health, education, and nutrition/food security-achieves better results for the world's poorest.

15 Sep 2011

New Johns Hopkins building with healing environment can improve patients' state of mind

Most HGTV fans will agree that good design can improve one's state of mind. Designers at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore also believe it can help patients heal, which is why its new 1.6 million square-foot patient care building, scheduled to open in April 2012, features an elegant design with peace and quiet for patients as a priority.

15 Sep 2011

FDA creates Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today a streamlined, integrated approach to effectively and rapidly respond to human and animal foodborne illness outbreaks: the FDA Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation (CORE) Network.

15 Sep 2011

Effect of campus smoking ban on college students' smoking behaviors, attitudes

Smoking bans have become more common on university campuses, but do they work? Do they help reduce smoking in this newly independent age group? According to an Indiana University study, they do.

15 Sep 2011

Suicidal teens are not likely to get mental healthcare they need

Suicidal teens are not likely to get the mental healthcare they need. This is according to a team of researchers at Seattle Children's Research Institute, the University of Washington (UW), and Group Health Research Institute.

15 Sep 2011

CHK Nutrition, NeuroResearch Clinics sign consent to halt sale of unapproved amino-acid products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that two Minnesota companies have agreed to halt distribution of amino-acid products marketed to treat a number of diseases, until requirements of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act are met.

15 Sep 2011

ITA president hosts International Small Bowel Transplant Symposium

Fifty-two year-old Paul McNeel, a fire chief from Leonardtown, Maryland was 37 in 1996 when a sudden health problem caused the loss of his small intestine. Almost all of it had to be surgically removed to save his life. For 13 years after that, McNeel continued to fight fires and stayed alive only because he fed himself a special liquid formula through a tube that went from a port in his chest directly to his heart and into his bloodstream.

15 Sep 2011

Obama's jobs bill pay-for: Taxing health benefits of the wealthy

The Obama administration request for a tax on top earners' health insurance benefits is stirring Democratic opposition.

15 Sep 2011

Medical providers should continue to encourage traditional smoking cessation methods

While electronic cigarettes may be a long-term alternative to the real thing for some smokers, Penn State College of Medicine researchers suggest medical providers should continue to encourage more traditional smoking cessation methods.

15 Sep 2011

E.U. announces launch of 126M Euro program to fight AIDS, TB in South Africa

European Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs announced during a visit to South Africa on Monday that the European Union (E.U.) "will contribute 126 million euros to South Africa's fight against AIDS and tuberculosis (TB)," money that "will be used to improve South Africa's primary health care system, increasing access for patients," Reuters reports.

15 Sep 2011

Navigating Cancer receives ONC-ATCB certification for Patient Engagement Portal

Navigating Cancer's Patient Engagement Portal, the industries only oncology specific solution that can integrate with any electronic health record (EHR) system, has received the federal government's "meaningful use" stamp of approval by earning (EHR) modular certification.

15 Sep 2011

HHS closes off public access to National Practitioner Data Bank

By law, the records are supposed to be confidential though available to researchers. However, in recent years, reporters across the country have managed to manipulate the data to reveal names of providers in stories. Patient advocacy groups are protesting the shutdown.

15 Sep 2011

Administration steps up focus on improper health care payments

The Obama administration is targeting programs that help the poor and unemployed as it seeks to recover billions of dollars in improper payments. The effort, part of a government-wide focus on wasteful spending led by Vice President Biden, will get a high-profile boost today when the entire Cabinet meets for the first time on that subject alone.

15 Sep 2011