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First Edition: August 16, 2011

Today's headlines include reports about how the influence industry is jockeying for position with the 'super committee' as well as details of how Medicaid payments for prescription drugs stack up against those made by Medicare.

16 Aug 2011

FDA provides draft guidance focusing on PMAs

For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has provided draft guidance clarifying how benefit-risk determinations are made during premarket review of certain medical devices.

16 Aug 2011

Disease outbreaks, looting hampering relief efforts in Somalia famine

"Outbreaks of measles and cholera are striking down Somali children already weakened by hunger, resulting in dozens of new fatalities," the Guardian reports (Rice, 8/13).

16 Aug 2011

Medigap policies could come under 'super committee's' budget knife

On July 1, a Washington health advocacy group issued a dire warning about a small but significant Medicare provision on the table in the debt talks.

16 Aug 2011

ACS, 20 other organizations publish sixth edition of Physicians as Assistants at Surgery

In light of continuing Medicare and other third party-payer physician reimbursement issues and changes, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and 20 other specialty surgical organizations have jointly published the sixth edition of Physicians as Assistants at Surgery, a guide that indicates whether an operation may call for the use of a physician as an assistant.

16 Aug 2011

Key Assets' new fostering agency now open in Kentucky

Key Assets Kentucky, a newly established fostering agency, is now open and ready for the challenge of placing children in Kentucky with complex needs into family based foster homes.

16 Aug 2011

Nearly 6,000 dead in Haitian cholera outbreak, health ministry says

"The number of cholera fatalities in Haiti has risen to just short of 6,000, the health ministry said Sunday," Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C reports.

16 Aug 2011

IPAB draws sustained opposition from GOP, health industry lobbyists

The Independent Payment Advisory Board, which is one of the health law's central tools for cutting Medicare costs, continues to be a topic that draws significant opposition.

16 Aug 2011

Health overhaul draws political support, fire in various campaigns

It was a hot topic when Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. It's also been a hot topic in town hall meetings and congressional campaigns.

16 Aug 2011

South Africa expands AIDS program to allow earlier ARV treatment

The South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) on Saturday endorsed a new National Health Council policy to expand the country's AIDS program "to allow people living with HIV to start antiretroviral [ARV] treatment earlier" by raising the CD4 count necessary to access treatment from 200 to 350, Agence France-Presse reports.

16 Aug 2011

U.S. aid to Liberia important for health and development improvements

"Even now, eight years after our civil war ended, Liberia faces a huge uphill battle," Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf writes in a Washington Post opinion piece, adding that "with support from the United States, we have been able to make progress. … It is critical that this aid continues in next year's budget."

16 Aug 2011

Study: Menthol cigarettes linked with decreased quitting in the U.S.

Could a mint-flavored additive to cigarettes have a negative impact on smoking cessation efforts? New research from investigators at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) and UMDNJ-School of Public Health shines a light on this topic.

16 Aug 2011

U.N. should make reduction in salt intake a global health priority, researchers say

Researchers from the Universities of Warwick and Liverpool in a report published on Thursday in the British Medical Journal called for the U.N. to "make reducing salt intake a global health priority," stating that "a 15 percent cut in consumption could save 8.5 million lives around the world over the next decade," BBC News reports.

16 Aug 2011

PlusNews examines challenges to Burundi's PMTCT program

"A shortage of health facilities and health workers, frequent drug shortages and a weak government policy mean HIV-positive pregnant women in Burundi often give birth without taking any precautions to prevent transmission of the virus to their children," PlusNews reports.

16 Aug 2011

East African profiles new GAVI Alliance CEO Seth Berkley

The East African profiles Seth Berkley, the new CEO of the GAVI Alliance and founder and former CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

16 Aug 2011

A call for safer birth practices in Timor-Leste

Cassandra Clifford, founder and executive director of Bridge to Freedom Foundation, calls for safer birth practices in Timor-Leste in this Aid Netherlands blog post.

16 Aug 2011

Bachmann victory, Pawlenty dropout could alter GOP health care tone

Pawlenty "launched his campaign with high hopes, some of the top campaign talent in the Republican Party and perhaps the best organization in Iowa, which will start the nominating process early next year at its caucuses.

16 Aug 2011

Patient information-sharing network under development by VA, Defense

The Washington Post reports on how this emerging electronic health record system is impacting the marketplace. In other Health IT news, the Twin Cities' market appears to be full of "early adopters" of online care services, according to the Pioneer Press.

16 Aug 2011

As international affairs budget faces cuts, development community must fight for aid

In the wake of the agreement to raise the nation's debt ceiling, and "with 20 percent cuts already on the table, the international affairs budget is in for a tough fight throughout the fall," Richard Parker, director of communications for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, writes in a post on Devex's "Obama's Foreign Aid Reform" blog.

16 Aug 2011

Latest health law decision adds momentum as challenges move toward Supreme Court

In one of the main legal challenges against the health care reform passed last year, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta declared the law's "individual mandate" unconstitutional, calling it an "unprecedented exercise of congressional power."

16 Aug 2011