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PEP intervention increases breast cancer awareness

Educating women about breast cancer increases their knowledge about the disease should they develop a symptom - and could help increase survival from breast cancer, new research today shows.

29 Jun 2011

Stop ignoring historical western advocacy of sex selection

Mara Hvistendahl, a correspondent with Science magazine and author of the recently published "Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men," writes in a Foreign Policy feature that "as American politicians argue over whether to cut Planned Parenthood's U.S. funding and the Christian right drives through bans on sex-selective abortion at the state level, the effects of three decades of sex selection elsewhere in the world are becoming alarmingly apparent.

29 Jun 2011

ICU nurses doubt whether clinical neurological examination can establish brain death

More than half of Sweden's intensive care nurses doubt that a clinical neurological examination can establish that a patient is brain dead. Intensive care nurses also perceive that this uncertainty can affect relatives when the question of organ donation is raised, is reveiled in a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

29 Jun 2011

President steps in as debt talks remain divided — Medicare savings in exchange for added revenue?

As the high-level negotiations continue, health care advocates are stepping up their campaigns to protect against Medicare and Medicaid cuts. Meanwhile, organizations representing physicians — including the American Medical Association — maintain that a permanent fix to Medicare's physician payment formula should be included in the debt-ceiling legislation.

29 Jun 2011

New prostate cancer drugs bring cost of care into spotlight

Meanwhile, results from a three-decade Swedish study found that women who have mammograms have a lower death rate from breast cancer — a finding that some say may ease recent controversies around the screening procedure.

29 Jun 2011

More than 10M people affected by drought in East Africa, U.N. says

More than 10 million people in the Horn of Africa "are affected by the drought in one way or other," Elisabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reports.

29 Jun 2011

Nurses drive quality initiative, save lives and money

Nurses on a surgical intensive care unit (SICU) at a large academic medical center cut bloodstream infections to zero and saved more than $200,000 during a six-month period.

29 Jun 2011

Anti-fraud activities shift to Medicare, mortgage lending; Others less likely to face prosecution

The drop in criminal prosecutions indicates a shift for federal law enforcement agencies, which have increasingly targeted schemes aimed at mortgage lending, financial institutions and Medicare, the government [health] insurance plan for the elderly.

29 Jun 2011

GAO reports on government response to H1N1 pandemic

GAO on Monday published two reports on the government's response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic.

29 Jun 2011

Planned Parenthood asks court to restore funding in Kansas

The group turns to a federal district court as it seeks to have a new Kansas budget provision overturned.

29 Jun 2011

Shah talks about public-private partnerships

A post on "PharmaTech Talk" highlights comments made by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah at the Partnerships for Global Health Forum, an annual event which is sponsored by BIO and BioVentures for Global Health.

29 Jun 2011

France 24's Health program examines challenges to fighting malaria in Madagascar

France 24's video program Health examines challenges to fighting malaria in Madagascar, where some people who cannot afford newer artemisinin-based combination therapies use older, less-effective medications that can promote drug resistance and others misuse mosquito nets.

29 Jun 2011

Fidgeting contributes to cardiorespiratory fitness

Walking to the photocopier and fidgeting at your desk are contributing more to your cardiorespiratory fitness than you might think.

29 Jun 2011

Drug-resistant scarlet fever outbreak has infected nearly 550 people in Hong Kong

An outbreak of drug-resistant and particularly virulent strains of scarlet fever has infected nearly 550 people and killed two children in Hong Kong so far this year, about double the Chinese city's average annual total, the Associated Press reports.

29 Jun 2011

Obese people already drink diet soda, so soda tax won't help

To many, a tax on soda is a no-brainer in advancing the nation's war on obesity. Advocates point to a number of studies in recent years that conclude that sugary drinks have a lot to do with why Americans are getting fatter.

29 Jun 2011

ACO criticism continues; Health exchanges 'a new goldmine'

As health care providers consider structuring accountable care organizations, the nation's employer community wants to be sure they have a place in those discussions.

29 Jun 2011

Study: Doctors turning away more insured patients

The findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, tracked the rates of patients who were accepted by physicians -- including those with private insurance and with Medicare.

29 Jun 2011

Texas passes health program revamp; Oregon House acts to create better coordinated care

The Legislature approved and sent to the governor Monday a health care savings bill under which Texas could seek permission to redesign entirely the Medicaid and Medicare programs, and abortion-rights opponents scored several victories in the measure (Garrett, 6/27).

29 Jun 2011

Experienced North Korean aid worker says hunger crisis imminent

North Korea has significantly cut public food aid and could be heading toward a hunger crisis, said Katharina Zellweger, head of a Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation's office in Pyongyang and "one of the most experience aid workers" in the country, according to Agence France-Presse.

29 Jun 2011