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Mayo Clinic to develop Global Smoke-Free Worksite Challenge

Mayo Clinic announced today at the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in New York City its partnership with other organizations to develop a Global Smoke-Free Worksite Challenge.

22 Sep 2011

Physician leader: Medical resident training should focus on cost-conscious care

"Why didn't you order test X?" That question, posed routinely to residents by faculty members at teaching hospitals, bears some of the blame for the high and unsustainable cost of U.S. health care, writes a leader of the American College of Physicians in the September 20 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

22 Sep 2011

USAID launches 'FWD' campaign to raise awareness of famine, drought in Horn of Africa

The PBS NewsHour blog "The Rundown" features an interview with USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, in which he discusses a new website initiative called "FWD," "aimed at giving viewers a better sense of the scope of the famine in the Horn of Africa -- its worst in more than 60 years." The site includes infographics and data maps "intended to contextualize the problem by showing the recent increase in food prices, where internally displaced peoples camps are located, and where various aid groups are operating," according to the blog.

22 Sep 2011

MD Anderson professor wins 2011 Julie and Ben Rogers Award for Excellence in Prevention

Lorna McNeill, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Health Disparities Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, is the recipient of the 2011 Julie and Ben Rogers Award for Excellence in Prevention.

22 Sep 2011

Leaders address nutrition on sidelines of U.N. NCD meeting

On the sidelines of the U.N. High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) on Tuesday, "representatives of governments, civil society and the private sector joined United Nations agencies ... to emphasize the importance of good nutrition, which is vital not only for human health but also for national economic and social development," the U.N. News Centre reports.

22 Sep 2011

Four insurers may help provide answers to health cost puzzle

Four major health insurers announced plans yesterday to pool their health care claims data into a single database to enable researchers to mine for information about trends in costs, utilization and intensity of care.

22 Sep 2011

Addressing the exclusion of mental health from the MDGs

PRI's "The World" highlights the state of mental health care in Uganda in an examination of how the exclusion of mental health from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has, according to some advocates, held back mental health as a global health issue. Julius Kayiira, director of Mental Health Uganda, an organization that provides social support, job training and care to people with mental illness, "says organizations like his face an enormous funding gap, and he blames that gap, in part, on the United Nations," according to "The World."

22 Sep 2011

Indian government responds to new avian flu outbreak

"Authorities in eastern India will start culling chickens and destroying eggs to contain a new outbreak of H5 bird flu, the government said in a statement on Tuesday, as a mutant strain of the virus is spreading elsewhere in Asia," Reuters reports.

22 Sep 2011

'ResistanceMap' tracks antibiotic resistance online

"Extending the Cure," a research project of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy that looks at antibiotic resistance, on Wednesday launched a map "designed to be a tool for public health, researchers, doctors, the media and the public to track resistant pathogens, which is a growing problem around the world," the Washington Post's "The Checkup" blog reports.

22 Sep 2011

HSPH receives CDC grant to evaluate HIV combination prevention initiative in Botswana

A new four-year, $20 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will enable Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers to evaluate the impact and cost-effectiveness of a unique combination of HIV prevention strategies in Botswana.

22 Sep 2011

Rockefeller: 'Blended rate' proposal could be end of CHIP

The $320 billion package of Medicare and Medicaid cuts President Obama announced yesterday as part of his plan to reduce deficit spending would effectively end the Children's Health Insurance Program, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV said Tuesday. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., a leading advocate of the program on Capitol Hill, was referring specifically to a part of the plan, known as the "blended rate" proposal that would start in 2017.

22 Sep 2011

USA Today: Seniors key to fighting Medicare fraud

Officials believe that if older Americans - including the growing crop of eligible Baby Boomers - know how to spot errors and fraud, "more criminals will be put in jail where they belong," Barbara Dieker told a group of volunteers recently. Dieker directs the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Elder Rights, which oversees the Senior Medicare Patrols.

22 Sep 2011

Archbishop Tutu calls on Obama to lead the world in expansion of HIV treatment

Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights advocate Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes in a Washington Post opinion piece that President Barack Obama "is in a position to make a game-changing impact on the war against AIDS" and he "should lead the world in a massive effort to expand access to treatment and rid humanity of AIDS -- the most devastating disease of our time."

22 Sep 2011

States get grants to aid rate-review efforts

On Tuesday, the Obama administration announced $109 million in grants to states to help them improve insurance industry oversight, especially regarding their scrutiny of premium increases.

22 Sep 2011

HHS spending bill stalled by House impasse

The Senate Appropriations Committee's consideration of the spending measure will likely be largely symbolic and the actual spending it covers will be handled later this year. The appropriations process, however, has been used by Republicans to attack the health law's funding.

22 Sep 2011

Stanford Hospital & Clinics inaugurates new Brain Tumor Center

Today, Stanford Hospital & Clinics inaugurates its new Brain Tumor Center, framing its considerable corps of top-notch specialists into a treatment team driven by expertise, experience and compassion.

22 Sep 2011

Celebrating partnerships that lead to sustainable, locally managed HIV/AIDS response efforts

Mary Fanning, South Africa's country coordinator for PEPFAR, writes in a New Age guest column, "In the fight against HIV/AIDS, this is a time of hope. It's also a time to celebrate the partnerships that are advancing this work and to recommit to a plan to ensure prevention, treatment and care for those infected and affected is sustainable and locally managed."

22 Sep 2011

Insurance commissioners plan to challenge efforts to extract more money from Medigap plans

Members of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners are developing a letter to members of Congress in which they will oppose attempts to extract more money from Medicare enrollees who buy Medigap insurance - an option the president has now backed for new enrollees.

22 Sep 2011

State roundup: Consumer advocates oppose Ga. request to ease rules on insurers' profits

The state's request to ease new federal restrictions on health insurer spending would cost Georgia insurance policyholders an estimated $34 million in rebates, consumer advocacy groups say.

22 Sep 2011

Sanofi-aventis sponsors People vs. Cancer initiative

Sanofi-aventis Canada is proud to be the national sponsor of People vs. Cancer, a speaking tour of three Canadian universities featuring Stephen Lewis, former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations and United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

22 Sep 2011