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USAID must overcome legal hurdle to providing humanitarian aid in Somalia

Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's office said the U.S. is willing to provide humanitarian aid to Somalia, where the militant group al-Shabab controls parts of the country, but "in reality, her hands are tied by paperwork," Eliza Griswold, author and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, writes in a Daily Beast opinion piece.

19 Jul 2011

First U.N. emergency airlift arrives in Nairobi to provide drought aid

"The first U.N. emergency airlift flight arrived in" Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Sunday, "to assist the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have fled the drought and famine afflicting their homeland," ABC News reports.

19 Jul 2011

DNDi's new drug development programme for children with HIV/AIDS

Today at the 6th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) announced the launch of a new drug development programme to address critical unmet treatment needs of children with HIV/AIDS.

19 Jul 2011

Swaziland's King Mswati urges men to get circumcised to prevent HIV infection

Swaziland's King Mswati III on Friday called on men in the kingdom to get circumcised to help reduce their risk of contracting HIV, Agence France-Presse reports. "Urging his nation to 'take care of your lives - stay away from activities that could give you the disease,' the king struck a very different note from his pronouncement to parliament a decade ago that HIV-positive people should be 'branded and sterilized,'" the news agency writes.

19 Jul 2011

USAID working with international community to respond to drought in East Africa

"Since October 2010, the U.S. Government has provided more than $383 million worth of assistance, including 314,000 metric tons of food," to countries in the eastern Horn of Africa region, where "more than 4.1 million people have benefitted from this help," Donald Steinberg, USAID deputy administrator, writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece.

19 Jul 2011

FBI struggles to uncover health care scammers who flee for Cuba

As Medicare crime spreads across South Florida, accused scammers are escaping in droves to Cuba and other Latin American countries to avoid prosecution — with more than 150 fugitives now wanted for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S. health care program, according to the FBI and court records.

19 Jul 2011

UNAIDS' Sidibe calls for increased access to HIV drugs at IAS conference opening

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe on Sunday at the opening of the 6th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Rome "called ... for an increase in access to drugs that help treat or prevent the spread of the disease, saying it is 'morally wrong' to keep millions of people off lifesaving medication," the Associated Press/Boston Globe reports.

19 Jul 2011

JDR publishes study titled 'Public Health Surveillance of Dental Pain via Twitter'

The microblogging service Twitter is a new means for the public to communicate health concerns and could afford health care professionals new ways to communicate with patients.

19 Jul 2011

U.S. News & World Report ranks UT Southwestern as best hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth region

For the second year in a row, UT Southwestern Medical Center is the top-ranked hospital in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, according to U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking of the nation's best hospitals.

19 Jul 2011

Study finds high C-section rates in Florida, New Jersey and Texas

A report released today by HealthGrades, the nation's most trusted, independent source of physician information and hospital quality outcomes, found that between 2002 and 2009 the C-section, or Cesarean section, rate in the U.S. rose from 27% of all single births to 34%, an all-time high. The highest rates of C-section were found in Florida, New Jersey and Texas, the lowest in Utah, Wisconsin and Colorado.

19 Jul 2011

Columbia University receives NIH grant to expand clinical, translational research

A Columbia University institute, whose goal is to accelerate the pace of translating science into real-life treatments for patients, received $38.9 million from the National Institutes of Health to expand its work over the next five years.

19 Jul 2011

Teens with positive sense of well-being more likely to report being healthy in young adulthood

A new study finds that teens with a positive sense of well-being are more likely to report being healthy in young adulthood. The research suggests this is not just because teenagers who feel good about themselves are healthy in the first place.

19 Jul 2011

UCSF receives NIH grant to translate science into real-life solutions

A UCSF institute aimed at accelerating the pace of translating science into real-life solutions for patients has received $112 million from the National Institutes of Health to expand its work over the next five years.

19 Jul 2011

U.S. News & World Report ranks HSS as No.1 orthopedic hospital

U.S. News & World Report has once again named Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) the top hospital in the country for orthopedics in its 2011 "America's Best Hospitals" issue.

19 Jul 2011

State roundup: Strain felt from home care, adult day care cuts

A growing number of states are shifting health care costs to the federal government by finding military veterans who receive Medicaid and signing them up for medical benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Arizona, California and Texas are among the states that are working to replicate a program first launched in Washington State.

19 Jul 2011

BMC receives $1.1 million MDPH grant to expand HIV clinic

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) has awarded a nearly $1.1 million grant to Boston Medical Center (BMC) to provide funding for HIV/AIDS support and case management services.

19 Jul 2011

Simple eight-question survey can help predict depression, PTSD

A simple eight-question survey administered soon after injury can help predict which of the 30 million Americans seeking hospital treatment for injuries each year may develop depression or post-traumatic stress, report Therese S. Richmond, PhD, CRNP, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and her colleagues in General Hospital Psychiatry.

19 Jul 2011

Employers Occupational Health receives URAC's full accreditation for case management

Employers Occupational Health, Inc., a subsidiary of Employers Holdings, Inc., has been granted URAC's full accreditation for case management.

19 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: NYT on Medicaid's value; WSJ against exchanges; Chicago Tribune on food deserts

Medicaid is under assault these days from nearly every direction. Governors complain that they cannot afford to put up their share of the money. Congressional Republicans led by Paul Ryan want to reduce the federal contribution by $771 billion over the next decade. ... President Obama has expressed willingness to cut Washington's contribution.

19 Jul 2011

48% of family doctors want freedom to have relationship with patients

In surprising results from a new survey it was noted that nearly half of family doctors want the freedom to have a relationship with a patient. One in six GPs thinks it is acceptable to have sex with one of their own patients, says the survey, while 48 per cent think it is OK to do so if the patient changes doctors.

18 Jul 2011