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Doctors refuse to accept NHS reform bill

Labour warned that the health secretary, Andrew Lansley was still planning to create a “full-scale market” after Steve Field acknowledged that the government would leave hospitals vulnerable to European Union competition law due to the presence of private patients in NHS hospitals.

29 Jun 2011

Patients, scientists in different corners for cancer drug fight

The drug, Avastin, will be the subject of an unusual Food and Drug Administration hearing to revisit a panel vote last July that steered many doctors away from prescribing the drug for the treatment of breast cancer.

29 Jun 2011

Interest, uncertainty surround health exchanges, ACOs

In other news related to health law implementation, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., has co-sponsored legislation to allow states to opt out of the health law until legal challenges related to it are resolved.

29 Jun 2011

Newly revised and expanded editions of CRA's and CRC's guides released

CenterWatch, a leading publisher in the clinical trials industry, announced today the release of newly revised and expanded editions of two of its top-selling training resources—The CRA's Guide to Monitoring Clinical Trials, 3rd Edition, and The CRC's Guide to Coordinating Clinical Trials, 2nd Edition.

29 Jun 2011

First Edition: June 29, 2011

In today's news, two senators offer a new plan for Medicare cuts -- which includes increasing the eligibility age -- but top Democrats lined up against it.

29 Jun 2011

South African circumcision program moving forward with support from Zulu king

NPR's Morning Edition on Monday examined how a circumcision program in South Africa's Kwa-Zulu Natal, run by the Society for Family Health at the Boom Street Community Health Clinic, "is gaining momentum" because of a decree issued last year by King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu about the importance of circumcision in helping to reduce the risk of HIV infection.

29 Jun 2011

NPR examines maternal, child health in Mozambique

NPR's All Things Considered reports on efforts to improve maternal health in Mozambique. The piece, which is part of a summer series, looks at the challenges involved with getting pregnant women to hospitals and shortages of trained health worker (Block, 6/27).

29 Jun 2011

South Sudan should use military as force for development

Calestous Juma, an author and professor at Harvard Kennedy School, writes in an East African opinion piece that as South Sudan prepares for independence on July 9, it "is the time" for the country "to chart a new path by defining a new role for its military" by "shift[ing] its military budget to development objectives."

29 Jun 2011

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