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Famine declared in three more regions of Somalia

"The famine gripping parts of southern Somalia has spread to three new areas of the country, with the entire south likely to be declared a famine zone within the next six weeks, the United Nations said on Wednesday," Reuters reports.

5 Aug 2011

Kaiser Family Foundation updates Global Health Policy Tracker

The Kaiser Family Foundation's Global Health Policy Tracker has been updated to include a simpler, streamlined format to help users find and track the latest developments on U.S. global health policy issues, according to a press release.

5 Aug 2011

India to use mothers' mobile phones to track child immunizations

"India's health minister announced Tuesday a new initiative underway to boost the country's rate of immunizing newborns by collecting mobile phone numbers of all pregnant mothers to monitor their babies' vaccinations," the Wall Street Journal's "India Real Time" blog reports.

5 Aug 2011

MEDSEEK, NextGen enter agreement to create Enterprise Patient Portal

NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, Inc. and a leading provider of healthcare information systems and connectivity solutions, today announced it has entered into an agreement with MEDSEEK to create the NextGen Enterprise Patient Portal.

5 Aug 2011

Rates for Calif. pre-existing condition plans drop by an average of 18%

Californians who rely on safety-net health insurance are getting an unexpected break on their rates. The lucky recipients get their coverage through a little-known public program, started last fall, for people with preexisting medical conditions.

5 Aug 2011

Lobbyists, lawmakers stake out positions for debt deal's next phase

As potential candidates for the 'super committee' emerge on Capitol Hill, lobbyists are trying to figure out how to influence the panel's decisions and also are gearing up for major public relations campaigns. Health care interests are likely to be among the most active because they have a great deal at stake.

5 Aug 2011

Health Affairs report describes ground-breaking effort that aims to prevent opioid abuse

Fatal overdoses involving prescribed opioids tripled in the United States between 1999 and 2006, climbing to almost 14,000 deaths annually-more than cocaine and heroin overdoses combined. Hospitalizations and emergency room visits related to prescription opioid pain medicines such as oxycodone and hydrocodone also increased dramatically in the same period.

5 Aug 2011

Appeals court tosses out health challenge brought by New Jersey docs

A U.S. appeals court rejected a bid by group of New Jersey doctors to reinstate their lawsuit challenging the federal health-insurance overhaul. New Jersey Physicians Inc., a nonprofit group, and an uninsured patient identified only as "Patient Roe" failed to adequately plead a concrete or actual injury, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled today.

5 Aug 2011

Low fertility causes 'very real problems' for developed nations' economies

"In recent years, nearly every demographic study has painted a dire picture of the world's changing demographics. Yet when the U.N. issued its latest report this past May, it seemed almost sunny," Jonathan Last, senior writer at the Weekly Standard, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

5 Aug 2011

Medicare's recovery audit contractor program collected $575.2 million since 2009

The CMS' Medicare fee-for-service recovery audit contractor program collected about $233.4 million in overpayments from March through June of this year, bringing the total of recouped overpayments since October 2009 to about $575.2 million.

5 Aug 2011

Hand hygiene knowledge reduces risk of infection in elementary schools, HCW

Increased hand hygiene knowledge positively correlates with a decreased risk of transmitting infection among both healthcare workers (HCW) and elementary school children, according to two studies published in the August issue of the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC), the official publication of APIC - the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

5 Aug 2011

TrustLaw publishes special report on child marriage

TrustLaw, a Thomson Reuters Foundation service, on Thursday published a series of articles, infographics and videos in a special report on child marriage. According to the series homepage, "every day, 25,000 girls under the age of 18 are married worldwide. For many child brides, a future of poverty, exploitation and poor health awaits".

5 Aug 2011

Wiley-Blackwell, The Hastings Center partner to publish leading journal on bioethics

Wiley-Blackwell, the Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly (STMS) publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is pleased to announce a new partnership with The Hastings Center, to publish the Hastings Center Report, one of the leading journals in the field of bioethics.

5 Aug 2011

States seek Medicaid waivers, wrestle with funding cuts

Oregon and Utah have waiver requests pending. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, steep Medicaid cuts are leading to the sale of some hospitals. And, in Arizona, a judge will soon decide whether health coverage should be restored for some low-income state residents whose health insurance ceased as a result of budget cuts.

5 Aug 2011

News media registration now open for ASM annual infectious diseases meeting

News media registration for the annual infectious diseases meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is now open.

5 Aug 2011

AAA journal secures number 1 rank in science education category

What began as a gleam in the eye of now co-editor Rick Drake and colleagues at the anatomy chairs' meeting in 2006, launched in 2008, and is now the highest ranking journal in science education? If you said Anatomical Sciences Education (ASE), you would be absolutely correct!

5 Aug 2011

European Union grant to support clinical research and education at ICRC

Mayo Clinic will receive $10 million in research funding from the European Union (EU) as part of a $220 million grant to its collaborator, the St. Anne's University Hospital in Brno, the Czech Republic.

5 Aug 2011

Washington Post publishes leadership roundtable opinion pieces on foreign aid and Somalia

"Amid budget crisis, a defense of foreign aid," Sen. John Kerry: "On one point we must remain resolute: This is not time for America to pull back from the world. This is a time to step forward".

5 Aug 2011

Report says public-public partnerships can provide safe, affordable water to poor populations

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "triggered a political controversy last week when he implicitly declared that even human rights have a market price," Inter Press Service reports, noting Ban "admitted it is not acceptable that poor slum-dwellers pay five or even 10 times as much for their water as wealthy residents of the same cities."

5 Aug 2011

U.S. physicians spend more time, money for interaction with health plans than Canadian doctors

Physicians in the United States spend nearly four times as much dealing with health insurers and payers compared with doctors in Canada. Most of the difference stems from the fact that Canadian physicians deal with a single payer, in contrast to the multiple payers in the United States.

5 Aug 2011