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The individual mandate: To be, or not to be? That is one of the questions for the Supreme Court

News outlets report on the mandate's chances of surviving a constitutional challenge that will be argued before the high court next week.

23 Mar 2012

Fruit flies too get kidney stones

Research on kidney stones in fruit flies may hold the key to developing a treatment that could someday stop the formation of kidney stones in humans, a team from Mayo Clinic and the University of Glasgow found.

23 Mar 2012

Swazi, South African activists march to U.S. consulate in Johannesburg to call for emergency Global Fund meeting

"Almost a thousand Swazi and South African HIV activists marched to the United States consulate in Johannesburg on [Thursday] to demand that the U.S. continue supporting the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria, and safeguard funding of its President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)," PlusNews reports.

23 Mar 2012

Romney, Santorum continue war of words over health law mandate, 'template'

Mitt Romney's record on the individual mandate is coming up again as fellow GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum continues his drum beat that Romney's Massachusetts health reform law was the "template" for the national overhaul.

23 Mar 2012

Lawmakers examine how Medicare, Medicaid can help stop prescription painkiller abuse

Lawmakers held a hearing Thursday on what steps the federal government can take to help prevent the abuse of prescription painkillers.

23 Mar 2012

Aternative pain medication without narcotics safe after sinus surgery

Patients who have undergone sinus surgery can safely take an alternative pain medication that does not cause the side effects of narcotics such as fentanyl and Vicodin, a Loyola University Health System study has found.

23 Mar 2012

U.N. SG calls for 'global solidarity' in fight against TB

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday during a visit to the Institute of Respiratory Medicine in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, "urged countries to step up their efforts to prevent tuberculosis (TB)" and "called for 'intensified global solidarity to ensure that the children and people of all the countries get medical support, so that they can breathe with health,'" the U.N. News Centre reports.

23 Mar 2012

Hutchison calls on Perry to work with feds on women's health funding

The fight in Texas over its Women's Health Program and the dual defundings of Planned Parenthood by the state and the entire program by the federal government gained a new wrinkle as Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, called on Gov. Rick Perry to work out the state's differences with the feds.

23 Mar 2012

Water scarcity may cause global instability, U.S. intelligence agencies say in report

U.S. intelligence agencies released a report on Thursday warning that "[d]rought, floods and a lack of fresh water may cause significant global instability and conflict in the coming decades, as developing countries scramble to meet demand from exploding populations while dealing with the effects of climate change," the Associated Press reports.

23 Mar 2012

Sixty-thousand Canadian teens go hungry to raise money and hunger awareness

As Canadians flock to movie theatres across the country for the much-anticipated Hunger Games motion picture release this weekend, more than 60,000 teens are preparing to go hungry to raise money and hunger awareness as part of World Vision's 30 Hour Famine, the largest teen hunger awareness campaign in the world.

23 Mar 2012

Bringing together NTD and WASH sectors of public health

In this post in the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases' "End the Neglect" blog, Stephanie Ogden -- a water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and neglected tropical disease (NTD) consultant with Emory's Center for Global Safe Water, Children Without Worms, and the International Trachoma Initiative -- writes about a partnership among these organizations.

23 Mar 2012

On its birthday, health law feted as giving consumers 'control,' denigrated for provoking 'showdown'

On the second anniversary of the enactment of the law, commentators offer Supreme Court advice on historic arguments next week, examine public opinion on the overhaul and note the political consequences.

23 Mar 2012

House approves bill to kill Medicare cost panel

In what is viewed as a largely symbolic move, the GOP-led House passed a bill that would undo the health law's Medicare cost control board. Though the measure initially drew some Democratic support, those votes all but disappeared after the repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board was linked to medical malpractice legislation.

23 Mar 2012

Canon to showcase RK-F2 Full Auto Ref-Keratometer at Vision Expo East

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, will demonstrate the benefits of using its digital imaging and workflow management solutions, including the Canon RK-F2 Full Auto Ref-Keratometer, during Vision Expo East, March 23 - 25, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.

23 Mar 2012

Africa must develop its own pharmaceutical pipeline through creation of policy frameworks

"To break free of its dependence on donor money and supplies from India, Africa must develop its own pharmaceutical pipeline by creating policy frameworks that encourage a fledgling drug industry," journalist Priya Shetty argues in this SciDev.Net opinion piece.

23 Mar 2012

Blog posts comment on World TB Day

Several blog posts recently commented on the upcoming World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, commemorated on March 24. "Despite a clear legislative mandate, the U.S. Global Health Initiative (GHI) has consistently failed to live up to the goals of" the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB), and Malaria Reauthorization Act, passed by Congress in 2008, John Fawcett, legislative director for RESULTS, writes in the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog.

23 Mar 2012

New information service on Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs

Proxy Capital today announced the launch of a new, free information service, MaxEHR.com. The MaxEHR.com website provides doctors and other medical professionals with the information they need to maximize their incentives and productivity from adopting and using electronic health records (EHR).

23 Mar 2012

The health law officially turns two -- now what?

Supporters are marking the health law's second birthday today even as questions swirl about whether it will get to celebrate a third. Meanwhile, media outlets examine where implementation stands and what is yet to come.

23 Mar 2012

World Water Day resources available from USAID, 'DataBlog'

USAID's water team on Thursday, World Water Day, published a new edition of their Global Waters Magazine to recognize the day, according to USAID's IMPACTblog.

23 Mar 2012

The 13th EMBL/EMBO Science and Society conference

Why is the living world so diverse; that is, what forces and processes led to the evolution and proliferation of so many species? The dynamics that allow interacting species to coexist in an ecosystem simultaneously influence the productivity, nutrient dynamics and stability of that ecosystem.

23 Mar 2012