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Health care incentives included in new rural initiative

The Obama administration is launching a rural economic initiative that will affect rural doctors and hospitals.

16 Aug 2011

First Edition: August 16, 2011

Today's headlines include reports about how the influence industry is jockeying for position with the 'super committee' as well as details of how Medicaid payments for prescription drugs stack up against those made by Medicare.

16 Aug 2011

U.S., international support for Somali refugees making a difference

Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, U.S. representative to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome, writes about her recent visit to the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya in the State Department's "DipNote" blog.

16 Aug 2011

FDA provides draft guidance focusing on PMAs

For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has provided draft guidance clarifying how benefit-risk determinations are made during premarket review of certain medical devices.

16 Aug 2011

Somalia famine highlights need for long-term food security initiatives

Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, and Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (D-Tenn.) write in a USA Today opinion piece about their visit last week to the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya, stating, "Amid the devastation, we saw the impact of [U.S. and international] aid. We saw inexpensive oral rehydration packs bring listless babies back to life. We saw children getting vitamins and vaccines that will stop the spread of deadly diseases throughout the camps."

16 Aug 2011

Scientists gain new insight on role of stem cells in embryonic heart development

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have gained new insight into the delicate relationship between two proteins that, when out of balance, can prevent the normal development of stem cells in the heart and may also be important in some types of cancer.

16 Aug 2011

Disease outbreaks, looting hampering relief efforts in Somalia famine

"Outbreaks of measles and cholera are striking down Somali children already weakened by hunger, resulting in dozens of new fatalities," the Guardian reports (Rice, 8/13).

16 Aug 2011

Study investigates autism spectrum disorder, sibling recurrence

The risk that an infant with an older sibling with autism also will develop the disorder, previously estimated at between 3 and 10 percent, is substantially higher at approximately 19 percent, a large, international, multi-site study led by researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute has found.

16 Aug 2011

IMRT produces high response rate in patients with extranodal lymphoma of head and neck: Research

Lymphoma is a cancer that affects organs of the immune system, including the lymph nodes. In a subtype of the disease called extranodal lymphoma, tumors arise in non-lymphoid organs, such as the tongue and tonsils.

16 Aug 2011

Medigap policies could come under 'super committee's' budget knife

On July 1, a Washington health advocacy group issued a dire warning about a small but significant Medicare provision on the table in the debt talks.

16 Aug 2011

Assured Pharmacy second quarter net sales increase 5.3% to $4,169,807

Assured Pharmacy, a leading specialty pharmacy group providing prescription medications to sufferers of chronic pain, announced net sales of $4,169,807 for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, an increase of $211,229 or 5.3%, from $3,958,578 for the second quarter of 2010.

16 Aug 2011

FDA clears Resonance Health's MRI-Q System for cardiac T2* iron assessment

Resonance Health Ltd, a medical device company specializing in imaging core laboratory services has received FDA clearance to market its MRI-Q System.

16 Aug 2011

Scientists identify potential target that could combat allergies of early childhood

A pandemic of ailments called the "allergic march" -- the gradual acquisition of overlapping allergic diseases that commonly begins in early childhood -- has frustrated both parents and physicians. For the last three decades, an explosion of eczema, food allergies, hay fever, and asthma have afflicted children in the United States, the European Union, and many other countries.

16 Aug 2011

DJOFL second quarter net sales increase 14.5% to $277.8 million

DJO Global, Inc., a leading global provider of medical device solutions for musculoskeletal health, vascular health and pain management, today announced financial results for its operating subsidiary, DJO Finance LLC, for the second quarter of fiscal 2011, ended July 2, 2011.

16 Aug 2011

Scientists define relationship between two prostate tumor suppressor genes

Of the 250,000 American men who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, very few of them-about 1 percent-will develop lethal, metastatic disease. Finding a way to distinguish between this small cohort and the majority of patients who will develop an indolent, non-lethal form of prostate cancer is a key goal in prostate cancer research.

16 Aug 2011

ACS, 20 other organizations publish sixth edition of Physicians as Assistants at Surgery

In light of continuing Medicare and other third party-payer physician reimbursement issues and changes, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and 20 other specialty surgical organizations have jointly published the sixth edition of Physicians as Assistants at Surgery, a guide that indicates whether an operation may call for the use of a physician as an assistant.

16 Aug 2011

Inflammation linked with RA increases patients risk of heart disease

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) sufferers are at an increased risk of dying due to cardiovascular disease. A new five year study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy showed that the risk of cardiovascular disease for people with RA is due to disease-related inflammation as well as the risk factors which affect the general population.

16 Aug 2011

Modified Cdk5 enzyme triggers damage to nerve cell connections in human Alzheimer's brains

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by abnormal proteins that stick together in little globs, disrupting cognitive function. These sticky proteins are mostly made up of beta-amyloid peptide. A better understanding of these proteins, how they form, and how they affect brain function will no doubt improve the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

16 Aug 2011

Patient Safety Technologies second quarter total revenue decreases to $2.6 million

Patient Safety Technologies, Inc. today announced financial results for its second quarter of 2011 ended June 30, 2011.

16 Aug 2011

Key Assets' new fostering agency now open in Kentucky

Key Assets Kentucky, a newly established fostering agency, is now open and ready for the challenge of placing children in Kentucky with complex needs into family based foster homes.

16 Aug 2011