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LA Times: Gov. Perry and Texas' struggling health care system

When Texas went to court last year to block President Obama's healthcare overhaul, Gov. Rick Perry pledged to do everything in his power to "protect our families, taxpayers and medical providers."

9 Sep 2011

Au. sediba demonstrates unique combination of features, never before seen in early human ancestors

A series of five papers based on new evidence pertaining to various aspects of the anatomy of the species Australopithecus sediba will appear in the prestigious journal Science.

9 Sep 2011

In deficit reduction debate, some stakeholders point to Medicare

The American Hospital Association is lobbying to raise the program's eligibility age from 65 to 67 as a means of heading off additional cuts to Medicare hospital payments. Meanwhile, some conservatives view the program's fiscal challenges as the problem that stands above all others.

9 Sep 2011

Landmark discovery in rapid spread of PRL-3 oncoprotein associated aggressive cancers

Scientists at A*STAR's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) have made a landmark discovery in the battle against the rapid spread of aggressive cancers associated with PRL-3 oncoprotein.

9 Sep 2011

Health law gains win as court blocks two legal challenges

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals issued two opinions yesterday in which it concluded that neither the Commonwealth of Virginia nor Liberty University had legal standing to sue the government in an attempt to block the health law's individual mandate.

9 Sep 2011

Ultrasonic neuromodulation can be quickly applied in neurocritical care situations

The discovery that low-intensity, pulsed ultrasound can be used to noninvasively stimulate intact brain circuits holds promise for engineering rapid-response medical devices.

9 Sep 2011

AARP strategist moves on to health care coalition

After 27 years at AARP, John Rother will move on to head up the National Coalition on Health Care. He says his new position will give him a platform to take on health care costs, as issue he views as central to the nation.

9 Sep 2011

SAMHSA awards new grants to behavioral health systems serving American Indian/Alaskan Native communities

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is announcing seven new grants for a total of up to $6.4 million over up to three years to provide tribal and urban American Indian and Alaskan Native communities resources to plan and design a holistic, community-based system of care to support mental health and wellness for their children, youth and families.

9 Sep 2011

Deficit reduction, entitlement programs become key buzz words as debt panel sets to work

The 'super committee' held its first meeting this week, kicking off its mission with a note of bipartisanship. Many observers worry, though, that this might be the end of this spirit of cooperation. Meanwhile, a groups of Senators from both parties also met this week - privately - to revive the hope for a "grand debt-cutting bargain."

9 Sep 2011

Tics are not a rare or uncommon disorder

Experts have confirmed it: tics are not a rare or uncommon disorder. It is the second study to be conducted in Spain to date, and the first of great importance, revealing that the prevalence of these motor disorders in the child population is 16.86%. The incidence is greater in boys than girls, and they tend to disappear or reduce with age.

9 Sep 2011

U.N. member states must face health, economic impacts of NCDs

In this Huffington Post opinion piece outlining many facts and statistics surrounding non-communicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide, Susan Blumenthal, public health editor of the Huffington Post and former assistant surgeon general, along with Katherine Warren and Lauren Macherelli, who previously worked at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, where Blumenthal is director of the health and medicine program, write, "The world is at a crossroads when it comes to the chronic disease epidemic and its enormous health and economic impacts."

9 Sep 2011

Study on insect species associated with Tibetan medicinal fungus, O. sinensis

A team of researchers from the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Xiao-Liang Wang and Yi-Jian Yao), summarized all the available information on the insect species associated with the Tibetan medicinal fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis through an extensive literature survey and analyzed their relationships with the fungus. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

9 Sep 2011

Rich countries watering down NCD commitments to appease multinational companies

Professor and director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University in Australia, examines how "rich countries, ... particularly the U.S. and European Union but also Australia, Canada and New Zealand, ... are joining forces with tobacco, food, alcohol and pharmaceutical corporations to water down commitments that might flow from" this month's U.N. High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in New York.

9 Sep 2011

'Super committee' faces big challenges, lots of input from stakeholders

In order to lay out some specific options from which the panel might extract savings, House Ways and Means Democrats have provided a list of Medicare trims.

9 Sep 2011

NYC REACH selects Criterions EHR as partner company

NYC REACH, the Regional Extension Center overseen by the Primary Care Information Project at the NYC Health Department, has selected the Criterions EHR as a partner company. The NYC REACH program is designed to assist metropolitan practices with the adoption of EHR technology and the achievement of government Meaningful Use incentives.

9 Sep 2011

Cochrane review studies quality-oriented payment models

As part of health care reform, the federal government is testing different ways to reward physicians for the quality - not quantity - of their services, all in the hope of improving patient care.

9 Sep 2011

Impact of 9/11 still affects Americans: Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll

Almost half of all U.S. adults who experienced physical or psychological problems in the months following the 9/11 terrorist attacks still struggle with feelings of fear and anxiety 10 years later, today's Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll found.

9 Sep 2011

Docs' group pushes for changes to Medicare payment setting panel

Meanwhile, other news outlets report on the challenges private practice physicians face in serving their patients and their own bottom lines, and ProPublica explores drug company payments to doctors.

9 Sep 2011

Lift restrictions on abortion under Helms amendment as applied to rape victims

Though President Barack Obama signed an executive order on his third day in office to "lif[t] the odious 'global gag rule' that denied federal money for family planning work abroad to any group that performed abortions or counseled about the procedure, even with its own money," he left standing a policy that is "an overly restrictive interpretation of the [1973] Helms amendment."

9 Sep 2011

Novel solution for purifying stem cell mixtures

Stem cells show great potential to enable treatments for conditions such as spinal injuries or Lou Gehrig's disease, and also as research tools. One of the greatest problems slowing such work is that researchers have found major complications in purifying cell mixtures, for instance to remove stem cells that can cause tumors from cells developed for use in medical treatments.

9 Sep 2011