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The pressing need to save the lives of women and newborns in India

In this post on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, the second in a multi-week series, Joy Lawn, director of Evidence and Policy for the Saving Newborn Lives program of Save the Children, and Kate Kerber, the Africa regional specialist with Saving Newborn Lives at Save the Children U.S., "explore the pressing need -- and what our partners are doing to address the need -- to save the lives of women and newborns in India,".

3 Sep 2011

Combination of resistance training, AT does not benefit cardiac patients

For patients undergoing rehabilitation following cardiac events, aerobic exercise training (AT) is widely recommended. Resistance training (RT) has also been shown to be beneficial because it enhances muscular strength and endurance, functional capacity and independence, and quality of life, while reducing disability.

3 Sep 2011

Hospital executives should consider value-added services of radiology groups

Hospital executives should consider the value-added services of hospital-based radiology groups before allowing radiology departments to be taken over by teleradiologists or other specialists, according to an article in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

3 Sep 2011

Options for 'super committee' could include IPAB, Tricare, nothing at all

Rep. Phil Roe said Thursday that the deficit-cutting super committee should repeal one of the healthcare reform law's chief cost-control measures. Roe is a leading opponent of the Independent Payments Advisory Board (IPAB), a 15-member board with the power to cut Medicare payments almost unilaterally. .

3 Sep 2011

ATS issues guidelines on use of FENO in different clinical settings

The American Thoracic Society has issued the first-ever guidelines on the use of fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) that address when to use FENO and how to interpret FENO levels in different clinical settings.

3 Sep 2011

Refugee self-settlement may provide 'lasting' solutions to humanitarian crises

In this New York Times' "Opinionator" blog post, journalist and author Tina Rosenberg examines the contrasts between refugee situations in rural camps -- such as Dadaab in Kenya, where tens of thousands have sought relief from drought and famine in Somalia -- and more urban areas, such as cities in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, where approximately 1.6 million Iraqi refugees are living.

3 Sep 2011

UCF, UF receive $5.5 million NIH grant for hemophilia research

At a time when research funding is hard to come by, a University of Central Florida and University of Florida partnership has landed almost $5.5 million in National Institutes of Health highly competitive grants for hemophilia research.

3 Sep 2011

Businesses working hard to disgest health law changes

Health care reform has put some businesses that provide health insurance-related services into marketing and education overdrive. Health care benefits brokers, law firms and insurance carriers are among the chief entities digesting legislative rules to help employers track health insurance-related changes that impact costs.

3 Sep 2011

Scientists identify several links between genetic variants and specific metabolic changes

Scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum Munich and LMU Munich, in cooperation with Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and King's College London (KCL), have identified several associations between genetic variants and specific metabolic changes.

3 Sep 2011

Officials in Detroit seek Medicare fraud suspects, charge some in Puerto Rico

Thirteen people including three doctors have been indicted for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, according to a statement Thursday from the U.S. Attorney's Office. The first indictment accuses Jose Lopez Diaz of charging Medicare more than half a million dollars for services never rendered at a medical center where he never worked. Lopez also is accused of billing Medicare for a procedure he claimed he performed on female patients that can only be done on men, prosecutors say.

3 Sep 2011

IQWiG publishes results of literature search on DMP for diabetes mellitus type 1

On 22 August 2011, the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) published the results of a literature search for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on the treatment of people with diabetes mellitus type 1.

3 Sep 2011

Information and communications technology revolution in the developing world

Charles Ebikeme, a writer who "has worked for many years as a research scientist on African sleeping sickness" examines a health revolution in information and communications technology (ICT) taking place across the developing world in this "End the Neglect" blog post, writing, "The initial concept of telemedicine now spans a wide spectrum of applications, labels, contexts, and platforms."

3 Sep 2011

Novel analysis of MRI scans reveals distinct features of autistic brain

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital have used a novel method for analyzing brain-scan data to distinguish children with autism from typically developing children.

3 Sep 2011

OMB projects slower growth in Medicare, Medicaid spending, but with a caveat

Federal spending on the nation's two main health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid, is projected to grow less than expected over the next decade, according to new estimates released Thursday by the White House. That's because the federal government has been paying less than expected in benefits - but the new estimates also assume cuts in doctors' payments that probably aren't going to happen.

3 Sep 2011

Nature journal publishes Metabolon's genome wide association study

Metabolon, Inc., the leader in metabolomics, biomarker discovery and biochemical analysis, announced the publication of "Human Metabolic Individuality in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research" in the journal Nature.

3 Sep 2011

WHO African region member states have challenges to meet MDGs, WHO/AFRO Director says

Speaking at the 61st session of the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) in Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire, on Thursday, African Regional Director of WHO Luis Sambo said "that 46 Africa member countries still had remarkable challenges to scale before meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," Nigeria's The Nation reports.

3 Sep 2011

First report of alternative lengthening of telomeres in human cancer subtypes

The first report of the presence of alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) in cancers arising from the bladder, cervix, endometrium, esophagus, gallbladder, liver, and lung was published today in The American Journal of Pathology. The presence of ALT in carcinomas can be used as a diagnostic marker and has implications for the development of anti-cancer drug therapies.

3 Sep 2011

State roundup: Texas disability fight; rights of fetus asserted in Neb.

For Milla Powell, a 12-year-old from Austin with cerebral palsy, the little things make all the difference. Massage therapy to ease her tightened muscles. Recreational programs, in which therapists take her into the community to help her build her social skills. Music therapy to help Milla, who cannot speak, connect without words. But services like these are on the chopping block for thousands of Texans with disabilities - another casualty of the significant budget cuts that state lawmakers passed in May.

3 Sep 2011

SAMHSA to unveil results of 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will unveil the results of the latest (2010) National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) at a press conference on Thursday, September 8.

3 Sep 2011

PEPFAR releases Guidance for the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted HIV Infections

"The Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator released the U.S President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Guidance for the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted HIV Infections this week," a "50-plus page document intended to 'assist PEPFAR country teams in developing Country Operational Plans (COPs) that align activities to prevent sexual transmission of HIV with country-specific epidemiology and country-owned responses,' according to the introduction statement," the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog writes.

3 Sep 2011