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Insurers' report backlash: Unified Dems, angry White House, dissenting experts

The insurance industry's study on the effects of health reform has incensed Democrats, given reformers a rallying point and inspired a wave of zippy one-liners in news reports.

15 Oct 2009

Medicaid enrollments jump but states are trying to cut costs

Several states are noting significant increases in Medicaid enrollment, even as they look to find ways to create savings in the programs.

15 Oct 2009

Control and coordination may aid multiple sclerosis patients perform daily activities independently

While gripping, lifting or manipulating an object such as drinking from a cup or placing a book on a shelf is usually easy for most, it can be challenging for those with neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's, or for people who had a stroke.

15 Oct 2009

Interim data from Sanofi Pasteur's Influenza A 2009 Monovalent Vaccine clinical trials in infants and children

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of the sanofi-aventis Group, announced today an interim analysis of data from clinical trials of the U.S. licensed Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine in infants and children 6 months through 9 years of age. The data indicate the vaccine is immunogenic and that one dose may protect many children.

15 Oct 2009

AAPA welcomes Senate Finance Committee's vote to approve the America's Healthy Future Act

The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), representing 75,000 clinically practicing physician assistants (PAs) in the United States, applauds the Senate Finance Committee's vote to approve the America's Healthy Future Act. AAPA is committed to seeking health care reform legislation that provides the American people with access to quality, affordable, cost-effective health care.

15 Oct 2009

Genetic diversity thwarts the usefulness of malaria vaccine

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) have charted the extreme genetic differences that occur over time in the most dangerous malaria parasite in the world. While there is no approved vaccine for malaria, various experimental vaccines are in development.

15 Oct 2009

More than half RCTs do not report vital information about study populations race, says study

A new study recently published online by the American Heart Journal shows that more than half of all randomized clinical trials, or RCTs, for cardiovascular disease are not reporting vital information about the study populations race or ethnicity. NYU School of Medicine researchers found that out of the 156 cardiovascular disease RCTs analyzed, only 35% of trials reported any information on race or ethnicity between 1970 and 2006. From 2000 to 2006, 46% of trials included that information.

15 Oct 2009

Reid: Repeal "damaging" antitrust exemptions for insurers

Leading Senate Democrats moved today to repeal a law protecting insurers from antitrust taboos in the wake of an industry-sponsored report that condemned a key reform proposal, the New York Times reports. Testifying before the Judiciary Committee as a witness, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "Providing an exemption for insurance companies to antitrust laws has been anticompetitive and damaging to the American economy."

15 Oct 2009

Interest groups campaign against proposed health taxes

"Insurance companies, unions, medical device makers and others in the health care industry are furiously lobbying lawmakers to shift burdens onto someone else — anyone else — before they find themselves saddled with billions of dollars in taxes under new health care legislation," The Associated Press reports.

15 Oct 2009

Environmental Solutions launches alcohol-free hand sanitizer

Environmental Solutions International announces alcohol-free Smart & Silky Instant Foaming Hand Sanitizer and Smart & Silky Kids Instant Foaming Hand Sanitizer now are available at more than 975 OfficeMax® locations nationwide and on www.officemax.com beginning this week, in addition to nationwide Target® stores.

15 Oct 2009

Modern tissue engineering gives hope for better prosthetic hands

Modern tissue engineering developed at the University of Michigan could improve the function of prosthetic hands and possibly restore the sense of touch for injured patients.

15 Oct 2009

Congress must increase funding for school nutrition programs

As more of America's children depend on free and reduced price school meals during the economic downturn, schools are grappling with rising costs that surpass the federal reimbursement rate for these meals.

15 Oct 2009

Online medical journal to be launched

Two Johns Hopkins Children's Center researchers have assembled a 25-member editorial board of international experts to launch a quarterly online medical journal devoted to original research and commentary on the use of computer automation in the day-to-day practice of medicine.

15 Oct 2009

Surveillance of travel-related illness helps to detect and respond to H1N1 influenza

Because pandemics unfold in unpredictable ways, surveillance of travel-related illness is among the most powerful tools health officials and doctors can use to detect and respond to new pathogens like the novel H1N1 influenza, says the physician who heads the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Travelers' Clinic.

15 Oct 2009

Institute of Medicine elects two new members from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Michael Kastan, M.D., Ph.D., and Mary Relling, Pharm.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, have been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a prestigious branch of the National Academy of Sciences.

15 Oct 2009

New food reports highlight growing global hunger

Reforms are required to curb global hunger, which was already "growing" before the worldwide financial downturn, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report, released in Rome, ahead of World Food Day on Friday, the BBC reports (10/14).

15 Oct 2009

Jazz Pharmaceuticals to present Phase III sodium oxybate trial data at ACR 2009 meetings

Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that data from the company's first Phase III clinical trial of sodium oxybate (JZP-6) for the treatment of fibromyalgia will be presented during the American College of Rheumatology 2009 Annual Meeting (ACR) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and also in November during the US Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress (US Psych Congress) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

15 Oct 2009

ACRO urges Congress to include clinical testing in biosimilars legislation

The Association of Clinical Research Organizations has called on Congress to ensure that any biosimilars legislation it passes requires clinical testing to ensure patient safety, efficacy, purity and potency. ACRO’s recommendations were included in a letter to the congressional committees with jurisdiction over health care policy.

15 Oct 2009

House bill would extend parents' coverage for young adults

In a new development in the House health bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has agreed to insert language allowing young adults to stay on their parents' insurance plan through the age of 26.

15 Oct 2009

Five research teams receive $2.4 million to help breast cancer survivors

A total of $2.4 million has been awarded to five research teams in the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance/Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Special Research Competition on Psychosocial Aspects of Breast Cancer.

15 Oct 2009