Nutrition
"President Obama urged lawmakers Wednesday to work through partisan differences that are threatening health care legislation" at a White House meeting, the Associated Press reports. Members of both parties, who in recent days have been increasingly divided over issues like the prospect of a public insurance plan, were upbeat about the meeting, according to the AP: "A senior Republican who recently criticized Obama also sounded positive. "The president, I thought, was very flexible except on one thing, and that was getting it done," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "When the president is flexible on controversial things ... I think that that"s good news.""
Several newspapers had articles on major players in health care reform. Douglas W. Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, has "toiled for much of his career in the anonymous bowels of the nation"s economic superstructure," the Washington Post reports. But now, some lawmakers "think he holds the fate of public policy in his hands." After delivering a "skeptical analysis of a stimulus package intended to rescue the U.S. economy" and forecasting "bigger-than-expected losses from a $700 billion bailout of the U.S. financial system, Elmendorf now "faces the toughest task of his brief tenure: attaching a price to a monumental overhaul of the nation"s health-care system." Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has "publicly lectured Elmendorf, saying he has a moral duty to be "creative" and deliver the favorable budget estimates "we have to have" to win broad support." But Elmendorf says "his office will offer an objective analysis, "without regard to the political consequences."" Elmendorf told the Post that his office would provide the information, but the decision is in the hands of Congress. "CBO is not going to make or break health-care reform," he says.
A bill introduced Wednesday in the House would create an artificial joints database to root out bad practices and unnecessary surgeries, The New York Times reports. "The bill, co-sponsored by (Democrats) Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey and Lloyd Doggett of Texas, would establish a government-backed registry to track patients" results over time and help detect ineffective surgical practices and faulty devices. Patient registries, in areas like orthopedics, are expected to play an important role in "comparative effectiveness" reviews that the Obama administration hopes will help identify which medical procedures and products work best."
In a "portrayal that defied logic," George Tiller -- the Kansas abortion provider who was murdered last month -- has been depicted "on Web sites, TV and radio talk shows and in legislative hearings as the reckless "abortionist," willing to euthanize babies close to birth just so the mother could fit into a prom dress or attend a rock concert," Barbara Shelly, a member of the Kansas City Star editorial board, writes in a Star opinion piece. She asks, "Would someone in the third trimester of pregnancy travel to the heart of Kansas and pay a $6,000 fee just to fit into a size six party dress?" Shelly adds that the "overwhelming majority of the 250 to 300 women a year" that sought abortions from Tiller in the second and third trimesters had planned their pregnancies. She profiles a Missouri college professor, pregnant with twins, who traveled to Tiller"s clinic with her husband to obtain an abortion after an amniocentesis revealed that neither fetus would survive and that she faced potentially life-threatening complications if the pregnancy continued. Shelly writes that the woman and others like her went to Tiller "heartbroken and afraid, carrying fetuses with malfunctioning kidneys, missing organs and syndromes certain to cause death in the womb or soon after birth." A smaller number were survivors of rape and incest, including young girls, according to Shelly. The "prom queen who talked her way into a late-term abortion" is a "creation of Tiller"s enemies," Shelly writes, concluding that the "real people" affected by his death are the "thousands who wrote the notes that now serve as a memorial wall to a fallen physician. They are the ones who should define his memory" (Shelly, Kansas City Star, 6/9).
As GPs across the UK gathered in London for the Annual Conference of Local Medical Committees, Dr Dean Marshall, chairman of the BMA"s Scottish General Practitioners Committee, slammed the government for trying to strip GPs of funding and called for the profession to make decisions about general practice, not civil servants.
Dr. Damon T. Arnold, state public health director, announced a mosquito batch collected in St. Clair County has been confirmed as the first positive West Nile virus test results in southern Illinois this year.
Serum levels of the pro-inflammatory biomarkers myeloid-related protein (MRP) 8 and 14 are increased to a greater extent in patients with Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) during flare than in patients with Neonatal-Onset Multisystem Inflammatory Disease (NOMID) or patients with Muckle Wells Syndrome (MWS), according to the results of a new study presented today at PReS 2009, a joint congress with the 2009 Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Undertaking a supervised exercise programme can have beneficial effects on functional status and physical function, reduce the need for daily corticosteroid and anti-inflammatory intake and improve levels of depression and anxiety in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a new study presented at EULAR 2009, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Knockout of myostatin, a growth factor that limits muscle growth, can decrease body fat and promote resistance against developing atherosclerosis, or "hardening" of the arteries, according to a new study conducted in mice. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society"s 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
A team of researchers led by Amy G. Hise, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the Center for Global Health and Diseases, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, is the first to discover how the body fights off oral yeast infections caused by the most common human fungal pathogen, Candida.
Cardiovascular disease researchers at Tulane University are partnering with faculty at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, to establish the South American Center of Excellence in Cardiovascular Health. The center has received a five-year, $2.3 million dollar grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
A new study connects abnormalities of the "stress" hormone cortisol with symptoms of depression in obese children, and confirms that obesity and depression often occur together, even in children. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society"s 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee (PDAC) voted that Zyprexa(R) (olanzapine), an atypical antipsychotic, is effective and acceptably safe for the acute treatment of schizophrenia or manic or mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder in adolescents aged 13-17 years old. The panel supported the FDA and Lilly"s position that if Zyprexa is approved for the two indications, prescribers should consider other treatment options first for adolescent patients.
Kaiser Permanente"s presence this week at the National Childhood Obesity Conference in Los Angeles highlights the need for a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach to stop the health crisis caused by childhood obesity. More than 15 million children are obese or overweight in the United States, contributing to skyrocketing type 2 diabetes rates and more than $14 billion in health care expenses.
A new era in the National Health Service that builds on targets achieved and prioritises quality of care was set out by new Health Secretary Andy Burnham today.
The health of millions of people worldwide is at risk as a result of the financial crisis, says Dr Andrew Robertson, in an editorial published online in Emerging Health Threats Journal. The world economy is currently in the midst of the most significant recession since the 1930s. The crisis has proved devastating for national economies, and the effects on health care will be felt worldwide as health spending falls, unemployment rises, and international aid is cut.
The benefits of alcohol are all about moderation. Low to moderate drinking - especially of red wine - appears to reduce all causes of mortality, while too much drinking causes multiple organ damage. A mini-review of recent findings on red wine"s polyphenols, particularly one called resveratrol, will be published in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research; the review is also available at Early View.
As many as half of all men taking the antidepressant medication paroxetine (trade names Seroxat, Paxil) may have increased sperm DNA fragmentation -- a predictor of compromised fertility. Research led by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center also found that the changes are reversible with normal levels of sperm returning after discontinuation of the drug.
U.S. Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced legislation sponsored by the California Medical Association to eliminate one of the biggest barriers for seniors to get access to health care - low Medicare reimbursement rates in several counties.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting patients to the Class I recall of certain Medtronic Kappa and Sigma pacemakers. These devices may fail due to a separation of wires that connect the electronic circuit to other pacemaker components, such as the battery.
The approved Caldolor, the first injectable dosage form of the common pain medication ibuprofen, to treat pain and fever.
When a hospital"s emergency department is overcrowded with seriously sick and injured patients, it may "go on diversion," re-routing ambulances to other emergency departments. But the benefits of "diversion" are largely unproven. Often those emergency departments are just as crowded, and the greater distance to that other hospital can worsen the condition of some patients.
Help is available - and essential - for teenagers struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts.
NanoScan Imaging, LLC announced the publication of new data demonstrating the use of its investigational, radio-opaque contrast agent (N1177) to visualize vulnerable plaques that can cause heart attack or stroke using advanced, non-invasive and high-resolution computed tomography (CT) techniques. Results of the study were published in the current issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Nuclear Medicine (J Nucl Med. 2009 Jun;50(6):959-965).
Laboratory experiments have demonstrated the immunological effects of ginseng. Researchers writing in BioMed Central"s open access Journal of Translational Medicine have shown that the herb, much used in traditional Chinese and other Asian medicine, does have anti-inflammatory effects.
The research group of Dr. Frē©dē©ric Charron, a researcher at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montrē©al (IRCM), has made a discovery which could help treat spinal cord injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. This new finding has been published in the current issue of the prestigious scientific journal Neuron. Patricia T. Yam, Sē©bastien D. Langlois and Steves Morin, all at the IRCM, are listed as co-authors.
WASHINGTON D.C. - Most patients with acromegaly who are switched to the long-acting somatostatin analogue lanreotide (SomatulineR Depot) injection from initial treatment with octreotide cite a preference for lanreotide as their future therapy, according to data released here at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Endocrine Society (ENDO 09).
A retrospective analysis conducted by clinicians at Maricopa Integrated Health System (MIHS) found that a protocol of care using a standardized algorithm with advanced products reduced the prevalence of pressure ulcers by 90 percent, according to data presented this week at the 41st Annual Conference of the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses (WOCN) Society.(1)
In light of the World Health Organization raising its pandemic flu alert to the top phase of its six-phase scale, Aon Corporation (NYSE: AOC) today issued the following statement by Gisele Norris, DrPH, national director of Aon Healthcare"s alternative risk practice:
Newborn babies have immature immune systems, making them highly vulnerable to severe infections and unable to mount an effective immune response to most vaccines, thereby frustrating efforts to protect them. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 2 million newborns and infants less than 6 months of age die each year due to infection. Researchers at Children"s Hospital Boston believe they have found a way to enhance the immune system at birth and boost newborns" vaccine responses, making infections like respiratory syncytial virus, pneumococcus and rotavirus much less of a threat.
Dartmouth Medical School geneticists have made new inroads into understanding the regulatory circuitry of the biological clock that synchronizes the ebb and flow of daily activities, according to two studies published May 15.
Since 2000, U.S. infants have been routinely immunized against pneumococcal (Streptococcus pneumoniae) infection, but the existing vaccine"s expense puts it out of reach for most developing countries, where almost one million children die from pneumococcal infections each year. Richard Malley, MD, of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children"s Hospital Boston, is at work on a pneumococcal vaccine that meets developing countries" needs it can be made cheaply, withstands high temperatures without refrigeration, and can be given without needles, avoiding the need for sterile procedures and medical professionals to administer it. Also, because it is a whole-cell vaccine, it should provide protection against virtually all of the 91 pneumococcal serotypes that infect people worldwide. (The U.S. vaccine covers only seven.)
UroToday.com - Nephron-sparing surgery has become the well-accepted method for treating patients with localized tumor disease of the kidney. Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) has evolved such that it is considered equivalent to open partial nephrectomy for tumors 4 cm. They had 110 patients with Stage T1b-T3N0M0 renal cell carcinoma treated with LRN (N=75) or LPN (N=35). As expected the LRN group had larger tumors and more T3a tumors with clear cell pathologic features. The median follow up was 57 months in the LRN group and 44 months in the LPN group. There was no difference between the two treatment groups with regards to overall mortality, cancer-specific mortality, or recurrence rates. However, the LPN group had significantly less reduction in estimated glomerular filtration rate compared to the LRN group. None of the LPN group patients developed second stage chronic kidney disease compared to 12% in the LRN group.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have discovered how the mutated huntingtin gene acts on the nervous system to create the devastation of Huntington"s disease. The report of their findings is available in Nature Neuroscience online.
A new PTB measuring system offers the possibility of measuring the absorbed dose in the direct environment of the irradiated tumour
Thousands of people with Alzheimer"s will continue to be denied access to the only drug treatments for the disease following the publication of revised guidance by the NICE.
The National Asthma Council Australia is urging the two million Australians with asthma to remain extremely vigilant and seek an immediate lung function check from their GP following new data from the US which confirms people with an underlying medical condition are at highest risk of complications from swine flu - with more than 40 percent of people in New York hospitalised from swine flu having asthma1.
The British Psychological Society has today welcomed the announcement by the Health Professions Council (HPC) to set high entry level qualifications for psychologists to be admitted to the forthcoming statutory register of Practitioner Psychologists.
Automated phone calling may help physicians solve a perennial problem: patients who don"t take medicine prescribed for chronic health conditions.
Genzyme Corporation (Nasdaq: GENZ) announced that the European Commission has approved Renvela(R) (sevelamer carbonate) for the control of serum phosphorus in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The approval includes patients not on dialysis with serum phosphorus levels greater than or equal to 1.78 mmol/L (5.5 mg/dL), and covers both the tablet and powder formulations.
It"s not just humans that suffer from obesity - vets say that emerging obesity problems in dogs are leading to shorter lives and reduced quality of life.
Data presented at the 19th Scientific Meeting of the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) confirm that Diovan® (valsartan) and valsartan-based combinations deliver sustained, 24-hr blood pressure (BP)-lowering efficacy2-6.
Several African countries have successfully scaled up their HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs, U.N. Special Envoy for HIV and AIDS in Africa Elizabeth Mataka said during a media briefing at the World Economic Forum on Africa being held in Cape Town, South Africa, the ZANIS/Lusaka Times reports. Zambia and Botswana were among some of the countries that have made significant progress in southern Africa, according to Mataka.
Future Studies Needed To Determine If "Test And Treat" Approach Could "End HIV Pandemic Within 50 Years," Researchers Say
Twenty-two people in the adult film industry have tested positive for HIV in the last five years in Los Angeles County, according to a new report released on Thursday by county health officials, the Los Angeles Times reports. Officials were prompted to release the report after an adult film star last week tested positive for HIV. An outbreak occurred in 2004, in which at least five people tested positive for HIV, and caused the industry to shut down for one month. The cases in 2004 prompted a series of public hearings over the years that sought to require the industry to adopt safer practices, but no legislation was introduced. "The report ņ¦ is bringing renewed scrutiny to the estimated $12-billion-a-year industry"s long history of resisting regulation and condom use," according to the Times. Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said, "This industry screams for regulation," adding that the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health "needs to require that condoms be used in any film." Sharon Mitchell, co-founder of the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, the clinic which tests people in the adult film industry for sexually transmitted infections, said the clinic promotes HIV prevention and testing, but added "we are not the police department of the industry nor wish to be" (Yoshino/Rong-Gong, Los Angeles Times, 6/12).
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) announced that it is moving forward with its original plan to host an educational, team-building program by the Pike Place Fish Market"s world-renowned fishmongers at its annual convention, which will be held in Seattle, Wash., July 11-July 14.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has learned that some stolen vials of the long-acting insulin Levemir made by Novo Nordisk Inc. have reappeared and are being sold in the U.S. market. Three lots or a total of 129,000 vials of this product were stolen in all. These stolen insulin vials may not have been stored and handled properly and may be dangerous for patients to use.
Australian and New Zealand researchers have accelerated research into Multiple Sclerosis by discovering two new locations of genes which will help to unravel the causes of MS and other autoimmune disease.
Data presented today at the 19th Scientific Meeting of the European Society of Hypertension, Milan, Italy has demonstrated that treatment with an investigational combination of telmisartan (an angiotensin receptor blocker [ARB]) and amlodipine (a calcium-channel blocker [CCB]) shows substantial and sustained 24-hour blood pressure (BP) lowering and is well-tolerated in a range of patients with hypertension at risk of cardiovascular (CV) events. This includes patients with Type 2 diabetes, obese patients, the elderly, black patients and those not controlled by amlodipine alone.1-8
It"s happy hour for Texas wineries.
Individuals diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in lower gross domestic product (GDP) countries (GDP below $11,000) are more likely to continue working despite higher disease activity and functional disability scores compared to their counterparts in higher GDP countries (GDP >$24,000) according to a new multinational study presented today at EULAR 2009, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Diabetes UK is looking for people with Type 2 diabetes to answer a quick and easy online survey about your experiences of hypoglycaemia ("hypos").
A person whose hand function has been affected by a stroke can release an object more quickly when the affected arm is supported on a platform, but the support does not make it easier to grip the object, according to a new study. The study also found that active muscle-stretching exercises improved how quickly the stroke survivor could grip an object, but made release of the object more difficult. These findings show how a stroke affects hand function, and provide a roadmap for rehabilitation.
UroToday.com - Over the past decade, the most significant advance, in my mind, with regard to the treatment of the distal ureteral stone, has been the advent of medical expulsive therapy as described by Porpiglia and colleagues in 2000, and corroborated by many subsequent studies. Savings with this approach, according to work by Lotan and colleagues, is around $1100/patient in addition to the benefits of decreased renal colic. Stone passage rates increase anywhere from 40-100% of controls within 10 days of starting medical expulsive therapy. While a variety of medications have been used (e.g. alpha blockers, steroids, calcium channel blockers), the alpha blockers (i.e. tamsulosin and alfuzosin) appear to be effective and well tolerated.
Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) have identified a key mechanism that causes chromosomes within blood cells to break - an occurrence that marks the first step in the development of human lymphoma.
NECT (Nifurtimox-Eflornithine Combination Therapy), a new treatment option against sleeping sickness, a fatal disease which threatens 60 million people across sub-Saharan Africa, has been added to the Essential Medicines List (EML) of the World Health Organization (WHO) based on the application submitted by the non-profit Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and supported by Epicentre and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
QLT Inc. (NASDAQ: QLTI; TSX: QLT) announced that twelve-month primary analysis results from the Novartis sponsored Phase II MONT BLANC study were presented on June 14, 2009 during the 17th Congress of the European Society of Ophthalmology in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. MONT BLANC is the European study of the Novartis sponsored SUMMIT clinical trial program which investigates the efficacy and safety of combining Visudyne(R) (Novartis Pharma AG) and Lucentis(R) (Novartis Pharma AG, Genentech Inc.). SUMMIT also includes the DENALI study in the US and Canada and the EVEREST study in Asia. MONT BLANC is a 24-month randomized, double-masked, multicenter trial in patients with subfoveal choroidal neovascularization secondary to age-related macular degeneration. The purpose of the study is to evaluate whether Visudyne combined with Lucentis is not inferior to Lucentis monotherapy with respect to the mean change from baseline in visual acuity (VA) and to evaluate the proportion of patients with a treatment-free interval of at least three months duration after Month 2. At the Month 12 examination, mean VA in the Visudyne combination therapy group improved 2.5 letters from baseline compared with a 4.4 letter improvement in the Lucentis monotherapy group. In the combination therapy group, 96% of patients had a three-month treatment-free interval, compared with 92% in the Lucentis monotherapy group.
If hip resurfacing is an option, the surgeon will simply reshape the damaged surface of the femoral ball and then cover it with a round metal cap. The limitation here is that the procedure only works for bone that is not too damaged by arthritis. Generally speaking, surface replacements are not performed on patients with serious arthritic conditions, because if the bone is not strong enough, there is a small but real risk of fracturing. Therefore the average age of resurfacing patients may be 50 years or younger. Statistically, the resurfacing operation is an option for about 7 out of a 100 patients.
The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, announced the approval of a new of Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) for Canada.
"With Republicans fighting the idea of a government-run health insurance plan, members of President Barack Obama"s team said Sunday that they are open to a compromise: a cooperative program that would expand coverage with taxpayer money but without direct governmental control," the Associated Press reports. The non-profit, health insurance cooperatives were suggested in Congress by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the concession could be a path to bipartisan health reform legislation (Elliott, 6/15).
Several reports today focus on inadequate health care for certain population groups within the United States.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a non-profit professional organization of
Twenty-nine students arrived at Indiana University School of Medicine"s Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research to work a 10-week summer internship alongside top pediatric researchers. More than 250 applicants vied for the treasured research spots. Most of the candidates come from Indiana universities.
Today, the Israeli medtech startup company CLT Ltd. announced the establishment of Closed Loop Therapies (CLT) BV - a joint venture between Erasmus University Medical Centre (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), a highly prominent medical institute in Europe, and CLT Israel. The joint venture aims to develop and commercialise a novel therapeutic system, consisting of an arrhythmia-detecting drug pump combined with a unique drug, for automatic and immediate treatment of emerging atrial fibrillation (AF). Market size is estimated at 2.5-3 billion Euro, annually.
University of California, Berkeley, researchers have found what they think is a critical and, until now, missing piece of the puzzle about how stress causes sexual dysfunction and infertility.
The American Medical Association warmly welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama to its 158th annual meeting in Chicago. Like the president, the AMA is committed to health reform this year that provides all Americans with affordable, high-quality health coverage.
Responding to the World Health Organisation"s recent confirmation of swine flu as a pandemic, BMJ Learning, the medical education arm of the BMJ Group, has updated and revised its guide "Influenza pandemics: why, what, and how to prepare" which covers all the information doctors need to know about pandemic flu including details of the epidemiological features and a description of the viruses involved.
Henry Ford Health System, one of the nation"s top rated health systems and recognized visionaries in offering quality care, formally announced its adoption of Healthy Interactions U.S. Diabetes Conversation Map® education program in its diabetes education curriculum, proclaiming them to demonstrate increased effectiveness in helping patients with diabetes live with their condition. The five Conversation Map tools, which were developed in collaboration with the American Diabetes Association and sponsored by Merck & Co., are based around large colorful 5 ft by 3 ft discussion displays.
New data presented showed that pitavastatin is an effective treatment for the management of dyslipidemia in elderly patients, with a similar safety and tolerability profile to low-dose pravastatin. The Phase III data were presented by Kowa, at the XV International Symposium on Atherosclerosis in Boston.
CeNeRx BioPharma, Inc., a clinical stage company developing and commercializing innovative treatments for diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), announced that it has obtained the rights to develop and market a novel agent for the prevention and treatment of neuropathies and neurodegenerative disorders. The drug candidate, CXB909, is a small molecule, orally active agent that enhances the effects of nerve growth factor (NGF). CeNeRx intends to initiate a Phase l trial of CXB909 for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) later this year.
President Barack Obama told the American Medical Association Monday that a health care fix can"t wait, The New York Times reports. ""The public option is not your enemy," Mr. Obama said. "It is your friend, I believe." Saying it would "keep the insurance companies honest," the president dismissed as "illegitimate" the claims of critics that a public insurance option amounts to "a Trojan horse for a single-payer system" run by the government. Mr. Obama twice referred to the use of such "fear tactics" about "socialized medicine" in past legislative battles, without pointing out that the A.M.A., a traditionally Republican-leaning group, was among those using the charge, as in the mid-1960s debate over creating Medicare for people 65 and older"
A group of "major health agencies" from Australia, Canada, China, the U.K. and the U.S., which "together control 80 percent of the world"s public health-research funding," have joined together to form the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) to combat chronic diseases in developing countries, Time reports (Walsh, Time, 6/16).
VOA News examines the 2009 HIV/AIDS Implementers Meeting in Windhoek, Namibia, which recently brought together 1,500 people from 55 countries to compare notes on HIV/AIDS programs around the world. The article features comments by Assistant U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Michele Moloney-Kitts who attended and shared some of her experiences from the meeting.
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries. ~ "Report: Higher Rates of Unintended Pregnancy, Abortion Among Women of Color," Sharon Camp, RH Reality Check: A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation on health disparities between white women and women of color "provides further stronger evidence debunking claims" from antiabortion-rights advocates who "have long argued that high abortion rates among minorities are the result of supposed aggressive marketing by abortion providers to minority communities," Camp, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, writes. In addition to identifying disparities in conditions like heart disease and cancer, the report documents "widespread disparities in access to health insurance and health screenings" and explores growing evidence of the association between social factors and health behaviors, access and outcomes, according to Camp. She continues that research from Guttmacher has consistently demonstrated that "rates among racial and ethnic minorities -- especially blacks and Hispanics -- are directly linked to their higher rates of unintended pregnancy, which in turn reflect pervasive health disparities more generally." Camp writes that the "fundamental question policymakers should be asking is not why women of color have high abortion rates, but rather what can be done to help them have fewer unintended pregnancies and achieve better health outcomes more generally," such as improved access to affordable contraception. Women"s dissatisfaction with health care providers, quality of service and the contraceptive methods themselves also are factors in contraceptive use, as are "[u]nstable life situations," which can make consistent use a low priority for some women, according to Camp. She writes, "By continuing to label abortion providers as "racists" and refusing to support expanded access to contraceptive services, antiabortion-rights activists are by no means part of the solution -- to high rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion among racial and ethnic minorities or to persistent and tragic disparities in health care generally" (Camp, RH Reality Check, 6/15).~ "What"s Next for Women"s Legal Rights in the Supreme Court?" Amy Matsui, Womenstake: Matsui, senior counsel for the National Women"s Law Center, examines several women"s rights issues "that we see peeking around the corner" of the next Supreme Court session. Matsui writes that "increasingly draconian abortion restrictions have begun to work their way through state legislatures." These restrictions include giving personhood rights to fetuses, mandates on the information women are given prior to abortion procedures and "outright abortion bans," she writes. Challenges to laws that expand protections for providers who deny health care services also "are likely to come before the courts," Matsui writes. Challenges to health care reform proposals also are likely, "specifically, the interaction of the federal statute that governs employee health care and pension plans ... and any new requirements for employers to provide health care coverage," according to Matsui. The Supreme Court has "obviously considered the underlying legal doctrines in these cases (the constitutional right to privacy, federal anti-discrimination statutes, Equal Protection guarantees and federal benefits statutes) in the past; some might say that there is a clear roadmap of where the Court should go in some of these cases," Matsui writes, concluding, "But when every vote counts on the Supreme Court, women should be watching what cases come next" (Matsui, Womenstake, 6/12).~ "Antiabortion Groups" Case Against Sotomayor," Dan Gilgoff, U.S. News & World Report"s "God and Country": "With no clear evidence for a pro-abortion-rights position in her judicial decisions, antiabortion groups" case against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor can be summed up in eight words: the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund," Gilgoff writes. From 1980 to 1992, Sotomayor sat on the l
The General Optical Council (GOC) has launched an open consultation on its five-year strategy. Registrants, patients and the public, and partner organisations are encouraged to have their say on the GOC"s role and work priorities for 2010-2015.
A list of more than 200 indicators of high quality care in the NHS is being published for the first time to help clinicians drive up the quality of care they deliver to patients, the Department of Health and The NHS Information Centre announced today.
Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes. The tumors are generally found in the skin, but may also appear in the bowel and the eye (uveal melanoma). Melanoma is a type of skin cancer - one of the rarer types - but the cause of most skin cancer related deaths. Malignant melanoma is caused by an uncontrolled growth of skin pigment cells (melancytes). The word "melanoma" comes from the Ancient Greek melas meaning "black", and the Ancient Greek oma meaning "disease, morbidity".
Three-dimensional, real-time X-ray images of patients could be closer to reality because of research recently completed by scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a pair of Russian institutes.
ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX:CXS) (NASDAQ:CXSP) announced that updated clinical data from the registration-directed clinical trial of omacetaxine will be presented as an oral presentation at the forthcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 45th Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
Using an opioid drug to induce a hibernatory state in rats reduces the damage caused by an artificial stroke. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology have shown that those animals put into the chemical fugue suffered less behavioral dysfunctions after a period of cerebral artery blockage than control rats.
A coalition of organizations representing healthcare stakeholders throughout Greater Boston has been selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to participate in a planning grant to become part of the Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) initiative. AF4Q is the Foundation"s signature effort to lift the overall quality of healthcare in targeted communities, reduce racial and ethnic disparities, and provide models for national reform.
Two new studies published by neurologists at Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital demonstrate a need for more vigilant monitoring for seizure activity among intensive care patients who may be experiencing subtle seizures that are typically unrecognized. These subtle seizures may be affecting patients" prognoses and causing long-term brain damage, death and severe disability.
HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) Cymru is reminding visitors to Swansea Pride (Saturday 27th June) not to put their sexual health at risk by getting carried away with the party mood.
BioElectronics Corp. (PINKSHEETS: BIEL), the maker of inexpensive, disposable drug-free anti-inflammatory devices, announced its sponsorship of a groundbreaking clinical study on musculoskeletal disorders. The randomized, double blinded and placebo-controlled study will be supervised by a primary investigator, Sheena Kong, MD of San Francisco, California in conjunction with several other leading physicians.
The Obama administration has called for $200 billion in cuts for hospital reimbursements in an effort to overhaul the health care system. Federal funding under the reimbursement system known as "disproportionate share payments" is provided to hospitals in large part to help meet the cost of caring for the uninsured. Administration officials argue that as the number of uninsured decrease, reimbursements should also fall. However, hospital leaders and staff worry about such cuts as well as calls for a government-run insurance plan to compete with private plans.
A group of people living with HIV/AIDS in Madison, Wis., demonstrated in front of the state Department of Health Services to protest what they claim to be inadequate services provided by the AIDS Network and lack of oversight from the state, WISCTV.com reports. State officials conducted a formal review of the nonprofit regarding how the AIDS Network dispersed and tracked services to its clients, and issued the nonprofit 38 directives for corrective action as a result. To date, nearly one-third of the directives have not been fully addressed, according to WISCTV.com. State officials said it will verify compliance on remaining issues in August. AIDS Network Director Karen Dotson said most of the organization"s problems are due to issues related to a new computer system (WISCTV.com, 6/16).
The French government has awarded Baylor Health Care System with an $8 million grant to develop a therapeutic method of controlling HIV without medication, the Dallas Morning News reports. The funds will go toward establishing an HIV research unit at Baylor"s Institute of Immunology Research, which will focus on researching the immune system cells of people living with HIV (Roberson, Dallas Morning News, 6/17).
CNN examines the increasing numbers of health workers using cell phone technology to monitor diseases in the developing world. The article features EpiSurveyor - "a free, open- application designed for personal digital assistants" that can be downloaded onto cell phones, so that officials can "gather data directly from the site of the outbreak and send it electronically back to headquarters for faster analysis," CNN writes.
A recent local study shows a new approach to treating bunions could save up to 400 million dollars a year.
For most parents, soothing a child"s anxiety is just part of the job. But for a parent whose child has obsessive-compulsive disorder, soothing anxiety and helping with behaviors linked to the disease could lead to more severe symptoms, University of Florida researchers say.
The world"s first virtual heart has been developed to improve teaching of peri-operative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) skills in the care of patients with heart disease. HeartWorks, a uniquely realistic computer-generated model of the heart and echocardiography simulator, is the result of a 4 year project driven by a team of three London-based cardiac anaesthesiologists. Recognising the power of education through simulation and its increasingly widespread adoption throughout clinical practice, the team is spearheading a pathway change in education in one of the most interesting and challenging areas of cardiac care. Now in production by Inventive Medical, a subsidiary of UCLH Charity London, HeartWorks is set to dramatically transform TEE training by university teaching hospitals worldwide.
A new model for the funding of long-term care for older people is needed in the UK, delegates at the Actuarial Profession"s Health and Care Conference in Glasgow heard today.
BOSTON - Favorable 12-month outcomes are maintained through 30 months of follow-up when renal transplant patients are converted from a cyclosporine (CsA)-based regimen to a sirolimus (SRL)-based regimen three months post-transplant, according to results of the CONCEPT study announced here at the American Transplant Congress (ATC) 2009.
Our ability to withstand stress-related, inflammatory diseases may be associated, not just with our race and sex, but with our personality as well, according to a study published in the July issue of the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity. Especially in aging women, low levels of the personality trait extraversion may signal that blood levels of a key inflammatory molecule have crossed over a threshold linked to a doubling of risk of death within five years.
A new National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) assay using a "glow or no glow" technique may soon help the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defend the nation against a spectrum of biological weapons that could be used in a terrorist attack. One very dangerous toxin on the list is ricin, a protein derived from castor beans that is lethal in doses as small as 500 micrograms - about the size of a grain of salt.