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House Appropriations Committee Approves FY13 State, Foreign Operations Spending Bill
May 18, 2012
The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved its FY 2013 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill (.pdf), which would provide $40.1 billion in regular discretionary funding and an additional $8.2 billion in funding for ongoing efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, The Hill's "On the Money" blog reports (Wasson, 5/17). Taken together, the bill would provide about $5 billion, or nine percent, less than FY 2012 funding levels, a committee press release notes (5/17). "The bill contains tough new limitations on aid," including cutting all funding for the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) and reinstating the Mexico City policy, also known as the "global gag rule," which prohibits foreign aid from going to any organization that performs abortions or provides information about or referral for the procedure as a method of family planning, according to The Hill.
Obama To Announce New Initiative Aimed At Boosting African Agriculture In Advance Of G8 Summit This Weekend
May 18, 2012
On Friday, President Barack Obama is expected to announce "new investments in African agriculture in a speech in Washington ... as a precursor to the weekend Group of Eight [G8] summit at Camp David, Maryland," Bloomberg Businessweek reports (Bjerga, 5/18). "The president is scheduled to speak to African leaders at a summit on food security Friday," VOA News writes, adding, "[The] new initiative is expected to target 50 million food-insecure people by boosting agricultural investments" (5/17). According to NPR's "Morning Edition," "The leaders of Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Ghana are among those in Washington to launch the new food security initiative, which [USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah] says will include several billion dollars in investments from private companies" (Kelemen, 5/18). "We are never going to end hunger in Africa without private investment," Shah said, the New York Times writes (Strom, 5/17).
Afghanistan Breaks Ground On $30M Hospital For Treatment Of TB, AIDS, Malaria
May 18, 2012
"Afghanistan has begun work on a $30 million hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis [TB], a disease that health officials say kills more than 10,000 Afghans every year," VOA's "Breaking News" blog reports. "The Japanese government is paying for the 80-bed center in the Afghan capital, which will also treat malaria and AIDS patients," the news service writes, noting, "Japan is the second-largest donor to Afghanistan, after the United States." VOA adds, "During Thursday's groundbreaking in Kabul, Afghan Health Minister Suraya Dalil said Afghanistan ranks in the top 20 worldwide for the most TB patients," and she noted the country has 2,000 centers nationwide that can diagnose and treat the disease (5/17).
PRI Examines Challenges Of Hospital's Charitable Legacy In Gabon
May 18, 2012
PRI's "The World" profiles Gabon's Albert Schweitzer Hospital, which "is struggling to achieve the goals of its founder while adapting to a new century and a different Africa." The story recaps the hospital's history and its board's recent efforts to address what one board member described as locals' "dependency" on historically European directors. However, Lachlan Forrow, a doctor at Harvard Medical School and Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the only American on the hospital's board, recently became president of the board, and he has worked to establish "a new relationship between locals and outsiders -- blacks and whites," PRI reports. Forrow "found an experienced Gabonese hospital administrator -- Antoine Nziengui --" who is now the Schweitzer Hospital director, an African "for the first time since the hospital was founded 99 years ago," the news service writes, adding that the hospital "still faces huge obstacles: a million-dollar budget deficit, antiquated facilities, a rising burden of HIV and tuberculosis" (Baron, 5/17).
Loss Of U.S. Funding For UNFPA 'Would Be Devastating' To Family Planning Services In Developing Countries
May 18, 2012
"By voting to ban any U.S. contribution to UNFPA" in the FY 2013 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill, the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday "made a judgment call that saving the lives of women and girls around the world is simply not a U.S. priority," Valerie DeFillipo, president of Friends of UNFPA, writes in a Huffington Post "Global Motherhood" opinion piece. She notes that "[c]ommittee members voted against amendments that would permit funding to UNFPA for preventing and treating obstetric fistula, ending female genital mutilation, and providing family planning services and contraceptive supplies in nine sub-Saharan African countries with high rates of poverty and maternal mortality where USAID does not provide family planning assistance."
PRI Examines Challenges Of Hospital's Charitable Legacy In Gabon
May 18, 2012
PRI's "The World" profiles Gabon's Albert Schweitzer Hospital, which "is struggling to achieve the goals of its founder while adapting to a new century and a different Africa." The story recaps the hospital's history and its board's recent efforts to address what one board member described as locals' "dependency" on historically European directors. However, Lachlan Forrow, a doctor at Harvard Medical School and Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the only American on the hospital's board, recently became president of the board, and he has worked to establish "a new relationship between locals and outsiders -- blacks and whites," PRI reports. Forrow "found an experienced Gabonese hospital administrator -- Antoine Nziengui --" who is now the Schweitzer Hospital director, an African "for the first time since the hospital was founded 99 years ago," the news service writes, adding that the hospital "still faces huge obstacles: a million-dollar budget deficit, antiquated facilities, a rising burden of HIV and tuberculosis" (Baron, 5/17).
MSF Report Criticizes Global Vaccine Action Plan
May 16, 2012
In a report (.pdf) released on Tuesday, the non-governmental organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, said a new $10 billion global vaccination plan "fails to address the 20 percent of babies -- some 19 million infants -- who never receive basic, life-saving shots," and that, "[r]ather than pushing for novel vaccines, the plan should focus more concretely on strategies to get existing vaccines to children," Nature's "News Blog" reports (Maxmen, 5/15). The "'Global Vaccine Action Plan' has been designed to implement the 'Decade of Vaccines' project and will be considered by health ministers gathering next week in Geneva for the 65th World Health Assembly," according to an MSF press release, which adds, "MSF welcomed the increased emphasis on vaccines stimulated by the 'Decade of Vaccines' but expressed concern that some key challenges are being glossed over" (5/15).
Improving Rural Health Care Systems Would Help Progress In Child Survival
May 11, 2012
In a post on USAID's "IMPACTblog," Jonathan Quick, president and CEO of Management Sciences for Health (MSH), discusses USAID's "Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday" campaign and several MSH programs working to improve child survival. He writes, "Expanding access to quality health care closer to the home will improve child survival in low-income countries. Training and certifying rural medicine dispensers at a national scale, and providing community-based care by community health workers, will help empower rural communities and improve the health of children in these resource-poor areas. Through these cost-effective, high-impact interventions closer to the home, we can accelerate the reduction in child mortality and save millions of lives" (5/10).
Increased Investment In Nurses Will Help Strengthen Health Systems Worldwide
May 9, 2012
"It is in poor countries and communities, where health needs are greatest and physicians are scarce, that nurses take an even greater role in health care delivery, often serving as the sole providers in rural villages or urban slums," Sheila Davis, director of global nursing at Partners In Health, writes in a Huffington Post "Impact Blog" opinion piece, noting this is International Nurses Week. "But although nurses deliver 90 percent of all health care services worldwide, they remain largely invisible at decision-making tables in national capitals and international agencies. Their absence constitutes a global health crisis," Davis continues.
VOA News Examines South Africa's Rural Public Health Sector
May 7, 2012
VOA News features a five-part series on South Africa's rural public health sector, which the news service writes is "plagued by a high burden of infectious diseases, severe doctor and nurse shortages, lack of medicines and essential medical equipment and incompetent management," resulting in high patient death rates. "Eighty percent of South Africa's population of about 50 million people depends on public health care," the news service notes. In the first part of the series, VOA writes that "international health care monitoring groups ... consistently rate South Africa's public health sector among the worst in the world," "despite the fact that the government gives more than 100 billion rand ($13.3 billion) every year to state health -- one of the biggest expenditures on such services in the developing world."
Nature Publishes First Of Two Controversial Studies On H5N1 Avian Flu
May 3, 2012
"In a long-awaited study that helped prompt a contentious debate over the wisdom of conducting research that has the potential to help as well as harm, scientists reported Wednesday that they had engineered a mutant strain of [H5N1] bird flu that can spread easily between ferrets -- a laboratory animal that responds to flu viruses much as people do," the Los Angeles Times (Brown, 5/3). Published in the journal Nature, the study is "the first of two controversial papers about laboratory-enhanced versions of the deadly bird flu virus that initially sparked fears among U.S. biosecurity experts that it could be used as a recipe for a bioterrorism weapon," Reuters writes (Steenhuysen, 5/2). The U.S. National Security Advisory Board on Biosecurity "had asked journals to hold off publishing" the studies, but "[t]he panel later dropped its objections after it became clear the engineered viruses were less virulent than had been feared," according to the Washington Post (Brown, 5/2).
Ghanaian Vaccination Campaign Hopes To Prevent Up To 14,000 Child Deaths
April 27, 2012
In a Huffington Post Blog opinion piece, Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), describes watching the suffering of an infant with severe pneumonia and his parents while in Ghana on Thursday, writing that the experience was "a personal reminder as to why our work to prevent disease is so perilous, and why disease control so promising in Africa." Noting that last year in Ghana, "approximately 50,000 young children -- nearly seven out of every 100 -- died before their fifth birthday," Levine adds, "I also saw the promise of prevention in Ghana," with the launch of an immunization campaign to provide both pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines. With support from the GAVI Alliance, Ghana is the first country in Africa to introduce two new vaccines against pneumonia and diarrhea at the same time," he notes.
U.S. Government Must Be Prepared To Handle Dual Use Research Of Concern
April 25, 2012
"This week, a Senate panel is investigating biological security in the wake of" controversial "potentially dangerous research" on H5N1 avian influenza, "with good reason," Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) writes in a Washington Times opinion piece. He says "the U.S. government should not have been caught by surprise" by the two research papers describing how genetic mutations to the virus could make it transmissible between ferrets, because the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) "was created in 2004 and charged with the specific responsibility of reviewing this type of research and offering guidance to all federal agencies that conduct biological research." Sensenbrenner says the NSABB's initial recommendation against publishing the studies and its subsequent reversal of that decision has left him with "suspicions that the U.S. government is woefully unprepared for dealing with dual use research of concern -- research that, while conducted for a legitimate scientific purpose, could be dangerous if misused."
Large Childhood Immunization Campaign Begins In Haiti, With Support From U.S., Other International Partners
April 17, 2012
Haiti, the U.S. and other international partners on Monday launched "a nationwide vaccination campaign in the Caribbean country that seeks to curb or prevent infectious diseases, health officials said," the Associated Press/Fox News reports. The campaign will include immunizations against measles, rubella and polio, as well as the pentavalent vaccine, which is effective against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type b, according to the news agency. Immunization rates are low in Haiti, with the WHO reporting slightly more than half of the population immunized for measles and polio, but the current campaign aims to vaccinate 90 percent of Haiti's youth population, according to Health Minister Florence Duperval Guillaume, the news agency notes.
Researchers, Experts Debate Publication Of H5N1 Research Amid Updated Studies
March 29, 2012
"As researchers from both sides of the debate over two controversial H5N1 studies weighed in [Tuesday] on full publication versus a more cautionary approach, two U.S. journals" -- the Journal of Infectious Diseases (JID) and its sister publication, Clinical Infectious Diseases -- "said they are developing policies to address any future such instances," CIDRAP News writes. "We are developing policies that address these issues on a case-by-case basis, so that freedom of scientific expression can be maintained without sacrificing individual safety or national security," JID Editor Martin Hirsch wrote in an editorial, the news service notes, adding, "He also introduced three new JID perspective pieces that discuss the difficult issues" (Schnirring, 3/28).
House Appropriations Committee Approves FY13 State, Foreign Operations Spending Bill
May 18, 2012
The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved its FY 2013 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill (.pdf), which would provide $40.1 billion in regular discretionary funding and an additional $8.2 billion in funding for ongoing efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, The Hill's "On the Money" blog reports (Wasson, 5/17). Taken together, the bill would provide about $5 billion, or nine percent, less than FY 2012 funding levels, a committee press release notes (5/17). "The bill contains tough new limitations on aid," including cutting all funding for the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) and reinstating the Mexico City policy, also known as the "global gag rule," which prohibits foreign aid from going to any organization that performs abortions or provides information about or referral for the procedure as a method of family planning, according to The Hill.
Blogs Address Food Security, African Agriculture In Anticipation Of High-Level Meetings In Washington
May 18, 2012
Several blogs recently have published posts in anticipation of a symposium on food security taking place in Washington on Friday, at which President Barack Obama is expected to speak, and the G8 summit at Camp David in Maryland on Friday and Saturday, both of which will focus on food security and agriculture in Africa.
Opinion Pieces, Editorial Published In Anticipation Of G8 Summit At Camp David
May 18, 2012
Below are summaries of two opinion pieces and an editorial published in anticipation of the G8 summit at Camp David in rural Maryland from May 18-19.
International Community Must Organize, Commit Financial Resources To Win War On Polio
May 18, 2012
In this editorial in the International Herald Tribune's "Express Tribune," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon examines the global push to eradicate polio, highlighting progress in the "world's war on polio" since it was declared nearly a quarter century ago but warning that "we are in danger of falling victim to our own success," as "the world is now populated by a generation which has either never been exposed to polio or has been inadequately vaccinated." However, "[w]ith a determined push, the international community can wipe out polio once and for all," Ban continues, adding, "To do so, ... it must organize and commit the required financial resources." Ban highlights two upcoming meetings -- the G8 summit at Camp David this week, and a meeting of World Health Assembly in Geneva the following week -- as opportunities for world leaders to push for polio eradication on the international agenda.
Obama To Announce New Initiative Aimed At Boosting African Agriculture In Advance Of G8 Summit This Weekend
May 18, 2012
On Friday, President Barack Obama is expected to announce "new investments in African agriculture in a speech in Washington ... as a precursor to the weekend Group of Eight [G8] summit at Camp David, Maryland," Bloomberg Businessweek reports (Bjerga, 5/18). "The president is scheduled to speak to African leaders at a summit on food security Friday," VOA News writes, adding, "[The] new initiative is expected to target 50 million food-insecure people by boosting agricultural investments" (5/17). According to NPR's "Morning Edition," "The leaders of Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Ghana are among those in Washington to launch the new food security initiative, which [USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah] says will include several billion dollars in investments from private companies" (Kelemen, 5/18). "We are never going to end hunger in Africa without private investment," Shah said, the New York Times writes (Strom, 5/17).
The right path: Choose trails for skill, activity, safety
May 14, 2012
Leslie Swearingen, 66, once hiked regularly but hasn’t gotten out much in recent years. Now, the Lawrence resident says she has a number of health problems and doctor’s orders to start exercising again. “I was thinking I could walk on a trail, and the scenery would be so nice,” Swearingen says. “It wouldn’t be the same as just plodding along the sidewalk.” However, like many potential trail users tempted by spring weather and fresh air, Swearingen wonders, “How safe is it?”
Expo on services for those with disabilities planned
April 6, 2012
Individuals with disabilities, their families and care givers will have a chance to gather information about service providers, organizations and support groups during the annual Community Resource Expo.
Clue could help predict heart attacks
March 22, 2012
Too often, people pass a cardiac checkup only to collapse with a heart attack days later. Now scientists have found a clue that one day may help doctors determine if a heart attack is imminent, in hopes of preventing it.
Statehouse Live: Kansas University law professor to help states fight Affordable Care Act before U.S. Supreme Court
March 19, 2012
Schmidt said the Affordable Care Act, which was passed by Democrats and signed into law by President Barack Obama, represented an "unprecedented federal power grab." Supporters say it provides a number of consumer protections and will increase the availability and affordability of health insurance.
Caregivers’ mental health may improve with short daily meditation
March 19, 2012
A yoga meditation program could reduce depression symptoms and boost mental health, a study finds, and that’s not all — it may also show benefits at the cellular level.
President’s Council on Fitness backs Wii, Kinect and other video games
May 15, 2012
We called it “the devil’s machine” in my house, and the Faustian bargain we struck over that first Nintendo 64 would have impressed Lucifer himself. We bought it for my son when he was perhaps 7; it provided countless hours of contentment for him and an equal measure of downtime for Mom and Dad.
The struggles of D.C. area yoga studios
May 8, 2012
The deal with yoga in Washington is getting kind of complicated.
If it’s a bargain you’re after, that’s not hard to find, especially with DC Yoga Week starting Sunday. Now in its seventh year, the event is eight days of free and $5 classes at 24 studios across the area. (This year, Maryland and Virginia studios are taking part, too.) And any other week, there’s a good chance folks can snag a Groupon or Living Social deal or similar discount on their downward-facing dogs.
Spin/yoga classes find balance of body and mind
May 1, 2012
It seems as though we are always struggling for balance in our lives. Work or play? Spend or save? Eat that doughnut or save those calories?
The same is true for our fitness regimens. Everyone from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to your physician wants you to mix cardiovascular workouts with strength training, stretching and balance drills. How do you fit it all in?
Alternative bachelorette parties: trapeze, ballet barre, ropes course and more
April 24, 2012
The morning after 25-year-old Nicki Bonebrake’s bachelorette party two weeks ago, she could barely get out of bed. The problem wasn’t that the Gaithersburg resident had stayed out all night with her friends — although she had. It was that her body was still dealing with the fact that she’d spent the previous morning learning the art of flying trapeze.
5 so-called health foods you should avoid
Feb. 28, 2012
Eating healthy can be harder than you think, thanks to an enterprising food industry that wants us to consume more than we need. That’s because our country’s agricultural system produces twice what most people require, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. This encourages creative marketing to unload the excess, much of it with minimal nutritional value. As a nutrition consultant, I know that words such as “low fat,” “high fiber,” “multigrain” and “natural” can fool even the most sophisticated customers into believing what they’re buying is healthful. So what can you do? First, make a habit of reading the ingredients list, not just the Nutrition Facts panel. And remember the following products worth resisting.
From Cubicles, Cry for Quiet Pierces Office Buzz
May 21, 2012
Research shows that more than half of office workers are dissatisfied with the level of “speech privacy” in their offices, and managers are hearing their complaints.
Well: Sleep Apnea Tied to Increased Cancer Risk
May 20, 2012
Two new studies associate a common disorder of sleep that causes pauses in breathing with a higher risk of cancer.
Well: Diabetes on the Rise Among Teenagers
May 21, 2012
A study found a sharp increase in the disease's prevalence among teens, adding to worries that diabetes may progress more rapidly in children than in adults.
Closing of Peninsula Hospital in Rockaway Raises Fears
May 21, 2012
State officials closed Peninsula Hospital Center in April, leaving St. John’s Episcopal Hospital and walk-in clinics to pick up the slack.
Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, Noted Psychiatrist, Apologizes for Study on Gay ‘Cure’
May 19, 2012
At the end of his career, Dr. Robert L. Spitzer has reached a painful conclusion: “I believe,” he wrote in a letter, “I owe the gay community an apology.”
Allscripts in skid mode as shares plunge, chairman ousted
April 27, 2012
It was no ordinary quarterly meeting Thursday for Allscripts. Its chairman Phil Pead was, by many accounts, forced out. Three board members apparently resigned in protest. And this morning, the EHR vendor's shares have plunged almost 43 percent to $9.15.
The company also reported that CFO Bill Davis would be exiting May 18 for another position outside the healthcare sector, leaving analysts downgrading the firm's stock from “buy” to “neutral.”
6 keys to the future of analytics and big data in healthcare
May 8, 2012
A recently released report by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation proves the value of big data is certainly something to take seriously.
Allscripts: Debacle or silver lining?
April 30, 2012
After what turned out to be a sea-changing Q1 earnings meeting April 26, which saw the ejection of its board chairman and three other board members reportedly quitting in protest, Allscripts on Monday moved quickly to begin to right the ship, with the announcement of a new chairman.
Top 6 tips for e-patients
May 4, 2012
Gone are the days when patients can afford to be passive about their healthcare, says Nancy Finn, author of the new book e-Patients Live Longer: The Complete Guide to Managing Health Care Using Technology.
IT seen as critical to population health
April 24, 2012
Managing population health requires new skill sets, new infrastructures and automation, according to new research from the Institute for Health Technology Transformation (iHT2).
The findings are from the Automating Population Health Research Project, which seeks to educate the healthcare industry on how best to apply technology in meeting the challenges of population health management.
Measuring the Success of Medical Homes: Recommendations from the PCMH Evaluators' Collaborative
May 18, 2012
There is an urgent need for rigorous data to strengthen the evidence base of the medical home model. In an effort to harness and share lessons from the many disparate medical home pilots and evaluations under way, The Commonwealth Fund established the Patient-Centered Medical Home Evaluators’ Collaborative in 2009.
Achieving Better Quality of Care for Low-Income Populations: The Roles of Health Insurance and the Medical Home in Reducing Health Inequities
May 16, 2012
A new analysis of the Commonwealth Fund 2010 Biennial Health Insurance Survey demonstrates that when low-income adults have both health insurance and a medical home, they are less likely to report cost-related access problems, more likely to be up-to-date with preventive screenings, and report greater satisfaction with the quality of their care.
Recommended Core Measures for Evaluating the Patient-Centered Medical Home: Cost, Utilization, and Clinical Quality
May 16, 2012
This Commonwealth Fund data brief describes how more than 70 researchers came together as part of the Patient-Centered Medical Home Evaluators’ Collaborative to identify a set of standardized measures to assess patient-centered medical homes.
The World Health Report 2008—Primary Healthcare: How Wide Is the Gap Between Its Agenda and Implementation in 12 High-Income Health Systems?
May 11, 2012
The authors of this Commonwealth Fund-supported study report on how the policy reforms set forth by the World Health Organization in 2008 are being implemented in 12 wealthy health systems.
Guidelines International Network: Toward International Standards for Clinical Practice Guidelines
May 11, 2012
The authors of this Commonwealth Fund-supported study identified some steps that can be taken by the Guidelines International Network to ensure that guideline development processes "are both rigorous and feasible even for modestly funded groups to implement."
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