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Also in Global Health News: Undernutrition in Afghanistan; Namibia's HIV clinics, outreach programs

A Lancet World Report examines the deadly toll undernutrition is having on the people of Afghanistan, where the "issues of poverty and undernutrition have received curiously little attention: about a third of the population, more than 7 million people, are food insecure, according the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP).

2 Nov 2009

Individual, employer mandates prove thorny topics for lawmakers

When President Clinton proposed requiring all Americans to buy insurance in the early 1990s, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office called it "an unprecedented form of federal action," adding that "[t]he government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States," the Los Angeles Times reports.

2 Nov 2009

AllOne Health partners with Connectyx Technologies Holdings to provide health information on the Web

AllOne Health(SM) and Connectyx Technologies Holdings Group, Inc. (Pink Sheets: CTYX) today announced a partnership that will allow consumers to view and manage health information on the Web, via portable USB storage devices and through their mobile phones, with one, secure step. A package including both companies' products will be sold in retail stores across the U.S. in December.

2 Nov 2009

John C. Lincoln Hospital first to use commercially-available LungPoint system

Broncus Technologies, Inc., a medical device company focused on developing minimally-invasive innovations for lung diseases, announced today at the American College of Chest Physicians CHEST 2009 meeting that John C. Lincoln Hospital in Phoenix is the first hospital in the U.S. to use the commercially-available LungPoint system.

2 Nov 2009

McCain's health care adviser is losing his own coverage

Sen. John McCain's top health care adviser in the presidential campaign is about to lose his health care coverage, providing a face to a common dilemma.

2 Nov 2009

Insurers, other interest groups prepare for final health reform votes

Insurance companies are arguing that the health reform legislation progressing in Congress would increase premium costs for many Americans. Meanwhile, some of the coalitions have begun to splinter.

2 Nov 2009

A return to the doctor's house call may aid health care reform

Dr. Peter Boling provides house calls for some of Richmond's oldest and sickest patients as a geriatrician and head of general medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. The Associated Press/Richmond Times Dispatch reports that "he is on a mission: To convince Congress that the old-fashioned house call could be a fresh answer to the modern-day health care reform dilemma.

2 Nov 2009

A look at faculty health

On average, research shows, the United States loses the equivalent of at least one entire medical school class each year to suicide1 - as many as 400 physicians. The book Faculty Health in Academic Medicine: Scientists, Physicians, and the Pressures of Success (Humana Press/Springer), by faculty at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and other national medical experts, breaks new ground in a first-of-its-kind look at faculty health.

2 Nov 2009

Today's opinions and editorials

When conservatives scream about socialized medicine and death panels, you should tune them out. But lately conservatives have been making an argument you should hear. It's about whether we can believe Congress when it promises to raise taxes or cut spending--and, as such, whether we can believe that health care reform can actually be fiscally responsible (Jonathan Cohn, 11/2).

2 Nov 2009

Heart, cancer doctors get break on scheduled Medicare pay cuts

Heart and cancer doctors will get a smaller fee cut next year from Medicare, the U.S. government program for the elderly, than the Obama administration first sought in a move to shift money to family physicians," Bloomberg reports. Earlier this year, Medicare officials said they would cut 10 percent of payments for the two specialties. Now, they plan on making the reductions over four years, instead.

2 Nov 2009

CBO: Few Americans would sign up for public health insurance plan

The New York Times: "More and more, the Great Health Care Debate of 2009 is a numbers game. And the longer the debate goes on, the squishier the numbers seem to get. For months, many leading Democrats, including President Obama, have pushed for the creation of a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers. A main argument was that a public plan would save people money. It would not be under pressure to earn profits, pay high private-sector salaries or deny needed care."

2 Nov 2009

Health Dialog's initiative to build a health center in rural Ecuador

Building on its commitment to improving health globally, Health Dialog is participating in a volunteer initiative to build a vital health center in the small town of Miraflores, Ecuador, where a doctor visits only six times a year because of the remote location.

2 Nov 2009

Obama's health reform political maneuvers may prove successful

"After months of plodding work by five Congressional committees and weeks of back-room bargaining by Democratic leaders, President Obama's arms-length strategy on health care appears to be paying dividends, with the House and the Senate poised to take up legislation to insure nearly all Americans," The New York Times reports.

2 Nov 2009

States will implement many health reform initiatives

"The debate over whether to let states opt out of any government-run health insurance plan overlooks a key facet of the health-care measures being assembled in Congress: When Washington is done, the shape of any new health-care system is likely to be finalized in Lansing and Boise and Baton Rouge," The Washington Post reports.

2 Nov 2009

Results of review by Marwood Group Advisory released by Amedisys

Amedisys, Inc., one of America's leading home health and hospice nursing companies, today released the results of a review conducted by Marwood Group Advisory, LLC (Marwood). Several months ago Amedisys engaged Marwood, one of the nation’s preeminent health care consulting firms, to provide an independent analysis of the Company’s procedures, controls, clinical infrastructure, corporate compliance processes, technology offerings and future strategies.

2 Nov 2009

Poor managerial leadership linked with the amont of sick leave taken at workplace

Perceived poor managerial leadership increases not only the amount of sick leave taken at a workplace, but also the risk of sickness amongst employees later on in life. The longer a person has had a "poorer" manager, the higher his or her risk of for example suffering a heart attack within a ten-year period, according to a new thesis from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet.

2 Nov 2009

Arrayit Corporation joins federal government in their efforts to help control health care costs

Arrayit Corporation is pleased to join the federal government in their efforts to help control health care costs by leveraging Arrayit's leading edge health care platform.

2 Nov 2009

New on-line job resource center launched by NAWC

The National Alliance of Wound Care (NAWC(®)), the largest, multi-disciplinary, wound care credentialing and association organization, announced today, the launch of their wound care specialty on-line Job Resource Center in conjunction with their newly redesigned website at, www.nawccb.org.

2 Nov 2009

Historic agreement sets national standard for containing the spread of H1N1

In a dramatic settlement seen as a novel pattern for the nation, the nation's largest nurses union and professional association, and one of the country's biggest hospital systems today announced a landmark agreement that sets a national standard on containing the spread of pandemics such as H1N1 "swine flu."

2 Nov 2009

First Edition: November 2, 2009

Today's headlines feature insights into President Obama's behind-the-scenes role in advancing the Democrats' health overhaul efforts in Congress, plus more analysis of the public insurance option.

2 Nov 2009