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G20 countries could tax foreign exchange to help achieve U.N. MDGs, opinion piece says

The G20 countries "could help both the poor and the global economy by fully financing lagging efforts to fight poverty and disease worldwide, and the best way to do this would be to impose a very small tax on the prosperous foreign exchange industry," Philippe Douste-Blazy, a former French foreign minister who is a special adviser to the U.N. secretary general on innovative financing, writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

25 Sep 2009

Adaptive Eyewear's endeavors to build vision infrastructure in Rwanda

Adaptive Eyewear, a UK-based not-for-profit organisation which aims to provide vision correction solutions to people in the developing world, was recognized yesterday at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Fifth Annual Meeting for its exemplary approach to address the significant shortage of eye care specialists and lack of vision infrastructure in Rwanda. Adaptive Eyewear's commitment to the people of Rwanda was announced at the session "Driving Disruptive Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid" on Wednesday 23rd September at 2:45pm.

25 Sep 2009

Senior chemist receives nation's highest award for achievement in science

Joanna Fowler, a senior chemist and Director of the Radiotracer Chemistry, Instrumentation and Biological Imaging Program at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, will be awarded the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony on October 7. She is one of nine researchers named by President Barack Obama to receive the nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in science.

25 Sep 2009

Students live with elder residents as part of the Learning by Living project

A geriatric training method pioneered by Marilyn R. Gugliucci, PhD, president of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (the educational branch of The Gerontological Society of America) has proved successful enough that she plans to implement it on a national level.

25 Sep 2009

PACTR: The first WHO endorsed trials registry in Africa

The Pan-African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR) has been accepted as a primary clinical trials registry - the first World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed trials registry in Africa. This registry will feed data into the global WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) search portal facilitating African representation in the global picture of planned, ongoing and completed clinical trials. The Registry is currently funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) and coordinated by the South African Cochrane Centre (SACC) at the Medical Research Council (MRC).

25 Sep 2009

Kerry, Lugar letter calls for Obama to appoint USAID leader quickly

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and the ranking Republican Senator Richard Lugar, R-Ind., have sent a letter to President Barack Obama "urging" him to nominate a candidate - who has already been screened - for the vacant USAID administrator position "as quickly as possible," CQ reports. According to the senators, the "leadership vacuum" is impeding USAID's efforts in foreign, development and humanitarian aid, and it is the "last major agency in the U.S. government to remain unfilled," CQ writes.

25 Sep 2009

Also in global health news: Urban malnutrition in CAR; U.S. HIV travel ban; East Africa hunger

"The global financial crisis has led to an alarming rate of urban malnutrition in the south of the Central African Republic, where diamond mines have closed as demand for the gems falls, the medical relief group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says," Reuters AlertNet reports (Fominyen, 9/24). In a related blog post, Reuters AlertNet writes that aid agencies are warning that without additional support from donors, the Central African Republic could "start sliding backwards after three years of progress at a time when humanitarian assistance was raised" (Fominyen [2], 9/24).

25 Sep 2009

FDA urged to prohibit menthol in tobacco products

Today the American Legacy Foundation(R) (Legacy) urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prohibit menthol in cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products as one of its first priorities related to the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (the Act).

25 Sep 2009

Prevalence of recidivistic acts of violence high among offenders

In the future, diagnosing severe personality disorders, evaluating the childhood environment, assessing alcohol consumption and the analysis of the MAOA genotype may provide more accurate means for assessing risk among violent offenders, according to the Finnish research carried out jointly at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University Central Hospital Psychiatry Centre.

25 Sep 2009

Book features the link between cyber-bullying and violence in young women

The link between cyber-bullying and an increase in violence among young women will be featured in a new book published in November.

25 Sep 2009

Attitude to weight and diet in teens dependent on social class

Teenagers' attitudes to diet and weight are shaped by their social class, according to new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Policymakers have long insisted on the importance of understanding young people's health and eating habits but this is the first study to show how everyday practices and perceptions of different social classes contribute to variation in the diet, weight and health of teenagers.

25 Sep 2009

FA announces their Second Annual Fellowship Convention dates

Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) announces their Second Annual Fellowship Convention to be held at the Santa Clara Marriot from October 16-18, 2009 in Santa Clara, California.

25 Sep 2009

Liquidia founder Dr. Joseph DeSimone honoured with the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award

Liquidia Technologies today announced its founder, Dr. Joseph DeSimone, has received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Pioneer Award. Pioneer Awards are designed to support individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose pioneering – and possibly transforming – approaches to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research.

24 Sep 2009

An updated HIPAA Privacy series released by LearnSomething

Keeping pharmacy staff and healthcare industry staff current on evolving HIPAA guidelines can be time-consuming and costly. An efficient and economical solution is on schedule from LearnSomething, the leading provider of eLearning for retail pharmacy and health care industries.

24 Sep 2009

EFT BioTech Holdings announces its upcoming schedule for executive management attendance

EFT BioTech Holdings, Inc., a proprietary e-commerce solutions company providing "Made in the USA" health, beauty and nutriceutical products under the EFT brand to its affiliate member network, boasting almost one million members strong, announced its upcoming schedule for executive management attendance at new affiliate rallies in Asia.

24 Sep 2009

Kathie Supiano chosen as a 2009 Health Care Hero

University of Utah College of Nursing faculty member Kathie Supiano, MS, LCSW was recognized by Utah Business Magazine today as one of its 2009 Health Care Heroes. This annual recognition acknowledges excellence and innovation within the health care system and contributes to continuously improving the standard of care that Utah's organizations provide. The event took place at the Grand America Hotel located in downtown Salt Lake City.

24 Sep 2009

AFA reacts to an Ohio woman's claims of an embroyo mix up

An Ohio woman, 40-year-old Carolyn Savage, claims a fertility clinic implanted the wrong embryo and that the baby she's due to deliver the first week in October is not hers. Several media reports state Savage and her husband plan to give the baby boy to his biological parents. The name of the clinic is not being released in this very rare alleged case.

24 Sep 2009

Millennium Development Goals strive to reduce malnutrition by half by 2015

Ninety per cent of older persons in rural Bangladesh displayed either overt or risk for malnutrition in a collaborative study presented in a dissertation by Tamanna Ferdous from Uppsala University Sept 22, 2009. The results, which are part of a larger international study, challenge the Millenium Development Goals.

24 Sep 2009

Pfizer earns highest score in the 2010 Corporate Equality Index

Pfizer Inc today announced that it has earned a score of 100 — the highest possible — in the 2010 Corporate Equality Index, which evaluates U.S.-based businesses on their treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees, investors and consumers.

24 Sep 2009

Jean-Pol Tassin honored with the ECNP Neuropsychopharmacology Award

The European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) is pleased to announce Jean-Pol Tassin as the recipient of the 2009 ECNP Neuropsychopharmacology Award in Basic Science Research in recognition of his pioneering and innovative research into the neurochemical basis of substance addiction.

24 Sep 2009