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Mentally ill immigrants have slim chance at getting care when arrested

Many mentally-ill illegal immigrants get only limited mental health care, if any, while they are in jail or prison, advocates for them say, according to The Dallas Morning News.

15 Jul 2009

Support for health overhaul slipping

A USA Today/Gallup Poll found that "most Americans say it's important to overhaul health care this year," but "they are less enthusiastic about some of the proposals to pay for it," USA Today reports.

15 Jul 2009

Schwarzenegger fires three California Nursing Board members

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced most members of the state Board of Registered Nursing on Monday, citing the unacceptable time it takes to discipline nurses accused of egregious misconduct," The Los Angeles Times reports.

15 Jul 2009

Debate surrounds Federal system that rates nursing homes

A new federal rating system to track quality gives nursing homes mixed reviews. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) developed the Nursing Home Compare Web site, which compares the nation's 15,600 homes. There were complaints that the old site was unmanageable.

15 Jul 2009

Healthcare costs for U.S. companies seen rising nine percent

"Healthcare costs for U.S. businesses are seen rising by 9 percent in 2010, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC.UL survey, which showed that employers will expect workers to pay more of the bill," Reuters reports.

15 Jul 2009

Abortion issue could derail health reform

Nineteen Democrats have written House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promising not to vote for a health bill that includes funding for abortion, igniting a debate that has the potential to derail a health care overhaul, NPR reports.

15 Jul 2009

Upcoming health IT decisions could spell success or failure

"An unprecedented effort to computerize the nation's hospitals and physician offices could be the key to reducing crippling health care costs - or a giveaway to technology vendors whose sales will be subsidized by taxpayers," the Dallas Morning News reports.

15 Jul 2009

HELP Committee approves protection for high tech drug companies from generics

"Senators agreed Monday to give high-tech biologic drugs 12 years of market protection before generic versions can compete," according to The Associated Press.

15 Jul 2009

Divisions emerge among Democrat lawmakers, business groups

As the health care debate intensifies, divisions among lawmakers, competing lobbies and interest groups are increasingly tense.

15 Jul 2009

Republicans test public plan supporters' will

Congressional Republicans are pushing an idea unlikely to garner much traction that would force members of Congress who vote for a government-run public plan for health insurance coverage to enroll in it, Politico reports.

15 Jul 2009

Obama announces Regina Benjamin as Surgeon General pick

Dr. Regina Benjamin is President Obama's pick for surgeon general. The Alabama family physician has been an advocate for universal care, and is expected to have a role "at the table" in health reform, which would be an unusual degree of influence over policy for a surgeon general. Obama said Benjamin "represents what's best about health care in America."

15 Jul 2009

Toronto Star columnist examines polio eradication in India

According a Toronto Star column, it is an "enormous challenge" for India's government to try to get all of its citizens immunized against polio. "It has used everything from elephants and camels to rickety boats and bikes to ferry the vaccine to remote regions where temperatures have topped 40C the past three months.

15 Jul 2009

U.N. calls for investing in women to ensure economic recovery, reduce 'health gap'

To mark World Population Day on July 11, U.N. officials are calling for investment in women and girls during the global financial crisis as a way to promote economic recovery and tackle poverty and inequality, afrol News reports.

15 Jul 2009

Clinton comments on vacant USAID Administrator post

"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday she is frustrated over the failure" to name a new head of the USAID, despite it being a priority for the administration, AFP/Google.com reports.

15 Jul 2009

Novartis to partner with OneWorld Health to develop diarrhea drug

"Swiss drug company Novartis AG and the Institute for OneWorld Health, a nonprofit group, will announce this week a partnership to discover drugs for a type of diarrhea that kills about 1.6 million children each year in the developing world," the Wall Street Journal reports.

15 Jul 2009

WHO recommends vaccine makers move forward in mass production of H1N1 vaccine

"Saying the new H1N1 [swine flu] virus is 'unstoppable', the WHO gave drug makers a full go-ahead to manufacture vaccines against the pandemic influenza strain on Monday and said healthcare workers should be the first to get one," Reuters reports (Fox, 7/14).

15 Jul 2009

Skin cancer researchers throw new light on tumour growth

Three researchers from the Dermatology Research Foundation at the University of Sydney have identified a compound produced by certain fatal skin cancer tumours, providing new hope for developing treatments.

14 Jul 2009

Why oral contraceptives fail for obese women

Researchers have identified a potential biological mechanism that could explain why oral contraceptives may be less effective at preventing pregnancy in obese women, as some epidemiological studies have indicated.

14 Jul 2009

New brain visualization technology enables removal of fist-sized tumor

A new technology involving the fusion of four different types of images into a 3-D map of a patient's brain has helped University of Cincinnati (UC) specialists successfully remove a fist-sized tumor from the brain of an Indiana woman.

14 Jul 2009

Study finds survival rates from GIST improving among African-Americans

New research published in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons reveals that African Americans with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), a rare cancer that begins in the wall of the gastrointestinal tract, now have survival rates equivalent to those of Caucasians. Prior to 2000, African Americans were more likely to develop GIST and less likely to undergo surgical treatment for this type of cancer.

14 Jul 2009