I just thought this was a great article and had to share it with my readers. The article comes straight from USA Today, written by Marilyn Elias.
Article Excerpt (source: USAToday.com)
"The happiest people surround themselves with family and friends, don’t care about keeping up with the Joneses next door, lose themselves in daily activities and, most important, forgive easily."
Health Policy
The Future of Health Care Journalism (source: Kaiser Family Foundation)
"A new report examining the state of health care journalism and a survey of the members of the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) were released at a Washington, D.C., discussion about the future of health care journalism.
The survey and report detail how the financial pressures on the media industry and the fierce competition to break news on new and expanding platforms on the Internet are affecting the quality of health reporting. The difficulties cited in the new findings have caused many in the industry to worry about the loss of in-depth, detailed reporting and the influence of public relations and advertising that could color news content. The turmoil in the news business is affecting all beats in journalism, not just health. Indeed, although AHCJ members report facing many difficulties in the current climate, they are more optimistic about the future of health journalism in particular than they are about journalism in general."
Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S.
Environmental Health
Obsolete Pesticides: A Ticking Time Bomb and Why We Have to Act Now (source: PolicyPointers.org)
"This 26-page report calls upon the European Commission to lead and develop an action plan to deal with the threats posed by obsolete pesticides."
Epidemiology
Obesity Prevention in Young Children: What Does the Evidence Say? (source: PolicyPointers.org)
"This Australian paper discusses the main issues relating to overweight and obesity prevention in early childhood (that is children aged between 0 and 5 years). It examines trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in Australian preschoolers; comments on the evidence suggesting that obesity in early childhood increases the risk of adult obesity; considers the challenges associated with measuring weight in young children; and summarises the evidence underpinning obesity prevention and treatment options commonly used for young children"
Clostridium difficile Infections : How To Deal With The Problem (source: PolicyPointers.org)
"This 140-page UK guidance outlines new evidence and approaches to delivering good infection control and environmental hygiene"
About The Talk (source: TED.com)
Hans Rosling unveils new data visuals that untangle the complex risk factors of one of the world’s deadliest (and most misunderstood) diseases: HIV. He argues that preventing transmissions — not drug treatments — is the key to ending the epidemic.
About Hans Rosling (source: TED.com)
Even the most worldly and well-traveled among us will have their perspectives shifted by Hans Rosling. A professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, his current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (he points out) is no longer worlds away from the west. In fact, most of the third world is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.
What sets Rosling apart isn’t just his apt observations of broad social and economic trends, but the stunning way he presents them. Guaranteed: You’ve never seen data presented like this. By any logic, a presentation that tracks global health and poverty trends should be, in a word: boring. But in Rosling’s hands, data sings. Trends come to life. And the big picture — usually hazy at best — snaps into sharp focus.
Rosling’s presentations are grounded in solid statistics (often drawn from United Nations data), illustrated by the visualization software he developed. The animations transform development statistics into moving bubbles and flowing curves that make global trends clear, intuitive and even playful. During his legendary presentations, Rosling takes this one step farther, narrating the animations with a sportscaster’s flair.
Rosling developed the breakthrough software behind his visualizations through his nonprofit Gapminder, founded with his son and daughter-in-law. The free software — which can be loaded with any data — was purchased by Google in March 2007. (Rosling met the Google founders at TED.)
Rosling began his wide-ranging career as a physician, spending many years in rural Africa tracking a rare paralytic disease (which he named konzo) and discovering its cause: hunger and badly processed cassava. He co-founded Médecins sans Frontièrs (Doctors without Borders) Sweden, wrote a textbook on global health, and as a professor at the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm initiated key international research collaborations. He’s also personally argued with many heads of state, including Fidel Castro.
Written by: POLITICO STAFF of Politico.com
President Obama says in the budget released Thursday that he wants Congress to follow a “set of eight principles” for “Transforming and Modernizing America’s Health Care System” as the White House and Capitol Hill work together to write legislation for health-care reform “over the coming year”:
1. Protect Families’ Financial Health. The plan must reduce the growing premiums and other costs American citizens and businesses pay for health care. People must be protected from bankruptcy due to catastrophic illness.
2. Make Health Coverage Affordable. The plan must reduce high administrative costs, unnecessary tests and services, waste, and other inefficiencies that consume money with no added health benefits.
3. Aim for Universality. The plan must put the United States on a clear path to cover all Americans.
4. Provide Portability of Coverage. People should not be locked into their job just to secure health coverage, and no American should be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions.
5.Guarantee Choice. The plan should provide Americans a choice of health plans and physicians. They should have the option of keeping their employer-based health plan.
6. Invest in Prevention and Wellness. The plan must invest in public health measures proven to reduce cost drivers in our system—such as obesity, sedentary lifestyles, and smoking — as well as guarantee access to proven preventive treatments.
7. Improve Patient Safety and Quality Care. The plan must ensure the implementation of proven patient safety measures and provide incentives for changes in the delivery system to reduce unnecessary variability in patient care. It must support the widespread use of health information technology and the development of data on the effectiveness of medical interventions to improve the quality of care delivered.
8. Maintain Long-Term Fiscal Sustainability. The plan must pay for itself by reducing the level of cost growth, improving productivity, and dedicating additional sources of revenue.
1) Military and Veterans’ Health Care: Key Data (source: Kaiser Family Foundation)
The site provides background briefs, key data, policy research, webcasts/presentations, and organizations concerning health care veterans and those actively serving in the United State’s Military.
2) Obama’s Remarks on Improving Veterans’ Care (source: Real Clear Politics)
“Currently, there is no comprehensive system in place that allows for a streamlined transition of health records between DOD and the VA. And that results in extraordinary hardship for a awful lot of veterans, who end up finding their records lost, unable to get their benefits processed in a timely fashion. I can’t tell you how many stories that I heard during the course of the last several years, first as a United States senator and then as a candidate, about veterans who were finding it almost impossible to get the benefits that they had earned despite the fact that their disabilities or their needs were evident for all to see.”
3) New e-Record Will Improve Veterans Care (source: Island Packet)
“President Barack Obama’s ambitious plan to establish a lifetime electronic record for service members and veterans will improve delivery of benefits, speed processing of claims and, over time, open Department of Veterans Affairs health care to any veteran, regardless of their medical condition or income level.”