Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

Second U.S. Independent Laboratory Confirms That Oculus Innovative Sciences' Microcyn(R) Technology Effective At Inactivating H1N1 Swine Flu
Oculus Innovative Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCLS), a healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets a family of products based upon the Microcyn® Technology platform, which includes new formulations intended to reduce the use of antibiotics by preventing or treating infections including those caused by bacteria and viruses, has confirmed the effectiveness of Microcyn® Technology at inactivating the H1NI Swine Influenza A. In a virucidal time-kill suspension test conducted by an independent laboratory, BioScience Laboratories, Inc., the specific Microcyn Technology formulation reduced infectivity of the swine flu virus by 4.00log10 (99.99%) reduction after just 30-seconds exposure. BioScience Laboratories, working in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, received formal approval to acquire, house and evaluate the specific swine influenza virus in April 2009.

Health, Business Groups Continue Staking Out Reform Positions
Reuters reports that the National Retail Federation has come out against mandated employer coverage for health care for their employees, a stance that Wal-Mart, the world"s largest retailer, supports. "The National Retail Federation "cannot support an employer mandate of any type," said NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations Steve Pfister in a statement. He said the retail industry is a labor-heavy one that operates on a thin profit margin. ò€¦ Last week, Wal-Mart, which is not a member of the NRF, said it supports the push to require large employers to offer health insurance to workers" (Maestri, 7/9).
News of the day
Camera-Phone Uses Blood, Saliva Samples To Diagnose Disease
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a "prototype camera-phone mounted with a microscope" that can "magnify and photograph blood or saliva samples" for diagnosing diseases, the Canadian Press/Google.com reports. A report on the device was published on Wednesday in the journal PLoS One. The prototype, called CellScope, would enable "disease screening and diagnosis in the field where specialized clinical microscopy laboratories aren"t available, including in underdeveloped countries," according to the news service (Ubelacker, 7/21).
Mental Health

Obama Highlights Health Care Reform Progress In Weekly Address

In his weekly radio and Internet address, President Obama discussed efforts by congressional leaders and health care industry groups on health care reform legislation, The Hill reports. He said that "while there remains a great deal of difficult work ahead, I am heartened by what we have seen these past few days: a willingness of those with different points of view and disparate interests to come together around common goals -- to embrace a shared sense of responsibility and make historic progress" (Youngman, The Hill, 5/16). He said, "I have always believed that it is better to talk than not to talk, that it is far more productive to reach over a divide than to shake your fist across it," which has "been an alien notion in Washington for far too long, but we are seeing that the ways of Washington are beginning to change."In the Republican radio and Internet address. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), a cardiovascular surgeon, said that a "government takeover of health care will put bureaucrats in charge of health care decisions that should be made by families and doctors." He added, "It will limit treatment options and lead to rationed care," and "to pay for government health care, your taxes will be raised." Boustany, a member of the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group, said, "That is something we cannot support, and frankly, it would clearly violate some of the principles the president himself has endorsed" (Superville, AP/Washington Post, 5/16). In related news, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag on Sunday said on CNN"s "State of the Union" that the administration might support taxing health care benefits to health pay for health care reform (Barr, Politico, 5/17). Timeline As "Congress barrels toward a jam-packed summer with a daunting to-do list and limited time before the 2010 elections limit legislating, Democrats will soon have to jettison some priorities," CongressDaily reports. Democratic Senate aides suggest that they need only a few weeks of floor time for health care reform, as it is a top priority for the summer, but "those timelines assume GOP cooperation," according to CongressDaily (House/Friedman, CongressDaily, 5/18). Conservative Democrats The Democratic Blue Dog Coalition and the New Democrat Coalition on Thursday met separately with House leaders to warn against introducing health care reform legislation that is too progressive, Politico reports. The groups, which together represent 122 of the 218 votes needed to pass legislation, are wary of being forced to fall in line with party leadership in supporting a more liberal bill to counteract the expected moderate bill coming from the Senate. Both groups voiced concern over a public plan option, a proposal that the House committee chairs charged with writing health reform legislation say is key to bringing down costs. The groups said that they would support a public option so long as it pays for itself and operates under the same principles as the private insurance market (Frates, Politico, 5/15). Video of Obama"s address is available online. Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009