Wednesday, December 28, 2005
book: A Healthier You
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051024/clm528.html?.v=3
"A Healthier You: Based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans gives consumers simple steps for healthy living, drawn from the science-based nutrition and physical activity advice of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, the latest update of the report.
"A Healthier You is about healthy lifestyles and common sense ideas to help us improve our health one step at a time. It's important information to share with the people you share about," Secretary Leavitt said."
"A Healthier You: Based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans gives consumers simple steps for healthy living, drawn from the science-based nutrition and physical activity advice of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, the latest update of the report.
"A Healthier You is about healthy lifestyles and common sense ideas to help us improve our health one step at a time. It's important information to share with the people you share about," Secretary Leavitt said."
Negative Life Events
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/05/051228.troubles.pdf
National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago
"In the decade-and-a-half since NORC first surveyed people’s negative life events, researchers have found that the number of troubles people report has increased. Chief among those problems are more incidents of illness, inability to afford medical care, unemployment, pressure to pay bills, and unstable romantic relationships. On the positive side, fewer people reported having trouble getting a car, or having trouble with crime or legal issues."
National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago
"In the decade-and-a-half since NORC first surveyed people’s negative life events, researchers have found that the number of troubles people report has increased. Chief among those problems are more incidents of illness, inability to afford medical care, unemployment, pressure to pay bills, and unstable romantic relationships. On the positive side, fewer people reported having trouble getting a car, or having trouble with crime or legal issues."
Health Care Rationing
http://www.brookings.edu/comm/policybriefs/pb147.htm
The Brookings Institution
"This brief examines many of the issues involved with rationing health care by applying its principles to radiology, using examples from the budget-limited British health system. There, policymakers and medical providers routinely grapple with two difficult and value-laden questions: How much should be spent on the expensive but life saving technology? And how much should be spent on very costly research to evaluate that investment?"
The Brookings Institution
"This brief examines many of the issues involved with rationing health care by applying its principles to radiology, using examples from the budget-limited British health system. There, policymakers and medical providers routinely grapple with two difficult and value-laden questions: How much should be spent on the expensive but life saving technology? And how much should be spent on very costly research to evaluate that investment?"
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
article: Pneumonia and Public Health
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/335234/the_changing_fate_of_pneumonia_as_a_public_health_concern/index.html?source=r_health
"For a brief period from the 1930s through the early 1940s, public health advocates made pneumonia a leading public health concern. Predicated on the need for antipneumococcal antiserum, but also incorporating physician reeducation, state "pneumonia control programs" were established nationwide.
However, with the advent of penicillin and the sulfonamides, the pneumonia control programs soon collapsed. Pneumonia reverted to the domain of the private practitioner, which was devoid of state oversight. With the emergence of pneumococcal antibiotic resistance in the 1990s, the possibility again arose that pneumonia could become a pubic health concern, given the nationwide need to curb unnecessary antibiotic usage and to encourage vaccination. An understanding of the history of pneumonia's changing status could shed light on current attempts to reformulate the disease and elucidate the contested domains of private practice and public health. "
"For a brief period from the 1930s through the early 1940s, public health advocates made pneumonia a leading public health concern. Predicated on the need for antipneumococcal antiserum, but also incorporating physician reeducation, state "pneumonia control programs" were established nationwide.
However, with the advent of penicillin and the sulfonamides, the pneumonia control programs soon collapsed. Pneumonia reverted to the domain of the private practitioner, which was devoid of state oversight. With the emergence of pneumococcal antibiotic resistance in the 1990s, the possibility again arose that pneumonia could become a pubic health concern, given the nationwide need to curb unnecessary antibiotic usage and to encourage vaccination. An understanding of the history of pneumonia's changing status could shed light on current attempts to reformulate the disease and elucidate the contested domains of private practice and public health. "
article: the crumbling obstacle to universal health care
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/health/ny-bzsaul4526008nov26,0,7065232.column?coll=ny-health-headlines
by Saul Friedman 11/26/2005
"The unique but irrational foundation of America's employer-based health insurance system is collapsing. And nothing illustrates this more than the increasing number of companies cutting or ending health benefits they promised employees and retirees."
by Saul Friedman 11/26/2005
"The unique but irrational foundation of America's employer-based health insurance system is collapsing. And nothing illustrates this more than the increasing number of companies cutting or ending health benefits they promised employees and retirees."
blog posting: open access
http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/12/20/access
Open Access Principle: "The access principle holds that with a form of knowledge that is constituted as a public good, which is the case with research and scholarship, the knowledge should be circulated as widely and publicly as possible, especially as that wider circulation increases the value and quality of that knowledge."
Open Access Principle: "The access principle holds that with a form of knowledge that is constituted as a public good, which is the case with research and scholarship, the knowledge should be circulated as widely and publicly as possible, especially as that wider circulation increases the value and quality of that knowledge."
article: information overload
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10539958/
Associated Press
"As books get digitized and TV shows get downloadable, will it be too much? Maybe! Will all this instantly accessible information make us much smarter, or simply more stressed? When can we break to think, absorb and ponder all this data? It may take better technology to cope with the problems better technology creates. Of course, if used properly, the new resources have vast potential to shape how we live, study and think."
Associated Press
"As books get digitized and TV shows get downloadable, will it be too much? Maybe! Will all this instantly accessible information make us much smarter, or simply more stressed? When can we break to think, absorb and ponder all this data? It may take better technology to cope with the problems better technology creates. Of course, if used properly, the new resources have vast potential to shape how we live, study and think."
Friday, December 23, 2005
most important health issues of 2005
http://www.who.int/features/2005/health_survey/en/index.html
World Health Organization
"WHO published the results of its online survey, How healthy is your world?, in which visitors to the web site told WHO what they thought were the most important health issues of 2005. Amongst the top health concerns were avian influenza, HIV/AIDS and tobacco control - a view shared by respondents from all continents."
World Health Organization
"WHO published the results of its online survey, How healthy is your world?, in which visitors to the web site told WHO what they thought were the most important health issues of 2005. Amongst the top health concerns were avian influenza, HIV/AIDS and tobacco control - a view shared by respondents from all continents."
newspaper article: college students and drinking
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-21-campus-drinking-roundtable_x.htm
"USA Today has an interesting roundtable interview with a group of college students about their drinking behavior. This is in response to a detailed series the paper ran about a month ago on out of control drinking - and the marketing connections with alcohol companies - on college campuses."
"USA Today has an interesting roundtable interview with a group of college students about their drinking behavior. This is in response to a detailed series the paper ran about a month ago on out of control drinking - and the marketing connections with alcohol companies - on college campuses."
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
The state of Adult Literacy
http://nces.ed.gov/naal/
— American adults can read a newspaper or magazine about as well as they could a decade ago, but have made significant strides in performing literacy tasks that involve computation, according to the first national study of adult literacy since 1992.
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), released Dec 15 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), found little change between 1992 and 2003 in adults' ability to read and understand sentences and paragraphs or to understand documents such as job applications."
— American adults can read a newspaper or magazine about as well as they could a decade ago, but have made significant strides in performing literacy tasks that involve computation, according to the first national study of adult literacy since 1992.
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), released Dec 15 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), found little change between 1992 and 2003 in adults' ability to read and understand sentences and paragraphs or to understand documents such as job applications."
Depression among adults
http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k5/depression/depression.cfm
National Survey on Drug use and Health, SAMHSA
The NSDUH report: Depression among adults
+ "Major depressive episodes in lifetime or past year were assessed in SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) among adults aged 18 or older. A major depressive episode was defined using the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria which specifies a period of two weeks or longer during which there is either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure and at least four other symptoms that reflect a change in functioning (such as problems with sleeping, eating, energy, concentration, and self image)."
+ "As reported in SAMHSA's 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 8% of adults aged 18 or older (approximately 17.1 million adults) had experienced at least one major depressive episode during the past year."
+ "Among adults aged 18 or older who experienced at least one major depressive episode during the past year, 65.1% reported having received treatment for depression during the past year."
+ "The rate of past month illicit drug use was nearly twice as high among adults who had experienced a major depressive episode in the past year (14.2%) compared with adults who had not experienced a major depressive episode in the past year (7.3%)."
National Survey on Drug use and Health, SAMHSA
The NSDUH report: Depression among adults
+ "Major depressive episodes in lifetime or past year were assessed in SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) among adults aged 18 or older. A major depressive episode was defined using the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria which specifies a period of two weeks or longer during which there is either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure and at least four other symptoms that reflect a change in functioning (such as problems with sleeping, eating, energy, concentration, and self image)."
+ "As reported in SAMHSA's 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 8% of adults aged 18 or older (approximately 17.1 million adults) had experienced at least one major depressive episode during the past year."
+ "Among adults aged 18 or older who experienced at least one major depressive episode during the past year, 65.1% reported having received treatment for depression during the past year."
+ "The rate of past month illicit drug use was nearly twice as high among adults who had experienced a major depressive episode in the past year (14.2%) compared with adults who had not experienced a major depressive episode in the past year (7.3%)."
WHO -- Influenza Pandemic
http://www.who.int/csr/don/Handbook_influenza_pandemic_dec05.pdf
World Health Organization
WHO handbook for Journalists: Influenza Pandemic
World Health Organization
WHO handbook for Journalists: Influenza Pandemic
Improving end-of-life care
http://www.thehastingscenter.org/research/healthcarepolicy8.asp
The Hastings Center
"For this project, The Hastings Center invited some of the country’s experts on end of life care to explore the significance of changes in end-of-life care. The final report, Improving End-of-Life Care: Why Has It Been So Difficult? features essays on subjects ranging from disability rights to public policy, examining where we have been, and where we have yet to go. Each essay asks us to consider what we believe to be true about end-of-life care, to consider what is actually true, and to envision a different approach to concerns such as personal autonomy, advance directives, disability rights, and the legal system. Free registration required to access report."
The Hastings Center
"For this project, The Hastings Center invited some of the country’s experts on end of life care to explore the significance of changes in end-of-life care. The final report, Improving End-of-Life Care: Why Has It Been So Difficult? features essays on subjects ranging from disability rights to public policy, examining where we have been, and where we have yet to go. Each essay asks us to consider what we believe to be true about end-of-life care, to consider what is actually true, and to envision a different approach to concerns such as personal autonomy, advance directives, disability rights, and the legal system. Free registration required to access report."
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
changes in the state of children
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0078/twps0078.html
U.S. Census
"This working paper uses decennial census data to present an analysis of changes in the demographic and socioeconomic state of children during the 1990s. The study, which utilizes both national- and state-level data, examines characteristics such as children?s living arrangements and languages spoken, educational attainment level and labor force status of the children?s parents and the physical characteristics of the children's housing."
U.S. Census
"This working paper uses decennial census data to present an analysis of changes in the demographic and socioeconomic state of children during the 1990s. The study, which utilizes both national- and state-level data, examines characteristics such as children?s living arrangements and languages spoken, educational attainment level and labor force status of the children?s parents and the physical characteristics of the children's housing."
macroeconomic effects of an avian flu pandemic
How Bird Flu has Spread
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/05/bird_flu_map/html/1.stm
"Watch how the lethal H5N1 virus has spread from south-east Asia into Europe since 2003." Interactive map.
"Watch how the lethal H5N1 virus has spread from south-east Asia into Europe since 2003." Interactive map.
U.S. Hispanic population
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hispanic.html
U.S. Census
"An update on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the nation's Hispanics, with national summary data from the Current Population Survey. Characteristics include, for example, sex, age, citizenship, nativity, educational attainment, occupation, and income and poverty status."
U.S. Census
"An update on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the nation's Hispanics, with national summary data from the Current Population Survey. Characteristics include, for example, sex, age, citizenship, nativity, educational attainment, occupation, and income and poverty status."
Congress Votes Database
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/
Washington Post
"This site, washingtonpost.com's U.S. Congress Votes Database, is a deep database of every vote in the United States Congress since the 102nd Congress (1991). It lets you browse votes in a variety of ways -- both in aggregate and for individual members of Congress.
Browse the database by drilling down to a particular Congress (e.g. 109th Congress) or particular member (e.g. 109th Congress senators). This site publishes an RSS feed of recent votes by each member of Congress, and a feed of the most recent votes in both chambers. See the RSS page for full details. This site is generally updated every day, although there is a delay between a vote in Congress and its appearance on the official Congress Web sites"
Washington Post
"This site, washingtonpost.com's U.S. Congress Votes Database, is a deep database of every vote in the United States Congress since the 102nd Congress (1991). It lets you browse votes in a variety of ways -- both in aggregate and for individual members of Congress.
Browse the database by drilling down to a particular Congress (e.g. 109th Congress) or particular member (e.g. 109th Congress senators). This site publishes an RSS feed of recent votes by each member of Congress, and a feed of the most recent votes in both chambers. See the RSS page for full details. This site is generally updated every day, although there is a delay between a vote in Congress and its appearance on the official Congress Web sites"
CNN 25: Health and Medicine
Set your VCR to record the CNN Special Classroom Edition: CNN 25: Health and Medicine when it airs commercial-free on Monday, December 19, 2005 from 4:00-- 5:00 a.m. ET on CNN.
Program Overview
"As CNN celebrates its 25th year as the world's news leader, CNN 25 looks at the prominent events, thinkers and issues that have defined the news in the last quarter-century. From leaders in health and medicine to pioneers in technology, bright personalities from sports to entertainment, CNN 25 looks at the most influential moments and personalities of our time. In this installment, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosts an hour-long countdown of the top 25 medical stories of the last quarter-century. "
Program Overview
"As CNN celebrates its 25th year as the world's news leader, CNN 25 looks at the prominent events, thinkers and issues that have defined the news in the last quarter-century. From leaders in health and medicine to pioneers in technology, bright personalities from sports to entertainment, CNN 25 looks at the most influential moments and personalities of our time. In this installment, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosts an hour-long countdown of the top 25 medical stories of the last quarter-century. "
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
economic disparities in health care
"A Widening Rift In Access And Quality: Growing Evidence Of Economic Disparities"
Health Affairs Web Exclusive Dec. 6, 2005
"Data from the Community Tracking Study provide a valuable perspective from which to observe how economic disparities--largely a function of different sources of coverage--influence access to medical care in the United States. Many recent investments and initiatives are focused on affluent communities and are accessible mainly to people with employer-based or Medicare coverage. For people with Medicaid or no coverage at all, access to basic care is worsening, as a result of stalled coverage expansions and service cutbacks. An improving economy could forestall further cuts and permit reversal of earlier ones, but progress in closing this rift does not appear imminent. "
Health Affairs Web Exclusive Dec. 6, 2005
"Data from the Community Tracking Study provide a valuable perspective from which to observe how economic disparities--largely a function of different sources of coverage--influence access to medical care in the United States. Many recent investments and initiatives are focused on affluent communities and are accessible mainly to people with employer-based or Medicare coverage. For people with Medicaid or no coverage at all, access to basic care is worsening, as a result of stalled coverage expansions and service cutbacks. An improving economy could forestall further cuts and permit reversal of earlier ones, but progress in closing this rift does not appear imminent. "
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
article: Economic disparities
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.w5.566
Health Affairs
"Data from the Community Tracking Study provide a valuable perspective from which to observe how economic disparities--largely a function of different sources of coverage--influence access to medical care in the United States."
Health Affairs
"Data from the Community Tracking Study provide a valuable perspective from which to observe how economic disparities--largely a function of different sources of coverage--influence access to medical care in the United States."
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Pet Ownership and Health
http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/november/edd1252.pdf
British Medical Journal
"Summary points:
+ Over 90% of pet owners regard their pet as a valued family member.
+ Reluctance to part with a pet may lead to non-compliance with health advice.
+ Pets may be of particular value to older people and patients recovering from major illness.
+ The death of a pet may cause great distress to owners, especially when the pet has associations with a deceased spouse or former lifestyle.
+ Many people would welcome advice and support to enable them to reconcile or manage pet ownership and health problems whenever possible."
British Medical Journal
"Summary points:
+ Over 90% of pet owners regard their pet as a valued family member.
+ Reluctance to part with a pet may lead to non-compliance with health advice.
+ Pets may be of particular value to older people and patients recovering from major illness.
+ The death of a pet may cause great distress to owners, especially when the pet has associations with a deceased spouse or former lifestyle.
+ Many people would welcome advice and support to enable them to reconcile or manage pet ownership and health problems whenever possible."
terrorism
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RL33160.pdf
Congressional Research Service (via Federation of American Scientists)
"Effective responses to terrorism may need to take into account, and to some degree be individually configured to respond to, the evolving goals, strategies, tactics, and operating environment of different terrorist groups. Better understanding of the dynamics of terrorism allows for a more complete picture of the complexities involved in measuring success or failure and can assist Congress as it coordinates, funds, and oversees anti-terrorism policy and programs. Although terrorism’s complex webs of characteristics — along with the inherent secrecy and compartmentalization of both terrorist organizations and government responses — limit available data, the formulation of practical, useful measurement criteria appears both tractable and ready to be addressed."
Congressional Research Service (via Federation of American Scientists)
"Effective responses to terrorism may need to take into account, and to some degree be individually configured to respond to, the evolving goals, strategies, tactics, and operating environment of different terrorist groups. Better understanding of the dynamics of terrorism allows for a more complete picture of the complexities involved in measuring success or failure and can assist Congress as it coordinates, funds, and oversees anti-terrorism policy and programs. Although terrorism’s complex webs of characteristics — along with the inherent secrecy and compartmentalization of both terrorist organizations and government responses — limit available data, the formulation of practical, useful measurement criteria appears both tractable and ready to be addressed."
HHS and Information Technology
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0611.pdf
GAO
"HHS Has Several Investment Management Capabilities in Place but Needs to Address Key Weaknesses"
GAO
"HHS Has Several Investment Management Capabilities in Place but Needs to Address Key Weaknesses"
Announcement from Jana
The blog has been on hiatus since November 20, but will resume in the next few days.
