The National Institutes of Health announced in late February that it will soon begin a clinical trial that will prescribe the anticoagulant drug warfarin based on genetic data collected by an international consortium that the NIH spearheaded. The decision and [...]
Noam N. Levey reports in the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune that the Obama administration may soon open a 30-day comment period before rolling back the Health and Human Services “conscience” rule finalized at the tail end of the [...]
The stimulus package President Obama will sign into law today contains $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research. The money will support work to determine what treatments are effective for various conditions and which are boondoggles that unnecessarily increase healthcare costs. [...]
HEALTH IT
A physician and ethicist observes that electronic medical records can act as public documents in the context of the local medical community where one’s local reputation as a clinician is forged. With them, all care is now witnessed, open to local peer review: others can read what I write and assess its content, clinical judgment, and quality.
HEALTH CARE
Our health care system needs a systems-based approach to excellence in the care of hospitalized patients to ensure efficiency, empathy and the highest quality medical treatments.
Arguments over the state of funding for research at the National Institutes of Health, and for the younger generation of life science researchers in general, continue. As the new administration considers candidates for the next NIH director, the question of how the government will bail out various sectors of the economy weighs on the issue of money for R&D.
HEALTH CARE
The over-prescription of statins is costing Americans billions, and the media is complicit with the problem. An independent national institute that compared the effectiveness of treatments could reduce unnecessary spending.
ECONOMICS
Biomedical research cannot solve all the problems of public health. An effective overhaul of the current system won’t happen without attention to some basic psychology and economics.
WEISS'S NOTEBOOK
It will be an uphill battle to justify some of the upfront costs of the personalized medicine revolution, given the technical, political, and educational hurdles that stand between where we are and where we want to get: to a place with better care that costs less.
HEALTH CARE
Elderly Americans are growing in number, which means we need to act quickly to improve the quality of long-term care in our country.
The Associated Press reports that over 200 million children worldwide do not have access to basic health care. As a result, about 10 million children, most from the developing world, die each year from treatable illnesses.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Vaccine safety has grabbed headlines in recent months, as some parents, fearing alleged links to autism, exempt their children from vaccinations. Multiple studies have demonstrated there is no such link, but there is more to understand about how vaccines keep kids safe, and how public health ensure the safety of vaccines.
GENETICS
Various companies now offer direct-to-consumer genetic counseling. Public concern about genetic discrimination is on the rise. The Senate may soon vote on the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. But there are many uncertainties to consider as genetic medicine gets increasingly personal.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
The case of the mysterious disappearing search term is about so much more than one scientific database; it’s about how we talk about reproductive health.
A quick look at some of the policy-related stories making the rounds on the science and technology blogs.
NIH advisers call for an overhaul of the peer-review process; Craig Venter wants carbon dioxide to drive a new generation of fuels within 18 months; CDC advisers call for universal flu vaccinations for children over six.
Good news for large-scale solar power generation arrived yesterday with bad news for photovoltaic technology; we need names for the next administration’s science advisors; and Google launches a pilot program for electronic medical records.
Texas A&M settles for $1 million in a lab safety investigation; the Supreme Court rules in favor of medical device makers; how does the CDC pick the right flu vaccine?
Scientists working in developed and developing nations will soon have a new organization to integrate their efforts; the New York Academy of Sciences is spearheading the formation of “Scientists Without Borders.”
Health coverage inequalities limit patient access to the free drugs pharmaceutical companies distribute, accelerate the illnesses of elderly patients, and limit access to preventative cancer screenings.
Science Progress and American Progress's Doing What Works project teamed up to produce a set of policy proposals that the Obama administration and Congress can adopt to reinvest in the building blocks of American science, innovation, and economic competitiveness. Read the overview of the five reports.
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