The aged care workforce - comprised of 98% women workers - is one of the most unfairly remunerated in Australia. The Australian Nursing Federation federal secretary, Ged Kearney, said nurses, assistants in nursing (AINs) and personal care workers (PCWs), who care for vulnerable elderly residents in nursing homes suffer pay discrimination because it is a largely female dominated industry. Ms Kearney said research released this week from The National Centre for Social and Economic Modeling, which showed women workers were paid 17 per cent less than men, was very disturbing...

There have been a record number of improvements in the 2009 annual NHS staff survey, Health Minister Ann Keen announced today. The survey results published today by the Care Quality Commission provide NHS trusts with the information they need to improve workplaces for staff. The NHS staff survey changed in 2008 to reflect pledges made to staff in the NHS Constitution to deliver high quality workplaces. NHS organisations are legally obliged to take account of the rights and pledges set out in the NHS Constitution...

Technology is assuming an increasingly important role in the delivery of health care to the aged and in the way that individuals and families manage their own health and the health of their elderly family members. New systems are changing how clinicians access patient information and communicate with each other, expediting prevention, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic disorders. Devices that permit remote and self-monitoring are proliferating, as are technologies that promote independent living and enhance quality of life...

EDP Biotech, a Knoxville-based company today briefed Tennessee state legislators on its revolutionary ColoMarker? colon cancer test which potentially could save 50,000 lives and more than $12 billion in healthcare costs annually in the U.S. Legislators were also provided the opportunity to personally experience the ColoMarker? test by enrolling in the control study group for EDP's latest research. The briefing and test were scheduled to coincide with National Colon Cancer Month, which is being observed throughout March 2010...

"The RAND Corporation study published today verifies the AMA's longstanding contention that there are serious flaws in health insurer programs that attempt to rate physicians based on cost-of-care. "The RAND study shows that physician ratings conducted by insurers can be wrong up to two-thirds of the time for some groups of physicians. Inaccurate information can erode patient confidence and trust in caring physicians, and disrupt patients' longstanding relationships with physicians who have cared for them for years...

Tuberculosis kills nearly 2 million people annually, and kills more adults than malaria, AIDS, and all tropical diseases combined. TB is the cause of one in four avoidable deaths in the Third World. In recent years, there have been dramatic increases in the number of new cases worldwide, as well as an emergence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains that are resistant to two of the major drugs in the first-line treatment or to some second-line treatment drugs...

The American Nurses Association (ANA), the largest nursing organization in the U.S., joined a coalition of organizations at an event on Capitol Hill today to urge Congress to pass health reform legislation now. The coalition unveiled a letter with signatures from over 200 national organizations appealing to lawmakers about the critical need for health reform, and encouraging support for the current reform legislation. "If ever there was a time to trust a nurse-that time is now...

An unprecedented diverse and large number of national organizations released a joint message to Congress urging the enactment of health care reform. The groups announced their support for the pending reform legislation at a press conference today and in two-page advertisements in Capitol Hill newspapers...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes the five-fold increase in unintentional drug overdose deaths noted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 1990 and 2006 as a serious public health concern. Much of this increase follows from increases in the deaths from the use of opioid drugs, which in 2006 accounted for more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. The agency is also concerned about misuse of benzodiazepines (e.g., Valium and Xanax), which accounted for 272,000 emergency department visits in 2008 (compared to 306,000 for opioids)...

Leading US clinical speakers David Newkirk and William Bo Bruce are to headline the Friday lecture programme at the 2010 British Dental Conference and Exhibition. Both are renowned experts in the field of restorative and aesthetic dentistry and are accredited members of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. William Bo Bruce is Affiliate Assistant Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina College of Dental Medicine. David Newkirk is a general dental practitioner in Naperville Illinois...

A British soldier who was blinded by a grenade in Iraq three years ago said his life has been transformed since he was fitted with a prototype BrainPort device that allows him to "see" with his tongue. 24-year old Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg from Walton in Liverpool, UK, told BBC News on Monday that while the device is only a prototype, it has a lot of potential to advance things for blind people: "the potential to change my life is massive," he said...

Want to know how to get your cat to the veterinarian without being clawed? The CATalyst Council and American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) are holding a press conference on Friday, March 19, offering advice on how to make veterinary visits for feline patients pain free for cats and their owners. "Even more than dog owners, cat owners commonly report that it's difficult to get their pet to the veterinarian. With a little planning and training, cats can learn how to travel comfortably and safely in a carrier," explains Dr...

Leanne Metcalf, Director of Research at Asthma UK, says: 'There is now a broad spectrum of evidence which suggests that the pre-natal environment, including factors such as maternal stress and family history, can influence whether or not a child will go on to develop asthma symptoms. This study is important as it suggests that a newborn with a family history of asthma or allergy will respond more strongly to asthma triggers if their mothers have higher stress levels during pregnancy...

The School Nutrition Association and the School Nutrition Foundation announced that Dallas Independent School District in Dallas, Texas, Polk County Public Schools in Bartow, Florida, Willamina School District in Willamina, Oregon, and El Paso Independent School District in El Paso, Texas have received the District of Excellence in School Nutrition distinction...

Diabetes is one of the most significant health issues facing Alabama today and is expected to remain so in the years ahead. Two events are planned to educate and inform the public about diabetes on March 23, Diabetes Alert Day. In Central Alabama the Alabama Department of Public Health will sponsor a 30-minute special television call-in program titled "Diabetic Breakthroughs-A Central Alabama Diabetes News Special." The program will feature an expert medical panel who will answer questions from the public...

Health Bill Is Malpractice Yahoo! News Congress's latest final push in its ideological crusade called health reform is shaping up to be an act of historic arrogance and deception (Sen. Tom Coburn, 3/17). Showdown: Congressional Democrats Should Stand Tall And Back Health Care Reform The Houston Chronicle This is one of those votes that will shape the American future, for better or worse. We believe a better, more secure future will result from a decision to take this step of reform (3/17)...

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "warned on Tuesday that failure to meet" Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets by the 2015 deadline could result in "increased instability, violence, epidemic diseases and overpopulation," Agence France-Presse/Mail & Guardian reports (3/17). At a U.N. General Assembly meeting, Ban launched a report featuring "a new action plan aimed at getting governments, civil society actors, private businesses, philanthropy and the multilateral system to act 'efficiently, effectively and collectively'" in an effort to reach the targets, the U.N...

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday selected President Barack Obama's nominee to head UNICEF - Anthony Lake, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. UNICEF's board must approve Ban's selection and is expected to do so, the newspaper writes (3/17). Beginning in May, Lake will assume the UNICEF Executive Director position "after incumbent Ann Veneman, a former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, retires from the post in April," Press Trust International writes (3/17)...

"Canada's 'signature' initiative at June's G8 summit - a strategy to improve the health of mothers and young children in poor countries" will not include family planning programs, Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said on Tuesday, the Globe and Mail reports. Cannon said the initiative "does not deal in any way, shape or form with family planning. Indeed, the purpose of this is to be able to save lives...

In an interview with Reuters, Haitian President Rene Preval on Tuesday said that the U.S. State Department Human Rights report, which says corruption is "widespread in all ... levels of government" in Haiti, is "arrogant" and that Haiti should have the final say in approving plans to rebuild the country after the January earthquake, the news agency reports...

Nature News examines GAVI Alliance's multi-billion-dollar budget shortfall ahead of a donors meeting in The Hague on March 25-26. The meeting, which marks "the first time that the global-health partnership, based in Geneva, Switzerland, has brought together all of its major donors - countries and philanthropic organizations - at a single fund-raising event," also demonstrates "the current woes at the organization, which since its creation in 2000 has taken vaccination rates in low-income countries to record highs," the news service writes...

WHO Suspends Distribution, Purchase Of Pentavalent Vaccine A WHO spokeswoman announced Wednesday that the agency "has suspended the distribution and purchase of the Shan5 vaccine, produced by Sanofi-Aventis's Indian unit Shantha Biotechnics, pending a quality investigation," after several reports of white sediment on the walls of the vaccine vials, the Wall Street Journal reports...

Whenever you choke on acrid cigarette smoke, feel like you're burning up from a mouthful of wasabi-laced sushi, or cry while cutting raw onions and garlic, your response is being triggered by a primordial chemical sensor conserved across some 500 million years of animal evolution, report Brandeis University scientists in a study in Nature this week...

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) have identified a key cellular mechanism that guides embryonic heart tissue formation - a process which, if disrupted, can lead to a number of common congenital heart defects. Heart tissue forms in two distinct phases known as the First Heart Field, which includes the left ventricle and portions of both atrial chambers, and the Second Heart Field (SHF), which consists of the right ventricle and outflow tract. In humans, the process occurs within the fourth week of development...

Research led by Wayne L. Backes, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Associate Dean for Research at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, has found that drug metabolism depends not only upon which enzymes are present in an individual, but also how they interact, and that can be the difference in whether a drug is safely eliminated from the body or is converted into a toxic or carcinogenic byproduct. The paper will be published in the March 19, 2010 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Dr. Backes and his LSUHSC research colleagues - J...

Researchers at Children's National Medical Center have discovered that African American children with asthma in metropolitan Washington, DC, are significantly more likely to have low levels of vitamin D than healthy African American children. This study supports recent research that suggests vitamin D plays a greater role in the body than just keeping bones healthy. Vitamin D deficiency has been recently linked to a variety of non-bone related diseases including depression, autoimmune disorders, and now asthma...

Every day, our gut comes in contact with bacteria, inducing an inflammatory response that is tolerated and controlled. Sometimes the control of inflammation is lost and this can lead to inflammatory bowel disease that may predispose to colon cancer. Caspase-1, an important protein involved in the mechanism of inflammation, has long been believed to be one of the culprits behind excessive inflammation in the colon. Dr. Saleh's team suggests the opposite in a new study...

The Quantitative Analysis of Normal Tissue Effects in the Clinic (QUANTEC) review has been published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) to update recommendations for the safe irradiation of 16 organs. For each organ, the relationship between dose/volume and clinical outcome is reviewed. These reviews replace initial recommendations published in 1991...

Some 40% of commercial disinfectants used to clean surfaces are believed to be ineffective in eliminating noroviruses, a group of viruses responsible for more than half of all foodborne gastroenteritis outbreaks. According to a recent study published by Universite Laval researchers in the Journal of Food Protection, only bleach-based disinfectants drastically reduce the concentration of these viruses. Noroviruses spread directly via contact with infected persons or indirectly through contaminated objects, foods, or surfaces...

Children who use violence usually come from conflictive families; as has been shown by a number of research studies. The psychologist, Arantzazu Bellido, has reaffirmed this phenomenon for the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (CAV-EAE). She undertook surveys with a number of families in the Basque province of Bizkaia, adapting previously used questionnaires to this end and creating new ones specifically designed for this study. Ms Bellido demonstrated that, effectively, there is a direct relationship between a child's behaviour and their family environment...

They would love to be perfect mothers. Instead, they feel ashamed and inadequate, and fearful that their children might inherit their eating difficulties. Imagine an ordinary Norwegian home, where Mum is having dinner with her three-year-old son. Underneath the surface of this seemingly idyllic scene, the woman is fighting a fierce battle with herself, thinking: "I wish he could finish eating, so I can go to the bathroom and throw up." This is just one of many real-life stories Kristine Rørtveit has listened to while working on her thesis...

UroToday.com - The most common curative treatments for localized prostate cancer (PC), radical prostatectomy (RP) and radiation therapy (RT), have significant effects on quality of life. Most studies measured quality of life using psychometric instruments. Another approach uses the concept of utility. Utility is a global measure, scaled between 0 (dead) and 1 (full health), which reflects not only symptoms or feelings, but also patients' values or preferences for them...

The American Prospect, Boston Globe and Washington Post recently published opinion pieces and an editorial discussing how health reform legislation would affect health insurance coverage for abortion, prenatal care and other services that affect women. ~ Michelle Goldberg, American Prospect: "It's become clear that if health care reform passes, it's going to significantly erode, and probably end, insurance coverage for abortion," American Prospect senior correspondent Michelle Goldberg writes in an opinion piece...

The following summarizes recent action on abortion-related measures in three states. ~ Alaska: Superior Court Judge Frank Pfiffner on Tuesday ordered Alaska Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell to rewrite ballot language for a proposed initiative that would require parental notification before a minor can receive an abortion, although Pfiffner stopped short of removing the initiative from the ballot, the AP/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports (Bohrer, AP/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 3/17)...

The Wall Street Journal: "With Congress just days away from an expected vote, Democrats still hadn't settled on final language of the bill and until they do the Congressional Budget Office can't release an estimate for how much the complete package would cost." House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) said yesterday that "he hoped Democratic leaders would be able to lock down final details soon. He said lawmakers have been working closely with the Congressional Budget Office to ensure the bill is fully paid for and reduces the deficit" (Hitt, 3/17)...

McClatchy/Miami Herald: "As a historic vote on sweeping healthcare legislation nears, Democratic moderates in the House of Representatives face relentless pressure as they juggle personal pleas from President Barack Obama, a multimillion-dollar ad barrage and constituents who are fed up with the convoluted congressional process. In the spotlight are 39 Democrats who voted against the House's original healthcare measure Nov. 7. Democrats hold 253 of the House's 431 currently filled seats, and 216 votes are needed for passage...

The Associated Press: "When Congress battles over thorny bills, parliamentarian Alan Frumin has been known to sleep in his office - on call 24/7 as the Senate's Solomon, divining the answers. Frumin's ability to review long-standing rules and centuries of precedent to resolve Senate questions makes the mustachioed parliamentarian something of a Washington rock star these days. As much as any elected official, Frumin, 63, holds decisive power over whether the Democrats' rewrite of the health care system survives or sinks. ...

Fox News' Bret Baier interviewed the president this afternoon: "President Obama is not worried about the 'procedural' debate over whether House Democratic leaders should go ahead with a plan to approve health care reform without a traditional vote ... 'What I can tell you is that the vote that's taken in the House will be a vote for health care reform.'" Fox has video of the interview (3/17). Reuters: "Party leaders are considering using a complicated process to avoid a direct vote on the Senate-passed bill, which is unpopular with House Democrats...

Growing markets for pharmaceuticals in China, Brazil, Russia and India are outpacing national markets in Europe and the U.S., but major drugmakers have been slow to expand in these markets and may lose opportunities, a new study finds, The New York Times reports. To put the shift in perspective, China will overtake both France and Germany next year in terms of drug spending, while Brazil will overtake Britain, according to the report by research firm IMS Health...

USA Today: "The cost of cancer treatment is 'skyrocketing' - both for individual patients and the nation, a new analysis shows. From 1990 to 2008, spending on cancer care soared to more than $90 billion from $27 billion. The increase was driven by the rising costs of sophisticated new drugs, robotic surgeries and radiation techniques, as well as the growing number of patients who are eligible to take them, says Peter Bach of New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Cancer, co-author of an analysis in today's Journal of the American Medical Association...

The American Medical Group Association announced it will present the Medical Group Preeminence Award on March 20 to HealthTexas Provider Network, an affiliate of Baylor Health Care System based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas. The presentation will take place at the AMGA 2010 Annual Conference, being held March 18-20 at the New Orleans Marriott...

The Cleveland Plain Dealer: A pilot project at the Cleveland Clinic that monitored 250 patients with chronic diseases showed patients were able to increase the number of days between visits. The study used a medical device that shared daily patient data online with doctors and nurses and found that patients better managed their care using the system...

Marketwatch/The Seattle Times reports on the looming 21 percent cut to physicians' Medicare payments. "The cut was to take effect March 1 until Congress delayed it by 30 days. The Senate then voted last Wednesday to postpone the cut an additional six months as part of a larger bill that extends unemployment benefits. The measure now moves to the House." Yet despite the confusion and media attention on when -- or if -- such a reduction in reimbursements will come, "most beneficiaries can find the care they need, experts said...

The Los Angeles Times: A report released Wednesday at a national meeting on aging asks lawmakers to consider changes to Medicaid and Social Security rules that could help gay and lesbian senior citizens. Prepared by Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders (SAGE), " it calls on federal and state lawmakers to consider ways to legally recognize same-sex relationships so aging partners in a committed relationship can have access to the same support systems that benefit heterosexual seniors...

A new report from Massachusetts finds that the price of hospital care there is not necessarily related to quality. "When it comes to getting high quality medical care in Massachusetts, the bigger hospitals aren't always better. But they tend to be a lot more expensive, according to a new report by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley's office," The Boston Herald reports. "Her investigators have found that the region's most prominent hospital groups have used their money, clout and member base to command, from insurers, much higher fees for even the most basic medical care...

The New York Times: "Facing a sharp rise in costs, Pennsylvania has almost doubled the monthly bill for a state health insurance program for poor people who do not qualify for Medicaid and are on a waiting list for a less costly option. On March 1, the cost of the plan rose to about $600 a month, up from $313 a month, for the roughly 2,400 state residents on the waiting list. The increase comes as Congress is poised to act on a health care overhaul and as the Obama administration has been highly critical of insurance companies for rate increases of 30 percent to 40 percent...

More than two thirds of primary care trusts (PCTs) in England are unable to say if or how they spent money allocated to them under the National Dementia Strategy for England. Only 31 per cent (22) of PCTs who responded to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Dementia said they had allocated their proportion of the £150million made available by the government last year. The same percentage could not say how dementia strategy funds had been spent as they were inseparable from other funding...

The California Medical Association, a strong advocate for reform that provides universal access to health care, is lobbying Congress for important changes to legislation it is considering to ensure patients have the access to care they need. Congress could vote on sweeping health reform in coming days that would extend coverage to 80 percent of California's uninsured, mandate that insurers spend 85 percent of their revenue directly on patient care and prohibit insurers from canceling policies for people after they become seriously ill...

Increasingly common insurance plans that encourage patients to receive care from physicians who keep medical costs lower are based on unreliable estimates of doctor performance and may not achieve the intended savings, according to a new RAND Corporation study. The first major assessment of physician cost profiling found that about one-fourth of the 13,788 physicians studied would be misclassified under the system of cost ranking commonly used by insurance plans, according to findings published in the March 18 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine...

All clinical trials have guidelines that clearly state who can and cannot participate, but according to the National Institutes of Health these guidelines are typically based on age, gender, previous treatment history, the type and stage of a disease, and other medically relevant factors. However, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have gathered evidence indicating that some trials explicitly exclude individuals based on their sexual orientation. Their findings are published in a research letter appearing in the March 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine...

In recognition of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reminds ob-gyns and women that the best defense against colorectal cancer-the third leading cause of cancer death among women in the US-is getting screened. The College recommends that all women undergo colorectal cancer screening beginning at age 50, or earlier if they have risk factors for the disease. Colorectal cancer (often referred to as colon cancer) is a slow-growing cancer that affects the cells in the colon and rectum and can spread to other parts of the body...

The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) has chosen AARP President Jennie Chin Hansen, RN, MSN, FAAN, as its new Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Hansen, who finishes her term with AARP this spring, will take over from Linda Hiddemen Barondess in April. During her 27-year tenure, Ms. Barondess led the transformation of the AGS into the nation's leading organization focused on improving the care of older adults...

UroToday.com - Erectile dysfunction is one of the most relevant functional complications following radical prostatectomy. No study had analyzed the predictors of potency recovery in a series of patients undergoing robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP). Moreover, Briganti et al. recently evaluated the recovery of erectile function following retropubic radical prostatectomy, identifying three different risk groups...

Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE-Amex: PLX) announced that it has initiated a phase I clinical trial of PRX-105, the Company's plant cell expressed pegylated recombinant human acetylcholinesterase product candidate in development for biodefense indications. The trial is designed to study the safety of PRX-105 by administering a bolus intravenous injection of PRX-105 in healthy volunteers. The U.S...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of the Esteem an implanted hearing system used to treat moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss, a type of permanent hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss is usually caused by genetic factors or damage to the inner ear resulting from noise, viral infections, or aging. The results are reductions in perception of sounds and in the ability to understand speech. This differs from conductive hearing loss, which occurs when sound waves cannot transmit well through the outer or middle ear or both...

InterMune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ITMN) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee (PADAC) voted 9-3 to recommend approval of Esbriet® (pirfenidone) for the treatment of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) to reduce decline in lung function. IPF is a rare and fatal lung disease that affects approximately 200,000 people in the United States and Europe. If approved by the FDA for commercialization, Esbriet would be the first medication to be made available to IPF patients in the United States...

The number of licensed registered nurses (RNs) in the United States grew to a new high of 3.1 million between 2004 and 2008 according to a report released today by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). This increase of more than 5 percent also reflects growing diversity in the backgrounds of nurses in the United States. "We are encouraged by growth in the numbers and diversity of Registered Nurses, and HRSA is committed to continuing this trend to ensure an adequate supply and distribution of nurses in the future," said HRSA Administrator and nurse Dr. Mary K. Wakefield...

CareFusion (NYSE: CFN), a leading, global medical device company, announced the launch of the AVAmax® Vertebral Balloon, a minimally invasive device for use during kyphoplasty, a procedure for treating spinal compression fractures. CareFusion is the only company in the industry to offer a full line of products that address both vertebroplasty and balloon kyphoplasty, the two primary approaches to treat spinal compression fractures by delivering bone cement into the vertebral space with specialized needles. CareFusion is currently a market leader in devices for vertebroplasty procedures...

Technology never before offered in the U.S. that allows patients to receive one dose of radiation during surgery, as opposed to the current average of six weeks, was successfully delivered to several breast cancer patients last week including the sister of the man responsible for bringing the technology from Italy...

GenVault Corporation announced that Berkeley HeartLab, a subsidiary of Celera Corporation (Nasdaq: CRA), has adopted GenTegra DNA to preserve and store diagnostic samples for genetic testing related to the management of cardiovascular disease. As new clinically important diagnostic genetic markers are introduced, such as KIF6 and LPA, accessing stored DNA eliminates the need to collect a new sample and facilitates return of potentially critical medical information back to the physician. Currently, Berkeley HeartLab offers 39 individual clinical laboratory tests...

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health will receive nearly $15 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for renovation and modernization of laboratory space at its main facility at 615 N. Wolfe Street in Baltimore, Md. The grant was awarded by the National Center for Research Resources, part of the National Institutes of Health. The renovation includes updating labs and new infrastructure in the 45-year old Hume Wing located on the building s north side along Monument Street. The nine-story wing was built in 1964 and houses 25 percent of the School s research laboratories.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health conducted an analysis of worldwide use of Haemophilus influenza Type b vaccine (Hib) to determine what factors influenced a nation s adoption of the vaccine. The study found that a nation s eligibility for support from the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI) and whether a country s neighbors used the vaccine were major influencing factors in addition to price of the vaccine. The findings appear in the March 16 edition of PLoS Medicine.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have developed new methods for analyzing health data geographically. Typically, data are plotted spatially through a process known as geocoding in which mailing address information is translated into map coordinates. However, not all addresses can be converted successfully (nongeocodable). Rural postal routes, post office boxes, and addresses with errors or missing information cannot be mapped using geocoding. Health records linked with these type addresses have traditionally been discarded from analysis leading to concerns of bias and underreporting. In a study published February 10 in the journal PLoS ONE, the researchers develop and evaluate strategies for including nongeocoded data in spatial analysis.

Measurements of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) more accurately identify persons at risk for clinical outcomes than the commonly used measurement of fasting glucose, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. HbA1c levels accurately predict future diabetes, and they better predict stroke, heart disease and all-cause mortality as well. The study appeared in the March 4, 2010, issue of New England Journal of Medicine.

The Institute for Global Tobacco Control (IGTC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health now offers training in all six official United Nations languages. The translated learning course, Global Tobacco Control: Learning from the Experts is available in Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic and Chinese, as well as English. The content is available free of charge at GlobalTobaccoControl.org, a site funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Mosquitoes--not birds as suspected--may have a played a primary role in spreading West Nile virus westward across the United States, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study is among the first to examine the role of mosquitoes in the dispersion of West Nile virus across the U.S. and is published in the March 2 edition of Molecular Ecology.

Approximately 66 percent of respondents to a Maryland telephone survey do not have advance medical directives, according to a new report by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health s Department of Health Policy and Management. Younger adults and blacks were less likely than older adults and whites, respectively, to report having an advance directive, which includes the living will and health care power of attorney. Advance directive is an end-of-life planning tool that provides instructions for types of medical treatment that are desired and/or who can make decisions about medical care should someone be unable to do so for him or herself. The results will be published in an upcoming issue of Health Policy and are available online at the journal s website.

Carl E. Taylor, MD, DrPH, founder of the academic discipline of international health and a man of spiritual conviction who dedicated his life to the well-being of the world's marginalized people, passed away February 4 from prostate cancer. He was 93. The reach of his life was extraordinary, personally working in over 70 countries and having students from more than 100 countries.

The results from two new studies from Mexico and Africa conclude that rotavirus vaccination can significantly reduce deaths from diarrheal disease among young children in developing countries. The studies are published in the January 28 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. In an accompanying editorial, Mathuram Santosham, MD, MPH, a pediatrician and professor of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, writes that the data support the use of rotavirus vaccines in the poorest countries in the world.

The death rate from injuries in rural areas of China is higher than in urban areas, according to a new study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health s Center for Injury Research and Policy. Rural males of all ages were 47 percent more likely to die from injuries than urban males, and the overall rate in rural females was 33 percent higher than in urban females. For babies under one year of age, unintentional suffocation was the most important source of the total urban-rural disparity, whereas drowning was the great contributor to disparity among children ages 1 to 4 years. At the other end of the age spectrum, suicide accounted for the bulk of the disparity for both men and women. The report is published in the winter 2010 issue of The Journal of Rural Health.

High antiretroviral therapy adherence, which has been shown to be a major predictor of HIV disease progression and survival, is now associated with lower health care costs, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Researchers examined the effect of antiretroviral therapy adherence on direct health care costs and found that antiretroviral therapy improves health outcomes for people infected with HIV, saving a net overall median monthly health care cost of $85 per patient. The results are featured in the January 5, 2010, issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The April 2009 H1N1 outbreak at a Queens, New York, high school was widespread but did not cause severe disease, according to an analysis conducted by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Their findings suggest that the transmission and spread of novel H1N1 influenza are similar to those of seasonal influenza strains. The results appear in the December 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Scientists have identified a strain of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis that thrives in the presence of rifampin, a front-line drug in the treatment of tuberculosis. The bacterium was identified in a patient in China and is described in a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Chongqing Pulmonary Hospital, Lanzhou University and Fudan University. The researchers determined that the bacteria grew poorly in the absence of the antibiotic rifampin and better in the presence of the drug. They also observed that the patient s condition grew worse with treatment regimens containing rifampin, before being cured with rifampin-free regimens. The study, which will appear in the January 2010 issue of The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, is among the first to document the treatment of a patient with rifampin-dependent infection.

Volunteer service, such as tutoring children, can help older adults delay or reverse declining brain function, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers found that seniors participating in a youth mentoring program made gains in key brain regions that support cognitive abilities important to planning and organizing one s daily life. The study is the first of its kind to demonstrate that valuable social service programs, such as Experience Corps--a program designed to both benefit children and older adults health--can have the added benefits of improving the cognitive abilities of older adults, enhancing their quality of life. The study is published in the December issue of the Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.

There is no safe level for secondhand smoke exposure and we know that exposure to tobacco smoke can lead to serious health consequences, said Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This report defines the progress that has been made globally towards limiting exposure to harmful secondhand smoke while defining where additional progress is needed.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has established the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) to increase access to lifesaving vaccines by overcoming many of the obstacles that often delay vaccine usage and distribution.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health s International Injury Research Unit (IIRU) and Center for Injury Research and Policy today announced that Adnan A. Hyder, MD, PhD, MPH, associate professor with the Bloomberg School s Department of International Health and director of the IIRU, will lead the School s effort on Michael Bloomberg s $125 million Global Road Safety Program. The IIRU will join forces with five partner organizations, including the World Health Organization, to implement and coordinate activities with local governmental and non-governmental organizations in 10 countries to avert injuries and fatalities caused by road traffic crashes.

A study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health identified evidence of selective outcome reporting for clinical trials of off-label use of the seizure medication, gabapentin. The analysis compared study protocols for off-label use and the manufacturer s internal research reporting with published reports of study findings. The results are published in the November 12 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Robert S. Lawrence, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health s Center for a Livable Future (CLF), has been presented with the Sedgwick Award Medal for Distinguished Service in Public Health, the American Public Health Association s (APHA) oldest and most prestigious award. The award was established to recognize distinguished service to public health. Lawrence was presented with the award at the Public Health Awards Reception & Ceremony on November 11 in Philadelphia, Penn., at the close of APHA s 137th Annual Meeting and Exposition.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health s Center for Communication Programs (CCP) was awarded a Global Media Award for Best Serial Drama by the Population Institute. The annual award honors those who bring greater public awareness to the challenges related to population and reproductive health. CCP was recognized for the radio serial drama, Neighbors, which was produced in Uganda as part of a national campaign to encourage young married men to have smaller families using modern family planning methods with their wives.