Medical Health Animations

Obama Appoints Former Sen. Daschle As HHS Secretary, Democratic Officials Say
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) has accepted an offer from President-elect Barack Obama to become the new HHS secretary, according to Democratic officials, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports (Freking, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 11/19).

State Budget Shortfalls Force Cuts In Home Care For Low-Income Elderly, People With Disabilities
At least 15 states facing widening budget shortfalls are cutting funding for services for low-income elderly residents and people with disabilities, mostly for programs that allow low-income "shut-ins" to receive personal care in their own homes, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the

Health Care Workers Face Increased Risk Of Mortality From HIV, Other Bloodborne Diseases, Study Finds
A new CDC study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine has found that health care workers face an increased risk of dying from bloodborne diseases, such as HIV, and related illnesses compared with workers in other fields, Reuters reports.

S.D. Abortion Script Threatens Doctor-Patient Relationship, NEJM Opinion Piece Says
A South Dakota law that requires a physician to tell a woman seeking an abortion that the procedure "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being" with whom she has an "existing relationship" signals "a new step in states' efforts to restrict abortion," Zita Lazzarini of the University of Connecticut Health Center and

Study Looks At Physicians' Likeliness To Refer Minority Patients To Clinical Trials
"Factors Influencing Physician Referrals of Patients to Clinical Trials" (.pdf), Journal of the National Medical Association: The study, by University of South Carolina medical researchers, looks at physicians' attitudes and beliefs about recruiting patients to clinical trials, particularly minorities.

GOP Must Renew Focus On 'Core' Social Values, Conservative Leader Says
The Republican Party will regain political power only if its leaders remain firm in their socially conservative positions, including the party's antiabortion stance, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention said this week, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. Land is the president of the

AARP Public Policy Institute Releases Issues Report On Racial, Ethnic Disparities In Medicare Beneficiaries' Immunizations
"Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Influenza and Pneumococcal Immunization Rates Among Medicare Beneficiaries" (.pdf), AARP Public Policy Institute: The issues report discusses factors that might contribute to black and Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries' access to immunizations.

Impact Of Aging Society To Be Examined By New MacArthur Network
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is creating a new inter-disciplinary research network to help America prepare for the challenges and opportunities posed by our aging society. In the middle of the next decade, the United States will become an aging society, one feature of which is that those over age 60 will outnumber those under age 15.

Symposium: Public Health And Human Rights: The Work Ahead Of Us
On December 5, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The New York Academy of Sciences will host a half-day symposium to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The event, "Public Health and Human Rights: The Work Ahead of Us," will evaluate progress in public health and human rights over the last 60 years. Navanethem Pillay, SJD, LLM, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights will be the keynote speaker.

Tracing Metal Pollution Back To Its Sources
A new way of pinpointing where zinc pollution in the atmosphere comes from could improve pollution monitoring and regulation, says research out this week in the journal Analytical Chemistry. Imperial College London researchers say their work is a major breakthrough as current methods for analysing zinc pollution only measure pollution in the atmosphere; they do not trace it back to its source.

AAMC Applauds Senate Democrats For Including NIH Funds In Stimulus Bill
AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D.

Final World Trade Center 7 Investigation Report Released By NIST
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released its final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, collapse of the 47-story World Trade Center building 7 (WTC 7) in New York City. The final report is strengthened by clarifications and supplemental text suggested by organizations and individuals worldwide in response to the draft WTC 7 report, released for public comment on Aug.

The King's Fund Calls For Major Overhaul Of Key Government Health Reform
A major shake-up of one of the government's central health policy reforms to devolve greater power to GPs and deliver higher quality services to local communities is urgently needed, concludes a two-year study of practice-based commissioning published today by The King's Fund.

Thanksgiving Podcasts From The American Chemical Society Feature Advances Toward Safer, Healthier Food
With a whole nation set to gather for the annual Thanksgiving Day feast, scientists are describing major advances in making Thursday's meal - and others - safer and more nutritious in the 10th and 11th episodes of the American Chemical Society's Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions (GC/CS) podcast series. Part One of the podcast focuses on food safety. It includes research by Dan Donoghue, Ph.D.

The Value Of A Medical Intervention To Be Discussed In Upcoming Issue Of 'Value In Health'
Value for money has become an important part of the overall assessment of medical interventions. But, the choice of method for assessing value has significant impact to the result. The quantification of the value of a medical intervention is assumed to be standardized although different methodology is available; thus the objective of a recent study was to assess whether this holds true or not.