Publisher Mary Ann Liebert announced the launch of Childhood Obesity to provide physicians, nurses, dietitians, diabetes educators, nutritionists, psychologists, educators and school nurses, community organizers, and policymakers with effective prevention and treatment strategies that promote environmental and policy changes, patient education and motivation tools, and clinical advances in the field. The Journal, which is an outgrowth of Obesity and Weight Management, has a very broad mission to be the premier journal and central forum on childhood and adolescent obesity...

The American Association for Cancer Research in partnership with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is now accepting applications for the 2011 research grants program. The program is administered using the AACR's rigorous peer-review system to ensure that the highest quality science is supported. Numerous grants will be awarded in 2011, with a total funding level of nearly $3 million. This represents the largest annual dollar amount disbursed since the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network introduced the program in 2003, and is an almost 30 percent increase in funding over last year...

Reuters - Tests of tumor samples taken before and after treatment with an experimental melanoma pill helped researchers find the right dose in early stage testing, an approach that may boost the drug's chances of success and aid in developing others, company researchers said on Tuesday.

Reuters - Daily tablets of large doses of B vitamins can halve the rate of brain shrinkage in elderly people with memory problems and may slow their progression toward dementia, data from a British trial showed on Wednesday,

An ongoing research initiative into the health effects of botanical estrogens will get an $8 million boost from the National Institutes of Health. The Botanical Research Center, based at the University of Illinois, will draw on the expertise of a multidisciplinary team of researchers to address the many unknowns associated with use of botanical estrogens. These plants and plant-based compounds are often marketed as aids to prevent cancer, promote healthy aging or relieve menopausal symptoms...

EFPIA, the voice of the research-based pharmaceutical industry in Europe, acknowledges today's adoption by the European Parliament of a compromise to review a 25-year old EU Directive on the protection of laboratory animals. The compromise text was negotiated between the EU Parliament, Council and Commission during past months and must still be implemented by Member States. EFPIA Director General, Brian Ager, said; "The Council and European Parliament have aimed to strike a balance between improving welfare and maintaining Europe's medical research...

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided 13 mobile water treatment units to support the Government of Pakistan's flood relief effort. These water treatment units are stationed on some of the most flood-affected districts and have produced over 7.5 million liters of clean water. In addition, USAID has provided ten 10,000-liter water bladder kits to help facilitate the efficient distribution of clean water by minimizing waiting time at and distance traveled for water collection points...

The Council of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise on Tuesday released a new strategy for HIV vaccine research, which marked "the culmination of an 18-month effort that included the input of 400 scientists worldwide," VOA News reports (DeCapua, 9/7). The strategy, published as a Commentary (...

How much do medical liability costs-including the costs of malpractice insurance, claims and legal fees and doctors practicing "defensive medicine" to avoid being sued-add to overall medical costs? During the recent debates over federal health care reform, considerable attention focused on whether medical liability reform should be included in the package as a means of reducing costs. Proponents offered some very high estimates (as high as 10%) of how much the liability system contributed to health care costs, while opponents trivialized these expenses...

Boosting Health Insurance Access Kansas City Star Small business owners understandably are nervous about changes coming with health care reform. But then again, health care headaches are nothing new in their world. The good news is that recent studies suggest the new Affordable Care Act is likely to help people who work for small businesses. And over the long run, employers should have better access to low-cost plans and perhaps reduced administrative costs (9/7). At The End Of Life, A Costly Refusal To Talk About Options Norwich (Conn...

The Hill's Healthwatch: The Department of Health and Human Services has issued guidance on how insurers can get waivers from health law-mandated restrictions on annual limits. "The new law creates temporary restrictions on health plans starting Sept. 23. But the law also allows the annual limits to be waived 'if compliance ... would result in a significant decrease in access to benefits or a significant increase in premiums.' The guidance, quietly issued Friday, applies only to plan years beginning between Sept. 23, 2010, and Sept. 22, 2011...

The Fiscal Times: "Nationally, the number of Medicaid beneficiaries has risen by 8 percent a year since 2008, and 44 states have reported that they will exceed their enrollment and spending growth projections this year, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured reported. A dozen other states, including Arizona, Utah, Wisconsin and Maryland, have experienced double-digit annual enrollment increases." California and New York have experienced growth rates of 24 percent and 16 percent, respectively...

The Seattle Times reports on educating people about AIDS in the African immigrant community in Seattle. "For African immigrants, who come from countries with high rates of HIV and AIDS, talking about their own diagnosis is often taboo. Solomon Tsegaselassie, a health educator for the Center for Multicultural Health in Seattle, which pays people $20 to get HIV/AIDS tests, says many immigrants won't come to the office for testing. 'They want me to visit their house in the dark so people don't get suspicious,' he said...

The combined cost of malpractice -- and doctors' efforts to avoid it by practicing so-called defensive medicine -- costs about $55.6 billion a year, or 2.4 percent of total health spending, according to a new analysis by "Harvard University's Atul Gawande and co-authors, Bloomberg reports. "The yearly price of so-called defensive medicine -- tests, visits and procedures performed to reduce litigation risk -- is about $45.6 billion, the authors said today in the journal Health Affairs, in a report using 2008 dollars...

A federal appeals court on Tuesday said it will not revisit its decision to uphold settlements that allow pharmaceutical companies to pay competitors to keep generic versions of their drugs off the market, The Wall Street Journal reports. "In April, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals [in New York] affirmed the legality of a settlement in which Bayer AG, in essence, paid Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc., a potential generic competitor, to drop its patent challenge to Cipro, a Bayer antibiotic...

News outlets report on hospital industries in Houston, Texas; Irvine, Calif. and Madison County, La. The Houston Chronicle: "Options to address the unique health concerns of older adults are becoming increasingly common in Houston, thanks to the longevity of the oldest seniors and graying baby boomers. In the past year, Memorial Hermann-Southwest Hospital opened the state's first senior emergency center. The UT Center for Healthy Aging, meanwhile, focuses on primary care and specialty care as well as brain and memory health care for older adults. ...

The Associated Press examines political ads on health reform. "With the country sharply divided over the sweeping new insurance law, Republicans and their allies are taking to the airwaves to attack it as elections near, often resorting to exaggeration and omissions to make their points." For instance, one ad claims that Democrat Rep. Joe Sestak, of Pennsylvania, voted to "gut" Medicare by cutting $500 billion (over 10 years), though budget scorekeepers place the overall cost of Medicare over 10 years at $7.1 trillion...

The Associated Press: "Even if Republicans succeed beyond any current predictions and capture both the Senate and the House, they wouldn't have enough GOP votes to overcome President Barack Obama's veto." But, they could exercise the "congressional power of the purse, denying the administration billions of dollars ... Faced with an opposition Congress 'defunding' his health care plan, would Obama make a stand? Would he risk shutting down the Health and Human Services department, the IRS, or perhaps even the whole government? 'At that point, does he let everything else go?' asked former Rep...

Kansas State University has been a issued a patent for a plentiful and noncontroversial source of stem cells from a substance in the umbilical cord. The patent addresses procedures to isolate, culture and bank stem cells found in Wharton's jelly -- the substance that cushions blood vessels in the umbilical cord. These cells are called cord matrix stems cells and are different than those obtained from the blood cells in umbilical cords...

Writing for Kaiser Health News, Marilyn Werber Serafini reports in a KHN short take: "Getting a doctor's appointment may become increasingly difficult for seniors and the disabled over the next decade unless Congress changes the new health law, according to a report that the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis plans to release today...