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ADA Offers Research Grants
The American Diabetes Association and device maker Medtronic are offering grants for research into online diabetes-management tools, including the company's CoreLink database. Researcher will have access to CoreLink – which contains anonymous data from more 200,000 people with diabetes – to examine the impact of management technology on clinical outcomes, compliance, and various factors that affect glycemic control in patients taking insulin. “In the long run, this research can help influence future diabetes technology and shape how we educate people with diabetes,” said Dr. Robert R. Henry, president for medicine and science at the association.
Thyroid Group Urges More Free KI
Following the catastrophe at Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Plant, the American Thyroid Association has reissued its call for free potassium iodide for states and local governments to distribute to residents living within 20 miles of nuclear plants, not just 10 miles. The association asserted that the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 directed the president to implement the wider distribution but that neither President Bush nor President Obama had done so. “The 1986 Chernobyl accident illustrated how Poland (about 200 miles from Chernobyl) was the only country to distribute [potassium iodide] to its population and was the only radiation exposed country that did not have an increase in the subsequent development of thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer,” according to an association statement. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has also sent a letter to the White House, urging the president to implement the program.
You Too Can Fight Obesity
The nonprofit group National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality has begun recruiting community teams to its Healthy Weight Collaborative to fight obesity. The program is funded by $5 million from the Affordable Care Act's prevention fund. In the first phase of the collaborative, the group is recruiting 10 teams that can be made up of physicians and public health leaders. The second phase of the program will launch in December and will include about 40 more teams. Teams are to help “develop practical approaches that link primary care, public health, and communities to prevent and treat obesity for children and families, according to the initiative's website. For more information, visit
www.collaborateforhealthyweight.org
McDonald's: Ronald is Golden
McDonald's Corp. will continue to use mascot Ronald McDonald to advertise Happy Meals to children despite calls for the fast food giant to cut the clown to help reduce childhood obesity, company CEO Jim Skinner told a shareholders' meeting. Mr. Skinner spoke in answer to a challenge by Donald Zeigler, Ph.D., the American Medical Association's director of prevention and healthy lifestyles, in a statement presented at the meeting. “Changing course now and ending marketing to kids … would have a profound impact on McDonald's reputation and the health and well-being of generations to come throughout the world,” Dr. Zeigler said. Mr. Skinner countered that the marketing strategy has yielded profits. “This is about the personal and individual right to choose,” he said.
CME-Funding Dilemma Persists
Although physicians and other medical professionals say they're concerned that commercial funding of continuing medical education may bias the information provided, most are not willing to pay more to offset or eliminate such funding, a study in Archives of Internal Medicine shows. Researchers surveyed 770 physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants at CME sessions and found that the vast majority (88%) said that commercial support of CME introduces bias. However, only 15% would eliminate commercial support from CME activities and only 42% said they were willing to pay more in an effort to cut industry financial involvement. Most CME participants also significantly underestimated the amount of commercial funding for their courses, the authors wrote, adding that “the dilemma remains of how to provide quality CME either with [alternative funding] or at reduced cost.”
ADA Offers Research Grants
The American Diabetes Association and device maker Medtronic are offering grants for research into online diabetes-management tools, including the company's CoreLink database. Researcher will have access to CoreLink – which contains anonymous data from more 200,000 people with diabetes – to examine the impact of management technology on clinical outcomes, compliance, and various factors that affect glycemic control in patients taking insulin. “In the long run, this research can help influence future diabetes technology and shape how we educate people with diabetes,” said Dr. Robert R. Henry, president for medicine and science at the association.
Thyroid Group Urges More Free KI
Following the catastrophe at Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Plant, the American Thyroid Association has reissued its call for free potassium iodide for states and local governments to distribute to residents living within 20 miles of nuclear plants, not just 10 miles. The association asserted that the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 directed the president to implement the wider distribution but that neither President Bush nor President Obama had done so. “The 1986 Chernobyl accident illustrated how Poland (about 200 miles from Chernobyl) was the only country to distribute [potassium iodide] to its population and was the only radiation exposed country that did not have an increase in the subsequent development of thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer,” according to an association statement. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has also sent a letter to the White House, urging the president to implement the program.
You Too Can Fight Obesity
The nonprofit group National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality has begun recruiting community teams to its Healthy Weight Collaborative to fight obesity. The program is funded by $5 million from the Affordable Care Act's prevention fund. In the first phase of the collaborative, the group is recruiting 10 teams that can be made up of physicians and public health leaders. The second phase of the program will launch in December and will include about 40 more teams. Teams are to help “develop practical approaches that link primary care, public health, and communities to prevent and treat obesity for children and families, according to the initiative's website. For more information, visit
www.collaborateforhealthyweight.org
McDonald's: Ronald is Golden
McDonald's Corp. will continue to use mascot Ronald McDonald to advertise Happy Meals to children despite calls for the fast food giant to cut the clown to help reduce childhood obesity, company CEO Jim Skinner told a shareholders' meeting. Mr. Skinner spoke in answer to a challenge by Donald Zeigler, Ph.D., the American Medical Association's director of prevention and healthy lifestyles, in a statement presented at the meeting. “Changing course now and ending marketing to kids … would have a profound impact on McDonald's reputation and the health and well-being of generations to come throughout the world,” Dr. Zeigler said. Mr. Skinner countered that the marketing strategy has yielded profits. “This is about the personal and individual right to choose,” he said.
CME-Funding Dilemma Persists
Although physicians and other medical professionals say they're concerned that commercial funding of continuing medical education may bias the information provided, most are not willing to pay more to offset or eliminate such funding, a study in Archives of Internal Medicine shows. Researchers surveyed 770 physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants at CME sessions and found that the vast majority (88%) said that commercial support of CME introduces bias. However, only 15% would eliminate commercial support from CME activities and only 42% said they were willing to pay more in an effort to cut industry financial involvement. Most CME participants also significantly underestimated the amount of commercial funding for their courses, the authors wrote, adding that “the dilemma remains of how to provide quality CME either with [alternative funding] or at reduced cost.”
ADA Offers Research Grants
The American Diabetes Association and device maker Medtronic are offering grants for research into online diabetes-management tools, including the company's CoreLink database. Researcher will have access to CoreLink – which contains anonymous data from more 200,000 people with diabetes – to examine the impact of management technology on clinical outcomes, compliance, and various factors that affect glycemic control in patients taking insulin. “In the long run, this research can help influence future diabetes technology and shape how we educate people with diabetes,” said Dr. Robert R. Henry, president for medicine and science at the association.
Thyroid Group Urges More Free KI
Following the catastrophe at Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Plant, the American Thyroid Association has reissued its call for free potassium iodide for states and local governments to distribute to residents living within 20 miles of nuclear plants, not just 10 miles. The association asserted that the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 directed the president to implement the wider distribution but that neither President Bush nor President Obama had done so. “The 1986 Chernobyl accident illustrated how Poland (about 200 miles from Chernobyl) was the only country to distribute [potassium iodide] to its population and was the only radiation exposed country that did not have an increase in the subsequent development of thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer,” according to an association statement. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has also sent a letter to the White House, urging the president to implement the program.
You Too Can Fight Obesity
The nonprofit group National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality has begun recruiting community teams to its Healthy Weight Collaborative to fight obesity. The program is funded by $5 million from the Affordable Care Act's prevention fund. In the first phase of the collaborative, the group is recruiting 10 teams that can be made up of physicians and public health leaders. The second phase of the program will launch in December and will include about 40 more teams. Teams are to help “develop practical approaches that link primary care, public health, and communities to prevent and treat obesity for children and families, according to the initiative's website. For more information, visit
www.collaborateforhealthyweight.org
McDonald's: Ronald is Golden
McDonald's Corp. will continue to use mascot Ronald McDonald to advertise Happy Meals to children despite calls for the fast food giant to cut the clown to help reduce childhood obesity, company CEO Jim Skinner told a shareholders' meeting. Mr. Skinner spoke in answer to a challenge by Donald Zeigler, Ph.D., the American Medical Association's director of prevention and healthy lifestyles, in a statement presented at the meeting. “Changing course now and ending marketing to kids … would have a profound impact on McDonald's reputation and the health and well-being of generations to come throughout the world,” Dr. Zeigler said. Mr. Skinner countered that the marketing strategy has yielded profits. “This is about the personal and individual right to choose,” he said.
CME-Funding Dilemma Persists
Although physicians and other medical professionals say they're concerned that commercial funding of continuing medical education may bias the information provided, most are not willing to pay more to offset or eliminate such funding, a study in Archives of Internal Medicine shows. Researchers surveyed 770 physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants at CME sessions and found that the vast majority (88%) said that commercial support of CME introduces bias. However, only 15% would eliminate commercial support from CME activities and only 42% said they were willing to pay more in an effort to cut industry financial involvement. Most CME participants also significantly underestimated the amount of commercial funding for their courses, the authors wrote, adding that “the dilemma remains of how to provide quality CME either with [alternative funding] or at reduced cost.”