Vehicle design decreases roadway accidents; competitors join hands to combat Autism; media to blame for Obama?s failure to sell the ACA to the public; scientists create healthiest meal ever. These stories and more topping public health headlines today, Wednesday, June 20, 2012.
Governing ? Report: ACA Prevention Fund at Work in State and Local Public Health
A mere 3 percent of U.S. health-care spending is invested in preventing health problems, although 75 percent of the nation?s health-care costs are related to preventable conditions, according to a new report released Wednesday by the American Public Health Association (APHA). But plans are in motion to reverse that trend. A key component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and thus a program whose future is in limbo until the Supreme Court rules on the law, is the Prevention and Public Health Fund, a funding stream that is slated to pump billions of dollars into federal, state and local prevention effort
NHTSA ? New NHTSA Study Shows Improved Vehicle Design Contributing to Historic Decline in Roadway Deaths and Injuries
The U.S. Department of Transportation?s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today announced that better-designed, safer vehicles have contributed to an overall decline in crashes, deaths and injuries on U.S. roadways. In a new report issued today, the agency?s analysis of police-reported crash data estimates that design improvements between Model Year 2000 and Model Year 2008 cars helped save 2,000 lives and prevented one million occupant injuries in the 2008 calendar year alone.??Between better safety practices developed at the Department of Transportation and improved designs by automakers, we are making real progress protecting drivers and passengers nationwide,? said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. ?We celebrate the historic decline in deaths and injuries on our roads as we remain laser-focused on continuing to improve safety.?
New York Times ? Competitors Form Partnership to Develop Autism Drugs
Two of the front-runners in the race to develop drugs to treat mental retardation and autism are joining forces, hoping to save money and get to the market sooner.?A deal, expected to be announced on Tuesday, will pool the resources of Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, and Seaside Therapeutics, a private 30-employee company based in Cambridge, Mass. There is rising excitement that drugs might be able to relieve some of the behavioral problems associated with autism and in particular a cause of autism and mental retardation known as fragile X syndrome. About 100,000 Americans have fragile X syndrome.
New York Times ? Facebook launches free fitness app with U.S. Olympians Summer Sanders, Kevin Durant,?Alex Morgan and Michael Johnson
Want to get fit? It helps to have an Olympic athlete as a friend. Healthy Share, a free fitness tool from GE and Facebook, taps four Olympians, including 2012 hopefuls Kevin Durant (men?s basketball) and Alex Morgan (women?s soccer), plus gold medalists Michael Johnson (men?s track & field) and Summer Sanders (women?s swimming), to challenge folks of all fitness levels with Summer Games-styled sweat sessions. Facebook users can begin the GE Olympic Games challenge by joining HealthyShare and taking each athlete?s guidelines to getting off the couch.
Wall Street Journal ? Band-Aids for the Health Law
House officials say they are confident the Supreme Court will uphold the health-care law, but they also are preparing for a range of outcomes, including pressing ahead with what remains of the law if the court strikes down only part of it. Republicans, meanwhile, are preparing a two-step approach if the court doesn?t void the entire law: A quick vote in the House to repeal any parts of it that remain, which would be unlikely to get approval in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and then a push for a series of small changes to health-care policy.
Daily Meal ? Healthiest meal ever: After editing thousands of claims, scientists serve up a superdish
Food researchers pored over some 4,000 health claims used by manufacturers and supermarkets to tempt shoppers into buying their products. These were whittled down to only 222 that were judged to have basis in scientific fact ? and from those they have concocted a menu that is being hailed as the healthiest ever. It includes a series of superfoods that can provide you not only with a filling main meal but also plenty of extra snacks and treats with equal health- promoting benefits.
Kaiser Health News ? What?s At Stake For Women If SCOTUS Overturns The Health Law
A provision in the 2010 health care law requiring contraceptive coverage for women without copays has gotten most of the press. But much more is at stake for women if the Supreme Court overturns the health care law. Starting in 2014, the law bars insurance practices such as charging women higher premiums than men, or denying coverage for pre-existing conditions that could include pregnancy, a Caesarean-section birth or a sexual or a domestic violence assault.
NPR ? Shocker: Doctors Work When They?re Sick
How do doctors work around so many ill people without getting sick? Well, they don?t.?Even if they scrub their hands like crazy, which certainly helps, they succumb to germs every once in a while, just like the rest of us. And also like lots of the rest of us, they?ll go to work sick, a survey of medical residents finds.
New York Times ? Can Athletes Perform Well on a Vegan Diet?
With the publication this month of ?Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness? by the vegan distance runner Scott Jurek, vegan diets have become a wildly popular topic on running-related Web sites. But is going totally meatless and, as in Mr. Jurek?s case, dairy-free advisable for other serious athletes, or for the rest of us who just want to be healthy and fit?
NPR ? How Opponents Won The Health Care Messaging War
OK, so it?s not exactly news that the Obama administration hasn?t done the best job in the world selling the Affordable Care Act to the American public. But now the Pew Research Center?s Project for Excellence in Journalism has some statistics to demonstrate just how sorry that job has been. And it suggests that the media gets at least some of the blame. It seems that during the pivotal period during which the legislation was being crafted (and the public was forming an opinion), from June 1, 2009, through March 31, 2010, nearly half the media coverage (49 percent) ?focused on politics and strategy as well as the legislative process.? How much focused on what the measure would actually do? Just 23 percent.
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