I thought I'd create a little links fest for those who would like to sip from the firehose that is health and healthcare.
This post is for novice readers and features some core and must-have reference links.
Since I'm a two a day essayist, and I already used one of my daily offerings, I'll add the links for the major highlights of today at the bottom. If you like what you read, or if you would enjoy something different, please let me know in the comments, and I'll adjust accordingly.
Health Policy Links
Excellent website with RSS feeds, links and stories about politics intersecting with healthcare. All of the presidential candidates' stances on healthcare are included in table format.
The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that aims to promote a high performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children, and elderly adults.
The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy. An international program in health policy is designed to stimulate innovative policies and practices in the United States and other industrialized countries.
After twenty-five years as a non-profit, bimonthly print journal and six years in online publishing, Health Affairs has entered the blogosphere as a new means of engaging readers in the health policy debate. The journal is all about an ongoing dialogue on health policy issues of concern to a diverse audience of interested readers. Read more from Health Affairs' founding editor John Iglehart on why the journal has started a blog.
What will the blog include?
Health Affairs plans to experiment with the blog. Some posts (short, invited commentary) will be clustered around a hot topic. Some will be one-time postings on news items of interest. Linking and interactivity will be key. Our goal is to offer a range of views, not to push a particular agenda.
The main elements will include:* invited posts from leading policy analysts;
* responses from a variety of health care stakeholders;
* comments welcome from all readers;
* links to timely information both within Health Affairs and from other sources;
* staff-written posts on policy briefings, new reports, hot policy topics
The nation turns to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies for science-based advice on matters of biomedical science, medicine, and health. A nonprofit organization specifically created for this purpose as well as an honorific membership organization, the IOM was chartered in 1970 as a component of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Institute provides a vital service by working outside the framework of government to ensure scientifically informed analysis and independent guidance. The IOM's mission is to serve as adviser to the nation to improve health. The Institute provides unbiased, evidence-based, and authoritative information and advice concerning health and science policy to policy-makers, professionals, leaders in every sector of society, and the public at large.
Health News Links
Highlight HEALTH serves as an information medium to provide knowledge and understanding of dietary supplements, nutrition and health news. We evaluate scientific information, disseminate research results and educate readers who are seeking better health to promote an enhanced quality of life.
This is a don't miss site which lists breaking stories from the science, health and tech fields. Best to subscribe from a reader as the content flows fast and furious, and almost always ahead of everyone else.
Privacy news, discussions, and resources.
The Pump Handle blog
The Pump Handle is a place for people interested in public health and the environment to discuss the issues that interest us, particularly when they're not getting the treatment we think they deserve in the mainstream media.
The story of the pump handle is familiar to any first-semester public health student: During the London cholera epidemic of 1854, John Snow examined maps of cholera cases and traced the disease to water from a local pump. At the time, the prevailing theory held that cholera spread through the air, rather than water, so Snow faced criticism from others in the science community - not to mention resistance from the water companies. He finally convinced community leaders to remove the pump's handle to prevent further exposure.
More than a century later, thousands of people still die from cholera each year, and providing clean drinking water to the world's entire population is a far-off goal. The Pump Handle symbolizes both a public health victory and the challenges facing the public health and environmental fields today.
Most of this blog's founding members are epidemiologists from the US, and we'd like to bring in writers from other disciplines and places.
Today's Health News Links
Compensation for 9/11 Rescue, Recovery, and Cleanup Workers
It is time for Congress to enlist the nation's science and policy experts to help develop a federal workers' compensation program for 9/11 rescue, recovery, and cleanup workers. The inadequacy of state worker programs led Congress to legislate special compensation programs for uranium miners, and civilian workers in nuclear weapons facilities. We did not require the families of those killed in the terrorist attacks to rely on state workers' compensation programs. The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (pdf) provided more than $7 billion to families of the victims.
Wall Street Journal Health Blog Renewed Calls for Better Care for 9/11 Responders
"To think we're indebted to their efforts but we're really not doing enough to deal with their health concerns and their health impacts, it's really a sad commentary," New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone said yesterday, the Associated Press reported.
The ailments common among those close to the site after the attack include post-traumatic stress, gastrointestinal illnesses and a range of respiratory conditions, such as asthma.
Pallone is part of a bipartisan group on Capitol Hill that recently wrote to administration officials asking for more information about plans to continue funding health care for responders and others. He'll chair a hearing on the subject next week.
And a few days ago, three New York congressmen (Democrats Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, and Republican Vito Fossella) said they will introduce a bill that would establish a federal program that among other things would guarantee monitoring and care for residents, area workers and school children, in addition to those who worked and volunteered at ground zero.
Last, but in the theme of the last shall be first, please pay attention to this. The HHS has been using progressives most recently by hosting a phony blog about pandemic flu planning. Its chief shill, Dr. John Agwunobi, went from blogging false information about flu pandemic planning to jumping ship and going directly to Wal-Mart as its director of health and wellness. A true Orwellian use of the term.. The AMA should be looking very sharply at a physician who is shilling for Republicans and spouting misinformation. There's a word for that - malpractice.
It's been a week of bad news for lazy or sloppy health care organizations. An employee fired after a security breach of protected health information filed a wrongful termination suit against his former employer, and it may have merit because of poor policies. A community health care provider hacked by a disgruntled employee may be dragged into a compliance quagmire because it's not clear that the organization took basic steps to revoke his access. And to top it off, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is starting to swing the enforcement rule -- a dowdy part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that few people read -- like a scythe in a field of weedy policies and overgrown practices.
GAO Report Reveals Serious Shortcomings in National Strategy to Counter Pandemic Influenza
Chairman Waxman, along with Rep. Tom Davis, Rep. Bennie Thompson, and Sen. Judd Gregg, release a new GAO report revealing serious shortcomings in the nation's pandemic preparedness.
The report urges a clearer definition of the federal government's role, promotes interagency cooperation, and advises the development of a coherent national strategy to deal with pandemic influenza. The lawmakers call on the Administration to address the problems identified in the GAO analysis.
That's the link patrol for today. Too much? Not enough? Just right?
Take the temperature and let me know the diagnosis.
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