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President Calls For Medicare Payment Rate Revisions
President Obama reiterated his call to adjust Medicare reimbursement rates as a part of his broad push for health reform in a meeting with nine reporters, including writers from local newspapers, Wednesday. "While steering clear of details, Obama indicated that revised reimbursement rates helpful to areas [where reimbursement rates are low] should be part of a comprehensive healthcare reform package now in the works," McClatchy reports. "The reforms should also help steer more physicians to medically underserved regions, he said," achieve better quality, and lower government payments. The news service notes that the meeting was "part of [Obama"s] effort to rally political support for a healthcare rewrite. The package is still a work in progress, as key congressional committees already have missed their self-imposed legislative deadlines" (Doyle, 7/1).
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U.S. Appeals Court Rules To Enforce Illinois Parental Notification Law
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on Tuesday lifted, an injunction blocking the enforcement of an Illinois law that requires parental notification 48 hours before minors can undergo abortion procedures, the AP/South Town Star reports. The Illinois Legislature originally passed the law in 1984 and revised it in 1995. In 2007, U.S. District Judge David Coar issued an injunction blocking enforcement of the law. On Tuesday, the appeals court said that the measure was "a permissible attempt to help a young woman make an informed choice about whether to have an abortion."The American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the law, argued that a provision that allows a notification of a judge, rather than a parent, would be unworkable in practice. In an opinion by Judge Richard Cudahy, the appeals court panel said, "We acknowledge that there might be practical problems with the procedure at issue here" and that "it may be intimidating for a minor to navigate the process of presenting her case to a judge, for instance." It continued, "But we fail to see a better alternative. Abortion, no matter how it is confronted, may present intimidating choices to the minor woman who faces it."The law will take effect within a few weeks unless opponents ask for a stay. Ed Yohnka, an ACLU spokesperson, said that it is unclear what the next step would be but that the appeals court could be asked to rehear the case (Robinson, AP/South Town Star, 7/15).
News of the day
Study Finds New Approach To Treating Heart Attacks Reduces Risk Of Life-Threatening Complications
Transferring heart attack patients to specialized hospitals to undergo angioplasty within six hours after receiving clot-busting drugs reduces the risk of life-threatening complications, according to a Canadian-led study published today. The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggest that routine early transfer of patients after clot-busting drugs are administered results in significantly better outcomes than the current practice of transferring patients only when the clot-busting drugs fail.
Endocrinology

Researchers Discover Possible Therapeutic Target To Slow Parkinson's Disease

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) researchers have discovered a therapeutic target that, when manipulated, may slow the progression of or halt Parkinson"s disease, a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that affects an estimated one million people in the U.S. A team from the Center for Neurodegenerative and Neuroimmunologic Diseases in the Department of Neurology at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School carried out the study. M. Maral Mouradian, M.D., center director and William Dow Lovett Professor of Neurology, was its lead investigator. A paper on their findings, titled "Repression of a-synuclein expression and toxicity by microRNA-7," appears in the July 20 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). In this publication, the investigators report that the small RNA molecule microRNA-7, which is present in neurons, directly represses the expression of a-synuclein, a protein that, in excess, proves deleterious to certain types of brain cells. "Individuals who have multiple copies of the a-synuclein gene come down with Parkinson"s, so inhibitors of a-synuclein expression are attractive therapeutic targets," explained Mouradian. "Our manipulation protects neuronal cells from the toxicity that results from increased levels of this protein." There is no cure for Parkinson"s and there are no neuroprotective treatments as of yet, making this new strategy to manipulate the molecular underpinnings of the disease a significant discovery, Mouradian added. The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation"s largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,700 students attending the state"s three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and a school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network. UMDNJ


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