Category: Petrie-Flom Center

By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang

• The Obama administration launched a new initiative on Tuesday to map the individual cells and circuits that make up the human brain. The project aims to provide a better understanding of how a brain works and how to devise better treatments for brain injuries and diseases.
• A federal judge on Friday ordered the Food and Drug Administration to make the most common morning-after pill available over the counter for all ages, instead of requiring a prescription for girls 16 and younger.
• Unable to meet tight deadlines in the new healthcare law, the Obama administration is delaying parts of a program intended to provide affordable health insurance to small businesses and their employees — a major selling point for the healthcare legislation. According to a quarterly study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, requirements of the new health care law were small business owners’ top concern this past quarter.
• A new clinic offering abortions and other women’s medical services has opened in the Wichita building where a slain abortion provider practiced. The South Wind Women’s Clinic saw its first patient Thursday, nearly four years after Dr. George Tiller was gunned down in his church by an abortion opponent in May 2009.
• China announced Tuesday that four more people in the coastal part of the country had been infected with a new strain of bird flu, which is believed to have killed two Shanghai residents last month and left one person in critical condition.
• The Food and Drug Administration said that smokers who are trying to quit can safely use over-the counter nicotine gum, patches and lozenges for longer than previously recommended.
• Washington was the only state ever to have legalized abortion through a popular vote and is now debating a law that would require health insurers to pay for an elective abortion.
• The Food and Drug Administration approved the first of a new class of medicines to treat diabetes. The drug, Invokana, will be sold by Johnson & Johnson and treats patients with type 2 diabetes in a new way, by causing blood sugar to be excreted in the urine.

By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang

• The Obama administration is encouraging skeptical state officials to expand Medicaid by subsidizing the purchase of private insurance for low-income people.
• A New York Times article features Kaiser Permanente, an organization which combines a nonprofit insurance plan with its own hospitals and clinics, as the kind of holistic health system that Obamacare encourages.
• Food safety advocates, environmentalists, and health professionals are engaging in a last-minute campaign to highlight a controversial legislative amendment that they say would weaken the ability of both the judiciary and the federal government to regulate genetically modified agricultural products.
• Gov. Mark Dayton Wednesday signed into law historic and controversial legislation that creates a new market place for health insurance called “MNSURE.”
• The New York affiliate of the National Rifle Association on Thursday requested an injunction to stop the state’s strict new gun control law enacted in the wake of the Newtown school shooting.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said its plans for regulating some healthcare apps for smartphones and tablets are aimed to foster technological innovation while protecting public safety and will not impose undue burdens on developers or stifle the growing mobile health industry.
• The number of walk-in clinics is increasing across the United States and private equity is helping fund the expansion.