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December 7, 2007 Sign up Forward Archive Advertise News for nurse practitioners   Health Care News  Treatment advances lead to decline in childhood cancer deaths A CDC report shows that deaths from childhood cancers such as leukemia dropped 20% from 1990 to 2004, due in part to improvements in drug and bone marrow transplant treatments. The report's authors note regional and racial discrepancies in the numbers, including a lower rate of improvement for Hispanic Americans. Yahoo!/Reuters (12/6) Report: Gastric cancer cases on decline in Western countries Gastric cancer cases will decline at least 24% in Western countries during the next decade, according to a report. Researchers say the decline will occur without specific intervention, and they attribute the trend to a declining number of H. pylori infections. Medscape (free registration) (12/6)   Pharmaceutical News  Drug industry to bolster pediatric drug development The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations on Thursday pledged to strengthen efforts to develop children's medicines amid concerns about the off-label use of treatments for the age group. The trade group's director general, Harvey Bale, called for better access to new and more suitable treatments, and stressed the need for more studies focused on the safety and efficacy of existing drugs for children. Financial Times (free content) (12/7) FDA to issue new advice on Prilosec, Nexium heart risks The FDA is expected to release new safety guidance within days on AstraZeneca's heartburn drugs Prilosec and Nexium. It previously announced that it found no evidence of an increased risk of heart attacks, heart failure and heart-related sudden death when compared with surgery, but two others studies have suggested such links. Reuters (12/6) Clinical trial finds Byetta effective as stand-alone diabetes treatment Patients with adult-onset diabetes were able to lower their blood sugar levels after receiving only Amylin Pharmaceuticals' drug Byetta, a clinical trial showed. The company plans to use the trial results in its FDA application for use of Byetta as a stand-alone therapy. San Diego Union-Tribune (12/6)   Emerging Trends, Products and Technologies  Health IT groups unveil regulatory timeline The North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance and the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange have launched their first regulatory timeline to help inform industry stakeholders about health IT initiatives. The timeline outlines the implementation of version 5010 of the HIPAA standard transactions and estimates completion by 2014. Health Data Management (12/6) Personal health record model gets approval The Personal Health Record System Functional Model has received approval as a trial draft standard from Health Level Seven. The model outlines several security features and functions that may be present in PHR systems and provides guidelines for exchanging data among PHRs or with EHR systems. Health Data Management (12/6) Automated reminders encourage walking as exercise A study from Stanford University has shown that calls from a computerized system that encourage walking are motivation enough to get sedentary people moving. Participants in the Community Health Advice by Telephone program who received calls from a computer logged an average of 157 minutes of exercise per week and human calls prompted about 171 minutes per week, while those who received no calls averaged 118 minutes per week. Yahoo!/Associated Press (12/6)   Health Policy and Legislative News  Medicare to reduce reimbursement for lymphoma treatments Medicare's new rules for a cluster of cancer drugs, including GlaxoSmithKline's Bexxar and Biogen Idec's Zevalin, could deny thousands of lymphoma patients access to the treatment, a spokesperson for the Lymphoma Research Foundation said. Under the new rules, Medicare will reimburse hospitals about $16,000 per treatment instead of the drugs' market price of between $30,000 to $50,000. NYTimes.com (12/7)   AANP News  AANP 2008 elections The Call for Nominations for 2008 AANP Elections has been issued. AANP members wishing to run for office in 2008 should go to the Members Only section of the AANP Web site for a listing of positions for 2008 as well as other information. Deadline for completion of the nominations form is Jan. 11, 2008. Questions may be e-mailed to elections@aanp.org. 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