Monday, September 30, 2002

NIDA and SAMHSA agreement expedites transfer of research findings to clinical practice
A press release from the National Institute on Drug Abuse on "a unique intra-agency agreement to expedite the application of findings from treatment research into clinical application.... Under the agreement, NIDA will provide funding to support CSAT's Addiction Technology Transfer Centers (ATTC), a network comprised of 14 independent regional centers and a national office charged with increasing the knowledge and skills of addiction treatment practitioners and fostering alliances to support and implement best treatment practices. The purpose of the agreement is to enhance efforts to disseminate and apply findings from NIDA's National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) as well as other NIDA-supported studies to practitioners served by the ATTCs."  
  

Key Legislation Falling Victim to Calendar
Washington Post story on how "...both President Bush and congressional Democrats are watching some of their top initiatives fall by the wayside -- victims of the calendar and the two parties' skillful manipulation of it to advance their own political and policy objectives." Among the initiatives that appear "in varying states of peril" are protections for managed-care patients and improved insurance coverage for mental health.  
  

After Decline, the Number of Uninsured Rose in 2001
New York Times story - "The number of Americans without health insurance rose to 41.2 million last year, an increase of 1.4 million, and small businesses accounted for much of the erosion in coverage, the Census Bureau said today. The proportion of the population without insurance also increased, to 14.6 percent in 2001, from 14.2 percent in 2000, the bureau said." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Tracking Health Care Costs: Hospital Spending Spurs Double-Digit Increase in 2001
Data bulletin from the Center for Studying Health System Change. See also the related abstract of a Health Affairs journal article.  
  

Watching SCHIP grow up: Accomplishments and challenges in covering the uninsured
American Medical News story on the 5-year-old children's insurance program's successes - and worries about its financial future.  
  

Study points to roots of teen violence
Story in the Toledo Blade on a Medical College of Ohio study on adolescent violence that was published in New Research in Mental Health, a report issued by the Ohio Department of Mental Health. The report is not yet available at the department's Office of Program Evaluation & Research page, but should be there shortly.  
  

State plans to collect personal medical data (Minnesota)
Minneapolis Star Tribune story on plans by the Minnesota Health Department to collect medical information on virtually every patient in Minnesota, complete with names, birth dates and diagnoses. "Critics point to several cases that reinforce their worst fears. Last year, the mental health evaluations of up to 20 Minnesota children were posted on a University of Montana Web site when a student accidentally transferred the data from her laptop computer. In Florida, a state health investigator was reportedly fired in 1996 for distributing a confidential list of AIDS patients. In 1999, the General Accounting Office reported that a federal employee admitted to looking through the Medicare files of famous people; he was allowed to resign."  
  

Families Struggle to Bond With Kids (Utah)
Salt Lake Tribune feature story on the ongoing debate surrounding reactive attachment disorder and its diagnosis and treatment - a debate "that pits medical doctors against mental health professionals and social workers, as well as parent against parent."