Thursday, January 13, 2005

Alliance for Taxpayer Access asks NIH who really owns publicly-funded medical research  Alliance for Taxpayer Access press release at EurekAlert - "In a letter sent Tuesday to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, an informal coalition of stakeholders who support reforms that will make publicly funded biomedical research accessible to the public, expressed deep disappointment after NIH cancelled a planned briefing and announcement on new guidelines. No explanation was given for the cancellation of the announcement. Advocates had hoped the NIH plan would make peer-reviewed articles on taxpayer-funded research fully accessible and available online at no extra cost to the American public. In the long-awaited Enhanced Public Access Policy, NIH was expected to issue a call to action to each grant recipient to voluntarily submit her or his peer-reviewed scientific research results to PubMed Central at the National Library of Medicine. By making this wealth of federally–funded research information available to spur innovation and improve health, NIH would work through its grantees to fulfill the 'research compact' that governs every grant of public funds by the agency."  
  

Governor plans public forums on Medicaid reform (New Hampshire)   AP story - "Following up on an earlier promise, Gov. John Lynch has set up his first public forum to discuss Medicaid reform. ... Lynch said he hopes to solicit new ideas for changing Medicaid as well as gather comment on the Department of Health and Human Services reform proposal known as GraniteCare. ... Health Commissioner John Stephen has called the current Medicaid system financially unsustainable. Stephen’s GraniteCare plan projects a 30-percent reduction in nursing home use in five years by providing more home- and community-based care. It also calls for individual budgets and 'more aggressive management' of mental health services and services to people with developmental disabilities."