New research suggests that the pharmacological effects of taking medications such as statins and beta-blockers as prescribed following a heart attack is associated with living longer, according to a study in the January 10 issue of JAMA.Clinical trials have demonstrated that selected medications reduce the risk of cardiovascular death. [click link for full article]

Packed lunches taken to school by 7-year olds are even less healthy than school meals used to be before Jamie Oliver set out to reform them.The Children of the 90s study, based at the University of Bristol, revealed today that in the year 2000, school meals were every bit as bad a Jamie Oliver suggested - but that children given packed lunches instead were even worse off nutritionally. [click link for full article]

Health insurers could prevent 4,736 deaths per year from heart-related problems and save $2.5 billion annually in related costs if they fully covered heart medications for patients who have had a heart attack, according to a study published in Health Affairs, the AP/Los Angeles Times reports. [click link for full article]

A research team at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the University of Heidelberg has proven that a gene protects some people with diabetes from developing severe kidney failure or ‘end-stage renal disease.’Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease worldwide, an illness that requires either kidney dialysis treatments or a kidney transplant for survival. [click link for full article]

Advances in medical technology are a main factor driving the trend of increasing health-care costs, and industry stakeholders agree that improved evaluation methods are needed to better measure the benefits and risks of new technologies and procedures in order to avoid misallocation of health-care dollars. [click link for full article]

Rural and urban hospitals are expected to receive millions of dollars in additional funding in fiscal year 2006 under provisions of the 2003 Medicare law involving prospective payment system reimbursements for inpatient care, according to a Medicare Payment Advisory Committee report, CQ HealthBeat reports. [click link for full article]

A new study shows that pancreatic cancer patients 65 or older who live at least five years after surgery have nearly as good a chance as anyone else to live another five years. [click link for full article]

The New York Times on Sunday issued an editor’s note about an April 9, 2006, New York Times Magazine article about El Salvador’s abortion law (New York Times, 1/7). [click link for full article]

Newspapers recently published an editorial and opinion pieces on Medicare issues included in the Democratic agenda for the 110th Congress. Summaries appear below. Editorial [click link for full article]