SureScripts on Tuesday unveiled a Web site that will allow health care workers to access the prescription information of people who live in areas impacted by natural disasters, the AP/Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports. After an earthquake, hurricane or other disaster, representatives for the [click link for full article]

The International Society of Nephrology (ISN) has announced Pierre M. Ronco (Hopital Tenon, Paris France) as the 2007 winner of the ISN Jean Hamburger Award, and Rashad Barsoum (Cairo Kidney Center, Egypt) as recipient of the Roscoe R. Robinson Award. [click link for full article]

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) on Wednesday introduced companion bills (S 1218 and H 2034) that would allow U.S. residents younger than age 65 to enroll in Medicare, [click link for full article]

Ten outstanding geriatric social work faculty members have been chosen as the newest inductees into the Hartford Faculty Scholars Program, a venture funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, administered by The Gerontological Society of America, and directed by Dr. Barbara Berkman. The individuals who receive this distinction are provided with opportunities for professional development and $100,000 in funding over the next two years. [click link for full article]

The National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine released a report recommending nutrition standards be established for “competitive” foods in the school environment, such as a la carte cafeteria items, vending machines and school stores. [click link for full article]

Several newspapers recently published editorials and opinion pieces responding to a report released earlier this month that found that abstinence-only sex education programs are not effective in preventing or delaying teenagers from having sexual intercourse. The report, commissioned by Congress and released earlier this month by Mathematica Policy Research, followed 2,057 U.S. [click link for full article]

House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) on Wednesday announced that by July he plans to introduce legislation to reduce Medicare reimbursements for private Medicare Advantage plans to help fund other health care proposals, CQ HealthBeat reports. [click link for full article]

University of Illinois researchers Soo-Yeun Lee and Shelly Schmidt are trying to solve a mystery: Why doesn’t diet soda taste more like regular soda? Can a well-trained panel of “taste testers” pinpoint the exact problem? And can food scientists do anything to fix it?”If we could make diet soda taste better, it would be a big step in fighting the obesity epidemic,” said Shelly Schmidt, a U of I professor of food chemistry. [click link for full article]

University of Virginia researchers have discovered that microRNAs, a form of genetic material, can function as tumor suppressors in laboratory studies.In the May 1 issue of Genes & Development, UVa researchers Drs. Yong Sun Lee and Anindya Dutta have shown that microRNAs can suppress the overexpression of a gene called HMGA2. This gene is related to creation of fatty tissue and certain tumors, as well as diet-induced obesity. [click link for full article]

Research increasingly shows promise to both slow and relieve the effects of diabetic retinopathy, the most common complication of diabetes.In its earliest stages, retinopathy often has no overt symptoms but can progress over time to a phase in which the blood vessels of the eye leak and rupture easily, eventually causing blindness. This frightening complication is caused by high blood glucose levels, and nearly all people with type 1 diabetes show some symptoms of the disorder. [click link for full article]