The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced recently that it will initially provide $9.5 million over three years to launch a Translational Research Network that will increase the opportunity for multi-site clinical and translational research among minority and other collaborating institutions throughout the nation. [click link for full article]

Four newspapers recently published articles about Medicaid developments in South Dakota; Utah; Washington, D.C.; and West Virginia. Summaries of the coverage appear below.South Dakota: A decision by the South Dakota Legislature to grant a 3% inflation increase in reimbursement rates to hospitals and nursing homes contradicts a state Department of Social Services payment plan submitted to [click link for full article]

Children living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries need access to specialized antiretroviral drugs and other treatments, Annette Sohn, an assistant professor at the University of California-San Francisco’s pediatric infectious disease division, said on Wednesday at the 4th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Sydney, Australia, [click link for full article]

New Medicaid proof-of-citizenship rules have reduced the number of beneficiaries in many states, although most of those dropped from the rolls were eligible for the program but could not provide adequate documentation, according to a Government Accountability Office report released on Monday, CQ HealthBeat reports. [click link for full article]

Should we be watching our exposure to airborne pollution as well as our cholesterol levels? Research now indicates that air pollution has a role to play in atherosclerosis (artery hardening), which can contribute to heart attacks or strokes. Findings published in the open access journal, Genome Biology, show how the fats that clog arteries work together with air pollution particles, triggering the genes behind inflammation. [click link for full article]

America’s Health Insurance Plans on Wednesday announced plans to launch an advertising campaign that seeks to prevent a proposed reduction in reimbursements to private Medicare Advantage plans, Roll Call reports (Ackley, Roll Call, 7/25). House Democrats have proposed the reduction as part of a bill that would reauthorize and expand SCHIP by $50 billion over five years. [click link for full article]

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, on Tuesday at a news conference in Riverside, Calif., responded to a question about his support for abortion rights by reiterating his pledge to appoint “strict constructionist” judges if elected, the [click link for full article]

Mammogram readings by both radiologists and non-physician technologists improve breast cancer detection rates, according to a study in the July 24 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.Studies have shown that breast cancer detection may increase when mammograms are reviewed by both a radiologist and a mammographic technologist. In The Netherlands, a breast cancer screening program was implemented in the 1990s that required all mammograms be read by two radiologists. [click link for full article]

Thiazolinediones, the name for a type of drug used to treat patients with diabetes type II, could double the risk of heart failure, say researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, USA, and the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom. [click link for full article]

Surgeons performing operations to remove patients’ prostate glands — the primary treatment for prostate cancer — go through a steep learning curve, according to a study published online July 24 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. As the surgeons gain more experience performing the operation, called a radical prostatectomy, the chance that patients’ prostate cancer will reoccur goes down. [click link for full article]