AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, said that an agreement reached between the Government and the AMA over the introduction of the new Medicare Easyclaim system will deliver significant benefits to patients.Following months of close consultation between Human Services Minister Senator Chris Ellison, Health Minister Tony Abbott and the AMA, the Government have announced a package to support medical practices in the transition to electronic Medicare claiming for patients. [click link for full article]

The AMA is calling for urgent regulation of the booming solarium industry to protect young Australians from developing deadly skin cancers. The AMA Public Health Committee has developed a draft policy following the death of skin cancer awareness campaigner, 26 year old Claire Oliver, from melanoma thought to be related to solarium use when she was a teenager. [click link for full article]

Expressions of “deep concern and disappointment about reports that the pending SCHIP reauthorization will go forward without addressing several issues that are critical to access to care for Medicare beneficiaries” were sent today to congressional leaders by the American College of Physicians (ACP). David C. Dale, MD, FACP, president of ACP, sent letters on behalf of the 124,000 internal medicine physicians and medical student members of ACP. Dr. [click link for full article]

The AMA welcomes Government funding of $40 million to equip regional school buses with seat belts, but says more needs to be done to ensure all children have the same access to safe transport.The AMA has lobbied for years for compulsory fitting (including retrofitting) and use of seatbelts in all school buses.All buses that travel at speeds of over 80km per hour, not just school buses, must be fitted with seatbelts, according to the AMA. [click link for full article]

The Cancer Council Australia and the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia (COSA) have called on the next Australian Government to adopt new Senate recommendations to improve travel and accommodation assistance for cancer patients in rural Australia. [click link for full article]

Growth hormone and associated proteins could be responsible for promoting many types of cancer, including breast and prostate cancer, according to an Australian researcher. Professor Mike Waters, from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland, said that blocking growth hormone action could be a useful avenue for cancer therapy. [click link for full article]

A Jekyll-Hyde mechanism that both protects healthy cells and enables cancer cells could be the basis for new cancer-fighting drugs.Scientists in the laboratory of Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist have discovered that a certain transcription factor — a protein that binds to specific areas of the genome and acts to switch genes on and off — known to aid in handling stresses also facilitates the survival of cancer cells. [click link for full article]

Scientists at Johns Hopkins recently discovered that a chemical chain reaction that controls organ size in animals ranging from insects to humans could mean the difference between normal growth and cancer. The study, published in the Sept. 21 issue of Cell, describes how organs can grow uncontrollably huge and become cancerous when this chain reaction is perturbed. [click link for full article]

Biomedical engineers at The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston have announced pre-clinical test results in the September issue of the International Journal of Nanomedicine demonstrating the feasibility of a smart particle insulin release system that detects spikes in glucose or blood sugar levels and releases insulin to counteract them. [click link for full article]

The Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP), the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) and other Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences’ (USU) military medical education and research programs are collaborating and extending the knowledge base and treatment capacity of the military health system. The CDP, which is directed by David S. Riggs, Ph.D. [click link for full article]