An alliance of Australia’s peak chronic disease prevention groups has welcomed an announcement today by Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott to allocate more than $37 million to community-based programs to promote healthier lifestyles. [click link for full article]

A multimillion dollar Australian centre for back and neck pain research and treatment will be launched today (Monday, October 15, 2007). The University of Queensland has received a $2 million grant to establish a Centre for Clinical Research Excellence in Spinal Pain, Injury and Health.The Centre features two community-based clinical research sites where trials of innovative new treatments for spinal pain will be conducted. [click link for full article]

The October 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (JCSM) reports that modafinil is well-tolerated in the treatment of excessive sleepiness associated with disorders of sleep and wakefulness such as shift work sleep disorder, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and narcolepsy, and does not affect cardiovascular or sleep parameters.The study, authored by Thomas Roth, PhD, of the Henry Ford Sleep Center in Detroit, Mich. [click link for full article]

A new study in the October 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (JCSM) finds that a high proportion of patients with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) report previous or current use, and interest in future use, of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies.The study, authored by Amit Sood, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., focused on 646 consecutive patients undergoing polysomnography. [click link for full article]

Overall cancer death rates fell 2.1% during 2002-2004, compared to 1.1% during 1993-2002, according to a new report published by America’s principal cancer organizations, called Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2004, Featuring Cancer in American Indians and Alaska Natives.You can read the report in the journal [click link for full article]

A new study in the October 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (JCSM) finds that patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who also suffer from depression often find that continued use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) relieves them of symptoms of depression.Daniel J. Schwartz, MD, of The Sleep Center at University’s Community Hospital in Tampa, Fla. [click link for full article]

Summaries of editorials, opinion pieces and letters to the editor addressing President Bush’s veto of legislation that would have reauthorized and expanded SCHIP appear below. Editorials [click link for full article]

The American Medical Association and AARP on Wednesday — as part of their effort to encourage Congress to cut Medicare Advantage plan reimbursements — held a briefing that highlighted problems with private fee-for-service plans in rural areas of the U.S., [click link for full article]

The October 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (JCSM) reports on the Cleveland Adolescent Sleepiness Questionnaire (CASQ) - a new self-completed instrument to measure excessive daytime sleepiness in adolescents.James C. [click link for full article]

CMS on Thursday launched a revised version of the Medicare Drug Plan Finder [click link for full article]