EnergyNow!, an alliance comprised of leading authorities in the physical education, nutrition and fitness technology fields, today announced the availability of physical education grants to help schools in the tri-state New York area combat childhood obesity through a results-based program. [click link for full article]

A new US study suggests that emotional wellbeing has no effect on the chances of surviving head and neck cancer. People with so called negative emotions had the same survival rate as people with positive emotions, the researchers found.The study is to appear in the 1st December issue of the journal Cancer and is the work of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) School of Medicine and other colleagues. [click link for full article]

GE Healthcare announced it received FDA 510k clearance on its Navigator Applications Suite, an aid to healthcare providers as they make clinical decisions in anesthesia therapy. GE also introduced its Pressure Controlled Ventilation-Volume Guaranteed (PCV-VG) technology in the Avance Carestation, an advanced anesthesia delivery solution. [click link for full article]

Summaries appear below of several recent editorials, opinion pieces and a letter to the editor that examine the recent presidential veto of legislation to reauthorize and expand SCHIP and the House’s failed attempt to override the veto. Editorials [click link for full article]

Summaries of two editorials and an opinion piece on issues related to Medicare appear below.Marie Cocco, [click link for full article]

The National Asthma Council Australia has welcomed the news that Australia’s lastCFC asthma inhaler, Serevent Metered Dose Inhaler, will be discontinued fromDecember 31, 2007. According to the Council, which led the charge for the discontinuation of CFCcontaining inhalers, the phasing out of CFCs in asthma inhalers has been handledcarefully and gradually to ensure that patients have ongoing access to theirmedications. [click link for full article]

The Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force on Wednesday released a list of 37 recommendations aiming to address a mortality rate gap between black and white women with breast cancer, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Members of the task force studied the issue for a full year (Ritter, Chicago Sun-Times, 10/18). [click link for full article]

UnitedHealth Group on Thursday reported that third-quarter net income increased by 15% to $1.28 billion, or 95 cents per share, from $1.11 billion, or 80 cents per share, in the same quarter last year, the AP/Long Island Newsday reports. Revenue for the quarter increased by about 4% to $18. [click link for full article]

Researchers are reporting a 150 percent increase between 1998 and 2003 in American women opting to have both breasts removed when cancer has been found in only one breast-a procedure called contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM). This is the first study to examine these trends on a national level. [click link for full article]

In a major victory for cancer care, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) stated yesterday that it would not change its clinical trials coverage policy. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and others in the cancer community have been urging CMS to continue coverage after the agency issued a proposal July 17 that threatened Medicare beneficiaries’ access to clinical trials. [click link for full article]