Health

Half of secondary school students consume at least one snack food a day at school.  Yet vending machines and snack bars in many schools have historically offered an abundance of candy, sugar-filled drinks, and other low-nutrient, high-calorie items rather than healthy snacks. Currently, 43 states have policies determining the types of snacks that schools may sell to students. However,... Read More

The Pew Charitable Trusts supports adjusting the level of fluoride in public water systems, because it’s one of the most effective and cost-saving strategies for states and communities to improve the oral health of their residents. Read More

Pew’s initiative for children’s dental policy promotes community water fluoridation as one of the most effective and least expensive strategies for improving oral health. Lauded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century, the adjustment of fluoride levels in drinking water has dramatically improved oral... Read More

On Tuesday, January 20, The Pew Charitable Trusts submitted a letter to HHS Secretary Burwell asking that forthcoming rules on electronic health record certification and Meaningful Use programs include provisions that allow and encourage providers to document specific medical devices implanted in patients. Read More

Half of secondary school students consume at least one snack food a day at school.  Yet vending machines and snack bars in many schools have historically offered an abundance of candy, sugar-filled drinks, and other low-nutrient, high-calorie items rather than healthy snacks. Currently, 43 states have policies determining the types of snacks that schools may sell to students. However,... Read More

Pew’s initiative for children’s dental policy promotes community water fluoridation as one of the most effective and least expensive strategies for improving oral health. Lauded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century, the adjustment of fluoride levels in drinking water has dramatically improved oral... Read More

On Tuesday, January 20, The Pew Charitable Trusts submitted a letter to HHS Secretary Burwell asking that forthcoming rules on electronic health record certification and Meaningful Use programs include provisions that allow and encourage providers to document specific medical devices implanted in patients. Read More

While the threat of antibiotic resistance is growing, regulatory approval for drugs to treat highly resistant bacterial infections can be challenging. Only a small number of patients who contract such infections meet the requirements to participate in traditional clinical trials. It’s difficult for researchers to select and enroll subjects in clinical trials to study treatments for some of... Read More

On Monday, January 12, The Pew Charitable Trusts submitted a letter to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) encouraging the organization to recommend that Congress allow patient review and restriction (PRR) programs in Medicare Part D. PRR programs are a tool already utilized in some commercial insurance plans as well as state Medicaid programs to support the safe and appropriate use... Read More

Experts from hospitals, health plans, health technology developers, medical device manufacturers, and other health care stakeholders convened December 9, 2014 to discuss the importance of medical device identification. The result: a clear message that a new tool to track medical devices can improve patient safety and the quality of care, but changes in health data systems must occur for this to... Read More

Suckjoon Jun, a 2013 Pew biomedical scholar and assistant professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues have published a study in the journal Current Biology that sheds light on how bacteria grow. Read More

Diego Alvarez, a 2009 Pew Latin American fellow and associate investigator at the National University of San Martin in Argentina, has received support from the Bunge and Born Foundation to develop diagnostic techniques for the virus that causes dengue fever. Read More

For the third consecutive year, Congress and President Barack Obama have approved funding for schools to purchase kitchen equipment that will enhance their ability to serve safe and healthy meals. The $1.1 trillion spending bill enacted this month, which funds most government agencies through September 2015, includes $25 million for kitchen equipment grants that will be distributed to schools by... Read More

The Pew Charitable Trusts supports adjusting the level of fluoride in public water systems, because it’s one of the most effective and cost-saving strategies for states and communities to improve the oral health of their residents. Read More

In January 2011, President Barack Obama signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) into law, signaling the first major update to our nation’s food safety oversight framework since the Great Depression. Despite widespread support for the legislation and its implementation, the Obama administration still has not issued final rules under FSMA. Read More

A closer look at the stakeholder requirements for the Drug Supply Chain Security Act as defined by Title II of the act. Requirements are broken down by each segment of the supply chain: manufacturers, re-packagers, wholesale distributors and dispensers. Read More

Farmer Friday provides a weekly opportunity to feature and thank farmers who raise their animals without routine antibiotic use. By using these drugs responsibly, these livestock producers are helping to ensure that antibiotics work for future generations. Read More