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New Tool Isolates RNA Within Specific Cells
A team of University of Oregon biologists, using fruit flies, has created a way to isolate RNA from specific cells, opening a new window on how gene expression drives normal development and disease-causing breakdowns.
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Farmer Still Under Consideration For Obama Administration Position, Takes Harvard Medical School Appointment
While Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer is still being considered for a senior role in the Obama administration, Farmer has been appointed chair of Harvard Medical School"s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine -- Jeffrey Flier, the medical school"s dean, said on Wednesday -- the Boston Globe reports. Flier said that Farmer will take a leave of absence from the medical school if he is offered a position with the administration. For now, Farmer is slated to succeed the current chair, Jim Kim, on July 1 (Smith, Boston Globe, 5/28). Foreign Policy"s "The Cable" reports that Farmer is "under consideration to head" USAID or "serve in a top administration international assistance post that would encompass it." An unnamed "international health activist" said that Farmer might be appointed USAID administrator "as an interim thing" and that he might go on to lead a new position focused on "global health in the process of foreign assistance reform over the coming year." Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is organizing efforts to reform the Foreign Assistance Act later this year. The act was originally written in 1961 (Rozen, "The Cable," Foreign Policy, 5/26).On Tuesday, Jack Lew, Deputy Secretary Of State for Management and Res, said that the government is considering ways to significantly improve coordination of various agencies that work with global health assistance. "We"re open to creative ideas about how to bring appropriate res to bear," Lew said, adding, "When we look at public-private partnerships and recruiting, we"re looking at how to cast the broadest net to bring in the right talent and commitment to address the challenge" (Boston Globe, 5/28). Partners in Health said it is pleased that Farmer is being considered along with other strong candidates. Wendy Sherman, an advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Aaron Williams, a former USAID official who is now with RTI International, are among some of the "[p]reviously rumored contenders for the USAID administrator job," according to "The Cable." Last week, Farmer had a meeting with Clinton, Partners in Health said. Andrew Marx, a spokesman for the group, said that one of the reasons why people are "excited about the idea of Paul is that he and Partners in Health in the past have been quite prepared to challenge the accepted wisdom." According to Marx, Farmer did not buy into the conventional approach to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in the 1990s, when WHO"s official policy was not to treat people who were diagnosed with the disease because it was complicated and the costs were high. When asked if Farmer would be interested in a USAID administrator position that has strong democracy and governance components, Marx said, "Good governance and democracy are important to us," adding that the group"s work focuses on building up countries" public health systems rather than creating independent health clinics. David Bryden, senior program policy officer for the Center for Global Health Policy, said, "There are many exciting things about Paul Farmer." According to Bryden, Farmer "has been a person with a very practical mindset, he knows how to get the job done, put aside conventional wisdom when it"s wrong. ... It"s really exciting" ("The Cable," Foreign Policy, 5/26).
News of the day
AP/Los Angeles Times Examines Haiti's Fight Against HIV
The AP/Los Angeles Times examines Haiti"s success at reducing the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in the country through the work of the "nonprofit groups, Boston-based Partners in Health (PIH) and Port-au-Prince"s GHESKIO, widely considered to be the world"s oldest AIDS clinic." Haiti"s HIV rate is "lower than the Bahamas, Guyana and Suriname, and much lower than sub-Saharan Africa, where the rate averages about 5 percent but spikes to 24 percent in Botswana and 33 percent in Swaziland," according to the newspaper. Still, as the article notes, Haiti"s "crisis is far from over," with varying infection rates across remote regions in the country.
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Report Calls For Significant Changes To Ease Regulatory Bureaucracy

A report launched at the NHS Confederation annual conference today warns that the bureaucratic burden of healthcare regulation is growing and calls on the Department of Health and regulators to simplify providers" process of reporting. Today"s report, What"s it all for? Removing unnecessary bureaucracy in regulation, calls for a reduction in unnecessary form-filling by improving how regulators collect and share information. With nearly 70 regulators, auditors, inspectorates and accreditation agencies (RAIAs) reviewing the area of healthcare, organisations are increasingly faced with submitting the same data in different formats to a several agencies. Feedback from both NHS and independent sector providers in the report indicates that the submission of data and evidence to various RAIAs has substantially increased the amount of administrative work in most organisations in recent years. The report is based on work undertaken by the Provider Advisory Group, a joint NHS Confederation and Independent Healthcare Advisory Services (IHAS) group. It found considerable overlap and duplication in reporting requirements. The group suggests the Department of Health could help reduce providers" burdens by merging agencies or putting them under a common directorship. The group"s recommendations include an improvement in the level of information-sharing between agencies and a greater preparedness amongst providers to challenge multiple submissions of the same data to different agencies. A web portal for sharing data and a revision of how questions are asked could reduce the amount of information duplicated unnecessarily. Other recommendations for the Department of Health include producing guidance for RAIAs on the best way to share data and a review of the current system to see where processes can be streamlined. Peter Mount, co-author of the report and chair of Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said healthcare providers were experiencing a significant bureaucratic burden but could do more to simplify the process. "At a time when healthcare providers are under growing scrutiny about the standard of care they provide and how transparently their organisations are run, regulators and auditors play an important role. However, responsibility for high quality healthcare lies with providers and while they have a right to challenge duplicative requests and make a decision based on the costs and benefits of participating in voluntary inspections, they must be aware of the importance of submitting data. The concentration on processes so often misses the real issue which is outcomes in quality of healthcare", he said. Dr Andrew Jones, co-author of the report and group medical director, Nuffield Health, said: "Much of the feedback we received from providers reflected a growing concern about form-filling producing the same information in different ways. We welcome the response of the Department of Health to review the recommendations contained in this report which should help to ease the pressure and costs on providers and simplify the process for all parties involved." Steve Barnett, NHS Confederation chief executive, said: "The integration of three regulators to form the CQC should help to streamline the regulatory landscape, but more can be done to make the system more manageable. This report offers practical recommendations about how to make that happen." Sally Taber, director of IHAS, said: "The group"s recommendations highlight the importance of setting up a clear and manageable process for all parties at a time when NHS and independent healthcare providers have an increasing duty to provide detailed and accurate information." Notes The NHS Confederation and Independent Healthcare Advisory Services established the Provider Advisory Group (PAG) in November 2007. Its purpose is to advise the Department of Health and the CQC on the impact of existing or proposed regulatory frameworks for providers, with a focus on reducing duplication and bureaucratic burden. The NHS Confederation represents more than 95% of the organisations that make up the NHS. Its members include the majority of NHS acute trusts, ambulance trusts, foundation trusts, mental health trusts, primary care trusts, independent providers of NHS services, special health authorities and strategic health authorities in England; trusts and local health boards in Wales; and health and social service trusts and boards in Northern Ireland. The Independent Healthcare Advisory Services (IHAS) brings together its subscribing members from across the independent healthcare industry to share knowledge, expertise and innovation, for the common good. IHAS facilitates communication between its members, the governments of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and regulatory authorities. It drives policy advancement with shared member input and consultation in all four countries of the United Kingdom and hosts the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS). Independent Healthcare Advisory Services


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