Surgery to correct gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, can preserve lung function in patients with end-stage pulmonary disease both before and after transplantation, according to a new study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

In the UK, falls are the leading cause of injury among people over 65 years of age, with approximately 1 in 3 sustaining a fall each year. However, according to a study published online in Emergency Medicine Journal, the ambulance service response to these 999 calls varies considerably. (The emergency services number in the UK is 999, in the USA it is 911) 1 in 12 emergency calls for ambulance services in London alone are made for elderly individuals who have fallen.

Study reports long-term positive effects of the orthopaedic disaster response in Haiti; Meanwhile Academy initiates first-of-its kind disaster response certification to prepare for future crises When mass-casualty events occur, orthopaedic surgeons travel throughout the world to treat wounded patients in countries devastated by war, natural disaster and poverty. In 2010, 500 U.S.

The number of American children leaving doctors’ offices with an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis has risen 66 percent in 10 years, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. Over this same time frame, specialists, instead of primary care physicians, have begun treating an increasing number of these young patients, the study found.

Approximately 1.2 million humans die each year from malaria, a much higher figure than the previously estimated 600,000, researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, USA, reported in The Lancet this week. The authors added that the majority of deaths occur in children under the age of 5 years, while 42% occur in adults and older children.

211 LA County (211 LA) provides care coordination in its pilot program aimed at screening children birth to 5 years of age using Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS), PEDS Developmental Milestones (PEDS:DM) and the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT), these are high quality, web-based tool employed over the telephone. PEDS is an evidence-based brief screening that elicits and addresses parents’ concerns to detect 70-80% of a wide range of developmental and behavioral issues in children.  The M-CHAT tests for Autism Spectrum Disorders against typically developing children.

To increase the number of low income children getting screened for developmental delays, 211 LA partnered with the Early Identification and Intervention Collaborative of Los Angeles County (includes 350 organizations across multiple sectors) dedicated to improving and expanding timely identification of and intervention for children with or at risk of delays, disabilities and other barriers of development. The partnership focused on callers to the Parent Helpline staffed by 211 LA information and referral specialists and funded by the First 5 LA Commission, created a unique and innovative approach to screen children using online evidence based screening tools to identify children birth to 5 years of age who need intervention services.

From September 2009 to October 2011, 2,845 children have been screened. A total of 28% (803) of the children screened were found to be in the highest risk category for developmental delay or disability; another 28% (782) were found to be at moderate risk and 16% (463) were at elevated risk for behavioral or mental health problems; only 28% (797) were at low risk. In addition to the PEDS, 211 LA care coordinators employed the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT), finding 21% of children screened having an elevated risk for Autism. These incredible outcomes motivated the Los Angeles County Office of Education-Special Education Division, the Los Angeles County Office of Education Head Start State Preschool, Comprehensive Autism Related Education, Inc., the Child Development Institute, and several other key service providers to partner with 211 LA so that children who demonstrate elevated risk receive follow-up and continuing services. This powerful regional partnership attracted grant funding from the following foundations: W.M. Keck, Weingart, S. Mark Taper; and matching grants from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and First 5 LA to fund the specialized care coordination work at 211 LA and to expand the program to reach more children.

Results from the Intervention Early Developmental Screening:
The findings suggest that the project is consistently and continuously identifying children at a much higher risk for developmental delays and disabilities as compared to the general population. Close to 70% of the children being screened by the project are found to have some level of risk that requires follow-up and care coordination. This is disconcerting given that the proportion of children expected to have a “Path A” result from a PEDS screening is more typically 11%, while approximately 9.7% would be expected to fail the M-CHAT.

A new analysis of malaria mortality published in The Lancet this week suggests deaths to the parasitic disease worldwide have been grossly underestimated, especially in adults. If confirmed, the study has huge implications for how large amounts of charity money are spent in controlling the disease.

Washington Post

Colorado’s table was set for monster fire [Agriculture Dept., Forest Service, climate change] – Darryl Fears reports that the U.S. Forest Service chief says the record-breaking forest fires in western states in the last decade are due to climate change as temperatures increase, and estimates that the agency needs to clear 82 million acres of dead trees and grass in order to prevent fires from spreading; meanwhile, limitations on logging to protect animal species and expansion of residential areas have contributed to increased fire risk

New York Times

Judge strikes main element of for-profit college rules [Education Dept., for-profit colleges] – Tamar Lewin reports that a federal judge in Washington State struck down one of the Education Department’s new requirements for federal aid to non-profit colleges – that at least 35 percent of graduates must be repaying their loans – because that requirement did not measure whether a program was effective in preparing students; the judge let stand the department’s requirement that “career-college programs must disclose to students their graduation rate, their placement rate and their students’ median debt load”

Wall Street Journal

High Court rejects challenges to media rules [Federal Communications Commission] – Amy Schatz and Brent Kendall report that the Supreme Court decided not to hear broadcasters’ challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s media ownership rules that limit cross-ownership of broadcast and newspapers in the same market – broadcasters had argued that FCC should no longer wield such power because there were many more media outlets today than when the Court held that the FCC’s power to impose ownership limits was constitutional; separately, the Court turned down the FCC’s appeal of a decision throwing out its ‘indecency” fine of broadcasters for airing “fleeting profanity and nudity” in the 2004 Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident

ProPublica

How a lone grad student scooped the government and what it means for your online privacy [Federal Trade Commission, online privacy] – Peter Maas reports that a graduate student in law and computer science at Stanford uncovered “digital shadowing” by Google, prohibited by the Federal Trade Commission, before the agency did and that European regulators are also ahead of the U.S. in uncovering invasions of online privacy; he concludes that “the FTC is ill-equipped to find out, on its own, what companies like Google and Facebook are doing behind the scenes”

Worldwide increases in the incidences of asthma, allergies, infectious and cardiovascular diseases will result from a variety of impacts of global climate change, including rising temperatures, worsening ozone levels in urban areas, the spread of desertification, and expansions of the ranges of communicable diseases as the planet heats up, the professional organization represen.

There are large differences in US health insurance coverage by racial and ethnic groups, yet there have been no estimates to date on how implementation of the Affordable Care Act will affect the distribution of coverage by race and ethnicity.  Using a microsimulation model to show that racial and ethnic differentials in coverage could be greatly reduced, potentially cutting the eight-percentage-point black-white differential in uninsurance rates by more than half and the nineteen-percentage-point Hispanic-white differential by just under one-quarter.

However, blacks and Hispanics are still projected to remain more likely to be uninsured than whites. Achieving low uninsurance under the Affordable Care Act will depend on effective state policies to attain high enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the new insurance exchanges. Coverage gains among Hispanics will probably depend on adoption of strategies that address language and related barriers to enrollment and retention in California and Texas, where almost half of Hispanics live. If uninsurance is reduced to the extent projected in this analysis, sizable reductions in long-standing racial and ethnic differentials in access to health care and health status are likely to follow.

The new UK alcohol strategy includes a plan to ensure that General Practitioners (GPs) advise heavy drinkers to cut down (The Government’s Alcohol Strategy, 23 March 2012, downloadable*). There is good evidence that this can reduce how much people drink.

Washington Post

Friday’s storm raises questions about safety of cloud computing [General Services Administration, cloud computing] – Craig Timberg reports that there are concerns about the government’s shift to cloud computing – a process of storing information remotely at data centers controlled by Amazon or Google – in light of power outages caused by severe storms across the Midwest and East that affected Netflix and Pinterest, large companies that use cloud computing

GlaxoSmithKline to pay $3B in largest healthcare fraud settlement in US history [Justice Dept., Food and Drug Administration] – AP reports that as part of its settlement of criminal and civil charges brought by the Justice Department, GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay the largest fine ever by a drug manufacturer for essentially bribing doctors to use an array of drugs for uses unapproved by the Food and Drug Administration and failing to report safety issues with the diabetes drug Avandia; the company’s unlawful practices were flagged by whistleblowers – salespeople at the company – over a decade ago

New York Times

Agency confronts hurdles in helping veterans match military skills to civilian jobs [Veterans Affairs Dept.] – James Dao reports on a job fair in Detroit arranged by the Veterans Affairs Department, part of the agency’s effort to help veterans who have difficulty convincing employers that their military skills translate to the civilian workplace

Cost to protect U.S. secrets doubles to over $11 billion [CIA, National Security Agency, Information Security Oversight Office] – Scott Shane reports that although there is an ongoing debate about how much government information needs to be classified, there is a move toward classifying more agencies’ information at an estimated cost of $13 billion –  an amount exceeding the budget for the entire Environmental Protection Agency

Bloomberg News

Fed officials signal tighter rules on bank-sponsored money funds [Federal Reserve] – Steven Sloan reports on comments made by Federal Reserve Bank officials that signal the Fed is ready to take action to increase oversight of the $2.5 trillion money market fund industry even if the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t impose regulations on it; he reports that the SEC is at an impasse in its consideration of regulations

Asian Canadian teenagers who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual are 30 times more likely to face harassment than their heterosexual peers – a factor that is linked to higher rates of alcohol or drug use, according to University of British Columbia research.

The online issue of the European Heart Journal reports that a study of almost 2,000 American men has demonstrated that men who survived a first heart attack and who consume alcohol in moderation have a lower risk of dying from heart disease or any other cause than non-drinkers.

Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) have developed a computer application that allows georeferenced images that have been uploaded to social networks on the Internet to be recovered, located on maps and organized like a comic to create a visual perspective of a specific story, such as a crisis situation or an emergency.

Widely used antibiotics may increase incidence and severity of allergic asthma in early life, according to a University of British Columbia study. The study, published in the journal EMBO reports, shows that certain antibiotics that affect intestinal bacteria also had a profound impact on allergic asthma.