Washington Post

Bernanke: US job market improving but still far from normal with further gains uncertain [Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke] – AP reports that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a national business group that he is puzzled by the unusual coupling of slow economic growth with a steep decline in unemployment, which makes him cautious about projecting an economic recovery — the reason economists believe the Fed will keep interest rates near zero in the short term

In speech to South Korean students, Obama describes a North Korea their social networks can’t reach [President Obama, North Korea, South Korea] – David Nakamura reports that while in South Korea for an international conference on nuclear security — including efforts to bring pressure on North Korea to scale back its nuclear arms program — President Obama spoke to South Korean students, contrasting their open, democratic society that has been able to prosper with the isolated, totalitarian North Korea that remains impoverished

Senators want feds to look into employers asking for Facebook passwords during job interviews [Justice Dept., U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, on-line privacy] – AP reports that Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have asked the Justice Department and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate whether employers asking potential hires for their Facebook password is lawful, specifically whether it violates laws that “prohibit intentional access to electronic information without authorization and intentional access to a computer without authorization to obtain information”

New York Times

The wall between contractors and politics [Federal Election Commission, Citizens United] – The Times argues in favor of the historic ban on government contractors contributing to political campaigns, which has come under question following the Citizens United decision that lead to unions and corporations contributing huge sums of money to political action campaigns

Health act arguments open with obstacle from 1867 [Supreme Court, Affordable Care Act] – Adam Liptak reports that the first day of the three-day argument in front of the Supreme Court about the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act focuses on an procedural issue: whether the penalty for not purchasing health insurance as required by the ACA is a tax, and if so, whether a 1867 law that prohibits court review of a tax until after it has been paid prohibits courts from hearing challenges to the ACA’s mandate because the penalty would not be paid until 2015

Wall Street Journal

Panel finds failings by U.S. agency in deadly mine blast [Mine Safety and Health Administration] – Kris Maher reports that had the Mine Safety and Health Administration — which is charged with enforcing mine safety regulations — done its job, it could have mitigated or prevented the explosion at the Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia where 29 miners died, according to a report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which earlier found that Massey Energy was primarily responsible for the disaster

Trust buster takes hard line as e-book probe continues [Justice Dept., Antitrust Division] – Thomas Catan reports that the acting head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, Sharis Pozen, warned electronic-book publishers that the agency wouldn’t hesitate to bring charges for collusion on e-book pricing, as the Department continues its investigation of Apple and five publishers

FTC urges Congress to pass digital-privacy law [FTC, digital privacy] — Julia Angwin reports that the Federal Trade Commission is calling for Congress to pass a law to protect the privacy of digital consumers after a two-year study — urging brokers who buy and sell names, addresses, and other personal information to give the owners of those tidbits the right to see their data

Policy-based incentives for health care providers to adopt health information technology are predicated on the assumption that, among other things, electronic access to patient test results and medical records will reduce diagnostic testing and save money. To test the generalizability of findings that support this assumption, we analyzed the records of 28,741 patient visits to a nationally representative sample of 1,187 office-based physicians in 2008. Physicians’ access to computerized imaging results (sometimes, but not necessarily, through an electronic health record) was associated with a 40–70 percent greater likelihood of an imaging test being ordered.

The electronic availability of lab test results was also associated with ordering of additional blood tests. The availability of an electronic health record in itself had no apparent impact on ordering; the electronic access to test results appears to have been the key. These findings raise the possibility that, as currently implemented, electronic access does not decrease test ordering in the office setting and may even increase it, possibly because of system features that are enticements to ordering. We conclude that use of these health information technologies, whatever their other benefits, remains unproven as an effective cost-control strategy with respect to reducing the ordering of unnecessary tests.

Washington Post

On health-care hearing’s last day, Supreme Court weighs Medicaid expansion [Supreme Court, Affordable Care Act] – Robert Barnes and N.C. Aizenman report that three days of arguments before the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act left the impression that the conservative Justices would carry the day and strike down the law’s requirement that almost everyone purchase of health insurance, and possibly strike down the entire law; the last day’s argument addressed the ACA provision that expands the Medicaid program for the poor by promising more federal money to states if they cover more individuals, which states argue is tantamount to blackmail

New York Times

Language deemed offensive is removed from F.B.I. training manuals [FBI] – Michael S. Schmidt and Charlie Savage report that FBI training manuals addressing Arab-Americans and Muslims that suggested agents could “bend” the law if necessary and interfere with their individual freedoms has been removed, as has derogatory stereotypes about Asians and Arabs in the training materials

Union chief says new rules for immigration detention are flawed [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] – Julia Preston reports that the union representing employees of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, who are responsible for detaining illegal immigrants subject to deportation, told a House Judiciary Subcommittee that the administration’s new rules for detention centers – a response to harsh conditions that led to deaths – would make the system more dangerous to ICE agents and detainees

The radon threat is still with us [Environmental Protection Agency, radon] – Bill Field, professor of occupational and environmental health at the University of Iowa, urges the EPA and Congress to step up efforts to reduce exposure to radon – a known cause of lung cancer – including providing funds for radon testing in homes and schools

Wall Street Journal

U.S. military commanders move to mend Pakistan rift [Pakistan] – Tom Wright reports that the highest level U.S. military commanders in the region met with senior Pakistani military commanders for the first time since the U.S. accidentally killed two dozen Pakistani troops near the Afghan border in November and Pakistan closed vital supply routes to the U.S. and NATO, although lower level meetings have continued; he reports that the two countries’ mutual needs have kept a rupture in relations from widening

Federal budgets and class warfare [federal budget] – As Congress once again grapples with the deficit, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg argues that only a serious deficit reduction plan will spur businesses to invest in the economy, and he supports the Simpson-Bowles commission’s plan that caps spending, slows the growth in entitlement programs such as Social Security and raises revenue via tax reform; Bloomberg says the President’s proposal to eliminate the Bush-era tax cuts for all but the wealthiest doesn’t make a dent in the deficit, while Republican presidential candidates have not offered realistic deficit reduction plans

Recent legislation and delivery system reform efforts are greatly expanding the use of electronic health records. For these efforts to reach their full potential, they must actively involve patients and include patient-reported information about such topics as health behavior, preferences, and psychosocial functioning. We offer a plan for including standardized, practical patient-reported measures as part of electronic health records, quality and performance indexes, the primary care medical home, and research collaborations. These measures must meet certain criteria, including being valid, reliable, sensitive to change, and available in multiple languages. Clinicians, patients, and policy makers also must be able to understand the measures and take action based on them. Including more patient-reported items in electronic health records would enhance health, patient-centered care, and the capacity to undertake population-based research.

A single-center study found that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures performed during the middle of the night do not adversely affect the safety and effectiveness of procedures performed the next day by the same operator. Findings now available in Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), show late night work while on call does not worsen performance of the interventionist doing PCIs the next day.

Washington Post

EPA to impose first greenhouse gas limits on power plants [Environmental Protection agency, greenhouse gases] – Juliet Eilperin reports that the Environmental Protection Agency will, for the first time, propose limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants; coal power plants will not be able to meet them without costly pollution control systems, requirements which the coal industry claims will effectively ban new coal plants

SEC’s new safety mechanism contains fallout from trading glitches on BATS [Securities and Exchange Commission] – David S. Hilzenrath reports that a mechanism initiated by the Securities and Exchange Commission after the 2010′s “flash crash” worked as intended when on a new stock exchange, BATS, Apple stocks dropped precipitously, triggering a circuit breaker that halted trading for five minutes

FTC urges transparency law for Internet data brokers [Federal Trade Commission, online privacy] – Cecelia Kang reports that the Federal Trade Commission added its voice to those calling for legislation to protect consumers’ online privacy in a report that endorsed a law to require “data brokers” such as Lexis Nexis and Choicepoint to explain how and why they collect their data and allow consumers to see the data collected on them; however, the agency said a mandatory “do not track” web option for consumers was unnecessary at this juncture, and it preferred self-regulation by businesses that use the information to market to individuals, at least for now

New York Times

For Justices, a matter of framing the core issue on health care [Supreme Court, Affordable Care Act] – Adam Liptak previews the second day of the three-day Supreme Court oral argument on the health care law, in which litigants will present different legal theories for their opposition to or support for the law: those supporting the law will argue that the federal government has a right to enact the law, including the requirement that almost everyone purchase health insurance, under its power to regulate interstate commerce, while those opposed to the law will argue that the law intrudes into constitutionally protected  individual liberties

Government’s not dead yet [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] – Joe Nocera finds that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is an example of a government agency with a passion for good government in the tradition of FDR’s New Deal and President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs

Wall Street Journal

Fed signals resolve on rates [Federal Reserve] – Jon Hilsenrath and Kristina Peterson report on remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the Fed’s low interest rate policies are still necessary, based in part on uncertainty as to whether the decline in unemployment will continue; Bernanke’s comments sparked an uptick in stock prices

Children who develop asthma by age seven have deficits in lung function and increased bronchial responsiveness as neonates, a new study from researchers in Denmark suggests. “Previous research on the relationship between neonatal lung function and the development of asthma has been conflicting,” said lead author Hans Bisgaard, MD, DMSci, professor of pediatrics at the University of Copenhagen and head of the Danish Pediatric Asthma Centre. “Our study shows that children with asthma by age seven already had significant airflow deficits and increased bronchial responsiveness as neonates.

The traditional separation between primary health care providers and public health professionals is impeding greater success in meeting their shared goal of ensuring the health of populations, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. Integration of these fields will require national leadership as well as substantial adaptation at the local level, said the committee that wrote the report.

Greater lifetime exposure to the stress of traumatic events was linked to higher levels of inflammation in a study of almost 1,000 patients with cardiovascular disease led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.

A study published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, reveals that newly insured and newly uninsured adults are more likely to go to the emergency department (ED) due to recent changes in health insurance status. The report is part of the journal’s Health Care Reform series. The hospital ED is a significant indicator for access to care. According to the researchers, newly insured and newly uninsured individuals can find it hard to access outpatient care, and as a result may turn to hospital EDs in order to receive medical care.

A study published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, reveals that patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF) who take the stroke prevention drug warfarin have a low risk of stroke or non-central nervous system (CNS) embolism. AF is the most common heart rhythm disorder.

Bringing the goal of personalized medicine a step closer, scientists who design anti-cancer treatments and clinical trials now have access to a huge cancer knowledge resource, thanks to a collaboration between industry and academia. A report in the 28 March online issue of Nature describes how the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) brings together genome data and predictors of drug response for 947 cancer cell lines. The ultimate cancer treatment is one that matches the right drug to the right target in the right patient. This is the goal of personalized medicine.

New plain-language reports compare the risks and benefits of therapies for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), a digestive condition that affects millions of individuals in the U.S., and can be treated with medications or surgery. The reports are from the U.S.

Using a bronchoscope to visually examine the airways and collect fluid and tissue can help guide effective therapy for difficult-to-treat asthma patients, according to researchers at National Jewish Health.

A long-term Norwegian study reveals the number of people who experience acid reflux at least once a week has gone up by nearly 50% in the last 10 years, with women appearing to be more susceptible to the condition than men.

Madecins Sans Frontia res (MSF), the largest provider of HIV treatment in Myanmar, released a report today highlighting the urgency of treating HIV and multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in their country – Myanmar used to be called Burma.