HHS WEEKLY REPORT
May 24 - May 29, 2004

THIS ISSUE AVAILABLE ONLINE WITH EXPANDED INFORMATION AND PHOTOS AT:
http://www.hhs.gov/news/newsletter/weekly

IN THIS ISSUE:
1) HHS Creates Task Force to Encourage Medical Technology Innovation
2) HHS Launches Pilot Project with WebMD to Make HHS Consumer Health Information More Widely Available
3) PREVENTION: CDC Implements New Tiered Travel Health Guidance System
4) Science in the News: Imaging Study Shows Brain Maturing
5) Medicare Minute: Simple Steps to Get the Most Out of Medicare-Approved Drug Discount Cards
6) Secretary Thompson's Public Schedule

HHS Creates Task Force to Encourage Medical Technology Innovation

In an effort to weigh new ideas and promote new solutions to encourage innovation in health care and to speed the development of effective new medical technologies HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson recently announced the formation of an internal task force. This task force will look for ideas and seek comments to encourage medical technology innovation that will improve items such as drug and biological products and medical devices.

Secretary Thompson has charged the task force with issuing a report this year on appropriate steps that can be taken across the department to speed the development and availability of new medical technologies.

"This task force will look for opportunities across the department to promote speedier access to new innovative medical technologies that can improve people's health and save lives," Secretary Thompson said. "Often, a new technology must clear several hurdles in different parts of HHS before it can reach consumers. By better coordinating this process across HHS, we can streamline the way we do business and make safe, effective medical technologies more quickly and readily available to Americans who could benefit from them."

To assist the task force's efforts, HHS is seeking comments from the public on how to stimulate innovation in medical technologies. HHS will accept comments until August 23. A notice explaining the comment period and how to file comments will be published in the Federal Register on Monday, May 24. Electronic comments will be accepted at http://www.fda.gov/dockets/ecomments.

The task force's participants will include CDC Director Julie Gerberding, M.D.; CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D.; Acting FDA Commissioner Lester M. Crawford, D.V.M., Ph.D.; and NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. Dr. Crawford will serve as the task force's chair.

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HHS Launches Pilot Project with WebMD to Make HHS Consumer Health Information More Widely Availabley

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced the launch of a 9-month pilot project with WebMD Health to make HHS consumer health information more widely and more rapidly available to the public on a new HHS "channel" on WebMD. The partnership will also accelerate the ability of HHS to disseminate life-saving information to the public in the event of a major public health emergency. The new HHS channel on WebMD is available at http://hhs.webmd.com.

Through the HHS-WebMD partnership, HHS will be able to reach a broad audience and help them become more literate about health care and health in general -- whether it is how to read a food label properly so they can make smart choices about what they eat, or how to talk to their doctors.

During the pilot project, HHS will select health content supporting national priorities and relevant to a general consumer audience from the broad range of information produced by HHS agencies. WebMD will make the information available in an HHS-branded educational center on WebMD Health and through WebMD's partner health sites, including MSN Health with WebMD and AOL Health with WebMD. Topics addressed will include physical activity (the first under the pilot), nutrition, preventive screening, and diabetes.

The project will complement the recent redesign of the main HHS Web site, www.hhs.gov, to a citizen-centric site that provides quick and easy access to the wealth of consumer health information available across HHS and its many agencies. HHS currently offers consumer health information through resources such as MedlinePlus (http://medlineplus.gov/), which offers comprehensive information on more than 650 health topics, as well as prescription, and over-the-counter drug information, and a medical encyclopedia and dictionary.

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PREVENTION

CDC Implements New Tiered Travel Health Guidance System

In an effort to provide travelers with guidance about potential health hazards the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) implemented a new system to protect themselves when traveling abroad. The new system makes it easier for the public to understand what their risks may be during an emerging public health crisis and what they can do to protect themselves.

Effective immediately, the new system will replace the previous travel alerts and advisories. CDC Traveler's Health Web site will include four levels of guidance as outbreaks occur:

In The News: is the lowest level of notice.
Outbreak Notice: provides information about a disease outbreak in a limited geographic area or setting.
Travel Health Precaution: does not recommend against travel to an area but provides specific information to travelers about a disease outbreak of greater scope and over a larger geographic area to reduce the risk of infection.
Travel Health Warning: recommends against nonessential travel to an area because a disease of public health concern is expanding outside of areas or populations that were initially affected.

CDC is committed to provide the public with inpatient information regarding the causes, diagnosis, treatment, control, and prevention of physical and mental diseases and other impairments of man. CDC endeavors to provide accurate and credible health information and promote health through strong partnerships both at home and abroad.

A complete description of the definitions and criteria for issuing and removing travel notices can be found at www.cdc.gov/travel.

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Science in the News: Imaging Study Shows Brain Maturing

Scientist at the NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) developed an imaging study that graphically reveals the brain's center of reasoning and problem solving and have learned that it is among the last to mature. The decade-long magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of normal brain development by researchers at NIMH and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) shows that such "higher-order" brain centers, such as the prefrontal cortex, do not fully develop until young adulthood.

Fifteen years of human brain maturation, ages 5 to 20, were compressed into seconds by a time-lapse 3-D movie. Other graphics depict gray matter -- the working tissue of the brain's cortex -- diminishing in a back-to-front wave, likely reflecting the pruning of unused neuronal connections during the teen years. Cortex areas can be seen maturing at ages in which relevant cognitive and functional developmental milestones occur. The sequence of maturation also roughly parallels the evolution of the mammalian brain, suggest Drs. Nitin Gogtay, Judith Rapoport, NIMH, and Paul Thompson, Arthur Toga, UCLA, and colleagues, whose study is published online "The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences".

Researchers scanned 13 healthy children and teens every two years for 10 years. After co-registering the scans with each other, using an intricate set brain anatomical landmarks, they visualized the ebb and flow of gray matter -- neurons and their branch-like extensions -- in maps that, together, form the movie showing brain maturation.

For more information and findings or to see the image movie or the graphic "Time-Lapse Imaging Tracks Brain Maturation from ages 5 to 20" please visit http://www.nimh.nih.gov/press/prbrainmaturing.cfm#timelapse

NIMH is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the federal government's primary agency for biomedical and behavioral research. NIH is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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Medicare Minute

Simple Steps to Get the Most Out of Medicare-Approved Drug Discount Cards

Different people have different drug needs and prefer to get their medicines in different ways. To compare cards and decide which Medicare-approved drug discount card is best for you, contact Medicare for help - either by calling 1-800-MEDICARE or log in to our Web site at www.medicare.gov. You can also find inpatient information by contacting your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP).

But you can always talk a live person to get the facts you need at 1-800-MEDICARE. To better serve you when you contact us, we ask that you have the following information ready about your individual drug needs:

  1. Your zip code;
  2. Your medicines and doses (you can find this information on your pill bottles); and
  3. Your total monthly income (if you are interested in the additional financial help available for lower-income beneficiaries).

To help narrow your card choices, you can also tell us your preferred pharmacy, whether you are interested in low cost or no cost cards and the names of any specific cards you want more information about. If you call us, we will send you a personalized brochure that allows you to look at the best cards based on your own drug needs and your own preferences about how to get your medicines.

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Secretary Thompson's Public Schedule:


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Last updated: May 24, 2004
United States Department of Health and Human Services
Contact the HHS Newsletter Team.