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HHS WEEKLY REPORT
27 October - 2 November 2002

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

IN THIS ISSUE:
1) National 2003 Medicare education campaign launched
2) Secretary Thompson addresses the Commonwealth Fund
3) In Memoriam: Dr. Lloyd W. Law
4) NIH: New Treatment may Eventually Help Prevent Osteoporosis
5) Secretary Thompson receives award for dedication to women's health

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National 2003 Medicare education campaign launched

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Tom Scully recently unveiled the annual national Medicare education campaign designed to help 40 million people with Medicare coverage get answers to their questions and make informed decisions about their health plans. The $25 million national advertising campaign features Medicare's newest television ads, which started airing on network television last week. The campaign also coincides with the annual election period for health plan options that begins in mid-November.

"People who are covered by Medicare, their family members and caregivers, need this information about Medicare and we want them to know exactly where they can find it. The ads will point beneficiaries to reliable, accurate information available 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Secretary Thompson said.

The annual education effort highlights important coverage options including the new preferred provider organizations that are available in 23 states, and Medicare's improved information resources. Medicare beneficiaries, family members and caregivers can receive information through the 24-hour service of 1-800-MEDICARE, the Medicare & You 2003 handbook, and new decision tools at www.medicare.gov.

The new decision tools to the Personal Plan Finder on the Medicare Web site will help beneficiaries, family and caregivers quickly develop a personalized report on the benefits and services offered by area health plans. "This year's ads try to focus beneficiaries and their families on the fact that Medicare can help them quickly narrow down the right healthcare options for them," Administrator Scully said.

In addition, a separate ad was produced for Spanish-language television networks. The Spanish-language campaign will be supplemented with radio ads in select markets, as well as print ads in a national magazine.


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Secretary Thompson addresses the Commonwealth Fund

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson encouraged international health leaders to promote sound health policies and international cooperation at a reception in Washington, DC, on Oct. 24. The reception was the kickoff of the 2002 Commonwealth Fund International Symposium on Health Care Policy.

"Health is a common priority and basis for bringing countries together and a shared aspiration among people of all nations. This symposium provides us with the opportunity for dialogue among countries grappling with similar challenges by sharing innovations and learning from each other," Secretary Thompson said.

The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation, supports research on social and health issues and provides grants to help improve health care practice and policy.

Along with the United States, attending nations included Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Japan. The theme of the conference was, "Reconciling Rising Health Care Costs and Getting Value for Money."

"The topic on the table for the next few days is how we improve the quality and safety of our health care systems while ensuring value for health care dollars spent," Secretary Thompson said. "There are few more difficult or important issues facing us as we begin a new century.

The Secretary also offered words of condolence to the Australian delegation in the wake of the recent terrorist bombing in Bali, which killed approximately 180 people.

"Please know that America grieves with you, even as you, on September 11th last year and in the weeks that followed, grieved with us. We are your friends and allies, now and always. Working together, with our friends throughout the civilized world, we will eradicate the thugs and criminals who have, in cold blood, killed so many of our fellow citizens," Secretary Thompson said.

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In Memoriam: Dr. Lloyd W. Law

Lloyd W. Law, a National Institutes of Health cancer researcher, died Oct. 20 at his home in Gaithersburg, MD, at the age of 91. His distinguished career spanned over five decades and resulted in the broadening of understanding of how cancer cells elude chemotherapy treatment, which led to the use of prescribing combination chemotherapy now used to treat victims of childhood leukemia.

"I believe that there is hardly a scientist who works on cancer, or a patient who has benefited from chemotherapy, who is not grateful to Lloyd Law for his pioneering studies" said a colleague of Dr. Law, Dr. Michael M. Gottesman said.

Dr. Law, a University of Illinois graduate, earned a masters and doctoral degree in Biology from Harvard in 1937. After holding several academic positions at Harvard and Stanford Universities, he then served as a pilot instructor for high-altitude flying conditions during World War II. In 1947, Dr. Law began working at HHS's National Cancer Institute at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Eventually, he was promoted to chief of the laboratory of cell biology and was regarded scientist emeritus. He served this position until he retired in the early 1990's.

Among other memberships, Dr. Law was elected president of the American Association for Cancer Research in the late 1960s and awarded the Clowes Memorial Award in cancer research plus the U.S. Public Health Service Meritorious Service Award.

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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS

NIH: New Treatment may Eventually Help Prevent Osteoporosis

A completely new type of therapy, using a unique class of synthetic compounds, may someday protect both men and women from the bone-weakening disease osteoporosis. Researchers reported that early studies of one of these compounds called estren successfully preserved and even restored bone mass in laboratory mice without the side effects associated with traditional sex hormone therapies. These studies were funded by the National Institutes of Health.

According to the research, this new therapy evolved out of the knowledge of the role that sex hormones play in bone remodeling. The researchers hypothesized that the bone building actions of sex hormones (estrogen in women and testosterone in men) could be separated from their effects on the reproductive system. If so, they proposed that it should be possible to trigger the bone building activities of cells without creating side effects in the reproductive tissue.

For example, estrogen influences many organs in the body besides the breasts, ovaries, and uterus. These include the brain, cardiovascular system, and the skeleton. All of these organs contain estrogen receptors that link with estrogen molecules and then turn on genes in the cells to perform various cellular functions. The investigators set out to identify whether it would be possible to use a substance that would attach to the estrogen receptors but only initiate the bone building activity and possibly beneficial activities in other non-reproductive tissues that use this process. Estren appears to do that.

As people age, the delicate balance between the ongoing breaking down of old bone and its replacement by new bone, bone remodeling, begins to change. More bone is broken down than is replaced, and bone mass is lost. Bones weaken and eventually break easily, a condition known as osteoporosis. Women tend to experience a dramatic decrease in bone mass during and after menopause. In men the decline is more gradual, but the risk of fracture is serious by age 65.

For more information, please visit National Institute of Aging <www.nia.nih.gov/>; or the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases <www.niams.nih.gov/>.

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Secretary Thompson receives award for dedication to women's health

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson will be presented with the 2002 Mary Waterman Award by the Connecticut Breast Cancer Alliance on Friday, Oct. 25, for his tireless work in support of women's health and his role as an impassioned advocate for the life-saving value of mammography as a cancer-screening tool.

"I know from my own experience what it's like to be told that a person you love has cancer. I know the courage it takes to fight the disease. And I am glad to tell you today that I know the joy of seeing your loved one win her fight. That victory - and every other victory - would be impossible without the help of dedicated people, without the physicians, nurses and researchers who work to thwart a deadly disease," Secretary Thompson said.

The Mary Waterman Award is given in memory of the Greenwich, CT, resident who founded the Breast Cancer Alliance in 1996. Previous recipients of the award include Dr. Vincent DeVita, Jr., Director of the Yale Cancer Center, and Dr. Harold Varmus, former Director of the National Institutes of Health and winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

HHS' strong commitment to improving women's health has led to approving the requests of 46 states to expand Meidcaid coverage to women who otherwise would not have health coverage through the federal Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000. Women qualify for Medicaid coverage after they are diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer through a federal screening program.

In addition, last week Secretary Thompson announced the creation of five new National Community Centers of Excellence in Women's Health (CCOEs) to provide integrated health and social services to women in their communities.

The new CCOEs will serve women of diverse races and ethnicities in urban, suburban and rural neighborhoods - in Birmingham, Ala.; Derby, Conn.; Wilmington, Del.; Clearwater, Fla.; and Honolulu, Hawaii. The CCOEs will coordinate all aspects of issues related to women's health throughout the life span, and will address the cultural and socioeconomic challenges to quality health care for underserved women. HHS will provide $150,000 to each center for each of the next five years to support the program. This brings the total number of CCOEs to 12.

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