Archive for May, 2009
Techies who eagerly anticipated the announcement of a “cyberczar” along with the release of a 60-day cybersecurity review this week may have been disappointed today. President Obama outlined the position’s responsibilities but did not name an appointee in his remarks on securing our nation’s cyber infrastructure this morning.
The report, ordered by the President and led [...]
Salmonella. Downer cows. More salmonella. The past year has seen several unpleasant and dangerous incidents of widespread food contamination. Today, Lyndsey Layton reports in the Washington Post that newly introduced Congressional legislation offers a slate of remedies to ramp up Food and Drug Agency capabilities for protecting the food supply. The draft legislation introduced in [...]
It’s the very simple health care concept with the very fancy name. Comparative effectiveness research examines the benefits of different procedures used to treat the same illness, allowing health care providers to make the best decisions about options for patients.
Last week, the Obama administration unveiled its Open Government Initiative, a set of online tools and a process of public engagement for making its operations more transparent. This podcast takes a look at what it means for citizens and scientists, who are now asked to share their knowledge and ideas.
Shortly after being sworn in as the Commissioner of the Federal Drug Administration last Friday, Margaret A. Hamburg and her principal deputy commissioner, Joshua Sharfstein, described their plans to run the FDA as a public health agency in New England Journal of Medicine. The agency, charged with regulating much of the U.S. food supply, is [...]
It’s about time everyone is celebrating Eugenie C. Scott of the National Center for Science Education—she is, after all, perhaps the leading day-to-day defender of science in America.
In today’s feature, “Can We Bank on Objectivity,” Patti Tereskerz takes a hard look at the new rules proposed by the National Institutes of Health for dealing with financial conflicts of interest in biomedical research.
Trust is paramount in the research system, she argues, and the rules could help prevent future abuses like those uncovered by [...]
Managing financial conflicts of interest is a complicated policy matter, as researchers and their institutions often receive both public and private funding to support research that leads to new treatments. But research also indicates these conflicts are widespread and ingrained. How far should we go in addressing the issue?
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s $19 billion investment in health information technology is crucial to improving U.S. health care quality and value, as explained in a CAP report released earlier this week. But in addition to creating a business case for an improved health IT infrastructure, success depends upon patients’ trust for the system’s [...]
Yesterday, the National Institutes of Health announced the creation of its new Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases Program. TRND’s goal is to bolster drug development for rare diseases that affect less than 200,000 Americans as well as neglected diseases that lack treatments, despite being common in some regions of the world. Most neglected diseases [...]
Here it is: the much-anticipated online catalog of raw data gathered by the federal government, Data.gov. The site appears the same day that the Obama administration formally declares it’s ready for suggestions from the public on how to be more open and transparent.
At launch, Data.gov offers a small, diverse collection of 47 sets of “raw” [...]
The editors at Effect Measure do not mince their words, though they also do not shy away from parsing them. The word of the moment? “Pandemic.” At issue is whether or not the official declaration of a pandemic should depend upon the severity of the disease in question, in addition to its geographic scope. They [...]
Battlestar Galactica is hardly the only place you’ll see science in popular entertainment. Technical issues from physics to biomedicine permeate hit series like CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Big Bang Theory that attract mainstream audiences. The National Academy of Sciences capitalized on the phenomenon when it created the Science & Entertainment Exchange—a program to foster [...]
Tom Paulson, formerly of the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, now a freelance writer, carpenter, and building contractor, epitomizes the story of the science writer in our time.
Implementing meaningful, effective health information technology throughout the nation’s health care system is not a technical problem. Rather, the lack of current health IT infrastructure results from the absence of a business case for such improvements, according to Todd Park and Peter Basch in a CAP report released this week. But health IT can enable [...]
As the swine flu outbreak nears a potential global pandemic, discussions about strategies to control the spread and severity of infection continue. Andrew Pollack discusses the development of a universal flu vaccine today in the New York Times. The work is especially challenging, he explains, because the proteins that do not vary from strain to [...]
How do you feel about global warming? New public opinion research maps the connections Americans feel to the issue along a spectrum from most concerned and motivated to least concerned and motivated. The majority of those surveyed, 51 percent, say they are “alarmed” or “concerned.” Here’s a visual breakdown after the jump:
The “war on cancer” devotes too much in search of new cures and too little to understanding the results of existing oncology therapies.
The proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act mandates a 17-percent reduction below 2005 emissions levels by 2020. That’s 1.2 billion 2.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide and the equivalent of taking half a billion cars off the road, reports CAP Senior Fellow Dan Weiss in a column just posted over on the main [...]
ASU over the past six years has engaged in a significant institutional transformation. One of the results is the SkySong Innovation Center, a nucleus for a community of entrepreneurs dedicated to innovation and learning.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Tuesday against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Myriad Genetics, and the University of Utah, arguing that patents for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are invalid. Mutations in the two genes are responsible for a large number of hereditary forms of breast and ovarian cancer. Myriad holds a [...]
Stem cell research might need to be the tortoise to gene therapy’s hare. In the most recent issue of Science, James M. Wilson of the University of Pennsylvania, cautions stem cell research advocates to avoid the hype surrounding much work in the field (sub’s required). Wilson understands first-hand the pitfalls of proceeding too quickly with [...]
Ensuring scientific integrity in government is a marvelous goal—but achieving it will hardly be simple, even under this administration.
Warfarin is a widely-used drug that prevents blood clots during surgery. Two million patients a year take it, but doctors must calibrate dosing carefully to prevent bleeding complications from the blood thinner. Fortunately, the Food and Drug Administration last year approved a genetic test can help physicians prevent adverse responses. The test, which costs up [...]
The same day that President Obama relaxed restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, he issued a directive to the Office of Science and Technology director to coordinate a new set of recommendations to protect scientific integrity in federal policymaking.
OSTP used its new blog to open a comment period to accept public [...]
The eight years of the Bush administration were a bad time for scientific integrity in government research. Grifo, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, says we must focus on protecting government researchers, making science-based policymaking more transparent, and monitoring potential abuses.
Smart government can and must deliver a reasoned, evidence-based health plan for all. Compassion demands it. Is that so much to ask for this holiday?
The Manufacturing Extension Partnership program’s evolving strategies to spur competitiveness and innovation among small- and medium-sized businesses adjusts to new challenges.
New research investigating the impact of climate change on western wildfires presents a bleak picture. CAP Senior Fellow Tom Kenworthy covers the latest science in an American Progress column this week, explaining the problematic feedback cycle: higher temperatures from global warming increase the risks of wildfires, and increased fires release more carbon dioxide into the [...]
Drawing lessons from other countries’ regulatory successes could help temper the commercial pressures in the U.S. assisted reproduction sector, without in any way diminishing reproductive rights.
One important distinction that is not made often or clearly enough by either ethicists or lawyers is that between decisions
to procreate and decisions
not to procreate. Witness, for instance, the reaction to Nadya OctoMom™ Suleman.
Federal funding support for basic scientific research wasn’t always a focal point of government policy. In fact, President John Quincy Adams’s arguements for “internal improvements” such as the establishment of a uniform system of weights and measures, a survey of U.S. natural resources, and the construction of an astronomical observatory were “greeted with scorn and [...]
Scientists need professional research technicians the way doctors need professional nurses, but grant-based research programs rarely provide for these key positions.
Today at from 12pm-1pm, we’ll be hosting an event to launch Science Next, informed citizens’ essential guide to science policy. If you can’t join us at the Center for American Progress offices, you can watch the event streamed live here. Full event info here.
Featured participants include Henry Kelly, President of the Federation of American Scientists; [...]
