Posts Tagged ‘HHS’

StaceyGreene
Stacey
Greene

From Discovery to Marketplace: A New Program to Accelerate the Drug Development Process

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Today, I tuned into a press conference hosted by the National Institutes of Health with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, announcing a new collaborative program to accelerate the current arduous process of bringing drugs from the lab to market. NIH’s new initiative, Discovering New Therapeutic Uses for Existing Molecules, is a huge step forward for drug development, aiming to expedite and increase efficiency of current protocol.

According to NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., it currently takes 2 billion dollars and 14 years to move a drug from lab to clinic, and very few ever make it to approval. In fact, he says, out of the 4,500 identified diseases today, only about 250 have associated treatment therapies.

(more…)

Posted in FDA, Health Care Reform, Media Relations
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ErinTurner
Erin
Turner

Preliminary Dietary Guidelines for Americans Announced

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Growing up, I remember sitting in health class learning about the food pyramid with its chunky base of pasta and breads – a pyramid that is hardly reflective of the war on carbs that seems to be popular as of late. With very few adults having access to a health class of any sort on the latest nutrition information and hundreds of individuals sharing conflicting information on “the way,” where does one turn when trying to determine what’s the healthiest way to eat? The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has an answer: the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Last week, USDA and HHS released the preliminary version of the latest guidelines, which are updated every five years to help Americans determine the right foods they need to fuel an active, healthy lifestyle and reduce their risk of chronic disease. The new guidelines, which have been in development since the panel of 13 expert medical and scientific researchers first met in late 2008, recommend a significant decrease in salt, fat and sugar intake and place a greater emphasis on a plant-based diet than did the 2005 guidelines. (more…)

Posted in Food Policy and Nutrition
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MaggieSchmerin
Maggie
Schmerin

Spectrum Infection: Lessons Learned – H1N1 A Year Later

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

nicGreetings from the 44th National Immunization Conference in Atlanta! With the one year anniversary of the H1N1 outbreak upon us this week, there is not a more fitting place for officials from NIH, HHS, CDC, FDA, state and local health agencies, vaccine advocacy organizations and vaccine manufacturers to gather.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius delivered the conference’s keynote address, which focused on the response to the H1N1 flu pandemic, the lessons learned and efforts to strengthen America’s health security in the future.

On April 21, 2009, the CDC was alerted to a new strain of influenza in California and Texas, similar to one that was presenting in Mexico. Kathleen Sebelius was still serving as governor of Kansas, but seven short days later would be sworn in as our country’s 21st HHS Secretary and quickly whisked into the Situation Room at the White House where President Obama and other government leaders were beginning to mount an attack on what would become the world’s first pandemic in 40 years.

Over the course of the past 12 months, the federal government worked alongside state and local health agencies to ensure that Americans were prepared for and protected against H1N1, and the H1N1 vaccine was the keystone of these efforts. As Secretary Sebelius stated, “The H1N1 vaccine was the most ambitious immunization campaign ever.” (more…)

Posted in Infectious Disease
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Infectious Disease
Infectious
Disease

Rockin’ the Red Pump for HIV/AIDS

Monday, March 15th, 2010

The Full Spectrum Blog is rockin’ the red pump in support of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, which was held on March 10. This nationwide initiative is celebrated every year during Women’s History Month to raise awareness of the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. March 10th is designated as a day to celebrate progress, but also serve as an annual reminder of the public health crisis facing our nation’s female population.

A few startling facts from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

  • Every 35 minutes, a woman tests positive for HIV in the United States[1]
  • About 1 in 4 Americans living with HIV are women[2]
  • HIV incidence rates for black women are nearly 15 times as high as that of white women, and nearly four times that of Hispanic women[3]
  • Approximately one in 30 black women will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime[4]

Last week, Spectrum staff attended a few local NWGHAAD events, including the HHS Office on Women’s Health event at the National Press Club. This event brought together some of the biggest names in the nation’s HIV/AIDS arena, including the U.S. Surgeon General. Vice Admiral Regina M. Benjamin reflected on both the nationwide extent of the disease and her personal experience with HIV/AIDS. She shared the distressing story of an HIV positive woman she worked with at a health clinic and the sad account of her own brother’s abrupt death due to the virus. Looking forward, she sees increased sex education in schools paring nicely with the federal government’s recently launched anti-obesity campaign. As funding is increased for physical education classes, more health courses, hopefully including sexual health, will be taught in the public school system. (more…)

Posted in Infectious Disease
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MaggieSchmerin
Maggie
Schmerin

Developing the Country’s HIV/AIDS Strategy

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

This is the first in our series titled “Spectrum Infectious Thursdays,” which will highlight pertinent issues in the infectious disease community.

Last week, I attended the Interagency Working Group Community Meeting for the National HIV/AIDS Strategy at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The purpose of the event was to provide the public with an update on progress to date and the process that the interagency working group is following to develop the country’s first-ever National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

Hosted by the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) and the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS) at HHS, the meeting brought together approximately 200 attendees from a variety of vantage points – federal agencies, non-profit organizations, and concerned advocates.

President Obama meets with White House Office of National AIDS Policy Director of Jeffrey Crowley (Photo Credit: The White House)

President Obama meets with White House Office of National AIDS Policy Director Jeffrey Crowley (Photo Credit: The White House)

Although the United States has one of the worst HIV epidemics among industrialized nations, we have never adopted a coordinated nationwide response to preventing, treating and managing this disease. President Obama is committed to addressing HIV and has tasked ONAP, under the direction of Jeffrey Crowley, to develop a National HIV/AIDS Strategy. There are three goals for the strategy:
  • 1. Reduce the number of new HIV infections;
  • 2. Increase access to care for people living with HIV and optimize health outcomes; and
  • 3. Reduce HIV-related disparities. (more…)

Posted in Infectious Disease
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mhackett
Mary Ellen
Hackett

Spreading Your Message in a Shrinking Media World

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Digital communications is a powerful tool to deliver messages to a target audience and impact opinions and awareness of a topic or issue. We witnessed this firsthand in a recent women’s reproductive health campaign.

Spectrum developed a public service announcement and targeted media outreach campaign on the topic of embryo donation for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. The program was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to be implemented in two markets, Seattle and Washington, DC, where we conducted benchmark surveys to determine baseline awareness of the topic.

After several months of effort in spring 2009, our traditional media outreach program and PSA campaign in Seattle did not achieve an overall increase in awareness about embryo donation. In fact, the survey actually showed a DECREASE in awareness (from 45 to 38 percent). Our survey vendor attributed it to the plethora “Octomom” stories in the news as the pre-campaign survey was being conducted. (more…)

Posted in New Media, PR Industry, Social Media, Women's Health
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