Islands at The Firebird STL MO 8/30/14 part 2
By: GrahamAndSteve
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Operation GrindStop 2014 | Faroe Islands | Arrests – Video
Operation GrindStop 2014 | Faroe Islands | Arrests
Sea Shepherd Activist Arrested http://www.seashepherd.org/grindstop/
By: MrCaseyoliver
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Faroe Islands Pilot Whale Activists Arrested
On Saturday, fourteen members of the animal rights activist group Sea Shepard were arrested on the Faroe island of Sandoy in the North Atlantic, after attempting to stop the slaughter of 33 pilot whales.
Locally, the culling of the whales is known as a grind, and Operation GrindStop was initiated to save more than 1,000 pilot whales, which are among the largest members of the dolphin family. In a practice which Sea Shepherd refers to as being a brutal and archaic mass slaughter, Faroe Islands fishermen herd the cetaceans into a bay using flotillas, and then hack them to death with hooks and knives. Many locals defend the hunt as being their cultural right.
Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, commented, the 14 have been under arrest since Saturday, and three of our boats have also been seized. The Faroe Islands are under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark, and the Danish Armed Forces Arctic Command stepped in to commandeer the boats.
Here is a graphic clip of a Faroe Islands grind in 2013:
The B.S. Sheen was one of the boats seized on Saturday, which is sponsored by Charlie Sheen. The actor said in a statement, The Faroese whalers brutally slaughtered an entire pod of 33 pilot whales today several generations taken from the sea and Denmark is complicit in the killing.
Former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson has also been involved in Operation GrindStop, and commented, This is not for survival. There are very few things that happen like this that are so brutal. We have to put this behind us and move on, and let the whales swim freely. And I think its much more important for us in the future to save our oceans and the biodiversity of our oceans that the whales are very important to.
According to Sea Shepherd, 267 pilot whales were killed in a single grind in 2013 near the Faroese town of Fuglafjorour.
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British made Pacific islanders fat by civilising them with fried food
They taught the locals to fry fish rather than eat it raw, and forced them to import unhealthy produce after co-opting farmland for mining.
Under colonial rule, much changed in how food was sourced, grown and prepared and the social change was swift, said lead author Dr McLennan
What happened to the land also changed as colonial agriculture and mining industries expanded. There was an increase in family size meaning food was increasingly imported.
The tiny island of Nauru
The Cook Islands were taken as a British protectorate in 1888, and became New Zealand's first South Pacific Island colony in 1901 until political independence in 1965.
Meanwhile, the tiny Pacific island of Nauru is a former German and British colony whose Administration was led by Australia until 1968.
Researchers found colonial letters describing how the settlers taught proper food habits as part of their attempt to civilise the islanders
Colonial initiatives, such as mining or cash-crops, meant that land historically used for food gathering became inaccessible or infertile, the team concluded.
And pollution from colonial shipping lines and industry degraded reefs, a former rich food source.
Professor Stanley Ulijaszek said: Previous attempts to explain the disproportionately high rates of obesity in these and other island nations have tended to focus on the geographical isolation of islands and the risk of food shortages.
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British made Pacific islanders fat by civilising them with fried food
MARC travel awards announced for: American Society of Human Genetics 2014 Annual Meeting
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
28-Aug-2014
Contact: Kelly Husser khusser@faseb.org 301-634-7109 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Bethesda, MD FASEB MARC (Maximizing Access to Research Careers) Program has announced the travel award recipients for the American Society of Human Genetics from October 18 22, 2014 in San Diego, California. These awards are meant to promote the entry of students, post doctorates and scientists from underrepresented groups into the mainstream of the basic science community and to encourage the participation of young scientists at the American Society of Human Genetics. This year MARC conferred 16 awards totaling $29,600.
The FASEB MARC Program is funded by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health. A primary goal of the MARC Program is to increase the number and competitiveness of underrepresented groups engaged in biomedical and behavioral research. The following participants have been selected to receive a FASEB MARC Travel Award:
POSTER/ORAL PRESENTER (FASEB MARC PROGRAM)
FACULTY/MENTOR & STUDENT/MENTEE (FASEB MARC PROGRAM)
###
FASEB is composed of 27 societies with more than 120,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. Our mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.
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MARC travel awards announced for: American Society of Human Genetics 2014 Annual Meeting
Scientists looking across human, fly and worm genomes find shared biology
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
27-Aug-2014
Contact: Steve Benowitz steven.benowitz@nih.gov 301-451-8325 NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute
Researchers analyzing human, fly, and worm genomes have found that these species have a number of key genomic processes in common, reflecting their shared ancestry. The findings, appearing Aug. 28, 2014, in the journal Nature, offer insights into embryonic development, gene regulation and other biological processes vital to understanding human biology and disease.
The studies highlight the data generated by the modENCODE Project and the ENCODE Project, both supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health. Integrating data from the three species, the model organism ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (modENCODE) Consortium studied how gene expression patterns and regulatory proteins that help determine cell fate often share common features. Investigators also detailed the similar ways in which the three species use protein packaging to compact DNA into the cell nucleus and to regulate genome function by controlling access to DNA.
Launched in 2007, the goal of modENCODE is to create a comprehensive catalog of functional elements in the fruit fly and roundworm genomes for use by the research community. Such elements include genes that code for proteins, non-protein-coding genes and regulatory elements that control gene expression. The current work builds on initial catalogs published in 2010. The modENCODE projects complement the work being done by the ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project, which is building a comprehensive catalog of functional elements in the human and mouse genomes.
"The modENCODE investigators have provided a valuable resource for researchers worldwide," said NHGRI Director Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D. "The insights gained about the workings of model organisms' genomes greatly help to inform our understanding of human biology."
"One way to describe and understand the human genome is through comparative genomics and studying model organisms," said Mark Gerstein, Ph.D., Albert L. Williams Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the lead author on one of the papers. "The special thing about the worm and fly is that they are very distant from humans evolutionarily, so finding something conserved across all three human, fly and worm tells us it is a very ancient, fundamental process."
In one study, scientists led by Dr. Gerstein and others, analyzed human, fly and worm transcriptomes, the collection of gene transcripts (or readouts) in a genome. They used large amounts of gene expression data generated in the ENCODE and modENCODE projects including more than 67 billion gene sequence readouts to discover gene expression patterns shared by all three species, particularly for developmental genes.
Investigators showed that the ways in which DNA is packaged in the cell are similar in many respects, and, in many cases, the species share programs for turning on and off genes in a coordinated manner. More specifically, they used gene expression patterns to match the stages of worm and fly development and found sets of genes that parallel each other in their usage. They also found the genes specifically expressed in the worm and fly embryos are re-expressed in the fly pupae, the stage between larva and adult.
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Scientists looking across human, fly and worm genomes find shared biology
Shared biology in human, fly and worm genomes: Powerful commonalities in biological activity, regulation
Researchers analyzing human, fly, and worm genomes have found that these species have a number of key genomic processes in common, reflecting their shared ancestry. The findings, appearing Aug. 28, 2014, in the journal Nature, offer insights into embryonic development, gene regulation and other biological processes vital to understanding human biology and disease.
The studies highlight the data generated by the modENCODE Project and the ENCODE Project, both supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health. Integrating data from the three species, the model organism ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (modENCODE) Consortium studied how gene expression patterns and regulatory proteins that help determine cell fate often share common features. Investigators also detailed the similar ways in which the three species use protein packaging to compact DNA into the cell nucleus and to regulate genome function by controlling access to DNA.
Launched in 2007, the goal of modENCODE is to create a comprehensive catalog of functional elements in the fruit fly and roundworm genomes for use by the research community. Such elements include genes that code for proteins, non-protein-coding genes and regulatory elements that control gene expression. The current work builds on initial catalogs published in 2010. The modENCODE projects complement the work being done by the ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Project, which is building a comprehensive catalog of functional elements in the human and mouse genomes.
"The modENCODE investigators have provided a valuable resource for researchers worldwide," said NHGRI Director Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D. "The insights gained about the workings of model organisms' genomes greatly help to inform our understanding of human biology."
"One way to describe and understand the human genome is through comparative genomics and studying model organisms," said Mark Gerstein, Ph.D., Albert L. Williams Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the lead author on one of the papers. "The special thing about the worm and fly is that they are very distant from humans evolutionarily, so finding something conserved across all three -- human, fly and worm -- tells us it is a very ancient, fundamental process."
In one study, scientists led by Dr. Gerstein and others, analyzed human, fly and worm transcriptomes, the collection of gene transcripts (or readouts) in a genome. They used large amounts of gene expression data generated in the ENCODE and modENCODE projects -- including more than 67 billion gene sequence readouts -- to discover gene expression patterns shared by all three species, particularly for developmental genes.
Investigators showed that the ways in which DNA is packaged in the cell are similar in many respects, and, in many cases, the species share programs for turning on and off genes in a coordinated manner. More specifically, they used gene expression patterns to match the stages of worm and fly development and found sets of genes that parallel each other in their usage. They also found the genes specifically expressed in the worm and fly embryos are re-expressed in the fly pupae, the stage between larva and adult.
The researchers found that in all three organisms, the gene expression levels for both protein-coding and non-protein-coding genes could be quantitatively predicted from chromatin features at the promoters of genes. A gene's promoter tells the cell's machinery where to begin copying DNA into RNA, which can be used to make proteins. DNA is packaged into chromatin in cells, and changes in this packaging can regulate gene function.
"Our findings open whole new worlds for understanding gene expression and how we think about the role of transcription," said co-senior author Susan Celniker, Ph.D., Head, Department of Genome Dynamics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California. "modENCODE has been transformative," she added. "It has helped set the standard for the types of data that should be generated and catalogued."
Another group of scientists investigated how chromatin is organized and how it influences gene regulation in the three species. Using both modENCODE and ENCODE data, scientists compared patterns of modifications in chromatin that are needed for the cell to access the DNA inside, and the changes in DNA replication patterns as a result of these modifications. The investigators discovered that many features of chromatin were similar in all three species.
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GSK/NIAID Ebola Vaccines To Enter US, UK Human Safety Trials
The Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council (MRC), and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) have announced this morning that an Ebola vaccine developed in the U.S. will enter human safety trials in the UK as early as September. The consortium is devoting 2.8 million to the effort.
Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an arm of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, held a press conference this morning to discuss the specifics about the U.S. vaccine. The FDA has given the green light to begin testing here.
The vaccine was designed by Nancy J. Sullivan, Ph.D., chief of the Biodefense Research Section in NIAIDs Vaccine Research Center (VRC). She worked with other collaborators in the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) and scientists at the Swiss-Italian biotechnology company,Okairos, acquired byGlaxoSmithKlinein May, 2013.
Ebola virus particles, colored digitally, emerging from a type of monkey epithelial cell line (Vero) grown in the laboratory. Credit: CDC Public Health Image Library
The GSK/NIAID vaccine has been designed to produce a protective immune reaction toward the surface protein on the Zaire Ebola and Sudan Ebola viruses, a protein required for the virus to normally infect humans. Because its directed at two versions of the viral protein, its called a bivalent vaccine.
In science, you never know
While the vaccine has proven to protect non-human primates from Ebola infection and produced high levels of immunogenic responses, the phase 1 trials are being conducted to ensure that any untoward reactions in humans are detected and the production of protective antibodies proceeds as observed in non-human primates.
NIAID will be starting with typical caution for the first time a vaccine is tested in healthy human volunteers. The trial, termed VRC 207, will ultimately enroll 20 healthy, adult human volunteers (age 18 to 50 years) and evaluate the safety of the virus nine times over a 48-week period and, said Fauci, whether it generates an immune response in healthy adults that, based on our animal studies, could predict effectiveness in preventing the acquisition of Ebola infection.
The volunteers will be split into two groups to receive a high or low dose of the vaccine. The trial will be staged so that small groups of volunteers receive the vaccine at a time, with the first three volunteers to be dosed starting next week at the NIH Clinical Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Those three volunteers will be followed for three days before any other volunteers are injected.
We expect to be able to report initial safety and immunogenicity data from this study by the end of this calendar year, said Dr. Fauci.
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GSK/NIAID Ebola Vaccines To Enter US, UK Human Safety Trials
homeless How does it happen, update, bike problems and health care – Video
homeless How does it happen, update, bike problems and health care
Had my appointment with central florida health care and finally,8 tubes and 2 tires later , seems i am out of flats #55357; #56842;
By: steve g
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homeless How does it happen, update, bike problems and health care - Video
Silverline serves students, health care workers – Video
Silverline serves students, health care workers
The new Silver Line buses have been on the road for four days now, and we wanted to know who #39;s riding them. (Aug. 28, 2014)
By: WOOD TV8
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Conscious Matrix Interviews Dr. Joseph Marra – Video
Conscious Matrix Interviews Dr. Joseph Marra
Brad Johnson interviews Dr. Joseph Marra. Thursday, August 28th @ 3pm Pacific. Submit your questions through our Google+ Hangouts App to have them answered live on the air! Dr. Joseph Marra...
By: Brad Johnson
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08 23 14 Afforable Health Care Info at First Trinity 8/31/14 6pm FREE – Video
08 23 14 Afforable Health Care Info at First Trinity 8/31/14 6pm FREE
Come, Hear about the #39;Afforable Health Care Information #39; at First Trinity COGIC/800 Catalpa Street/Pine Bluff, AR; 8/31/14; 6pm. This event is #39;FREE FOR EVERYONE #39;. Need a ride or more info...
By: Finley Hill
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08 23 14 Afforable Health Care Info at First Trinity 8/31/14 6pm FREE - Video
Congressman Blackburn Answers Health Care Reform Question by Dr. Bose on Capitol Hill – Video
Congressman Blackburn Answers Health Care Reform Question by Dr. Bose on Capitol Hill
Dr. Bose #39;s Question: As an emergency room physician, I am concerned about ensuring patients have access to timely and appropriate care. How will health care reform allow professionals to triage...
By: The Battle Continues
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Congressman Blackburn Answers Health Care Reform Question by Dr. Bose on Capitol Hill - Video
Caring for undocumented children who cross the border – Video
Caring for undocumented children who cross the border
The U.S. Border Patrol has apprehended nearly 63000 unaccompanied minors at the southwest border in 2014. After relocating to different cities across the country, these children require health...
By: PBS NewsHour
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Caring for undocumented children who cross the border - Video
Standard & Poor’s U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review (Aug. 29) – Video
Standard Poor #39;s U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review (Aug. 29)
In this segment of U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review, Standard Poor #39;s Senior Director Lucy Patricola highlights sector trends and the ac...
By: SPTVbroadcast
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Standard & Poor's U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review (Aug. 29) - Video
Health Care: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News
The patient-centered model needs to replace the practice-centered model. The patient's health should be a higher priority than the doctor's rush to keep moving and fit as many people as possible into his schedule and his practice goals.
We have a tendency to rely on life-saving, last-minute efforts to turn around a person's health. These strategies are often unsuccessful and always extremely costly. They usually do not result in a lifetime improvement in health.
In a rational model of health care, the consumer must have the ability to distinguish bad products from good, and must have enough information and emotional distance to make purely rational choices about their or their loved ones' health care. There are a number of reasons this simply is not the case.
Without an emotional language our relationship with ourselves will be fraught with difficulty. And yet most of us have never learned to listen to ourselves and rarely even think about our emotional health as an absolute priority..... until something goes wrong.
If the D.C. Circuit decision in Halbig v. Burwell became the law of the land, it would threaten to place health insurance once again out of reach for the approximately 4.7 million families and individuals living in the 36 states where the federal government set up the Exchange.
Unfortunately, for most patients, patient-centered care is an anomaly. Hospitals are trying to change the culture to one of patient-centered care rapidly. Even so, hospitals often miss the mark.
Finding a place of compromise is commendable. But the budget accord earlier this month was silent on a critical issue that can wait no longer: reforming the state's Medicaid program.
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OBAMACARE HEADACHE Another health care site suffers glitches, delays
Published August 31, 2014
June 15, 2009: President Obama delivers remarks on the health care system at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association.Reuters
WASHINGTON Thought HealthCare.gov had problems?
Another federal government-run website created under ObamaCare is suffering the same symptoms as the troubled federal health care exchange -- grappling with delays, data problems and other hiccups as the deadline to take it public nears.
At issue is a database known as the Open Payments website. It was created under the Affordable Care Act to shed light on the financial ties between doctors and pharmaceutical companies as well as device manufacturers.
The transparency initiative is supposed to include detailed information about drug payments made by doctors as well as the value of gifts and services given by drug makers. Such items can include everything from meals to swanky retreats.
The database project, though, is dealing with a minefield of technical problems and confusion over the data. The problems led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to shut down what is currently a private site for 11 days earlier this month.
The government is hoping to take the site public on Sept. 30. But it's already a year behind schedule, and if some industry heavy hitters have it their way, the schedule will slip by another six months.
The American Medical Association as well as 112 other health organizations are pressing the government to delay the launch until March 31, 2015. They cite an overly complex registration process made up of more than 20 individual steps that require a doctor to register over a period of several days in order to see their data as one reason why the government should hold off.
Other complaints include the lack of guidance on the website, concern that industry groups can unilaterally dismiss disputes initiated by doctors, and errors in the information.
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OBAMACARE HEADACHE Another health care site suffers glitches, delays
Shelley Rouillard checks up on health plans in California
The gig: As director of the California Department of Managed Health Care, Shelley Rouillard is the chief regulator for health plans that cover more than 21 million Californians. She's also a major player in the state's implementation of the federal health law.
Bicoastal: Rouillard, 58, was born in Los Angeles but spent much of her childhood in New England following the career moves of her father, an Episcopal priest and college chaplain. She wasn't happy about moving to a tiny town in New Hampshire after her freshman year in high school, but it taught her a valuable lesson. "You just have to find the silver lining when bad things happen," Rouillard said.
At a small school, she quickly became a student leader as yearbook editor and captain of the basketball team. Growing up, she thought women were limited in their career choices to teacher, nurse or social worker. She wasn't interested in the classroom and couldn't stand blood, so she got her bachelor's degree in social work at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Trophy job: She took a yearlong break during college to return to Los Angeles. Through a family friend, she landed a job doing engraving work at a badge and trophy shop. She recalls drawing the Ralphs grocery store logo hundreds of times for employee name tags. Rouillard saw the value of developing a skill that makes you stand out. Back at college, she found work at another trophy shop to help pay her tuition. "I realized how important it was to have a skill you could take anywhere," she said.
Organizing change: After college, Rouillard returned to the Golden State in 1979 and put down roots in Santa Barbara. She held jobs at a senior day-care center and later led a nonprofit program distributing food and other assistance to the poor. She also became more active as a community organizer. The rents in her apartment building went up 50% one year, so she helped organize the Santa Barbara Tenants Union to negotiate with landlords.
Rouillard developed a knack for bringing people together to confront a common problem. "People who didn't have a lot of power and information needed to band together to make it better," she recalls.
Campaign office: Those experiences led her to local politics. She ran twice unsuccessfully for the Santa Barbara City Council in 1983 and 1985, enduring some personal attacks along the way. "You have to develop a thick skin," Rouillard said.
Capital move: Her campaigns behind her and turning 30, she paused to reflect on what her next career step should be. She decided her job opportunities might be limited in Santa Barbara so she headed to Sacramento for a lobbying job with a legal aid group. Then she got a taste of the private sector negotiating contracts with hospitals and physician groups for a company in the insurance industry.
Patient advocate: One of her big breaks came in 1996 when Peter Lee called. Lee, the current director of California's Obamacare exchange, tapped Rouillard to found the Health Rights Hotline in the Sacramento area. That consumer hot line became the model for her current agency's help center, the prime clearinghouse for patients' health insurance complaints statewide.
Early on, Rouillard said, she saw the value of paying close attention to consumer gripes and analyzing them for signs of systemic issues that need to be addressed. She left the hot line after a decade for a state job overseeing health plans for low-income children and people with preexisting medical conditions.
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Big Box Health Care: Are You Ready for Walmart Care Clinics?
NBC News - Wal-Mart has played it safe when it comes to retail clinics, partnering with regional hospitals to offer services like flu shots. But now, the retailer is taking a more aggressive tack, with in-store branded clinics offering primary care at a price competitors may find hard to match.
"It was important to Wal-Mart that we be able to maintain or be a price leader in this space," said Jennifer LaPerre, Wal-Mart U.S. senior director for health and wellness, who is overseeing the rollout of the company's new Walmart Care Clinics.
LaPerre was in Carrollton, Georgia, in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, to open the ninth Walmart Care Clinic. Three more are planned this year as part of a pilot program to offer primary care services such as health screenings and disease management of conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure in stores.
The price? Just $4 for employees and dependents on the company's health plan. For customers, the price is $40about the same as an online consultation with a doctor.
"We wanted to be able to monitor and manage and control price. We wanted to be able to focus on a scope of services that were meaningful to our customers and associates," LaPerre said.
Wal-Mart is able to price it that low, in part, because the clinics are staffed by nurse practitioners from Quadmed, a provider of on-site workplace clinics.
"These particular set of services that are going to be provided are really ideal for a nurse practitioner to manage," said Dr. David Severance, corporate medical director for Quadmed, though each clinic is overseen by a supervising physician.
Severance said he expects the low price could make a big difference for patients with conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, who need to get check-ups every three to six months.
"If a patient has a fairly sizable co-pay, just to see the provider for each one of those visits, there's a much greater likelihood that they won't follow through with what the prescribed treatment is," he said.
Offering its employees a visit with a nurse practioner for the price of a latte at Starbucks could also help Wal-Mart control its own health-care expenses. Recently, the retailer revealed its health costs were expected to increase by $500 million this year because more of its workers than expected are signing up for its health-insurance benefits.
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Big Box Health Care: Are You Ready for Walmart Care Clinics?
Big Box Health Care: Checkup for the Price of a Latte?
Wal-Mart has played it safe when it comes to retail clinics, partnering with regional hospitals to offer services like flu shots. But now, the retailer is taking a more aggressive tack, with in-store branded clinics offering primary care at a price competitors may find hard to match.
"It was important to Wal-Mart that we be able to maintain or be a price leader in this space," said Jennifer LaPerre, Wal-Mart U.S. senior director for health and wellness, who is overseeing the rollout of the company's new Walmart Care Clinics.
LaPerre was in Carrollton, Georgia, in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, to open the ninth Walmart Care Clinic. Three more are planned this year as part of a pilot program to offer primary care services such as health screenings and disease management of conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure in stores.
The price? Just $4 for employees and dependents on the company's health plan. For customers, the price is $40about the same as an online consultation with a doctor.
"We wanted to be able to monitor and manage and control price. We wanted to be able to focus on a scope of services that were meaningful to our customers and associates," LaPerre said.
Wal-Mart is able to price it that low, in part, because the clinics are staffed by nurse practitioners from Quadmed, a provider of on-site workplace clinics.
"These particular set of services that are going to be provided are really ideal for a nurse practitioner to manage," said Dr. David Severance, corporate medical director for Quadmed, though each clinic is overseen by a supervising physician.
Severance said he expects the low price could make a big difference for patients with conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, who need to get check-ups every three to six months.
"If a patient has a fairly sizable co-pay, just to see the provider for each one of those visits, there's a much greater likelihood that they won't follow through with what the prescribed treatment is," he said.
"It was important to Wal-Mart that we be able to maintain or be a price leader in this space."
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