Arizona health care signup deadlines loom

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PHOENIX - Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell will be in Arizona on Saturday as she works to encourage residents to sign up for individual health insurance or renew and re-enroll for coverage they bought last year.

Burwell will visit enrollment centers at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix and Los Ranchitos Elementary School in Tucson. She'll meet with local elected officials and residents at the enrollment events.

Time is short for those who want a plan in place by Jan. 1. The deadline to sign up for a plan that begins by New Year's Day is Monday. Open enrollment closed for everyone Feb. 15.

RELATED: Dentists provide free dental care in Phoenix

Key facts, changes and issues during the second open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act:

ALREADY INSURED?

If you signed up for health insurance for 2014 during the first open enrollment period, that doesn't mean you should ignore this enrollment period.

A large number of the 120,000 Arizonans who bought insurance this year get subsidies based on their income, so it is important that they update their information at http://www.healthcare.gov , to update their subsidy amount.

Also, because so many plans are changing next year and premiums have changed, now's the time to shop around.

DEADLINES, PENALTIES

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Arizona health care signup deadlines loom

Oakland Unified School District Launches Health Care Simulations Developed by Toolwire

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Pleasanton, CA (PRWEB) December 11, 2014

Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), today announced it will soon launch a series of interactive health care simulations for high school students. Toolwire, a leading provider of online Experiential Learning products and solutions, co-created this multi-episode Healthcare Experience and Real World Training (H.E.A.R.T.) LearnScape with subject matter experts from OUSD and input from students at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in Oakland.

This week Toolwire introduced these experiential learning simulations to program administrators and faculty members from Life Academy, Public Health Academy at Oakland High School, and the Health Academy at Oakland Technical High School. Over the next few months, these teachers will implement these online learning experiences into courses serving roughly 160 students (grades 10 through 12).

The James Irvine Foundation provided support for product development, with an interest to have this virtual internship available to multiple schools and thousands of California students as part of Linked Learninga proven approach that is transforming education for California students by integrating rigorous academics with career-based learning and real world workplace experiences. To measure the effect of this innovative initiative, the Irvine Foundation has provided a grant to Learning for Action.

Toolwire is truly honored to be a part of this exciting initiative, and we are grateful for the Irvine Foundations sponsorship, which has made this possible, commented Cameron D. Crowe, Toolwires Executive Vice President.

The H.E.A.R.T. LearnScape incorporates California Career Technical Education Model Curriculum Health Science and Medical Technology (HSMT) Anchor Standards such as Communication, Problem Solving and Critical Thinking, Health and Safety, Responsibility and Flexibility, Ethics and Legal Responsibilities, and Leadership and Teamwork.

It has been thrilling to work on this project, said Susan Benz, Career Readiness Manager of the OUSD Linked Learning Office. This LearnScape has been carefully designed to incorporate academic and technical skills and knowledge students need to pursue career opportunities in health science and medical technology fields. What I love about LearnScapes is how the upfront development effort results in a final product that can be scaled for reuse by faculty members to positively impact thousands of students across the state of California.

Dr. Doug Beckwith, PhD, JD (Senior Fellow at Toolwire) is responsible for introducing the LearnScape to Life Academy faculty members. Dr. Beckwith, a former university Dean who was among the first to co-create LearnScapes with Toolwire and use them in his classroom, commented, In addition to previewing the basic LearnScape content and features, we look forward to sharing proven best practices for incorporating these learning experiences into courses in ways that ignite classroom discussions, motivate students to investigate readings more deeply, and inspire students to dedicate themselves towards a larger goal of graduating from school and pursuing a successful, fulfilling career.

A key component of Linked Learning is providing high school students with real-world work experiences. The H.E.A.R.T. LearnScape supports this effort by providing students a consistent, high quality virtual internship experience with virtual mentors and integrated mechanisms for assessing student performance and providing dynamic remediation. This will prepare students for internships and other experiences on-site with health care employers. We are excited about the H.E.A.R.T. LearnScape launch and the potential to scale this initiative in the future, said Carrie Portis, Senior Program Officer at the Irvine Foundation.

About Oakland Unified School District The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is the State of Californias most improved urban school district over the past eight years, as measured by Academic Performance Index (API), Californias primary metric for measuring student achievement. During this time, the Districts 46,000 students have benefited from 128 points of API growth and a focus on the whole child embodied by OUSDs Community Schools, Thriving Students vision of a full-service community school district. In this model, every school site offers high levels of learning along with physical health, mental health, dental and eye care; nutrition, physical education, recreation, before-school and afterschool programs; housing, employment, parenting and language acquisition courses and a range of other programs. Social and human services are not seen as extra or add-ons in these schools. Instead, collaboration in service of children and families is how they consistently behave. To learn more about Community Schools, Thriving Students, please visit: http://www.thrivingstudents.org.

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Oakland Unified School District Launches Health Care Simulations Developed by Toolwire

Genetics & Medicine – Site Guide – NCBI

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Bookshelf

A collection of biomedical books that can be searched directly or from linked data in other NCBI databases. The collection includes biomedical textbooks, other scientific titles, genetic resources such as GeneReviews, and NCBI help manuals.

A resource to provide a public, tracked record of reported relationships between human variation and observed health status with supporting evidence. Related information intheNIH Genetic Testing Registry (GTR),MedGen,Gene,OMIM,PubMedand other sources is accessible through hyperlinks on the records.

An archive and distribution center for the description and results of studies which investigate the interaction of genotype and phenotype. These studies include genome-wide association (GWAS), medical resequencing, molecular diagnostic assays, as well as association between genotype and non-clinical traits.

An open, publicly accessible platform where the HLA community can submit, edit, view, and exchange data related to the human major histocompatibility complex. It consists of an interactive Alignment Viewer for HLA and related genes, an MHC microsatellite database, a sequence interpretation site for Sequencing Based Typing (SBT), and a Primer/Probe database.

A searchable database of genes, focusing on genomes that have been completely sequenced and that have an active research community to contribute gene-specific data. Information includes nomenclature, chromosomal localization, gene products and their attributes (e.g., protein interactions), associated markers, phenotypes, interactions, and links to citations, sequences, variation details, maps, expression reports, homologs, protein domain content, and external databases.

A collection of expert-authored, peer-reviewed disease descriptions on the NCBI Bookshelf that apply genetic testing to the diagnosis, management, and genetic counseling of patients and families with specific inherited conditions.

Summaries of information for selected genetic disorders with discussions of the underlying mutation(s) and clinical features, as well as links to related databases and organizations.

A voluntary registry of genetic tests and laboratories, with detailed information about the tests such as what is measured and analytic and clinical validity. GTR also is a nexus for information about genetic conditions and provides context-specific links to a variety of resources, including practice guidelines, published literature, and genetic data/information. The initial scope of GTR includes single gene tests for Mendelian disorders, as well as arrays, panels and pharmacogenetic tests.

A database of known interactions of HIV-1 proteins with proteins from human hosts. It provides annotated bibliographies of published reports of protein interactions, with links to the corresponding PubMed records and sequence data.

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Genetics & Medicine - Site Guide - NCBI

Rationale for Using Gene Therapy in B-Thalassemia Major and Sickle Cell Anemia – Video

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Rationale for Using Gene Therapy in B-Thalassemia Major and Sickle Cell Anemia
In this exclusive interview, Marina Cavazzana, MD, PhD, of Hpital Universitaire Necker -Enfants Malades, Paris, France, talks about the logic reasoning behi...

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Rationale for Using Gene Therapy in B-Thalassemia Major and Sickle Cell Anemia - Video

North Carolina Chamber of Commerce: Asking Questions & Gathering Answers with a Futurist

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Charlotte, NC (PRWEB) December 13, 2014

According to population studies: North Carolina expects to add nearly 3 million people between now and 2030." If a population explosion like that actually occurs, North Carolina will become the seventh most populous state in the country.

To that end, North Carolinas Chamber of Commerce is gathering at the Future of North Carolina Forum on December 16th to ask questions like, Are We Ready? Do we have the necessary infrastructure in place? Enough clean water? And will job growth keep pace with the growth of our population? As one of the states most influential leaders, the Chamber of Commerce is aiming to facilitate an engaged discussion and discuss what some of the answers to those questions might be. Keynote speaker, global futurist Jack Uldrich will encourage them to look outside the box with his presentation "Business as Unusual: How to Future-Proof North Carolina Against the Ten Trends Transforming Tomorrow."

Jack Uldrich, Global Futurist and Best-Selling Author likes to quote baseball great, Yogi Berra. Berra once said, The future aint what it used to be. Uldrich says, He was right. In fact, the future is going to be downright unusual. Uldrich says, This begs the obvious question: How do you prepare for an uncertain and unpredictable future? In his Business as Unusual keynote address he will encourage NCCC members to think and act in unorthodox ways.

In his unconventional keynote presentation, Jack Uldrich intends to help the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce Members attending the 2014 Forum unlearn the barriers currently holding them back so they can unlock new levels of creativity and innovation. Hell conclude by guiding participants through a series of tangible actions that will unleash their ability to create their own future and, in the process, achieve uncommon levels of success regardless of how large the population grows.

Parties interested in learning more about Jack Uldrich, his books, his daily blog or his speaking availability are encouraged to visit his website. Media wishing to know more about either the event or interviewing Jack can contact Amy Tomczyk at (651) 343.0660.

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North Carolina Chamber of Commerce: Asking Questions & Gathering Answers with a Futurist

Jason Silva, host of National Geographics Brain Games, encourages Canadians to challenge theirs in Mediaplanets …

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(PRWEB) December 13, 2014

The print component of Neurological Conditions is distributed within the National Post, a circulation of approximately 160, 000 copies and an estimated readership of 420,000. The digital component is distributed nationally through a vast social media strategy and across a network of top news sites and partner outlets. To explore the digital version of the campaign, click here.

In an exclusive interview, Mediaplanet had the chance to talk to Jason Silva, the host of National Geographics award winning series, Brain Games. He shared his thoughts on human creativity, futurism, and how we can extend the boundaries of our minds. He notes, Knowledge is addicting. Humans get a hit of dopamine in the brain whenever were exposed to novel stimuli.We have an insatiable urge to understand, to question, to deconstruct what is fascinating.

Another editorial featuring Carrie Maclean, mother of two, shares how she took charge of her multiple sclerosis, did her research, and played an active role in her treatment. This is not a death sentence. This disease is manageable. You can live a long life. She adds that, The research is changing so fast. You need to be your own best advocate.

Special thanks to Genzyme Canada, Cynapsus Therapeutics, Biogen Idec, Kalgene Pharmaceuticals, Weston Brain Institute, Epilepsy Canada, the University Health Network, Brain Canada, Ontario Science Centre and Neurological Health Charities Canada for their support and contributions in the making of this campaign.

About Mediaplanet Mediaplanet is the leading independent publisher of content-marketing campaigns covering a variety of topics and industries. We turn consumer interest into action by providing readers with motivational editorial, pairing it with relevant advertisers, and distributing it within top newspapers and online platforms around the world.

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Press Contact: Sonja Draskovic sonja(dot)draskovic(at)mediaplanet(dot)com 416-583-2215

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Jason Silva, host of National Geographics Brain Games, encourages Canadians to challenge theirs in Mediaplanets ...

Protester arrives early at Freedom Center for Justice For All March in Washington, D.C. – Video

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Protester arrives early at Freedom Center for Justice For All March in Washington, D.C.
James Teal of Arlington, Va., talks about the response to the non-indictments of police by grand juries in Ferguson, Mo. and Staten Island. He brought a sign to Freedom Plaza for the Justice...

By: Staten Island Advance

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Protester arrives early at Freedom Center for Justice For All March in Washington, D.C. - Video