LONDON HEALTH CARE CUTS PROTEST, 2014 SOLOAROUNDWORLD IN 25 DAYS, PAUL HODGE, Ch 13 – Video

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LONDON HEALTH CARE CUTS PROTEST, 2014 SOLOAROUNDWORLD IN 25 DAYS, PAUL HODGE, Ch 13
For all the HD Video Chapters of Paul #39;s great November 2014 HD Video Book, SOLO AROUND WORLD IN 25 DAYS, SEPT 5 - SEPT 30, 2014, See: ...

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LONDON HEALTH CARE CUTS PROTEST, 2014 SOLOAROUNDWORLD IN 25 DAYS, PAUL HODGE, Ch 13 - Video

Health Care Center for the Homeless: 2014 Heart to Heart Gala Video – Video

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Health Care Center for the Homeless: 2014 Heart to Heart Gala Video
This video, filmed and edited by Michael Dalton, premiered at our 2014 Heart to Heart Gala on November 7th. Meet a couple of our patients and staff members are they share our story. To partner...

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Health Care Center for the Homeless: 2014 Heart to Heart Gala Video - Video

Some New Prescriptions for the Health Care Marketplace

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Amanda Starc and Daniel N. Mendelson on Year Two of the ACA

Enrollment began last weekend for Americans to get health insurance in 2015 through the federal HealthCare.gov and state marketplaces amid expectations of a smoother process and more transparency than in the first year. As the health insurance marketplace enters its second year, the focus is on helping consumers gain a better understanding of premiums pricing, deductibles and provider networks.

Consumers face higher premiums but could also see more insurers in their states and more competitive plan offerings. They are also adjusting to narrower network access for lower premiums which, in combination with incentives to doctors, promises to improve quality of care. Meanwhile, the politicization of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) means it faces continued assaults in a Republican-controlled Congress well into the 2016 presidential election season.

The No. 1 concern is premiums. This year, premiums will go up on average about 3%, said Wharton lecturer of health care management Daniel N. Mendelson, who is also CEO and founder of Avalere Health, a health care consulting services firm in Washington, D.C. While many consumers focus on premiums, it is important to take a more holistic view and look at not just premiums, but also at co-pays and network access, added Wharton professor of health care management Amanda Starc. They discussed the road ahead for the health insurance marketplace on the Knowledge@Wharton show on Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM channel 111. (Listen to the podcast at the top of this page.)

Mendelson encouraged consumers to go out and shop because premiums in some plans will increase by much more than [the average of 3%]. Premiums on the most popular plans in the market are higher by 10% over those of last year, and that could mean hundreds of dollars for individuals, he added.

Consumers who are reluctant to shop around leave a lot of money on the table, said Starc. That is especially true for people who in the past have had coverage through an employer but now want to buy it on their own. A lot of times consumers can experience some sticker shock when they realize just how much health insurance costs, she added.

The ACA has stimulated rethinking on how clinicians are paid to make sure that incentives are aligned with the health outcomes that we want. Daniel Mendelson

Wiser in Year Two

Both insurers and consumers will be wiser after the first year of the health care marketplace, said Starc. She expected insurers to understand demand and costs better and to adjust premiums accordingly, including fixing mispricing, if any, from the first year. They may also pull out of some states and enter new states, she added.

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Some New Prescriptions for the Health Care Marketplace

Perspective: Health care and the GOP: a primer

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Though the Affordable Care Act passed into law in 2010, conservatives continue to fight it at every opportunity: in the courts, in state legislatures, and in Congress. It's a safe bet that as the race for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination kicks off, a cavalcade of Republican hopefuls will torment innocent Iowans with tales of how they've fought Obamacare in the past and why they're the ones who can finally drive a stake through its heart.

But if you don't read the conservative press, you might have no idea why those of us on the right side of the political spectrum are so worked up about Obamacare. To promote cross-ideological understanding, I've prepared this little FAQ.

Why do conservatives oppose Obamacare?

Not all conservatives are alike, and there are at least some, like Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute, who believe Obamacare should be reformed and not repealed. But as a general rule, conservatives oppose the law and would like to see it repealed for several reasons.

First, some conservatives oppose it for the same reason that liberals favor it: Through the Medicaid expansion and the exchanges, it subsidizes insurance coverage for people of modest means by raising taxes on people of less-modest means and (in theory) by curbing the growth in Medicare spending. Conservatives tend not to be enthusiastic about redistribution, and they're particularly skeptical about redistribution that isn't transparent.

Second, there is a widespread belief on the right that the main driver of the federal government's fiscal woes is the soaring cost of health entitlements, like Medicare and Medicaid. Champions of Obamacare claim that the law will improve matters by encouraging innovative approaches to paying providers, which will yield big efficiency gains. Conservatives are skeptical. They believe that instead of driving efficiency gains, Obamacare's highly prescriptive approach to insurance will stymie cost-saving innovation and that its costs will soar as it expands. Instead of tackling the health entitlement problem, say conservatives, Obamacare will make matters worse.

Third, most conservatives believe that America needs a system of market-based health reform that will be cheaper, less coercive, and less prescriptive than Obamacare, and they're convinced that the only way to get from here to there is to repeal Obamacare root and branch. The problem, as we'll see, is that there's not a lot of consensus around what an Obamacare replacement should look like.

There are, of course, other reasons conservatives oppose Obamacare, but these are a good starting point.

Okay, got it conservatives oppose a new spending program because they're conservatives. But why are conservatives so angry about Obamacare?

Many on the right believe the White House sold Obamacare dishonestly. Back in 2009, when conservatives and liberals were duking it out over President Obama's push for a new federal health care law, the president often insisted that if you like your insurance plan, you'd be able to keep it. Predictably enough, many conservatives claimed that if the president's overhaul of the U.S. health system passed, many people would lose insurance plans they like.

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Perspective: Health care and the GOP: a primer

How mutant gene can cause deafness

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered how one gene is essential to hearing, uncovering a cause of deafness and suggesting new avenues for therapies.

The new study, published November 20 in the journal Neuron, shows how mutations in a gene called Tmie can cause deafness from birth. Underlining the critical nature of their findings, researchers were able to reintroduce the gene in mice and restore the process underpinning hearing.

"This raises hopes that we could, in principle, use gene-therapy approaches to restore function in hair cells and thus develop new treatment options for hearing loss," said Professor Ulrich Mller, senior author of the new study, chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience and director of the Dorris Neuroscience Center at TSRI.

The Gene Responsible

The ear is a complex machine that converts mechanical sound waves into electric signals for the brain to process. When a sound wave enters the ear, the uneven ends (stereocilia) of the inner ear's hair cells are pushed back, like blades of grass bent by a heavy wind. The movement causes tension in the strings of proteins (tip links) connecting the stereocilia, which sends a signal to the brain through ion channels that run through the tips of the hair cell bundles.

This process of converting mechanical force into electrical activity, called mechanotransduction, still poses many mysteries. In this case, researchers were in the dark about how signals were passed along the tip links to the ion channels, which shape electrical signals.

To track down this unknown component, researchers in the new study built a library of thousands of genes with the potential to affect mechanotransduction.

The team spent six months screening the genes to see if the proteins the genes produced interacted with tip link proteins. Eventually, the team found a gene, Tmie, whose protein, TMIE, interacts with tip link proteins and connects the tip links to a piece of machinery near the ion channel.

A Path to New Treatments

This discovery answers a long-standing question in neuroscience. Scientists have long known that mutations in the Tmie gene could cause deafness -- but they weren't sure how.

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How mutant gene can cause deafness

Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute, TapImmune Partner On Cancer Vaccines

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By Cyndi Root

The Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute of Florida (VGTI), a non-profit research institute, and TapImmune have formed a partnership to develop TapImmunes cancer vaccines. The companies announced the collaboration in a press release stating that they will move experimental vaccines for breast and ovarian cancers into Phase 2 clinical trials.

Keith Knutson, PhD, VGTIs Director of Cancer Vaccines and Immune Therapies Program, explained the need for vaccines, All it takes is a few malignant cells to continue to circulate in the body until they eventually anchor and metastasize. Because these cancer cells already survived primary therapy, they are typically drug-resistant and much more difficult to treat.

VGTI and TapImmune Agreement

VGTI and TapImmune have agreed to coordinate efforts on cancer vaccines, including study design and trial site selection. VGTI will work with TapImmune to recruit clinical advisors, select manufacturers, and procure outsourced resources as necessary. The two will also work together in executing the clinical trials. Upon successful regulatory approvals, TapImmune holds the exclusive commercialization rights for the vaccines.

Cancer Vaccine Candidates

Investigators from VGTI and TapImmune hope to vaccinate women who have achieved remission in their breast or ovarian cancer in order to prevent cancer recurrence. Dr. Knutson said that cancer survivors have a substantial rate of cancer returning due to malignant cells that escaped during primary treatment. Antigens, determined by genetic and molecular profiling, in the vaccine would work to target the proteins expressed on the patients tumor cells, triggering an immune response with few side effects. The immune system would eliminate rebel cancer cells and stop new ones from growing.

Cancer Vaccines

Cancer vaccines are being engineered to boost the immune system, kickstarting it so it will kill abnormal cells and prevent malignant cell growth. Cancer vaccines are distinguished according to prevention or treatment. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved prevention vaccines for the hepatitis B virus, which can cause liver cancer, and human papillomavirus (HPV). Clinical trials for treatment vaccines are much more numerous than those for preventative vaccines. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is currently listing 12 trials for vaccines to prevent cervical cancer and three to prevent solid tumors.

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Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute, TapImmune Partner On Cancer Vaccines

Doctors working on gene therapy to help patients with hemophilia

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SOUTH BEND, Ind.--- Little Hunter Miller's motor is always running.

Like most toddlers he's sometimes one step away from trouble, but for Hunter being rough and tumble can have serious side effects. Hunter has severe hemophilia.

Twenty-thousand Americans live with hemophilia; it's a condition preventing the blood from clotting easily after a cut or injury.

Patients are also more susceptible to internal bleeding, which can damage joints, organs and tissue.

Three days after Hunter was born a routine circumcision caused a major scare.

"You know a baby gets up in the morning and their diapers are just full, said Tina Miller, Hunters grandmother. Well his was full, but it was full of blood."

Doctors diagnosed Hunter with hemophilia a, which means his blood is missing a protein known as clotting factor eight.

When he gets hurt doctors need to inject the clotting factor to stop the bleeding.

He's had eight emergency room visits in 19 months.

"Him falling, bumping his head too hard; just little cuts, said Heather Frederick, Hunters mother. He cut the roof of his mouth with a tortilla chip and that was a hospital trip."

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Doctors working on gene therapy to help patients with hemophilia

4 strategies doctors are using to cure the blind

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Roughly 40 million people across the world are blind and, for a long time, most forms of blindness were permanent conditions. The same situation held for degenerative diseases that affect eyesight.

But recently, scientists have made some surprising headway into changing that. New treatments like gene therapy, stem-cell therapy, and even bionic implants are already starting to restore some patients' sight. And these technologies are expected to keep improving in the future.

Here's a look at all the ways scientists have tried and, increasingly, succeeded in curing the blind:

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Daniel Burke/AP Photo This undated image released by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia shows doctors Albert Maguire, left, along with wife Jean Bennett at the University of Pennsylvania. The two are part of two teams of scientists in the United States and Britain that are using gene therapy to dramatically improve vision in four patients with an inherited eye disease that causes blindness in children.

Tweaking genes is one promising route to treat blindness.

In 2011, a group led by Jean Bennett of the University of Pennsylvania used gene therapy to treat some patients with a congenital blindness disorder. The patients in question all hada hereditary disease called Leber congenital amaurosis, and they all had mutations in their RPE65 gene.The patients were each given a non-harmful virus that could sneak a healthy copy of the gene into their eye cells. Six out of 12 showed improvement.

Then, in 2014, researchers led by Robert MacLaren, an ophthalmologist at Oxford,presented some promising early results of a very smallstudy of six patients at various stages of a rare, inherited disease calledchoroideremia. These patients all lacked a protein calledREP1, which leads to progressive vision loss. Doctors took the gene forREP1, put it in a non-harmful virus, and injected that virus into the patients' eyes. All reported some improvement in their sight.

"One patient, who before his treatment could not read any lines on an eye chart with his most affected eye, was able to read three lines with that eye following his treatment,"wrote Susan Young Rojahn at MIT Technology Review.

Commercial treatments are still a ways off, however. Researchers first have to continue to monitor these patients to see what happens to their vision over the long term (and check for side effects).The FDA currently recommends 15 years of safety monitoring before trying to get a specific gene therapy approved.

2) Stem cells

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4 strategies doctors are using to cure the blind

Premiere: Kissey – 'Melting Pot'

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Within just a few seconds, it's clear that 'Melting Pot' isn't just another pop contender.

New York via Sweden, Kissey clearly has higher aims than simply constructing product. 'Melting Pot' is arch pop futurism, an incredibly atmospheric piece which has a true cinematic glean.

Due to be released on December 7th, it could well be familiar to you following its use in the Dear White People - honoured at the Sundance Festival, no less.

Sinister, darkly melodic electronica, 'Melting Point' finds Kissey locating the human soul within synthesised sound.

Challenging yet also continually inviting, the single is a mesh of contradictions, all expressed in an enticing, fragrant manner.

Check it out now.

'Melting Pot' is due to be released on December 7th.

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Premiere: Kissey - 'Melting Pot'

Baylor ISR: Faith & Freedom in the Lone Star State, Timothy Matovina (Sept. 19, 2013) – Video

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Baylor ISR: Faith Freedom in the Lone Star State, Timothy Matovina (Sept. 19, 2013)
Timothy Matovina, Professor of Theology and the Executive Director of the Institute for Latino Studies, Notre Dame University "Natives and Newcomers: Ethnic Mexican Religious Convergences in...

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Baylor ISR: Faith & Freedom in the Lone Star State, Timothy Matovina (Sept. 19, 2013) - Video

Scuba Diving Losin with Freedom Dive and MV Scubanet Live-aboard by GoPro Hero3 Disc 1/3 – Video

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Scuba Diving Losin with Freedom Dive and MV Scubanet Live-aboard by GoPro Hero3 Disc 1/3
Disc 1/3 Losin with Freedom Dive and MV Scubanet Live-aboard by GoPro Hero3 - 13 - 15 2557 dive 1-3 - Dive 3 Whale shark () ...

By: TAU Nathanthorn Churrahmun

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Scuba Diving Losin with Freedom Dive and MV Scubanet Live-aboard by GoPro Hero3 Disc 1/3 - Video