Monday, October 27, 2008
U.S. *NEW* Social Security Online - Compassionate Allowances
main page:
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances/
list of conditions:
Social Security Online - Compassionate Allowances
Compassionate Allowances
| Social Security has an obligation to provide benefits quickly to applicants whose medical conditions are so serious that their conditions obviously meet disability standards. Compassionate allowances are a way of quickly identifying diseases and other medical conditions that invariably qualify under the Listing of Impairments based on minimal objective medical information. Compassionate allowances will allow Social Security to quickly target the most obviously disabled individuals for allowances based on objective medical information that we can obtain quickly. Commissioner Astrue has held two Compassionate Allowance public outreach hearings. The first was on rare diseases and the second was on cancers. A third hearing on brain injuries is planned for November 18, 2008. The initial list of Compassionate Allowance conditions was developed as a result of information received at public outreach hearings, public comment on an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, comments received from the Social Security and Disability Determination Service communities, and the counsel of medical and scientific experts. Also, we considered which conditions are most likely to meet our current definition of disability. A modest 50 conditions have been selected for the initiative's rollout. The list which follows may expand over time. Initial List of Compassionate Allowance Conditions Additional information about how compassionate allowances are processed |
2008 full free text: Informed Consent Revisited: A Doctrine in the Service of Cancer Care --the Oncologist
Informed Consent Revisited: A Doctrine in the Service of Cancer Care -- Schachter and Fins 13 (10): 1109 -- The Oncologist: "CONCLUSION
Empathetic and attentive interest in patients facilitates an understanding about patients' physiological and psychological needs. Significantly, it enables the physician to contextualize the patient's decision within the patient's moral and values framework. If there is a paradox in all of this, it is that the ideal of informed consent rests as much in the physician educating the patient as it does in the patient educating the physician.
2008 full free text: multinational study - Hormone Therapy and the Risk of Breast Cancer in BRCA1 Mutation Carriers - JNCI
Hormone Therapy and the Risk of Breast Cancer in BRCA1 Mutation Carriers -- Eisen et al. 100 (19): 1361 -- JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute
"In conclusion, these data are reassuring in suggesting that HT is probably not contraindicated in women with a BRCA1 mutation. Although the data cannot yet be considered definitive, we observed a statistically significant reduction in the risk of breast cancer following HT use, in both the unadjusted and adjusted analyses. It is important that these findings be replicated. The observed associations were not different for women who used estrogen alone or estrogen plus progesterone. There was little difference in the observed ORs associated with less than 3 years and 3 or more years of exposure, and therefore it is not possible for us to recommend an optimum duration of use. We did not include patients with BRCA2 mutations in this study because the sample size was small. It is important that these data be confirmed in other populations, including in women with BRCA2 mutations. It is also important to evaluate the other risks and benefits associated with HT use in women at high risk for breast cancer."
CONTEXT AND CAVEATS
Prior knowledge:
Use of hormone therapy (HT) after menopause may increase the risk of breast cancer in the general population. The effects of HT in women with mutations in the BRCA1 gene, however, are not known.
Study design:
Case–control study of postmenopausal women who carry a BRCA1 mutation to compare the risks of breast cancer among those who used HT and those who did not.
Contribution:
In this study of BRCA1 mutation carriers, a decrease in breast cancer risk was observed among those who took HT compared with those who did not.
Implications:
HT use does not appear to be associated with an increased risk for breast cancer among postmenopausal women who carry a BRCA1 mutation. Indeed, in this study, it was associated with a decreased risk among such women.
Limitations:
The study was relatively small, women who had undergone preventive mastectomy or used tamoxifen were excluded, and the results depended on the participants’ recall of HT use. An average of approximately 5.6 years had elapsed between breast cancer diagnosis and the completion of the questionnaire, so if BRCA1 mutation carriers who previously took HT have shorter survival after breast cancer diagnosis than those who did not take HT, this would have skewed the results in the negative direction that was observed.
From the Editors
2008 Talking About Charities - full report
TAC2008-03-CompleteReport.pdf (application/pdf Object)
The Board of Directors of The Muttart Foundation is pleased to release the fourth
iteration of Talking About Charities. This report outlines the results of almost 3,900
phone interviews in which respondents were asked for their views about charities and
issues affecting charities.
Charities can take pride that they continue to enjoy significant levels of trust.
Trust is a critical component of the relationship that beneficiaries and donors must have
with those community organizations working to improve the quality of life.
Two years ago, when the last report was released, we said the study had important messages for the sector. Those messages are reiterated, sometimes even more strongly, in the results from this year’s interviews.
Clearly, respondents say they think charities can and should do a better job at
providing information about their activities, particularly in the area of fundraising.
The charitable sector ignores these messages at its peril. Respondents say they
want the sector to become better at telling its story – not only about the values that
underline its work and the value of its work to communities across the country, but also
about how it accomplishes its work.
We hope that this report can help make charities more aware of the public’s
interest in having a more complete understanding, since that can do little but to
strengthen support.
We commend this report to the sector, to policymakers at all levels of government
and to the public at large. May it help guide our discussions and our efforts.
Multianalyte Profiling of Serum Antigens and Autoimmune and Infectious Disease Molecules to Identify Biomarkers Dysregulated in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer -- Bertenshaw et al. 17 (10): 2872 -- Cancer
Multianalyte Profiling of Serum Antigens and Autoimmune and Infectious Disease Molecules to Identify Biomarkers Dysregulated in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer -- Bertenshaw et al. 17 (10): 2872 -- Cancer
When analyzed by cancer subtype and stage, there were differences in the relative value of biomarkers.
Correction: Article on Diagnostic Markers for Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer
1078-0432.CCR-14-22-CORv1.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Correction: Article on Diagnostic Markers for Early
Detection of Ovarian Cancer
In the article on diagnostic markers for early detection of ovarian cancer in the February
15, 2008, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, the authors indicated that the novel blood test
described has a PPV for the general population above the suggested 0.10 necessary to be
used as a screening test. However, data were not provided to support this claim. The PPV
of this test for the general population is 6.5%, or 0.065. Therefore, it was incorrect to
suggest that this test may be used for screening the general population, and the authors
do not support the use of this test for screening the general population.
Visintin I, Feng Z, Longton G, Ward DC, Alvero AB, Lai Y, Tenthorey J, Leiser A,
Flores-Saaib R, Yu H, Azori M, Rutherford T, Schwartz PE, Mor G. Diagnostic markers
for early detection of ovarian cancer.
Clin Cancer Res 2008;14:1065–72.
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