We must act now and decisively if we want to realize a significant health care package by 2010 that can alleviate massive health care burdens for ourselves and our community neighbors.

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said that “of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” Today, in February 2009, with President Barack Obama in the White House there are some who suggest that we live in a “post-racial” society. In this era of historic firsts, some question whether Black History Month has been rendered obsolete. While we joyfully acknowledge the progress our nation has made in terms of civil rights and opportunity for all, we have only to consider the quote from Dr. King to see that race still plays a role in the lives of all Americans.

African Americans have nearly twice the occurrence of others for low birth weight babies, fetal deaths, and infant deaths. Infants that die in the first 27 days of life occur at a rate of three times that of whites. And also according to the Center for Health Disparities at the University of Northern Iowa, African Americans have a higher rate of diabetes than other populations. But whatever the disease or injury is, in almost all cases, African Americans suffer higher mortality and morbidity rates than any other group. But why is that?

The simplest explanation is that many of the issues that prevent African Americans access to health care are the same financial ones that keep people of all races out of the health care system. However the problem looks even worse for Black Iowans as a group. On average, African Americans earn nearly 40% less than whites, and are four times as likely to live below the poverty level. Compounding the problem, around 70% of African American families in poverty have a single woman as the head of the household, and in the absence of another partner to help shoulder the financial and familial load, she must perform the delicate balancing act of taking care of her family while determining which bills get paid, and this is not always an easy choice. Lack of insurance coverage, lack of transportation, limited hourly access to clinics, and a general lack of knowledge of the health care system all contribute to this problem of access.

Because of this limited access, African Americans are also less likely to seek treatment for major health problems in a timely manner, and will often wait until the problems become more severe and complicated to treat. If we are truly serious about achieving cost savings by getting people better up-front and preventative care, this is an issue that will have to be addressed in any significant health care reform, either at the state or federal levels.

The historical legacy of racism, illegal and legal segregation, unethical scientific experiments, and other abuses have made many African Americans distrust our health care system. The Tuskegee Experiment debacle may seem like ancient history to many Iowans, but such histories are still fresh in a lot of minds and are passed down from generation to generation with real meaning to many in our community. It should be no surprise that the two populations that have the worst health status in America, Native Americans and African Americans, also are the two populations that have suffered the worst mistreatment by the majority population.

Before we can find a solution, we must correctly identify the problem. Before we can turn the page on history, we must read what’s on that page. And the reality of race-based disparities in health care in America is a story that many people do not know. And problems that face African Americans and other minorities in gaining access to the best quality health care are multiple and complex. Real equality of opportunity for all people requires that we reform our state and national health care systems tofocus not only on coverage, but this reform must also focus on the severe racial discrepancies in health care quality, cost and access that arise from what are known as the “social determinants of health,” such as income, education, social and physical environments.

So where should we go from here? With 47 million uninsured in America, this is the civil rights cause of our time. Get involved, write letters, make calls to your elected officials, and organize others, because this is a fight that will take the collective energies of all of our communities - urban, rural, black, brown, and white - to win.

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Would you like to find out what those-in-the-know have to say about quit smoking? The information in the article below comes straight from well-informed experts with special knowledge about quit smoking.
After a long time, you have finally decided to quit smoking. Good-bye to smoking means, a complete change in your way of living. Now, your first job is to bring a change in your normal routine.
You need to develop a brand new atmosphere for you. Developing a new atmosphere is also a part of exercise in quitting smoking. Make everything around you such that it will give a fresh feeling to you. For Instance, if you often smoke near the telephone then change its place.

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Abbott and AstraZeneca announced today that they have entered into an agreement for AstraZeneca to co-promote Abbott's TRILIPIX (fenofibric acid), a medication for use alone or in combination with a statin to treat certain lipid disorders. Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca will obtain the non-exclusive right to co-promote TRILIPIX alongside Abbott in the United States, excluding Puerto Rico. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

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why so for this?
and how they got the different animals to match those?
do you agree?
why or hwy not?
btw, how old are these symbols for Chinese astrology?
and which area of china they originated?
when, why and how?
how accurate (in your opinion) do you think Chinese astrolgoy is to Western astrology?
which is older.

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Lean Terminology: What Does It All Mean?
Lean: A term coined by those who compared Toyotas methods to those of other manufacturers: Lean is the antidote to waste It provides a way to specify value, line-up value-creating actions in the best sequence, conduct these activities without interruption whenever someone requests them, and perform more and more effectively (Womack et al. 1990; Womack and Jones 2003).
Value-added work: Work that adds value from the perspective of the client or customer; it is the kind of activity or service for which end users are willing to pay. In healthcare this could be the taking of blood for a medically necessary test or patient time spent with an examining physician.
Waste or muda: Activities of overproduction, waiting, transportation, processing, inventory, movement and defective products. Type 1 muda represents activities that cannot be avoided immediately given current policies, assets and technologies. If a physician cannot eliminate the need to fill out a drug allergies form because of an existing policy, that muda is categorized as type 1. In contrast, type 2 muda is clearly wasteful activity; it is the prime target for immediate elimination. An example of type 2 muda is the time that staff spend looking for equipment that isnt stored or categorized in a sensible way. This wasted time can be immediately removed by re-organizing storage areas for example, moving blood pressure cuffs to one standardized location so they can be easily found.
Value stream map: Visual presentation of activities required to bring a service or product from customer order to delivery. Value-added steps and muda are most easily identified on a value stream map. The mapping starts with defining what the customer demands (in the top right corner) and then captures all the steps required to fulfillment. The current state value stream map represents the steps as they exist today. The future state value stream map is a visual representation of an idealized state. Improvement activities (like kaizen events below) undertaken by front-line staff move the process toward the future state.
Gemba: In Japanese, gemba means actual place. In the Lean context, it refers to the place where value is actually created: the shop floor in manufacturing, or a clinic (e.g., emergency department, outpatient dialysis unit, or operating room) in the healthcare setting. The concept of gemba is important because it emphasizes the Lean principle that value what customers actually want is created on the front lines, not in boardrooms. The value stream mapping exercise forces workers to walk the gemba to see value and the process that creates it.
Kaizen event or rapid improvement event (RIE): Kaizen means in Japanese, and kaizen events are focused on implementing improvements to the process of meeting customer demands. In healthcare, these week-long events provide the opportunity for front-line workers from different disciplines to work together to rapidly plan, implement, measure and adjust improvements.
Kamikaze kaizen: Kaizen activities that improve an isolated segment of a process but negatively affect the entire process are referred to as kamikaze kaizens.

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