Wednesday, October 19th, 5-7pm

Rogalski Center, St. Ambrose University, Davenport, IA

Sponsored by the Amy Helpenstell Foundation, St. Ambrose Counseling Center, St. Ambrose Women's Studies Department, and Active Minds

The Quad Cities Eating Disorders Consortium is hosting author Harriet Brown at the Rogalski Center to speak on Body Image, Disordered Eating, and Eating Disorders on October 19th from 5-7pm, sponsored by the St. Ambrose Counseling Center, Active Minds team, and St. Ambrose Women's Studies department.

Harriet Brown is an eclectic and curiosity-driven writer and speaker whose work on subjects ranging from fat acceptance to forgiveness appears in the New York Times Magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine, Health, Glamour, Vogue, and many other publications. Her radio essays can be heard on NPR's "All Things Considered" and "To the Best of Our Knowledge." A frequent contributor to the Tuesday New York Times science section, she specializes in speaking about issues that affect the lives of women and children. Her latest book, Brave Girl Eating: A Family's Struggle with Anorexia (William Morrow), recounts her family's efforts to help their oldest daughter recover from anorexia nervosa while .

Brown is also an assistant professor of magazine journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in Syracuse, New York, where she created Project BodyTalk, an audio project that collects commentaries about people's relationship to food, eating and their bodies.  This project will be one of the focuses for her talk on October 19th.

Brown is the editor of two anthologies (Feed Me! and Mr. Wrong) and several other nonfiction books, including The Good-Bye Window: A Year in the Life of a Day-Care Center.  She co-chairs Maudsley Parents, a website of resources for families struggling with eating disorders, and is a member of the Academy for Eating Disorders.

More information on Harriet and her work can be found at www.harrietbrown.com and www.projectbodytalk.com, and more information about local resources for Eating Disorders can be found at www.qceatingdisorders.com.

DATE DAY/TIME PLACE

09-24-11 Sat. 8am - 12pm CASI 1035 W. Kimberly Rd., Davenport IA

10-05-11 Wed. 9am - 12pm American Legion Hall, Bluegrass, IA

10-06-11 Thur. 8am - 1pm CASI 1035 W. Kimberly Rd., Davenport IA

10-19-11 Wed. 3pm - 6pm Bettendorf Presbyterian Church, 1200 Middle Rd., Bettendorf , IA

10/24/11 Mon. 11am - 1pm Heritage Woods of Moline, 5500 46th Ave. Dr. Moline, Il

10-27-11 Thur. 8am - 12 CASI 1035 W. Kimberly Rd., Davenport IA

Those receiving a flu shot should wear loose-fitting clothing, preferably short sleeves. Medicare recipients must bring their Medicare card/Medicare HMO card to the clinic. For those without Medicare the flu vaccine cost is $35 with a $5 discount at the door if you pay by cash or check at that time. No Credit Cards accepted. Pneumonia vaccine is $40.

Capital Funds Will Help Improve Health Care Access in Underserved Communities, Create Jobs

CHICAGO - August 31, 2011. Governor Pat Quinn today announced $30.5 million from the capital program to build and renovate 14 community health centers throughout Illinois. The Illinois Jobs Now! funding will help the state to improve health outcomes for medically underserved Illinoisans, reduce health care spending and save taxpayers money. The projects are expected to create around 215 jobs.

"These capital funds are critical in helping us increase community-based health care," Governor Quinn said. "We are investing in the health and wellness of the people of Illinois, and these community health centers reflect the emphasis I have placed on helping people get the care they need as close to where they live and work as possible."

The Community Health Center Construction Act, sponsored by Sen. James F. Clayborne Jr. (D-Belleville) and Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), was signed into law by Governor Quinn in 2009. The Act enables communities to renovate dilapidated buildings, convert vacant commercial space, construct new health center sites, and provide equipment for additional health services such as OB/GYN and dental. 

Funding for the projects are included in Governor Quinn's Illinois Jobs Now! capital construction program, and will be administered through the state's Capital Development Board. In addition to providing needed health care facilities, the projects are expected to create about 215 construction jobs.

The 14 community health centers receiving grants include :

• Erie Family Health Centers Inc.: $2.2 million to improve two existing primary care sites to serve Chicago's greater Humboldt Park and West Town communities.

• Lawndale Christian Health Center: $3 million to build a health and wellness center that will serve Lawndale and neighboring communities on Chicago's west side.

• Central Counties Health Centers: $3 million to build a 24,000-square-foot addition to its current facility that will serve Springfield and the surrounding area.

• Rural Health Inc., Anna: $1.74 million to renovate existing space and build new space to serve Union and Johnson County residents.

• Asian Human Services Family Health Center, Chicago: $2.18 million to build a new facility adjacent to its current West Ridge site.

• Christian Community Health Center: $3 million to relocate its Calumet City Clinic.

• Community Health Improvement Center, Champaign: $363,390 to remodel and expand existing space and purchase dental equipment.

• Heartland International Health Center, Chicago: $3 million to build a health center in Rogers Park and renovate the Uptown Community Health Center.

• Greater Elgin Family Care Center: $2.67 million to build a new Streamwood Health Center, expanding the existing Adult Clinic, and expanding the Sherman Hospital Medical Office.

• Aunt Martha's Service Center: $641,097 to renovate the Carpenters Health Center and the House Comprehensive Resource Center to serve the Carpentersville and Aurora areas.

• Mercy Family Health Center: $3 million to build a new medical facility at Oakwood Shores Residential Community on Chicago's near south side.

• PCC Community Wellness Center: $691,299 to relocate and renovate its current facility that will serve Chicago's western suburban communities.

• Shawnee Health Service and Development Corporation, Carbondale: $1.9 million to build a new dental facility and renovate its existing building into medical exam rooms.

• Alivio Medical Center, Berwyn: $3 million to build a new medical center with services for a wide variety of needs.

Community health centers are nonprofit entities created by Congress to meet the health care needs of underserved communities and high-risk patients. These centers fill a void by providing care for those who often are not served by other providers, including individuals who are low-income, the uninsured or homeless, or people with HIV/AIDS, substance abuse problems or special medical needs.

###

This week, the federal government is releasing the final version of long-awaited transparency rules to disclose the financial ties between medical researchers who receive billions of dollars in federal funding and the pharmaceutical industry.  On Aug. 4, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa urged the government not to dilute the rules.  Grassley's prior oversight uncovered several instances of such financial relationships that were not public. Grassley's letter to the Office of Management and Budget came in response to a media report that the agency was removing the requirement in the proposed rule for a publicly available website that would publish the outside financial interests of researchers funded by taxpayers.  The final rules include the diluted, weak requirement:  Information about an individual with a significant financial interest in the subject of a federally funded research project must be disclosed via a publicly accessible website or via written response to any requestor within five business days.  Grassley made the following comment on the final rules.

"Making the method of disclosure optional hurts public access.  An institution that doesn't want to disclose information readily will be able to opt for the written request, knowing that requiring a request in writing is a barrier.  It's easier to look up information online than have to find the right addressee, write the letter, and wait for a response.  This is a missed opportunity to inject transparency where it's really needed.  With less public scrutiny than we could have had, we'll lose a valuable layer of oversight.  This is ironic, coming from an Administration that pledged more transparency in government.  Transparency requires action, not just words."

The final rules are available here.

The text of Grassley's Aug. 4 letter is available here.

For Immediate Release
Thursday, August 4, 2011

Grassley Urges Agency Not to Weaken Federal Health Research Transparency Rule

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley today urged a key federal agency not to dilute a long-awaited transparency rule that would help disclose financial ties between medical researchers who receive billions of dollars in federal funding and the pharmaceutical industry.

"The public's business ought to be public," Grassley said.  "Transparency is a backstop against research that's compromised by doctors' self-interest, to the detriment of consumers.  Backsliding on transparency would undermine the good work done in recent years to shine a light on these financial relationships."

Grassley wrote to the Office of Management and Budget in response to a media report that the agency is proposing to weaken transparency rules proposed in May 2010 by the Department of Health and Human Services.  According to the article, the Office of Management and Budget is removing the requirement in the proposed rule for a publicly available website that would publish the outside financial interests of researchers funded by taxpayers. 

The Department of Health and Human Services includes the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is the primary means of federal funding of medical research at universities and large medical centers.  The President's proposed budget for the National Institutes of Health for 2012 is $32 billion, with about 83 percent dedicated for research around the country.

In 2007, Grassley began looking into whether universities have disclosed their professors' outside financial interests and found several cases indicating that more transparency might be helpful, including:

--The chair of the Psychiatry Department at Emory University failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from a pharmaceutical company while researching that same company's drugs with an NIH grant.  The Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General is now investigating the matter.

--The chair of the Psychiatry Department at Stanford University received an NIH grant to study a drug while partially owning a company that was seeking Food and Drug Administration approval of said drug.  He was later removed from the grant.

--Three psychiatrists at Harvard University failed to report almost a million dollars each in outside income while heading up several NIH grants.  Harvard released a report on the matter, and a briefing has been scheduled with Grassley's office.

Also, the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services concluded that the NIH doesn't adequately monitor its outside grants for conflicts of interest.

A law enacted last year through Grassley and Sen. Herb Kohl will require public disclosure of drug company and medical device manufacturer payments to doctors, starting in March 2013. 

The rule proposed for NIH grants would require the research institutions to determine potential conflicts of interest grant by grant, such as whether the doctor owns shares in a company that could cause bias in his or her federally funded research.  The details would have to be posted online for public access. The Office of Management and Budget is proposing to eliminate the online requirement, according to a media article. 

"If the online requirement is gone, it will be much harder for the public to see and use this information," Grassley said. "Without public scrutiny, we'd lose a valuable layer of oversight."

The text of Grassley's letter is available here.

-30-