Six months after the earthquake that devastated the country, Haiti remains a nation whose people are on fragile ground. With much of the infrastructure destroyed and the capital city of Port-au-Prince devastated, life is still far from normal.

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WASHINGTON, DC—An HHS interagency workgroup is drafting a new strategic plan to strengthen viral hepatitis prevention and control in the US, an HHS official told a House committee at a recent hearing.

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WASHINGTON, DC—Properly diagnosing head injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) continues to be a challenge for the military because there is still so much unknown about the brain, a top DoD official told a Senate committee. “Our science on the brain is just not as great as it is for other parts of our body, and researchers are struggling today to find the linkages and to learn everything they can about the brain. Because of this, we are going to see some misdiagnoses,” said Gen Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff.

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The Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster caused the release of an estimated five million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. President Jefferson’s advice seems even more poignant in our increasingly complicated world as the excuses and apologies of corporate executives compete with images of oil covered marine life and fouled beaches.

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WASHINGTON, DC—Finding innovative research vectors for major diseases, furthering partnerships with industry, and ironing out conflicts of interest among scientists are some of the many pressing goals facing NIH. Testifying before Congress last month, NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, discussed those issues, as well as how the agency allocates its research dollars.

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WASHINGTON, DC—The FDA is in need of a conceptual framework to help the agency evaluate the ethical issues involved in determining whether companies should start or continue clinical trials on approved drugs and in ensuring that these studies are ethically conducted, according to an IoM report released last month.

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WASHINGTON, DC—Many federal physicians do not feel they are adequately paid, but also may not be aware of the pay policies of their respective agencies, a survey conducted by the Federal Physicians Association (FPA) found.

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WASHINGTON, DC—Suicide surveillance technology is helping the military track suicides, an important component in prevention, officials said during a DCoE webinar held last month.

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN—The paradigm of schizophrenia treatment through most of the 20th century was a relatively simple one. The disease could be managed with drugs or therapy, many times on an inpatient basis at a hospital facility, but therapy provided little hope.

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BETHESDA, MD—Few youths with early-onset schizophrenia who are treated with antipsychotic medications for up to a year appear to benefit from their initial treatment choice over the long term, according to results from an NIMH-funded study. The study was published online in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

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