The old case-law standard, said Robert Swidler, general counsel for Northeast Health, a health care system in the Albany region, "put hospitals and nursing homes in a very difficult position." He said the new law would bring ethically, emotionally and medically fraught decisions "into sunlight."

HANYS commends the sponsors of the legislation and the Governor for providing family members with the legal authority to make health care treatment decisions when their loved ones are incapacitated and have no health care proxy.

The new law gives close friends or family members the legal authority to make medical treatment decisions when a person is incapacitated, even if the patient has not left specific written instructions or designated a health care proxy. "This is humane, this is ethical, this is the right legislation," said Paterson. The new rules, which are common in most other states, come after 17 years of wrangling in the state legislature.

-Library of Integrated Network-based Cellular Signatures Program: This program, called LINCS, will build a community resource of scientific information to drive understanding of how components of biological systems, such as genes and proteins, function normally to maintain health or become disrupted by genetic and environmental stressors to cause disease. This resource will accelerate discoveries of the inner working of biological systems that can be targeted for use in new and better treatments. -Science of Behavior Change Program: This program examines how human biology, culture and society together influence a person's ability to adopt healthy behaviors and maintain them over time. This initiative will address effective motivation strategies that might be developed to curb unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, excessive alcohol drinking, poor diet and lack of exercise. -NIH Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) Cell Center: This program creates a national iPS Cell Center, under the NIH Intramural Research Program, to drive the translation of scientific knowledge about stem cell biology into new cell-based treatments. -Global Health Program: This program is designed for increasing capacity for global health research by enhancing education, training and research opportunities in developing countries. -Regulatory Science Program: This collaborative program (recently announced) NIH and FDA will encourage rapid and efficient use of new knowledge, technologies, and innovations in the development, investigation and regulatory review of medical products. The main goal is to ensure the development of safe and effective products based on the highest quality science in United States.

Months after experts discounted the importance of routine mammograms and Pap smears for many women, the American Cancer Society is warning more explicitly than ever that regular testing for prostate cancer is of questionable value, too, and can do men more harm than good. The cancer society has not recommended routine screening for most men since the mid-1990s, and that is not changing. But the organization is urging doctors to talk frankly with their patients about the risks and limitations of the PSA blood test when offering it.

Governments and citizens must have confidence that the networks at the core of their national security and economic prosperity are safe and resilient. Now this is about more than petty hackers who deface websites. Our ability to bank online, use electronic commerce, and safeguard billions of dollars in intellectual property are all at stake if we cannot rely on the security of our information networks….The freedom to connect to these technologies can help transform societies, but it is also critically important to individuals. I was recently moved by the story of a doctor – and I won’t tell you what country he was from – who was desperately trying to diagnose his daughter’s rare medical condition. He consulted with two dozen specialists, but he still didn’t have an answer. But he finally identified the condition, and found a cure, by using an internet search engine. That's one of the reasons why unfettered access to search engine technology is so important in individuals’ lives….

Franklin Roosevelt built on these ideas when he delivered his Four Freedoms speech in 1941. Now, at the time, Americans faced a cavalcade of crises and a crisis of confidence. But the vision of a world in which all people enjoyed freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear transcended the troubles of his day….That's why today I'm announcing that over the next year, we will work with partners in industry, academia, and nongovernmental organizations to establish a standing effort that will harness the power of connection technologies and apply them to our diplomatic goals. By relying on mobile phones, mapping applications, and other new tools, we can empower citizens and leverage our traditional diplomacy.…Let me give you one example. ... We'll be asking Americans to send us their best ideas for applications and technologies that help break down language barriers, overcome illiteracy, connect people to the services and information they need. Microsoft, for example, has already developed a prototype for a digital doctor that could help provide medical care in isolated rural communities. We want to see more ideas like that. And we'll work with the winners of the competition and provide grants to help build their ideas to scale.

(1)http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/technology/companies/25google.html?ref=europe see news article for EU directive info electronic commerce info (2)http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135519.htm The Newseum,Washington, DC. (3)http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/ghi_pepfar Below- note on US Dept of State, the Global Health Initiative. ]]> http://nysbar.com/blogs/healthlaw/2010/02/21st_century_statecraft_effort_1.html http://nysbar.com/blogs/healthlaw/2010/02/21st_century_statecraft_effort_1.html Information Technology Laws and Regulations Public Health digital doctor-rural Dipnote Global Health Initiative global public health international health affairs international privacy/data protection laws Internet freedom Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:32:51 -0500 Before leaving town to avoid the impending snowstorm, the Senate passed the Family Health Care Decisions Act yesterday. The bill has already passed the Assembly and it is expected the Governor will sign it. http://nysbar.com/blogs/healthlaw/2010/02/fhcda_passes_senate.html http://nysbar.com/blogs/healthlaw/2010/02/fhcda_passes_senate.html Legislation family health care decisions act FHCDA Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:01:52 -0500