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Daily Rounds: Disney's Anti-Junk-Food Kick; Sleeping Together For Health; Pictures For Medical Errors; Questioning Health Savings

Promoting Nutrition, Disney To Restrict Junk-Food Ads (The New York Times) — "The Walt Disney Company, in an effort to address concerns about entertainment’s role in childhood obesity, plans to announce on Tuesday that all products advertised on its child-focused television channels, radio stations and Web sites must comply with a strict new set of nutritional standards. The restrictions on ads extend to Saturday-morning cartoons on ABC stations owned by Disney. Under the new rules, products like Capri Sun drinks and Kraft Lunchables meals — both current Disney advertisers — along with a wide range of candy, sugared cereal and fast food, will no longer be acceptable advertising material."

Who Sleeps better At Night? (The Wall Street Journal) — "Couples may get health benefits simply from sleeping in the same bed, a burgeoning field of study is showing. In fact, some scientists believe that sleeping with a partner may be a major reason why people with close relationships tend to be in better health and live longer."

Can Patient Photos Help Cut Medical Errors? (Reuters) — "Putting children's photos in their electronic hospital charts could help reduce one type of medical error, a study published Monday suggests."

Why Can't Facts Persuade? (Not Running A Hospital) — "The same thing happens in health care. Without quantitative support, some people assert that structural changes have occurred in the industry that make government intervention unnecessary. Such views are aided and abetted by unsupported self-serving numbers offered by others that have served to anchor the discussion in people's minds. For example, Martha's own radio station runs an ad from the dominant health care system in the state asserting that it will be passing back savings to consumers in the amount of $345 million over the next four years. But the difference between the numbers contained in Martha's story and the numbers contained in the advertisement is that publicly available figures form the basis for her story."

This program aired on June 5, 2012. The audio for this program is not available.

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