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Daily Rounds: Al Gore's Climate Reality; Hospital Performance Scrutinized; The Healthier Plate; Kidney Lawsuit

Nature News Blog: "Al Gore kicks off 24 hours of reality Former US Vice President Al Gore kicked off his latest climate initiative at 7 p.m. local time in Mexico City Wednesday evening, marking the first of 24 straight hours of presentations and panel discussions about global warming as the campaign follows the setting sun around the globe before wrapping up in New York City Thursday evening." (Spoonful of Medicine)

Hospital Performance Improved, Report Finds - NYTimes.com "The report found that hospital performance nationwide continued to improve steadily in 2010 on a variety of measures and is now at high levels. Assessing more than 12 million treatment actions, like whether heart attack patients are given aspirin upon admission or surgical patients receive antibiotics within an hour, the commission found that hospitals followed standards 97 percent of the time. That is up from 82 percent in 2002. The Joint Commission list, at www.jointcommission.org, omitted the Cleveland Clinic; Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston; Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.; Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center; and the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, among others. It did not include a single hospital in New York City, or the most prominent centers in Chicago and Houston. “It’s pretty glaring that they’re not there,” said Dr. Peter J. Pronovost, the senior vice president for patient safety and quality for Johns Hopkins Medicine." (nytimes.com) Harvard Researchers Launch Healthy Eating Plate - Press Releases - Harvard School of Public Health “Unfortunately, like the earlier U.S. Department of Agriculture Pyramids, MyPlate mixes science with the influence of powerful agricultural interests, which is not the recipe for healthy eating,” said Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and chair of the Department of Nutrition at HSPH.  “The Healthy Eating Plate is based on the best available scientific evidence and provides consumers with the information they need to make choices that can profoundly affect our health and well being.” (hsph.harvard.edu)

Tufts lawsuit alleges kidney foundation owes it more than $1.4 million - Boston Medical News - White Coat Notes - Boston.com "In a lawsuit filed in the US District Court of Massachusetts yesterday, Tufts Medical Center alleged that the National Kidney Foundation has failed to pay more than $1.4 million owed for research and assistance the hospital provided in developing guidelines for diagnosing and treating kidney disease." (boston.com)

This program aired on September 15, 2011. The audio for this program is not available.

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