President Obama on Wednesday held a private meeting with Appeals Court Judge Diane Wood to discuss her possible nomination to the Supreme Court, the New York Times reports. The meeting is thought to be Obama"s first one-on-one interview with a potential candidate to replace retiring Justice David Souter. A White House official said that other possible nominees will be interviewed. According to the Times, White House aides expect an announcement no earlier than next week (Zeleny, New York Times, 5/21). According to the AP/Google.com, Wood was in Washington, D.C., to attend a Georgetown University Law Center conference on the importance of judicial independence. Wood declined to comment on the meeting with Obama or the Supreme Court vacancy. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, another possible candidate, also attended the conference, where she delivered the keynote address (Sherman, AP/Google.com, 5/20). Kagan in her speech paid tribute to former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O"Connor, who was being honored at the conference, and discussed the independence of the Office of the Solicitor General. According to the Washington Post, conservative groups already are criticizing Wood and Kagan, as well as potential candidates Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D). The Post reports that Wood "is held in high esteem in liberal legal circles in Chicago for serving as an intellectual counterpart to the circuit"s star conservative judges." The Post reports that Obama has solicited the opinions from senators of both political parties, including every member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Robert Gibbs, Obama"s press secretary, said that Obama is "very active" in the decision-making process and that the nomination process is "something that he"s quite familiar with" (Barnes/Murray, Washington Post, 5/21).
The New York Times reports that "The nation"s governors, Democrats as well as Republicans, voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health care plan emerging from Congress, fearing that Washington was about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without money to pay for them. The role of the states in a restructured health care system dominated the summer meeting of the National Governors Association here this weekend - with bipartisan animosity
voiced against the plan during a closed-door luncheon on Saturday and in a private meeting on Sunday with the health and human services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius." After the meeting, Sebelius said "there"s a recognition that states don"t have cash right nowò€¦ i""s difficult to send states the bill if they don"t have the money."
Decisions about forgoing care because of the cost for the long-term uninsured have been a way of life, "but for a sizable group, being without a job and insurance is a new, deeply distressing condition," The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. "About half of those are the long-term uninsured, including those with jobs that simply don"t offer insurance, said Len Nichols, a health economist who directs the health policy program for the New America Foundation.
"They"re literally an underclass." The number of Americans who went through 2008 without insurance probably won"t be available until August or September, but Nichols estimated that the 45.7 million figure has now risen "well into the 50s."" ""I would say in general, I"ve seen a huge number of people who have lost their medical insurance who are not coming in for a lot of conditions they would have in the past," said Fred DeBoe, a family doctor for 26 years
who works with the Aurora Medical Group. 
More than 1,000 global experts will gather in Dubai from 8-9 November 2009 to review the latest developments and trends in anti-aging medicine at the second Dubai Congress on Anti-Aging & Aesthetic Medicine (DCAAAM). Supported by the Ministry of Health, this year"s conference is driven by the advancements made in reversing the natural process of aging and features an innovative medical programme that aims to inform and educate through presentations, workshops and
hands-on demonstrations. The UAE healthcare sector is among the most dynamic areas of the economy and is set to grow by 14% over the next five years. Currently accounting for 6% of Dubai"s non-oil gross domestic product, it is expected to reach $11.9 billion in 2015.
Building on its widely distributed multiplex PCR technology platform, Seegene is now providing healthcare systems worldwide with a powerful diagnostic test for effective identification of the new influenza A virus (swine H1N1). The Seeplex® RV Detection* assays provide a wide range of screening capabilities for Influenza A, while simultaneously testing for up to 18 other respiratory viruses in a single multiplex PCR test. During this current influenza A outbreak, Seegene"s
RV products using the company"s sequencing primer patch for final confirmation of swine H1N1 are in use by approximately 200 hospitals worldwide including Mexico, Spain and Korea. In a recent direct comparison of commercially available diagnostic tests, Seegene"s multiplex PCR technology returned the best results for screening for new influenza A virus in a trial conducted by the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion.