General News

In an interview with Fox Business Network, top White House economic advisor Larry Summers said that the problem facing the process of financial regulatory reform is the lobbyists in Washington with their voices in the ear of too much of the legislative process.

Speaking on the creation of jobs to stimulate the economy, Summers stated that making small business, energy investments and infrastructure will be the key.

"That's why the President is urging a set of tax measures to increase their incentives," Summers said. "We need to act in several different ways."

Summers also iterated that the moves made by President Barack Obama were needed to secure the safety of the big financial institutions and that the administration has not overreached to try and get too much done too fast.

"The problem is that, frankly, there are three lobbyists hired by financial institutions for every single member of Congress and that's what's slowing it up and that's why the President is trying to change the character of our politics," said Summers.

When asked if the Bush tax cuts being repealed later this year on the richest Americans will in fact hurt the germination of jobs in the country, Summers simply said that there is always someone arguing everything, before stating that the plan by the current administration is in fact the correct avenue for job creation.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced an initiative to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure from three types of medical imaging procedures: computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine studies, and fluoroscopy. These procedures are the greatest contributors to total radiation exposure within the U.S. population and use much higher radiation doses than other radiographic procedures, such as standard X-rays, dental X-rays, and mammography.

CT, nuclear medicine, and fluoroscopic imaging have led to early diagnosis of disease, improved treatment planning, and image-guided therapies that help save lives every day. The FDA continues to support a strong dialogue between patients and physicians over the medical necessity and risk associated with these types of imaging studies.

However, like all medical procedures, CT, nuclear medicine, and fluoroscopy pose risks. These types of imaging exams expose patients to ionizing radiation, a type of radiation that can increase a person’s lifetime cancer risk. Accidental exposure to very high amounts of radiation also can cause injuries, such as skin burns, hair loss and cataracts. Health care decisions made by patients and their physicians should include discussions of the medical need and associated risks for each procedure.

“The amount of radiation Americans are exposed to from medical imaging has dramatically increased over the past 20 years,” said Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., J.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “The goal of FDA’s initiative is to support the benefits associated with medical imaging while minimizing the risks.”

While there is some disagreement over the extent of the cancer risk associated with exposure to radiation from medical imaging, there is broad agreement that steps can and should be taken to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure.

For example, the radiation dose associated with a CT abdomen scan is the same as the dose from approximately 400 chest X-rays. In comparison, a dental X-ray calls for approximately one-half the radiation dose of a chest X-ray. Both diagnostics serve important, sometimes critical, public health needs.

Through the FDA’s regulatory oversight of medical imaging devices, such as CT scanners, and through collaboration with other federal agencies and health care professional groups, the FDA is advocating the adoption of two principles of radiation protection: appropriate justification of the radiation procedure and optimization of the radiation dose used during each procedure.

“Working together,” said Shuren, “the FDA and other organizations hope to help patients get the right imaging exam, at the right time, with the right radiation dose.”

The three-pronged initiative the FDA is announcing will promote the safe use of medical imaging devices, support informed clinical decision-making, and increase patient awareness of their own exposure.

The FDA intends to issue targeted requirements for manufacturers of CT and fluoroscopic devices to incorporate important safeguards into the design of their machines to develop safer technologies and to provide appropriate training to support safe use by practitioners. The agency intends to hold a public meeting on March 30-31, 2010, to solicit input on what requirements to establish.

Examples could include a requirement that these devices display, record, and report equipment settings and radiation dose, an alert for users when the dose exceeds a diagnostic reference level (the optimal dose for most patients), training for users, and a requirement that devices be able to capture and transmit radiation dose information to a patient’s electronic medical record and to national dose registries.

In addition, the FDA and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are collaborating to incorporate key quality assurance practices into the mandatory accreditation and conditions of participation survey processes for imaging facilities and hospitals. These quality assurance practices will improve the quality of oversight and promote the safe use of advanced imaging technologies in those facilities.

The FDA recommends that health care professional organizations continue to develop, in collaboration with the agency, diagnostic radiation reference levels for medical imaging procedures, and increase efforts to develop one or more national registries for radiation doses.

A dose registry would pool data from many imaging facilities nationwide, capturing dose information from a variety of imaging studies. This registry will help define diagnostic reference levels where they do not yet exist, validate levels that do exist, and provide benchmarks for health care facilities to use in individual imaging studies.

In a bid to empower patients and increase awareness, the FDA is collaborating with other organizations to develop and disseminate a patient medical imaging history card. This tool, which will be available on the FDA’s Web site, will allow patients to track their own medical imaging history and share it with their physicians, especially when it may not be included in their medical records.

Company's that make equipment for computed tomography ('CT'), nuclear medicine and fluoroscopy medical imaging procedures include:

• General Electric (NYSE: GE);
  
  
• Siemens (NYSE: SI); and
  
  
• Toshiba, among others

U.S. stocks are stronger today as it is becoming more apparent to the market that the European Union will come to the aid of debt-ridden Greece.

With two hours left in the normal trading day, the Dow is up 188 points, the Nasdaq is up 29 points and the S&P 500 is up 17.

Speculation that help would be coming heated up after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet announced plans to leave an event in Australia earlier than expected to attend a European Union Council meeting Thursday.

Incoming European Union economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said support for Greece will be discussed in coming days.

Germany is also said to be discussing Greek aid, although there has been conflicting reports on exactly what type of support will be given.

After falling below 10,000 for the first time in three months yesterday the popular Dow average is back above that level today.

In addition to outside aid, Greece has taken some steps to tackle its massive deficits. The country confirmed it will raise the average retirement age by two years to 63 years and may also overhaul the tax system.

In addition to the Greek situation, Dow-component Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) reported a 55 percent surge in fourth quarter profits on the back of strong overseas sales.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) today released its survey of e-commerce spending for Q409, and the results are a little tepid.

Spending online reached about $39 billion, which compares to the previous year's spending total of $38 billion. FY09 spending came in at $129.8 billion, versus $130.1 billion for FY08.

Said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni, "The fourth quarter, with 3 percent year-over-year growth, helped end what has been a disappointing year for online consumer spending on a more positive note. As we head into 2010, there is reason for guarded optimism for online retail spending to continue to gain share of consumers’ wallets. At the same time, I expect absolute growth to be stymied by continued high unemployment and the deleveraging that is occurring in the economy as consumers exercise their new-found propensity to save.”

Other highlights from Q4 e-commerce include:

• Spending growth was driven by an increase in online buyers, while average spending per buyer saw modest declines.
  
  
• Tuesday, December 15 ranked as the heaviest U.S. online spending day in history at $913 million.
  
  
• The largest online retailers, led by Amazon and Walmart, gained market share of e-commerce sales versus small and medium-sized retailers.
  
  
• Free shipping factored into more than 40 percent of e-commerce transactions during the holiday season.

• Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN);
  
  
• Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS);
  
  
• eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY);
  
  
• Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK); and
  
  
• PC Mall (NASDAQ: MALL).

Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) announced that, after extensive talks with senior management, Cadbury (NYSE: CBY) will close their Somerdale manufacturing facility near Bristol. The plant is expected to close by 2011, as the plan were put in place by Cadbury and are too far along to reverse them.

Fast Facts:

• Reversing the closure isn't fiscally feasible.
  
  
• Cadbury already has invested about 100 million GBP in a plant in Poland, where a majority of lines will be transferred by mid-2010.
  
  
• Kraft will continue to support Cadbury's plans to invest about 30 million GBP in its Bourneville site.
  
  
• Kraft will also honor prior commitments by Cadbury to the Somerdale employees.