On November 7, with a number of amendments from its original form, the health care reform bill was passed with a slim margin of victory. While it is an important step, a number of steps remain before the bill is signed into law. The amended form of the health care bill includes concessions to pro-life democratic congressmen, who would only pledge their signatures after the bill was amended to include no support for abortions under the government-run public option. The passed version of the bill only garnered one vote from a Republican.

The bill now faces an equally rough ride in the Senate. Republicans in the Senate can come up with a number of amendments for the bill and keep it tied up for weeks, a threat that severely impairs the end-of-year deadline set by President Obama. House Republicans have said that the bill would be “dead on arrival” to the Senate floor.

The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, is waiting to receive a cost estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office for the Senate version of the legislation before unveiling it. Once that estimate is in, Reid could use a procedural technique known as reconciliation to avoid a Republican filibuster and get the bill passed before the end-of-year deadline. To do so, however, may be politically explosive as it would signal an end to the bipartisan negotiations that President Obama has tried to foster throughout the health care reform debate.

You can read more on the most current developments at CBS News.

In a preliminary trial, a drug developed by Roche and Plexxikon Inc. has shrunk advanced melanoma tumors by 30%, even in cases where it has spread to other areas. The drug works through blocking cellular mutation in BRAF, a cellular pathway that occurs in 60% of melanomas and 8% of all solid tumors.

Results from the Phase 1 trial were released at the meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Orlando. The drug is currently known as PLX4032 and the trials were conducted through the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Keith Flaherty, the trial’s lead investigator, stated that ‘PLX4032 has shown both tumour shrinkage and delay in tumour progression in patients whose tumours harbour a BRAF mutation, as well as improved quality of life for symptomatic patients’.

Melanoma is one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer and treatment options have been limited to traditional methods of cancer care until now. This is huge news for those who may develop advanced melanoma in the future; some participants went as long as six months without symptoms because of the drug.

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is encouraging its members to sign up for a new health care online system, the Health Care Notification Network (HCNN).  If 5% of AAFP members sign up from the link on this page , AAFP will receive a nominal fee.  This system is more efficient than paper-based patient safety alerts and will give you an instant notification when one is issued.  The service is free, does not include advertising and it only takes a couple of minutes to sign up.

The system replaces the “Dear Doctor” letters mandated by the FDA that traditionally appear by postal mail for recalls and alerts.  “Online alerts from the HCNN are delivered immediately to a physician’s (e-mail) inbox,” said Henry DePhillips, M.D., HCNN’s chief medical officer.  If the doctor doesn’t read the alert within 72 hours, they are mailed a paper copy of the alert, ensuring that it reaches them.  This system not only saves the environment by cutting down on paper, it saves the government money and improves the overall operational efficiency of the system. 

Imagine – no more massive piles of paper for you and your staff to deal with.  HCNN currently reaches more than 250,000 physicians and 70,000 physician assistants.  You can choose to add staff members to your alerts, which minimizes the chances that an alert will be missed.  More on the new system on the AAFP website.