WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - February 11, 2008) - The National Business Group on Health (NBGH) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health (OMH) today announced a new two-year effort to strengthen ongoing partnerships and build new business-community coalitions to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities and improve the quality of health care for minority populations.

This collaboration is part of the National Partnership for Action, a broader effort by HHS and OMH to bring continued national emphasis on ending health disparities. The NPA is designed to mobilize and connect individuals and organizations across the country to create quality health outcomes for all people.

"We must find more effective and far-reaching strategies if we are to succeed in reducing the toll health disparities take on our health, well-being and productivity," said Garth Graham, M.D., M.P.H .....Full Story

(SOURCES: Feb. 6, 2008, teleconference with Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D., director, U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; William Friedewald, M.D., clinical professor of public health and medicine, Columbia University, and chairman, ACCORD Steering Committee; Mary Ann Banerji, M.D., SUNY Downstate Medical Center, New York City; American Diabetes Association, news release, Feb. 6, 2008)

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- A large North American trial designed to aggressively lower the blood sugar of type 2 diabetics at risk of heart disease has been halted because of an unexpected number of deaths among those receiving the drug therapy.

Federal health officials announced Wednesday that 257 people who received the intensive therapy had died, compared with 203 in patients in a standard treatment group .....Full Story