News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Truman Med looks to be on cutting edge of cancer research
For years, Truman Medical Centers’ chemotherapy unit sat in an open room located in an un-renovated portion of its mid-1970s hospital near downtown Kansas City, Mo. Only a few feet separated each chemotherapy patient – seated in recliners next to their IV poles – and the ground-floor pharmacy sat several stories below the oncology unit….
Cannabis oil passes Kansas committee
For the first time, a Kansas House committee has approved a bill allowing some form of medical marijuana. House Bill 2282 was limited in scope to begin with, and Rep. John Wilson, the bill’s sponsor, proposed amendments to further limit it Monday in the hopes of assuaging concerns about opening the state to legal pot abuse. The effort worked, and Wilson’s bill passed the House Health and Human Services Committee verbally with only a few “nay” votes. Wilson said the somewhat anti-climactic vote was appropriate.
Kansas City In Running For National Health Award
Kansas City, Mo., officials said Friday that the city is one of 15 finalists nationwide for the Culture of Health prize conferred annually by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a highly regarded health foundation based in Princeton, N.J.
Big jumps in healthcare.gov sign-up for Kansas and Missouri
Obamacare enrollment grew by nearly 70 percent in both Kansas and Missouri during the most recent sign-up period, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
A different take on cannabis oil
Rep. Kevin Jones interrupted Tuesday’s hearing on House Bill 2282 to question a woman sitting in the front row of the gallery holding her young son. “I hope it’s not too personal,” Jones said. “But did he just have a seizure?” Kiley Klug, a resident of the small central Kansas town of Odin, nodded. Jones,…
Braving a line of hundreds, in freezing temps, for free dental care
Imagine waiting in line for a day and a half just to get a tooth pulled or a cavity filled. Lots of people did just that over the weekend in Salina, where about 400 dental professionals and hundreds of other volunteers donated their time Friday and Saturday to provide free dental care to 1,400 people at the 14th Kansas Mission of Mercy.
Brownback re-election is a ‘low point,’ says Sebelius
Former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius didn’t mince words when asked about the direction of Kansas politics during an event Thursday night at the Dole Institute of Politics. Making one of her first Kansas public appearances since stepping down in June as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Sebelius called the re-election of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback “a low point” in the state’s political history.
Kansas veterans praise passage of mental health bill
Two Kansas soldiers treated for post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan say a bill signed this week by President Barack Obama is a good start in preventing veterans’ suicides.
Conversation: HHS Secretary Burwell
Sylvia Matthews Burwell succeeded former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in June 2014. Before that she was Director of the Office of Management and Budget. She has also served as president of the Walmart Foundation and of the Global Development Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Kansas Board of Regents backs KU Cancer Center initiative
The state board that oversees Kansas’ public colleges and universities on Wednesday endorsed an effort by the University of Kansas Cancer Center to earn the highest level of recognition from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).