Copyright 1999 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
December 06, 1999, Monday 3 STAR EDITION
SECTION: A; Pg. 24
LENGTH:
424 words
HEADLINE: MEDICAL VICTORY;
Measures a
boost to health research and bipartisanship
SOURCE:
Staff
BODY:
There is much to criticize, fortunately
for editorial writers, in the goings-on in Washington and the U.S. Congress. Not
among that ignominy, thankfully for Houston, are four health-care initiatives
that were the subject of a press conference in the Texas Medical Center this
past week.
U.S. Rep. Ken Bentsen, D-Houston, giving proper credit to
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and others in the Texas congressional
delegation, said quite correctly that the legislation passed by the Congress and
signed into law by the president "will have a significant impact . . . will mean
more cutting-edge research to save lives and find new treatments and cures to
help stop the devastation of cancer and other diseases in our society." It was
not hyperbole.
The initiatives include measures to correct serious
inequity in the way Medicare funds the system of physician training programs in
teaching hospitals at the Texas Medical Center and provide
increased funding for graduate medical education for nurses and
other health-care professionals in those hospitals.
The second
initiative increases the National Institutes of Health budget for biomedical
research. It is important as part of the effort to boost cutting-edge research
such as the Human Genome Project being conducted at the Baylor College of
Medicine.
The third provides $ 500,000 in "seed money" for the
establishment of a Center of Excellence for Research on Minority Health. The
medical problems and solutions that are particular to ethnic minorities have
been largely neglected by the medical community in the past and it is a
particularly significant sign of progress that attention will now be focused on
the issues in a place as diverse as Houston.
The fourth initiative helps
to establish a bi-national breast cancer research coordinating center in Texas
and Israel. The center, working with the Texas Hadassah Medical Research
Foundation, will coordinate research into breast and ovarian cancers that are
especially present in women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Israel and the United
States contain the highest populations of these women who are genetically
predisposed to these diseases.
These measures are a victory for the
Texas Medical Center and, more importantly, for the sufferers of the diseases
that the research efforts will now be better equipped to combat.
And
despite the cancer of bitter partisanship that so often infects the headlines
these days, they are a victory for bipartisan cooperation among Texas'
Washington representatives.
TYPE: Editorial
Opinion
LOAD-DATE: December 7, 1999
