The University of Texas at Austin’s new Health Information Technology program has received $2.7 million as a part of the Professional University Resources and Education for Health Information Technology (PURE HIT) consortium project supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology.

Networking Technology, Inc., the leader in electronic health solutions, today announced that their electronic health record modular technology, RxNT eHr V 7.0 earned additional certification in CCHIT’s Preliminary ARRA IFR Stage 1 program.

Four master’s students and one doctoral candidate from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health shared their global health research and insights at the culmination of a 10-week joint fellowship with IntraHealth International this Wednesday during a poster exhibition and discussion with faculty and staff.

The (Florence, Ala.) Times Daily: Some small business owners are worried about the continuing rise of health care costs. “Business owners say they offer health care benefits to attract employees and retain workers. But providing health care to employees is the second highest cost for business owners behind payroll and many owners fear costs will only increase, according to a non-scientific survey taken by the Shoals Chamber of Commerce of 33 small local businesses” (Stokes, 7/26).

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced 15 awards totaling $9 million to support Preventive Medicine Residency Programs at accredited schools of public health, schools of medicine, and hospitals. Of these funds, nearly $6.7 million is part of the $200 million appropriated to HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to address the nation’s health care workforce shortages.

Insurance companies are banding together to weaken a key health law rule that requires them to spend as much as 85 percent of their revenues on medical care, according to the advocacy group Health Care for America Now. At issue is the definition of ‘medical loss ratio,’ a figure used on Wall Street to show an insurer’s profitability.

The Detroit News: On Wednesday, “[a] federal judge heard arguments [in the] lawsuit that is being watched nationwide for its challenge of congressional authority to reform health care in a way that would penalize citizens who fail to obtain their own health insurance.” The attorney for one plaintiff, The Thomas More Law Center, a group espousing religious principles, said, “There is no precedent for this power grab” (Guthrie, 7/22).

In this Kaiser Health News column, Grace-Marie Turner writes that Massachusetts’ health reform has increased demand without increasing the supply of health care providers, it continues to keep people in the dark about the true cost of health care and health insurance, and has not changed incentives for people to seek more affordable options or for a truly competitive marketplace.

Managing editor of the Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, Jill Braden Balderas, interviews global health leaders participating in AIDS 2010.

Specialized brain training targeted at the regions of a rat’s brain that process sound reversed many aspects of normal, age-related cognitive decline and improved the health of the brain cells, according to a new study from researchers at University of California, San Francisco.