August 7-13 is National Health Center Week

Each year the second week in August is dedicated to celebrating the services and contributions of Community, Migrant, Homeless and Public Housing Health Centers.

While there are countless reasons to celebrate America’s Health Centers, among the most important and unique is their long success in providing access to affordable, high quality, cost effective health care to medically vulnerable and underserved people throughout the U.S.

LifeScience Moment: The Stamp Out Breast Cancer Act (PL 105-41) was signed into law.

On Aug. 13, 1997, the Stamp Out Breast Cancer Act (PL 105-41) was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The bill established a special alternative rate of postage up to 25% higher than a regular first-class stamp. Seventy percent of the profits from the sale of the stamp would go to NIH to fund breast cancer research; the remaining 30% would go toward U.S. Department of Defense breast cancer research.

The driving force behind the creation of the Stamp was Dr. Ernie Bodai, a Permanente surgeon and director of the Breast Cancer Survivorship Clinic at Kaiser Permanente, in Sacramento, California. Dr. Bodai successfully lobbied Congress and the Act, sponsored by Representatives Vic Fazio (D-CA) and Susan Molinari (R-NY). passed the House (422-3), and the companion version sponsored by Senators Feinstein (D-CA), Alfonse D’Amato (R-NY), and Lauch Faircloth (R-NC), and passed unanimously in the Senate, and was signed into law by the President.

It's a Small World
	MRSA Bacteria (Photo Credit: Janice Haney Carr)

Science Quote

" "It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labor of calculation which could be relegated to anyone else if machines were used.""