CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) ? One of the investigators who worked the NCAA's inquiry of Miami athletics wrote a letter on former booster and convicted felon Nevin Shapiro's behalf just days before he was sentenced two years ago.
In the same letter, dated June 3, 2011, Ameen Najjar even suggested that the NCAA could eventually hire Shapiro.
Najjar, who is no longer with the NCAA, told U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton that college sports' governing body could have utilized Shapiro "in the future as a consultant and/or speaker to educate our membership."
Najjar also said that Shapiro assisted the NCAA with investigations involving a number of schools. Najjar did not specify the schools ? not even Miami, where Shapiro is the central figure in the scandal that has dogged the Hurricanes' athletic department for at least two years.
"Throughout the course of our interactions, it is my belief that Mr. Shapiro possesses a unique depth of knowledge and experience concerning representatives athletics interest ('Boosters'), agents and the provision of extra-benefits to student-athletes," Najjar wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.
Najjar left the NCAA last year and attempts by the AP to reach him in recent weeks have been unsuccessful. The NCAA did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
Najjar's was just one of a number of letters written to the court on Shapiro's behalf before sentencing, none of which appeared to sway Wigenton. Four days after the date of Najjar's letter, the judge gave Shapiro a longer sentence than prosecutors asked for on the securities fraud and money laundering counts he admitted to in a plea agreement in September 2010.
She also ordered him to pay more than $82 million in restitution to his victims.
Najjar wrote to Wigenton using NCAA letterhead, and did so when he had the title of director of enforcement. His role in missteps that the NCAA made during the investigation was detailed last month, when a probe that NCAA President Mark Emmert ordered found, among other things, that Najjar appeared to manipulate the investigation by hiring Shapiro's attorney, Maria Elena Perez, and having her use subpoena power to interview people related to the Miami case.
The NCAA does not have subpoena power. Two people were subpoenaed and deposed as part of Shapiro's bankruptcy case, though some of the information gleaned in those interviews was being used in the NCAA's case against Miami.
The NCAA said it was removing that ill-gotten information from the notice of allegations, which Miami was presented with last month and included the charge that the Hurricanes had a "lack of institutional control" when it came to monitoring Shapiro's access to the athletic department.
Perez, in a letter to the Florida Bar dated Feb. 21, said she "is not and has never acted, in the capacity of an attorney for the NCAA." She billed the NCAA for about $57,000 for work she performed related to the investigation, and records show she received about one-third that amount.
Perez told the AP last month that "had I realized I was dealing with, what is in my opinion ... such an incompetent regulatory institution, I would have never allowed Mr. Shapiro to have had any type of contact with the NCAA ? period."
What's the matter with a little arbitrage between friends? ConcertIn.com is an interesting music discovery system that uses your Facebook social graph to find bands you and your friends like and, if you can't make the concert, it lets you resell your tickets to your personal circle of buddies. It's obviously a bit shady - some would call this a scalping site - but creator Jan Horna says that his service "brings a clear and transparent user identity to the marketplace," reducing the chance of shady dealings.
John Brennan moved one step closer to being the next CIA director today.
The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 12-3 to move Brennan's nomination out of the committee this afternoon. Brennan, the current chief counterterrorism adviser to President Obama, must now face a full Senate vote for his nomination to be confirmed for his new job as head of the CIA.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has indicated that he'd like the full Senate to vote on Brennan at some point this week.
Prompting the move in the Senate Intelligence Committee, where the Brennan nomination had been held up for numerous days, was an agreement with the White House to provide the committee access to all Office of Legal Counsel opinions related to the targeted killing of Americans by drones.
"I am pleased the administration has made this information available," Committee Chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement on the release of the White House information on drones to the committee. "It is important for the committee to do its work and will pave the way for the confirmation of John Brennan to be CIA director."
Brennan still faces an uphill climb in the full Senate where some Senate Republicans, like Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Kelly Ayotte R-N.H., have vowed to hold up his nomination until the administration answers questions on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 of last year.
"John and I are hell-bent on making sure the American people understand this debacle called Benghazi," Graham said this weekend on CBS "Face the Nation."
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GOMA, Congo (AP) ? Congolese government troops gave control of two key eastern towns back to the M23 rebel group to avoid jeopardizing the ongoing peace process, a spokesman for the military said Sunday.
Kiwanja and Rutshuru had been M23 strongholds since the group had taken control of them in July 2012. But following a split within the rebellion last week, the armed group had left the towns to reinforce positions against the new splinter, and another rebel group moved in. The military then secured the towns on Friday.
"We couldn't leave the population alone, and we had to secure the area to make sure there were no crimes committed," said Col. Olivier Hamuli, the military spokesman. He said they've since given control back to M23.
"Our troops left Rutshuru and Kiwanja to avoid taking a step back regarding the evolution of the negotiations in Kampala," he said, adding that they are now only one kilometer (mile) from Kiwanja.
Government forces cannot take back M23 territory as negotiations as mediations are ongoing, according to an agreement reached in November at the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) in Uganda.
"The M23 signed an agreement with the ICGLR and the Congolese government after we took Goma in November. The government troops had to leave our territory because Rutshuru and Kiwanja are in our territory,"said Col. Vianney Kazarama, the spokesman for one of the M23 factions led by Gen. Sultani Makenga.
M23 is a rebellion allegedly backed by Rwanda and Uganda. In November, after eight months of sporadic fighting against the national army, the rebels took the strategic city of Goma, but withdrew two weeks later under international pressure.
Since then, negotiations between the M23 and the government have been held in Kampala, but no serious outcome has yet been announced.
The group split on Wednesday following a dispute over leadership. The president of the movement, Jean-Marie Runiga, was dismissed by Gen. Makenga, the military leader of the movement. Runiga left with the second strongman of the M23, Gen. Baudoin Ngaruye and Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court.
Both factions have been fighting each other since, creating a power vacuum in the M23 stronghold. Following the Congolese army handover of Rutshuru and Kiwanja to Makenga's faction, Runiga's faction issued a statement saying that the army should have given them the territory.
Runiga, in the statement, accused Makenga of being an ally of Congo's military.
The faction led by Ntaganda and Runiga, positioned on the road to Goma near Kibumba, had apparently attempted to take Goma on Sunday, but were pushed back by the U.N. peacekeeping forces, the U.N. mission in Congo said.
"We fired on Bosco Ntaganda's positions because they moved towards Goma. We told them to stop their movements but they resisted. We sent helicopters that fired on their positions. It was near Kibati," said Alexandre Essome, a spokesman for MONUSCO, the U.N. mission in Congo.
Runiga's faction could not be reached for comment on the attempt.
Colon cancer screening doubles with new e-health record use Public release date: 4-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rebecca Hughes hughes.r@ghc.org 206-287-2055 Group Health Research Institute
Group Health randomized trial in Annals of Internal Medicine shows cost saving
SEATTLEResearchers used electronic health records to identify Group Health patients who weren't screened regularly for cancer of the colon and rectumand to encourage them to be screened. This centralized, automated approach doubled these patients' rates of on-time screeningand saved health costsover two years. The March 5 Annals of Internal Medicine published the randomized controlled trial.
"Screening for colorectal cancer can save lives, by finding cancer earlyand even by detecting polyps before cancer starts," said study leader Beverly B. Green, MD, MPH. "But screening can't help if you don't do itand do it regularly," added Dr. Green, a family physician at Group Health and an affiliate investigator at Group Health Research Institute.
More than one in 20 Americans will develop colorectal cancer, which is second only to lung cancer in causing deaths from cancer, Dr. Green said. Screening for colorectal cancer is strongly recommended for everyone age 50 to 75 years, but almost half of Americans do not get screened regularlyfar below the screening rates for cervical and breast cancer.
"It's important to find ways to ensure that more people are screened for colorectal cancerand keep being screened regularly," Dr. Green said. "I've seen patients die from this cancer. So I was thrilled to find that our intervention doubled screening rates and kept them up to date regularly over two years in people who hadn't been getting regular screening."
The SOS (Systems of Support to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening) trial started by identifying 4,675 Group Health patients, age 50 to 73, who weren't up to date for colorectal cancer screening. Then they were randomly assigned to one of four stepped groups:
The first group received "usual care," which includes both patient and clinic reminders for those overdue.
The second group received this plus "automated" care, which included a letter telling them they were due for colorectal cancer screening and a pamphlet about screening choices and the pros and cons of three screening options recommended by Group Health and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force: fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) yearly; flexible sigmoidoscopy every five years (with one FOBT in between); or colonoscopy every decade. Those patients who didn't call to schedule a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy received a FOBT kit in the mail with illustrated instructions and a postage-paid return envelope and a reminder letter three weeks later if the kit was not completed.
The third group received usual care, automated interventions, and an additional step called "assisted" care if they still had not completed screening. Assisted care included a medical assistant calling patients to ask which screening option they preferred and provided simple assistance to get this done, such as sending a request for a colonoscopy to their physician, or reviewing the FOBT instructions.
The fourth group received usual care, automated, the assisted intervention, and an additional step called "navigated" care if they were still overdue for screening or requested a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy during the automated or assisted steps. Navigated care included a nurse calling to advise patients and facilitate their screening, for those who wanted help in making their choice or didn't get screened after the medical assistant's call. Patients who chose colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy were helped with making an appointment and preparing for the procedure and followed until the test was completed.
Each step of the SOS intervention raised the percentage of patients who were current for colorectal screening for both years: 26 percent for usual, 51 percent for automated, 57 percent for assisted, and 65 percent for navigated care.
The two-year costs of the automated intervention plus the screening were actually $89 lower than if the patients had received only usual care. The reason: compared with patients who received usual care, more of those in the automated care group happened to choose FOBT instead of sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy. And the kit costs much less than the procedures do.
"Traditionally, the onus has been on each primary-care doctor to encourage their patients to get health screening tests on schedule," Dr. Green said. Group Health pioneered using a centralized registry to remind women to be screened regularly for breast cancer. "We borrowed that approach and applied it to colorectal cancer," she added. "We empowered patients to do testing on time, by giving them options, or sending them a FOBT kit by default if no choice was made."
What's next? "We plan to test whether improved adherence persists for more than two years," she said. This is particularly important for patients who choose FOBT, because it should be repeated every year. "We are also testing this intervention in 'safety-net' clinics, which serve low-income people," Dr. Green added. More of those clinics now have electronic health records and can now leverage these to provide population-based care, similar to Group Health and Kaiser Permanente.
###
The SOS trial was supported by grant R01CA121125 from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Green's co-authors at Group Health Research Institute were Assistant Investigator Jessica Chubak, PhD, MBHL, Senior Biostatistician Melissa L. Anderson, MS, and Analyst Programmer Sharon Fuller. Dr. Green has a joint appointment as an assistant clinical professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Dr. Chubak is also at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Their other co-authors were Ching-Yun Wang, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle; Richard T. Meenan, PhD, of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, in Portland, OR; and Sally W. Vernon, PhD, of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Second study in same issue
Other Group Health researchers published a different study of colorectal screening in the same issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine: Diana S.M. Buist, PhD, and Carolyn M. Rutter, PhD, senior investigators; Jessica Chubak, PhD, an assistant investigator; Aruna Kamineni, PhD, a research associate; Eric Johnson, MS, a biostatistician; and Joseph Webster, a programmer/analyst.
In people of average risk at four HMO Research Network sites, including Group Health, they found that screening colonoscopy was associated with reduced risk of newly diagnosed late-stage cancers for both left- and right-sided colorectal cancers. Screening sigmoidoscopy was associated with a reduced risk of left-sided, but not right-sided, late-stage colorectal cancers. (Cancers differ depending on whether they are on the left or right side of the bowel.)
They published with colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, in Philadelphia; the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, in Boston; the University of Massachusetts Medical School, in Worcester; the University of Washington School of Public Health, in Seattle; the National Cancer Institute, in Bethesda, MD; Meyers Primary Care Institute/Reliant Medical Group, in Worcester; HealthPartners Health System, in MN; Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, in WI; Kaiser Permanente Northwest, in Portland, OR; Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Oakland, CA; and Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, in Honolulu.
Annals of Internal Medicine
Established in 1927 by the American College of Physicians (ACP), Annals of Internal Medicine is the premier internal medicine journal. Annals of Internal Medicine's mission is to promote excellence in medicine, enable physicians and other health care professionals to be well informed members of the medical community and society, advance standards in the conduct and reporting of medical research, and contribute to improving the health of people worldwide. To achieve this mission, the journal publishes a wide variety of original research, review articles, practice guidelines, and commentary relevant to clinical practice, health care delivery, public health, health care policy, medical education, ethics, and research methodology. In addition, the journal publishes personal narratives that convey the feeling and the art of medicine.
HMO Research Network
The HMO Research Network includes 19 research centers, each associated with a health care delivery system. Researchers at the centers collaborate on multi-site studies in real-world health care settings across the United States and in Israel. With access to information on more than 16 million ethnically and geographically diverse patients, these researchers are finding solutions for common and rare health problems. Since 1994, the Network has been answering pressing questions about keeping people healthy and delivering effective care.
Group Health Research Institute
Group Health Research Institute does practical research that helps people like you and your family stay healthy. The Institute is the research arm of Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative, a consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system. Founded in 1947, Group Health Cooperative coordinates health care and coverage. Group Health Research Institute changed its name from Group Health Center for Health Studies in 2009. Since 1983, the Institute has conducted nonproprietary public-interest research on preventing, diagnosing, and treating major health problems. Government and private research grants provide its main funding.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Colon cancer screening doubles with new e-health record use Public release date: 4-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rebecca Hughes hughes.r@ghc.org 206-287-2055 Group Health Research Institute
Group Health randomized trial in Annals of Internal Medicine shows cost saving
SEATTLEResearchers used electronic health records to identify Group Health patients who weren't screened regularly for cancer of the colon and rectumand to encourage them to be screened. This centralized, automated approach doubled these patients' rates of on-time screeningand saved health costsover two years. The March 5 Annals of Internal Medicine published the randomized controlled trial.
"Screening for colorectal cancer can save lives, by finding cancer earlyand even by detecting polyps before cancer starts," said study leader Beverly B. Green, MD, MPH. "But screening can't help if you don't do itand do it regularly," added Dr. Green, a family physician at Group Health and an affiliate investigator at Group Health Research Institute.
More than one in 20 Americans will develop colorectal cancer, which is second only to lung cancer in causing deaths from cancer, Dr. Green said. Screening for colorectal cancer is strongly recommended for everyone age 50 to 75 years, but almost half of Americans do not get screened regularlyfar below the screening rates for cervical and breast cancer.
"It's important to find ways to ensure that more people are screened for colorectal cancerand keep being screened regularly," Dr. Green said. "I've seen patients die from this cancer. So I was thrilled to find that our intervention doubled screening rates and kept them up to date regularly over two years in people who hadn't been getting regular screening."
The SOS (Systems of Support to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening) trial started by identifying 4,675 Group Health patients, age 50 to 73, who weren't up to date for colorectal cancer screening. Then they were randomly assigned to one of four stepped groups:
The first group received "usual care," which includes both patient and clinic reminders for those overdue.
The second group received this plus "automated" care, which included a letter telling them they were due for colorectal cancer screening and a pamphlet about screening choices and the pros and cons of three screening options recommended by Group Health and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force: fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) yearly; flexible sigmoidoscopy every five years (with one FOBT in between); or colonoscopy every decade. Those patients who didn't call to schedule a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy received a FOBT kit in the mail with illustrated instructions and a postage-paid return envelope and a reminder letter three weeks later if the kit was not completed.
The third group received usual care, automated interventions, and an additional step called "assisted" care if they still had not completed screening. Assisted care included a medical assistant calling patients to ask which screening option they preferred and provided simple assistance to get this done, such as sending a request for a colonoscopy to their physician, or reviewing the FOBT instructions.
The fourth group received usual care, automated, the assisted intervention, and an additional step called "navigated" care if they were still overdue for screening or requested a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy during the automated or assisted steps. Navigated care included a nurse calling to advise patients and facilitate their screening, for those who wanted help in making their choice or didn't get screened after the medical assistant's call. Patients who chose colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy were helped with making an appointment and preparing for the procedure and followed until the test was completed.
Each step of the SOS intervention raised the percentage of patients who were current for colorectal screening for both years: 26 percent for usual, 51 percent for automated, 57 percent for assisted, and 65 percent for navigated care.
The two-year costs of the automated intervention plus the screening were actually $89 lower than if the patients had received only usual care. The reason: compared with patients who received usual care, more of those in the automated care group happened to choose FOBT instead of sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy. And the kit costs much less than the procedures do.
"Traditionally, the onus has been on each primary-care doctor to encourage their patients to get health screening tests on schedule," Dr. Green said. Group Health pioneered using a centralized registry to remind women to be screened regularly for breast cancer. "We borrowed that approach and applied it to colorectal cancer," she added. "We empowered patients to do testing on time, by giving them options, or sending them a FOBT kit by default if no choice was made."
What's next? "We plan to test whether improved adherence persists for more than two years," she said. This is particularly important for patients who choose FOBT, because it should be repeated every year. "We are also testing this intervention in 'safety-net' clinics, which serve low-income people," Dr. Green added. More of those clinics now have electronic health records and can now leverage these to provide population-based care, similar to Group Health and Kaiser Permanente.
###
The SOS trial was supported by grant R01CA121125 from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Green's co-authors at Group Health Research Institute were Assistant Investigator Jessica Chubak, PhD, MBHL, Senior Biostatistician Melissa L. Anderson, MS, and Analyst Programmer Sharon Fuller. Dr. Green has a joint appointment as an assistant clinical professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Dr. Chubak is also at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Their other co-authors were Ching-Yun Wang, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle; Richard T. Meenan, PhD, of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, in Portland, OR; and Sally W. Vernon, PhD, of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Second study in same issue
Other Group Health researchers published a different study of colorectal screening in the same issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine: Diana S.M. Buist, PhD, and Carolyn M. Rutter, PhD, senior investigators; Jessica Chubak, PhD, an assistant investigator; Aruna Kamineni, PhD, a research associate; Eric Johnson, MS, a biostatistician; and Joseph Webster, a programmer/analyst.
In people of average risk at four HMO Research Network sites, including Group Health, they found that screening colonoscopy was associated with reduced risk of newly diagnosed late-stage cancers for both left- and right-sided colorectal cancers. Screening sigmoidoscopy was associated with a reduced risk of left-sided, but not right-sided, late-stage colorectal cancers. (Cancers differ depending on whether they are on the left or right side of the bowel.)
They published with colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, in Philadelphia; the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, in Boston; the University of Massachusetts Medical School, in Worcester; the University of Washington School of Public Health, in Seattle; the National Cancer Institute, in Bethesda, MD; Meyers Primary Care Institute/Reliant Medical Group, in Worcester; HealthPartners Health System, in MN; Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, in WI; Kaiser Permanente Northwest, in Portland, OR; Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Oakland, CA; and Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, in Honolulu.
Annals of Internal Medicine
Established in 1927 by the American College of Physicians (ACP), Annals of Internal Medicine is the premier internal medicine journal. Annals of Internal Medicine's mission is to promote excellence in medicine, enable physicians and other health care professionals to be well informed members of the medical community and society, advance standards in the conduct and reporting of medical research, and contribute to improving the health of people worldwide. To achieve this mission, the journal publishes a wide variety of original research, review articles, practice guidelines, and commentary relevant to clinical practice, health care delivery, public health, health care policy, medical education, ethics, and research methodology. In addition, the journal publishes personal narratives that convey the feeling and the art of medicine.
HMO Research Network
The HMO Research Network includes 19 research centers, each associated with a health care delivery system. Researchers at the centers collaborate on multi-site studies in real-world health care settings across the United States and in Israel. With access to information on more than 16 million ethnically and geographically diverse patients, these researchers are finding solutions for common and rare health problems. Since 1994, the Network has been answering pressing questions about keeping people healthy and delivering effective care.
Group Health Research Institute
Group Health Research Institute does practical research that helps people like you and your family stay healthy. The Institute is the research arm of Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative, a consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system. Founded in 1947, Group Health Cooperative coordinates health care and coverage. Group Health Research Institute changed its name from Group Health Center for Health Studies in 2009. Since 1983, the Institute has conducted nonproprietary public-interest research on preventing, diagnosing, and treating major health problems. Government and private research grants provide its main funding.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
What's the matter with a little arbitrage between friends? 
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Public release date: 4-Mar-2013
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