Here are our latest newsmakers.

FDA announced new safety requirements and future label changes for Long-Acting Beta Agonists (LABAs) used in the treatment of asthma.

AARC member Tracy Mitchell, RRT, AE-C, cites her ties to the profession in a new letter that just went out to encourage asthma management programs to apply for the 2010 National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management.

While we can’t claim the astounding snowfalls of our colleagues up North or back East, AARC offices were blanketed in snow this morning. That’s a rare treat in the Dallas, Texas ZIP codes. See the slideshow!

Every year the American Respiratory Care Foundation (ARCF) sponsors an International Fellowship Program that brings respiratory professionals from other countries to our shores to learn more about American-style RT in two cities. Now is the time to volunteer to be a city host!

Last fall the AARC surveyed the nation’s hospitals to determine how many ventilators are available. Conducted at the behest of the Department of Health and Human Services, the poll was aimed at helping government planners prepare for any health emergency involving a major respiratory component to care. Now the results are in!

We have another great list of newsmakers to share.

The AARC is keeping close tabs on developments in Haiti and all the ways the respiratory community can and is helping with the relief efforts. Here are the first of our reports.

The AARC Specialty Sections have now published the Winter 2010 issues of their Bulletins online.

A new Department of Health and Human Services web site is providing much needed information to health care professionals who would like to volunteer to assist the victims of the Haitian earthquake.

The AARC is once again calling on respiratory therapists, their patients and their supporters to write to Congress to gain co-sponsors for the Medicare Pt B Respiratory Therapy Initiative (HR 1077 and S 343).

It’s that time of year again: hospitals, home care providers, and long-term care facilities have the opportunity to enroll/reenroll in the AARC’s Quality Respiratory Care Recognition (QRCR) program.

See who’s been making news lately.

On Jan. 8, 2010, St. Mary’s Hospital celebrated the grand opening of a new pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation center named after Grace Anne Dorney Koppel, a national patient advocate for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's COPD Learn More Breathe Better® Campaign.

If your patients need a portable oxygen concentrator (POC) when they travel by aircraft, you may be interested in knowing that, effective January 6, 2010 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) added four new POCs to the list of those devices they have determined are safe to carry on the plane as long as certain other standards are met.

Influenza vaccinations are still a key to further controlling outbreaks, even though we hear that cases of seasonal and H1N1 flu are slowing.

We have lots of newsmakers to share in this first Good Press edition of 2010.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has posted instructions to its Medicare contractors on the new pulmonary rehabilitation program benefit that takes effect January 1, 2010. The instructions provide additional information and examples of how to bill for 2 sessions of PR per day that were not included in the final rules.

The entire pulmonary community has been saddened by the death of Tom Petty, MD, FAARC. Dr. Petty passed away last Saturday, Dec. 12, at his home in Colorado following a long illness. While colleagues across the country and around the world mourn his loss, however, they are also celebrating his legacy, which included pioneering work on many of the treatments and modalities used in respiratory medicine today.

Check out our latest list of newsmakers.