Tom Daschle promised former Senate colleagues on Thursday that as health secretary he would learn from Bill Clinton's failed attempt to overhaul health care, an effort criticized as too long, secretive and hard to understand.

President-elect Barack Obama's point man on health care reform wasted wasted no time in portraying a sense of urgency on the issue at his confirmation hearing Thursday.

President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to reform the U.S. health care system got an important vote of confidence on Thursday as a diverse alliance of doctors, a labor union, the drug industry and health insurers pledged to support the effort.

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama’s plan for expanding government health insurance to compete with private coverage drew fire from a leading Senate Republican during a nomination hearing for former U.S. Senator Thomas A. Daschle to run the Health and Human Services Department.

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle pledged on Thursday to aggressively pursue healthcare reform and restore confidence in federal health agencies as he made his case to become President-elect Barack Obama's health secretary.

Expensive, mediocre and too often unavailable. That about sums up the nation's health care system, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head health and human services, said Thursday.

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

The sister of a Vietnamese bird flu patient died in hospital last week, health officials said Thursday, while denying the virus was to blame, even though no tests were carried out before she was buried.