A breakthrough in the fight against HIV; Health insurers looking abroad for markets to tap;

> After a 15-year search for a way to help women protect themselves from catching HIV infection through sex, researchers have made a breakthrough, the Washington Post reports. A microbicidal vaginal gel can cut a woman's risk of infection up to 54 percent. Article

> With health reform bringing so many uncertainties to the U.S. healthcare market, health insurers increasingly are looking at international markets to spur growth. FierceHealthPayer

> Doctors groups are slamming health plans' practice of steering patients toward certain physicians based on cost or quality, according to the Wall Street Journal. Article

> Some of Michelangelo's best known works may bear hidden messages suggesting that the human brain is among God's greatest creations, scientists say. An article in Neurosurgery contends that the artist included a representation of the brainstem in his depiction of God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Article 

> Nonwhite physicians ordered analgesics at similar rates as white physicians, but prescribed opioids at lower rates, according to an article published in Medical News Today. However, nonwhite physicians had better success in reducing pain. Article

And finally... Life was so much easier when hand shakes were the only option. Article