Nutrition
President Obama and top advisers will travel to Green Bay Thursday - "one of the highest-value health communities in the nation" - to promote health reform in a town-hall meeting, the Washington Post reports. "In his drive to rein in skyrocketing health-care costs, Obama is increasingly focused on wasteful medical care," the Post reports. The administration"s budget director, Peter Orszag, told the Post, "If we could make the rest of the nation practice medicine the way that Green Bay does, we would have higher quality and significantly lower costs."
The Urban Institute: "Capping The Tax Exclusion Of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance: Is Equity Feasible?"
Dr. Damon T. Arnold, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, today announced that 11 additional schools in Illinois will begin implementing the CATCH program - Coordinated Approach to Child Health. With the expansion of the CATCH program, the state is continuing efforts to address the obesity problem by changing children"s and parents" attitudes and behaviors toward nutrition and physical activity.
Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), warned consumers not to eat SENG Chen PiMei Candy, after tests by CDPH found unacceptable levels of lead. Consumers in possession of the candy should discard it immediately.
A new study suggests that delivering small RNAs, known as microRNAs, to cancer cells could help to stop the disease in its tracks. microRNAs control gene expression and are commonly lost in cancerous tumors. Researchers have shown that replacement of a single microRNA in mice with an extremely aggressive form of liver cancer can be enough to halt their disease, according to a report in the June 12 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication.
"Taking out the trash" takes on a whole new meaning, as investigators at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, have discovered that a waste disposal protein is the key to cancer tumor suppression in a process known as autophagy. CINJ is a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Keeping your baby fat turns out to be a good thing, as long as it is "brown fat"- the kind that burns calories, according to a study that found adults have much more of this type of fat than previously thought. The results, which suggest a new way to treat obesity, were presented at The Endocrine Society"s 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
In a letter published in this week´s BMJ, Professor David Colquhoun from the University College of London, says that the UK Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) "has made a mockery of its own aims" by allowing the labeling on the first homeopathic product that has gotten a license. It classifies the Arnica 30C pills as "a homoeopathic medicinal product used with the homoeopathic tradition for the symptomatic relief of sprains, muscular aches, and bruising or swelling after contusions". He claims this label should be illegal because it breaches the Unfair Trading Regulations.
The U.S. Senate has introduced a bill, S. 1221, "The Medicare Prompt Pay Correction Act," a companion bill to H.R. 1392, which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and currently has 45 co-sponsors.
UroToday.com - In this recent review we highlight the important role of MRI in assisting in the detection of prostate cancer (CaP) in men with previous negative biopsies and elevated prostate-specific antigen levels. [1]
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced it has raised the level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 5 to phase 6, following an
The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) announced today that an investigation of gastrointestinal illness reported in a recent Oklahoma City triathlon was related to exposure to water during swimming practice sessions or during the swim portion of the event.
A study of patients and members of the public has shown that most lack even basic knowledge of human anatomy. The research, featured in the open access journal BMC Family Practice, found that people were generally incapable of identifying the location of major organs, even if they were currently receiving relevant treatment.
More than 300 infection prevention experts have completed a text that serves as one of the most valuable tools for infection preventionists throughout the world, the APIC Text of Infection Control and Epidemiology. The 1,700-page document, now in its 3rd edition, has been completely revised and is now available, offering a concise information re containing more than 120 expanded and enhanced chapters.
In technology that promises to one day allow drug delivery to be tailored to an individual patient and a particular cancer tumor, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have developed an efficient system for delivering siRNA into primary cells. The work was published on May 17 in the advance on-line edition of Nature Biotechnology.
Results from an international online survey, carried out by UCB in conjunction with Lupus Europe and the Lupus Foundation of America, the two principal advocacy groups that represent people with lupus, were presented during the EULAR (European League Against Rheumatism) congress at a symposium called, "Lupus - considering the future."
It is well established that seat belts save lives. However, many pregnant women do not wear seat belts, for fear that the belt itself could injure the baby in a car crash. But is this actually the case? Does the seat belt put the baby at risk?
Rogers Media is proud to join AstraZeneca Canada and Physical and Health Education Canada (PHE Canada) as a presenting partner of the school-based children"s wellness initiative, At My Best. The program addresses three key areas of wellness-physical, nutritional and emotional-and empowers teachers, parents and caregivers to inspire and motivate children and their families to make healthier choices today and develop lifelong healthy habits.
The California Medical Association supports the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act that would allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to finally set standards for cigarettes and regulate chemicals. In 1963, CMA was the first among state medical societies to create policy to inform people about the harmful effects of cigarette smoking.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning home owners to check that gas installers are properly registered and carry a current "Gas Safe Register" identity card.
Insomnia is associated with increased frontal cerebral metabolism during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. Cerebral hypothermia, or cooling of the brain, has been found to reduce cerebral metabolism in other medical conditions, but its effects in insomnia are unknown.
Following today"s decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise its H1N1 influenza pandemic alert to Phase 6, its highest level, Marsh, the world"s leading insurance broker and risk advisor, is recommending that all organizations continue to focus on potential economic and jurisdictional issues in shaping their response to the current pandemic.
Laboratory experiments have demonstrated the immunological effects of ginseng. Researchers writing in BioMed Central"s open access Journal of Translational Medicine have shown that the herb, much used in traditional Chinese and other Asian medicine, does have anti-inflammatory effects.
Ardea Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:RDEA) announced positive interim results from an ongoing Phase 2a, proof-of-concept study of RDEA594, its lead product candidate for the treatment of hyperuricemia and gout, as well as additional positive results from completed Phase 1 studies of RDEA594 in normal, healthy volunteers. The Phase 1 results, along with additional preclinical data, were presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology hosted by the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Masimo (Nasdaq: MASI), the inventor of Pulse CO-Oximetry(TM) and Measure-Through Motion and Low-Perfusion pulse oximetry, announced that three new independent studies demonstrating the clinical accuracy and utility of Masimo PVI as a noninvasive and continuous measure of patient fluid status and responsiveness were presented this week at the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) Annual Congress in Milan, Italy.
Health Affairs unveiled a series of six studies examining the nursing workforce in the context of health reform. The papers were released at a forum presented by Health Affairs and the Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA) that featured a lively discussion among policy-makers, nursing leaders and researchers, and health reform experts. The Center is a joint initiative of AARP, the AARP Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Seeing others in pain can automatically engage the brain"s empathy systems even if we are not paying attention, according to new research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine presented at the Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping. The investigators showed people images of hands and feet in painful or non-painful situations while scanning the brain using magnetic resonance imaging. Under some conditions the subjects paid attention to whether the situation was painful, while in other conditions they paid attention to other aspects of the images. The results showed that a brain area called the insula responded to pain even if the subject was not paying attention to pain, while another area called the anterior cingulate cortex was important for the voluntary control of empathy for pain. The research provides a better understanding of how the social brain responds to others" pain.
Researchers in the Neuroimaging and Stroke Recovery Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center / Harvard Medical School are using a novel treatment for chronic stroke patients. The non-invasive technique of dual-hemisphere transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) uses electrical stimulation to modulate brain activity while simultaneous engaging the paretic arm/hand in sensorimotor activities. They studied chronic stroke patients who had movement problems after a stroke in a randomized clinical trial. The patients were divided into groups receiving either the electrical stimulation or placebo stimulation while receiving occupational therapy (OT) at the same time. After only 5 treatment sessions, patients receiving real stimulation and OT significantly improved in their motor functions, while control patients (receiving placebo stimulation and OT) showed no significant improvement. Functional magnetic resonance imaging showed increased brain activity in areas that control limb movement on the affected side for patients who received the real tDCS. It is important to notice that these changes were found in patients whose strokes had occurred on average about 3 years prior to the study, when patients are typically considered to be stable and unlikely to experience further improvement. This new treatment offers hope for patients debilitated by strokes.
Frail elderly women with unexplained weight loss may benefit from supplementation with the body"s appetite-stimulating hormone, ghrelin, or with similar agents, according to a new study. Results of the study, which was funded partially by the National Institutes of Health, were presented at The Endocrine Society"s 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
The US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, which is a founding member of the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease, has decided to go forward strongly and improve its plan to target chronic diseases in developing countries by collaborating with a leading health and wellbeing corporation. Together, they plan to build numerous centers of excellence (COEs) across the world. The details of this partnership have been published in a comment Online First and in this week"s edition of The Lancet.
A research group based at the University of Granada, in cooperation with the Neurology Unit of the San Cecilio Hospital of Granada and the Department of Experimental Sciences of the University of Jaen, is studying the Neurobiology of Parkinson"s disease (PD). They have developed a non-invasive method for serological diagnosis of Parkinson"s disease, which is being patented by the University of Granada. To this end, the scientists analyzed and purified proteins associated with this disease, such as aminopeptidase. However, it is not an easy task: "there are thousands of proteins in the blood, and only a few are related to neurodegenerative diseases."
UroToday.com - In the online edition of Urologic Oncology, Dr. Michael Cookson and his colleagues at Vanderbilt University reviewed the impact of surgeon and hospital volume on outcomes of radical prostatectomy (RP). They concluded that better outcomes are associated with higher volume surgeons and centers.
It may be possible in the future to use a specimen from the tumour to determine which patients with breast cancer have a good chance of overcoming the disease, and which patients should be given more intensive treatments. Fifty-one genes may together provide information about the prognosis for an individual patient. These are the conclusions of a thesis presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
A new PTB measuring system offers the possibility of measuring the absorbed dose in the direct environment of the irradiated tumour
This year the British Transplant Games takes place in Coventry and 900 transplant athletes are preparing to take part. For a handful of these athletes, the Games offers vital training and preparation for other major sporting challenges such as triathlons and marathons. The event organisers, Transplant Sport UK shines the spotlight on these inspiring people, who visibly demonstrate that there is life after transplant, allowing them to train to a high level of fitness against all the odds.
According to the Health Protection Agency (UK), another 14 patients who have been under investigation in England did have swine flu A (H1N1) infection, bringing the total number of confirmed cases throughout the United Kingdom to 101. The Health Protection Agency"s (HPA"s) laboratories carry out swine flu virus testing. The HPA announced that the new confirmed cases include 6 adults and 8 children in the East of England, London, and South East regions. 11 of the new cases had had contact with other people who were confirmed cases, while 2 had been abroad where the of the infection is still under investigation.
Insurers, business owners, and doctors -- three principal interest groups in health reform -- are stepping up their opposition and lobbying efforts as details of the health plans emerge.
President Obama used his popularity Thursday at a town hall meeting in Green Bay, Wisc., in an effort to help make the case to Americans that a health care system overhaul needs to happen this year, Time reports.
New research suggests that patients newly diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who use a short-course of the sleep aid, eszopiclone, when beginning continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, are more adherent with therapy in six months.
Concerns about health and looks are driving thousands to cut back on booze
Data presented at the 19th Scientific Meeting of the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) confirm that Diovan® (valsartan) and valsartan-based combinations deliver sustained, 24-hr blood pressure (BP)-lowering efficacy2-6.
The Wall Street Journal examines a $1.5 billion program supported by Italy, the U.K., Canada, Russia, Norway and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that hopes "to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines for diseases common to poor countries," which is expected to be announced Friday "on the sidelines of a meeting of top finance officials from the Group of Eight major industrial powers."
To continue to provide the most advanced care for adults, newborns and children across the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains region, Presbyterian/St. Luke"s Medical Center and Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at P/SL have installed Toshiba"s Aquilion® ONE, the world"s first dynamic volume CT system. The hospital will use the Aquilion ONE to support its more than 80 specialties, including cardiology, neurology, oncology, diabetes management, orthopedics, pediatrics, emergency medicine and its nationally acclaimed wound healing/limb preservation program.
Welcoming the publication of the National Audit Office report, Reducing Healthcare Associated Infections in Hospitals in England, Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, said:
Protesters gathered outside a Washington, D.C., CVS Pharmacy on Thursday to urge the pharmacy chain to end the practice of locking condoms in display cases in certain neighborhoods, WJLA News reports. The protesters contend that CVS restricts access to condoms in poor black neighborhoods, whose residents may be at higher risk for HIV, other sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies (WJLA News, 6/11). The protest was a part of a nationwide effort called, "Cure CVS: Unlock the Condoms Initiative," which aims to urge CVS to keep condoms unlocked at all times (Business Wire release, 6/10). CVS said in a statement, "All CVS stores sell condoms that are unlocked and accessible" (WJLA News, 6/11).
The New York Times on Thursday examined how thousands of women have posted videos on YouTube showing themselves giving birth. According to the Times, the women believe the videos help "demystify" childbirth by candidly presenting the process in a manner that pregnant women and their partners otherwise might not see. Along with YouTube, Web sites like Internet chat rooms and pregnancy blogs are helping to shift dynamics between pregnant women and their care providers, the Times reports. Eileen Ehudin Beard, an adviser for the American College of Nurse-Midwives, said, "The more information you have, the more s you have, the more informed you are, the better questions you ask." However, she added that the videos could have negative effects, particularly if they make women more fearful of childbirth. The childbirth videos are relatively controversial because of their graphic nature, which has challenged some of YouTube"s rules and raised issues of propriety. Victoria Grand, the head of policy for YouTube, said that nudity generally is banned from YouTube but that the site "make[s] exceptions for videos that are educational, documentary or scientific." Most childbirth videos on YouTube are age restricted to ages 18 and older. A majority of them show home births because most U.S. hospitals prohibit patients from recording births due to liability concerns, the Times reports. Although childbirth education classes have shown edited videos of births since the 1970s, the Internet and YouTube could change the way such classes are taught, according to Jeanette Schwartz, president of the International Childbirth Education Association. She noted that most videos currently used in childbirth classes are heavily edited and out of date, adding that the YouTube videos "create a wonderful opportunity to show free, real life, candid videos in a classroom setting." Eugene Declercq, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, said, "A hundred and fifty years ago, women viewed birth on a pretty regular basis -- they saw their sisters of neighbors give birth." He said that changed with a trend toward hospital births beginning in the late 19th century. "But now, with YouTube, we"ve come back around and women have this opportunity to view births again," Declercq said (Wollan, New York Times, 6/11).
The following summarizes news coverage on two pregnancy-related studies. ~ Morning sickness: The commonly prescribed heartburn drug metoclopramide -- sold generically and under the brand-names Reglan, Octamide and Maxolon -- can be used to treat morning sickness without harming the health of the fetus, according to a study published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Time reports. The drug, which also has anti-nausea properties, is not FDA-approved for use in pregnant women in the U.S., though it is commonly prescribed in European and other countries to treat morning sickness (Park, Time, 6/10). According to the Los Angeles Times, U.S. physicians occasionally prescribe metoclopramide to treat severe morning sickness cases. The new study found that there were no statistically significant differences between infants born to women who took metoclopramide and those who did not. Researchers said that the findings "provide reassurance regarding the safety of metoclopramide for the fetus when the drug is given to women to relieve nausea and vomiting during pregnancy." The study involved 81,703 births among women enrolled in Israel"s largest health HMO, including 33,458 who used the drug (Maugh, Los Angeles Times, 6/11). Jennifer Niebyl, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Iowa, said, "There are very few drugs approved for use in the first trimester of pregnancy. But this study could lead to metoclopramide getting approved to treat morning sickness because this is good data with big numbers" (Time, 6/10).~ Progesterone: The hormone progesterone was not effective at preventing premature births among women pregnant with twins, despite evidence suggesting its effectiveness at preventing premature births in single pregnancies, according to a University of Edinburgh study published in the journal Lancet, Reuters reports. Multiple pregnancies have a larger health risk for women and significantly increase the likelihood of miscarriage, premature birth and long-term health problems. The study involved 500 women who took either progesterone or a placebo daily for 10 weeks. Although previous studies have shown that progesterone might prevent premature birth in certain high-risk pregnancies, the new findings show the treatment did not reduce the likelihood of premature delivery or a fetus dying in utero in twin pregnancies. Twenty-five percent of women delivered or had a fetus die before 34 weeks in the progesterone group, compared with 20% in the placebo group (Kahn, Reuters, 6/10).
New genes discovered by Australian and New Zealand researchers may hold the key to new treatments for people with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Trust in science is diminishing, according to recent studies, especially in the area of biomedicine, biotech and genetics. University of Alberta researchers Tim Caulfield and Tania Bubela blame it on the complexity of many discoveries and they"re concerned the whole message from the study isn"t getting across to the general public.
Warwickshire, Solihull & Coventry Breast Screening Service (WSCBSS), which installed its first Sectra MicroDose system in 2005, has now invested in another two systems. With the new units, WSCBSS will become one of the first publicly operated breast screening services in the UK to provide a fully direct digital mammography screening service.
Scientists have unlocked the code for the building blocks of fungal organisms which are responsible for mild as well as potentially deadly infections in people.
Diabetes UK is looking for people with Type 2 diabetes to answer a quick and easy online survey about your experiences of hypoglycaemia ("hypos").
The COPD Foundation announces launch of the Lung Health Check, developed in an educational collaboration with WebMD. Development of the Lung Health Check was made possible by funding from the COPD Foundation.
The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) says the establishment of the new Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery portfolio and the appointment of Warren Snowdon MP as the new Minister is recognition of the significant problems that Australians who live in the bush have in accessing health care services.
Healthcare professionals can now order a number of Macmillan Cancer Support"s free, high-quality cancer information booklets in CD format.
Patients with rheumatic diseases want more information and better communication with healthcare professionals on the sexual issues related to their conditions, according to the results of a new study presented recently at EULAR 2009, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Cook Medical and LMA Urology Ltd have entered into a strategic partnership that can significantly improve the remedies available for stone disease management. Through the worldwide agreement, Cook will market and distribute LMA"s StoneBreakerTM, a portable pneumatic lithotripter for stone fragmentation.
The number of confirmed cases of new A/H1N1 swine flu in Japan surged over the weekend, when health officials reported earlier today,
Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (NYSE Amex: SVA), a leading developer and provider of vaccines in China, announced today that it has completed construction of the H1N1 virus seed bank necessary to produce a virus antigen.
Body mass index (BMI) should be taken into account when assessing a cancer patient"s vitamin D status, according to researchers at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), who found that obese cancer patients had significantly lower levels of vitamin D compared to non-obese patients.
Transdel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: TDLP) a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing non-invasive, topically administered products, announced that they anticipate reporting top-line results from their current Phase 3 study of Ketotransdel(R) during the third quarter of 2009.
In recent years, the epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has been changing. This trend may be the result of antimicrobial use, infection control practices, or other factors. It is critical for healthcare professionals to be aware of the epidemiology of this virulent pathogen and apply evidence-based principles for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
Geisinger Health System senior investigator and U.S. Army veteran Joseph Boscarino, Ph.D., is proud of his military service, yet he doesn"t like to talk much about his combat experiences.
The United Kingdom"s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published a Final Appraisal Determination (FAD) recommending the use of the drug Erbitux® (cetuximab) in combination with chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for patients with metastatic (advanced) colorectal cancer (mCRC) who have met specific additional criteria(1) - presenting the possibility of potentially curative surgery.(2) The treatment is recommended for patients in whom the cancer has spread only to the liver and who have normal or "wild-type" KRAS tumors.(1) In the UK, a recommendation by NICE is a prerequisite for funding of a medical treatment by the National Health Service.
Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY), announces it is ready to support public health efforts to respond to the emergence of the new A(H1N1) influenza strain following the decision made by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise the pandemic alert level from Phase 5 to Phase 6, the highest level of alert in the WHO global influenza preparedness plan.
-Mental Health America honored two extraordinary mental health advocates on Saturday during the final day of its Centennial Conference.
The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, announced the approval of a new of Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) for Canada.
US researchers found that people with memory problems who are depressed are at higher risk of developing Alzheimer"s disease than people who
"Almost 30 key lawmakers helping draft landmark health-care legislation have financial holdings in the industry, totaling nearly $11 million worth of personal investments in a sector that could be dramatically reshaped by this summer"s debate," The Washington Post reports. The list of members includes "Congress"s most powerful leaders and a bipartisan collection of lawmakers in key committee posts." For example, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., "has at least $50,000 invested in a health-care index" (fund), and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-NH, "a senior member of the health committee, has between $254,000 and $560,000 worth of stock holdings in major health-care companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck." The data was part of a "release of financial disclosure forms for the House and Senate" on Friday.
Several reports today focus on inadequate health care for certain population groups within the United States.
Diabetes UK is today bringing together 100 people, including 20 diabetes amputees, at the "Body Worlds and Mirror of Time" exhibition at London"s O2 Arena for a photo call to highlight the fact that diabetes causes 100 amputations a week in the UK.
The International AIDS Society (IAS) announced Thursday it is considering Washington, D.C., as the location for the 2012 biannual International AIDS Conference, Science Magazine"s blog, the ScienceInsider reports. "But before it holds the conference anywhere in the U.S., the federal government must change a law that bans HIV-infected people from entering the country," according to Science Insider. The conference has not been held in the U.S. since 1990, because the government banned people living with HIV from entering the U.S. "This long-standing law, which is contrary to all scientific evidence and human rights principles, is one of the U.S."s weakest spots in HIV policy," IAS President Julio Montaner said in a statement. The law has been repealed, but HHS still has HIV on the list of communicable diseases that bar entry. "In a statement to ScienceInsider, HHS said it has submitted "a notice of proposed rule-making to implement this change" to the Office of Management and Budget for its review," according to the blog (Cohen, ScienceInsider/Science, 6/11).
The North Carolina legislature has proposed to eliminate the HIV Medicaid Case Management program, which "provides crucial support to people living with HIV, helping them access medical care, medications and the support services needed to live healthier lives," Jacquelyn Clymore of the Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina and Beth Stringfield, member of the North Carolina AIDS Action Network, write in a Durham News opinion piece, adding, "We need to call legislators and let them know how important this program is to those living with HIV and ask them to return the program and its funding to the budget." They continue, "It is likely that additional budget cuts to HIV programs will be proposed, and we must speak out in support of state HIV prevention funding" (Clymore/Stringfield, Durham News, 6/13).
The Boston Globe examines the U.S. strategy towards global health aid. "President George W. Bush scored major advances in his administration"s worldwide campaign against AIDS," and "[t]he Obama administration believes it can leverage Bush"s successes into an assault against a much broader array of diseases that afflict poor countries," writes the Globe.
Finance ministers from Italy, Canada and Russia Friday voiced their support for a program aimed at lowering the prices of vaccines for developing countries, the AFP/Google.com reports. "The Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) programme was first outlined in 2007 and will encourage pharmaceutical companies to invest in research for vaccines against deadly diseases by promising to buy the vaccines at a fixed price," the AFP/Google.com writes (AFP/Google.com, 6/12).
Twenty-nine students arrived at Indiana University School of Medicine"s Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research to work a 10-week summer internship alongside top pediatric researchers. More than 250 applicants vied for the treasured research spots. Most of the candidates come from Indiana universities.
The BDA is pleased to announce the expansion of its highly successful Good Practice Scheme (GPS) with the launch of the Good Practice Scheme Scotland (GPS Scotland) at this year"s British Dental Conference and Exhibition in Glasgow.
A lung cancer treatment that inhibits nicotine receptors was shown to double survival time in mice, according to Italian researchers.
The North Carolina Senate has delayed until Wednesday its vote on a bill (S. 221) that would require public school systems in the state to offer a sex education curriculum that includes information on both abstinence and prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, the Fayetteville Observer reports. Currently, most public schools in the state teach abstinence-only sex education (Fayetteville Observer, 6/11).The bill, which a state Senate committee approved earlier in the week, made major changes to a state House version (H.B. 88) that conservative and liberals in the chamber approved as a compromise measure. The House bill would have required parents to choose from three sex education options: abstinence-only; an abstinence-based program with information on pregnancy and STI prevention; or no sex education. The third option would be the default if parents did not make a selection (Woolverton, Fayetteville Observer, 6/11).The Senate version of the bill was designed to merge the abstinence-only and the abstinence-based comprehensive options of the House bill. Parents would be able to request that their children not receive the comprehensive portions of the lessons.According to the Observer, some lawmakers objected to the idea in the House bill that students would receive no sex education if their parents failed to make a selection. In addition, some school officials voiced concern that the House version would require more teachers and classroom space to meet the requirements for three separate options (Fayetteville Observer, 6/11).
Although "no issue has dominated Supreme Court politics like abortion" over the past few decades, most new justices "arrive at the court without disclosing anything useful about their views on the subject -- leaving interested citizens feeling more than a little irrelevant," a Chicago Tribune editorial states. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor "does not look to be an exception," the editorial says. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said President Obama is ""comfortable with her interpretation of the Constitution,"" although he also said that Sotomayor was not asked about abortion rights before her nomination, according to the editorial. "And presidents have been surprised before to find out how their appointee came out," the editorial adds. "This uncertainty may be a boon to lobby groups on both sides who can exploit it to raise money," the editorial continues, adding, "And odds are there will be no clear answer to the question that has been at the center of Supreme Court confirmation hearings for so long.""With legislatures largely deprived of the power to legislate, the action is in the Supreme Court" regarding abortion rights, the editorial says. Currently, two justices -- Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- "are on the record in favor of reversing" Roe v. Wade, while two others -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito -- "appear to lean the same way," the editorial states. It adds, "If Sotomayor were to agree, Roe would be history -- freeing states to decide whether and under what rules to allow abortion." Senators and the public "would dearly like to know how Sotomayor would vote if the issue came before her on the Supreme Court," the editorial says, adding that the "information might well determine whether she is confirmed." However, "[f]or exactly that reason, she is likely to follow the practice of her predecessors in keeping mum." The public "probably won"t know her views until she is called upon to vote on the issue as a member of the court," the editorial continues, concluding, "It"s a frustrating reality that eludes the usual rules of democracy. But then, abortion has been beyond the reach of democracy for a long time" (Chicago Tribune, 6/15).
University of California, Berkeley, researchers have found what they think is a critical and, until now, missing piece of the puzzle about how stress causes sexual dysfunction and infertility.
A multi-ethnic study in the June 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine reports that there is a statistically significant relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) episodes occurring during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and type 2 diabetes.
Neurological diseases including Parkinson"s, Tourette"s, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Alzheimer"s, and schizophrenia are all associated with alterations in dopamine-driven function involving the dopamine transporter (DAT). Research published recently in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience suggests that a number of estrogens acting through their receptors affect the DAT, which may explain trends in timing of women"s susceptibility to these diseases.
Scarring of the liver, which can progress to cirrhosis and/or cancer of the liver, is caused by persistent liver damage, such as occurs in those with untreated hepatitis C or alcoholism. Although such scarring (fibrosis) develops in an inflammatory environment, the role of inflammatory molecules has not been well defined. However, a team of researchers at Columbia University, New York, and UCSD, La Jolla, has established that the proteins CCR1 and CCR5 and the soluble inflammatory molecules that bind to them promote the development of liver fibrosis in mice.
Stalled microtubules might be responsible for some cases of the neurological disorder Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, Tanabe and Takei report in the June 15, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology. A mutant protein makes the microtubules too stable to perform their jobs, the researchers find.
The American Medical Association warmly welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama to its 158th annual meeting in Chicago. Like the president, the AMA is committed to health reform this year that provides all Americans with affordable, high-quality health coverage.
Several American pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson or Merck & Co are currently fighting losses in sales and a lack of upcoming products. In Europe, Sanofi-Aventis and GlaxoSmithKline are affected. However, not all pharmaceutical companies are suffering from the crisis. According to the assessment of many analysts, Roche, Novartis and Bayer, for example, have sufficiently deep product pipelines to sustain their growth. Biotechnology service providers and suppliers have also been spared from the financial crisis up to now as shown in a survey performed by the information portal BIOTECHNOLOGIE.DE.
Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System have found a new way to study how genes function in living organisms, and their approach could substantially cut the time and costs that drug makers spend in searching for potential targets for new cancer therapies.
In 2004, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center announced a crucial discovery in the understanding of cellular aging. They found that as cells and tissues age, the expression of a key protein, called p16INK4a, dramatically increases in most mammalian organs. Because p16INK4a is a tumor suppressor protein, cancer researchers are interested in its role in cellular aging and cancer prevention.
A nationally representative study found that immigrants spent less on medical expenses than their US-born counterparts, even after controlling for level of health insurance coverage and other confounding factors.
In testimony before the Listening Panel of the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (FCCC) on June 10, 2009, ECRI Institute President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey C. Lerner, Ph.D., called for devoting a substantial proportion of the $1.1 billion allocated to the comparative effectiveness research to go toward establishing a National Patient Library™. ECRI Institute® (http://www.ecri.org) is an independent nonprofit organization that researches the best approaches to improving patient care.
Nanoparticles specially engineered by
Autistics are up to 40 percent faster at problem-solving than non-autistics, according to a new Universitç© de Montrç©al and Harvard University study published in the journal Human Brain Mapping. As part of the investigation, participants were asked to complete patterns in the Raven"s Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) - a test that measures hypothesis-testing, problem-solving and learning skills.
The battle over health care reform will happen in the Senate, even though President Obama keeps getting all the attention, The Washington Post"s The Fix reports.
In an interview with NPR, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stressed that talk of a public plan doesn"t mean that a single-payer option is a possibility. "This is not a trick. This is not single payerò€¦ That"s not what anyone is talking about - mostly because the president feels strongly, as I do, that dismantling private health coverage for the 180 million Americans that have it, discouraging more employers from coming into the marketplace, is really the bad, you know, is a bad direction to go," she said. Sebelius added that a public insurance option would pressure private insurance companies to lower costs, which she says is "a good thing for the American public. Medicare right now has lower overhead than private insurers." Some Republicans have argued that Americans currently in private plans would flee to the public option, but Sebelius countered that expanding health insurance would potentially create "50 million-plus new insurance customers, whether you"re talking about a private plan or public option."
In a bid to improve RN-to-patient staffing ratios, win an equitable contract, and ensure the highest safety standards for all their patients, the registered nurses of MountainView Hospital in Las Vegas, owned by HCA, have filed a petition to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, the nation"s pre-eminent professional association and union for RNs.
To mark Day of the African Child on Tuesday, the U.N. Millennium Campaign is calling on African governments, civil society organizations and the private sector to address child and maternal mortality and other targets related to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), InDepthNews reports (Mwanda, InDepthNews, 6/16), while Save the Children released a new briefing paper, indicating that more than 1,500 babies born in sub-Saharan Africa die daily, "mostly from preventable or treatable causes," (Save the Children release, 6/16).
Youngsters suffering severe nerve poisoning following a scorpion sting recover completely and quickly if a scorpion-specific antivenom is administered, according to a study conducted by researchers from The University of Arizona and reported in the May 14 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
The 150th anniversary of the death of Jacob Bell, founder of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, was remembered on Friday 12 June at a ceremony at his memorial in Woodbury Park Cemetery, Royal Tunbridge Wells.
A new report issued recently by the U.S. Global Change Research Program outlines the extent of climate change around the U.S. and its effects not only at present but for the future as well.
Advanced Practice Strategies (APS), a leading provider of education solutions for risk management and patient safety, announced a new interactive course to help clinicians recognize and treat one of the most dangerous post-delivery occurrences-postpartum hemorrhage.
Attorney Tom Keegan of the law firm Keegan & Keegan, Ross & Rosner, said President Barack Obama"s proposal to reduce the number of medical malpractice lawsuits being filed nationwide will not benefit the people of New York in any way because such legal mechanisms are already in place to cut down on the number of frivolous lawsuits being filed in the state. He further states that, contrary to what the president said, New Yorkers will not see a reduction in health care costs.
MiCardia® (MiCardia Corporation, Irvine, California) announced the completion of the first U.S. implant of its Dynaplasty® mitral valve repair technology. The surgery was performed last week at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan. Francis L. Shannon, M.D., who is a partner in SEMCVS and Director of CV Surgical Research and Quality Outcomes at Beaumont, commented, "The MiCardia® device implanted easily and conformed well to the patient"s mitral annulus. The complete D-shaped ring was used to reinforce a complex repair of a flail leaflet segment using minimally invasive techniques. We are excited to be participating in the DYANA Study and believe Dynaplasty® technology will address a major weakness of current devices, namely their inability to deal with changes in valve shape and function after the initial repair procedure."
Doctors who ignore the socioeconomic status of patients when evaluating their risk for heart disease are missing a crucial element that might result in inadequate treatment, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study published in the June 2009 American Heart Journal.
With one in five, or 60 million, Americans suffering from some kind of allergy, spring and summer can be a difficult time of year as pollen, moisture and humidity increase. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, allergies are considered the fifth leading chronic disease and are a major cause of work absenteeism, resulting in nearly four million missed or lost workdays each year.
Clear Innova announced the launch of a next-generation radiology information system (RIS) that will serve as an efficient, cost-effective practice management solution for imaging centers and hospital radiology departments.
The use of phone and internet between patients and healthcare providers is an effective way to reduce risk factors for coronary heart disease and the risk of further events after a heart attack, according to new research published today in the June issue of the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation.(1) The study"s senior investigator, Professor Ben Freedman from the Department of Cardiology at Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Sydney, Australia, says that the provision of "telehealth" models could help increase the uptake of coronary prevention activities by those without access to cardiac rehabilitation, and "narrow the gap between evidence and practice".
The Pew Charitable Trusts today named 17 early-career scientists as Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences. Scholars receive a $240,000 award over four years to help support their work, which this year includes research related to cancer, Parkinson"s disease, birth defects and epilepsy. The Scholars also gain inclusion into a select community of scientists that includes Nobel Prize winners, MacArthur Fellows and recipients of the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award.
One in four multiple sclerosis (MS) patients are declining to fill their prescriptions likely due to high out-of-pocket costs, according to new research conducted by pharmacy benefits manager Prime Therapeutics (Prime). The study found that patients with an out-of-pocket expense greater than $250 were seven times more likely to decline to fill their prescription than patients with an out-of-pocket cost of $100 or less. The study concluded that this increase in the number of patients who decline to fill their MS specialty prescriptions and do not continue taking the necessary MS medications may adversely affect long term patient care.
A leading Danish cancer hospital has treated its first patient using RapidArc(R) radiotherapy after installing eight advanced radiotherapy treatment machines from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) of Palo Alto, California. Herlev Hospital, to the north-west of Copenhagen, delivered the fast and efficient RapidArc treatment to a prostate cancer patient using a Clinac(R) iX linear accelerator.
A research team led by Professor Einar Hallberg at the Department of Life Sciences at Sç¶dertç¶rn University in Sweden has discovered a new protein in the inner membrane of the cell nucleus. This protein may play an important role in cell division and now provides a new piece of the puzzle to study in cancer research.
Discovering for the first time that copy number variation or CNV, where a strip of DNA is duplicated or missing, may
New legislation introduced would allow patients with rare diseases to participate in clinical drug studies without losing their eligibility for government healthcare coverage.
BioElectronics Corp. (PINKSHEETS: BIEL), the maker of inexpensive, disposable drug-free anti-inflammatory devices, announced its sponsorship of a groundbreaking clinical study on musculoskeletal disorders. The randomized, double blinded and placebo-controlled study will be supervised by a primary investigator, Sheena Kong, MD of San Francisco, California in conjunction with several other leading physicians.
St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) announced the results from the Substrate versus Trigger Ablation for Reduction of Atrial Fibrillation (STAR-AF) trial. The findings were presented during a late-breaking clinical trials session at Heart Rhythm 2009, the annual Heart Rhythm Society"s Scientific Sessions in Boston.
Members of Congress grilled executives from the insurance industry"s big three - UnitedHealth Group, WellPoint, and Assurant - for canceling coverage of more than 20,000 paying policy holders at a hearing Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reports. The executives responded that they would continue the practice, known as rescission, which has saved them an estimated $300 million over a five-year period.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn., announced Tuesday that "health and human services will come in for $236 million in additional cuts as part of his unallotment strategy," the Star Tribune reports. The "list of about 20 cuts to health services" includes ending a health care program for the poor "six weeks sooner than expected, saving $15 million" and "reducing hours for personal care attendants, who serve fragile and disabled people." Pawlenty "noted he was proposing no new payment reductions for primary care doctors and clinics, and no additional cuts in Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals that serve a large number of poor patients."
Opponents and proponents of health care reform are using "rationing" as the word to drive opinion regarding health care reform in the United States, The New York Times reports.
Los Angeles County public health officials on Tuesday said that they cannot confirm that the 16 cases of HIV they reported last week were in fact active adult film industry workers at the time of their diagnoses, the Los Angeles Times reports. Officials contend that they mistakenly labeled all cases of individuals who tested positive from the Adult Industry Medical Foundation (AIMF) clinic since 2004 as "adult performers," even though AIMF also serves clients who are not in the industry. In addition, officials increased the total number of cases of HIV reported by the clinic since 2004 from 16 to 18 (Yoshino/Lin, Los Angeles Times, 6/17).
CNN examines the increasing numbers of health workers using cell phone technology to monitor diseases in the developing world. The article features EpiSurveyor - "a free, open- application designed for personal digital assistants" that can be downloaded onto cell phones, so that officials can "gather data directly from the site of the outbreak and send it electronically back to headquarters for faster analysis," CNN writes.
NAEA calls upon Congress to reject the President"s request to eliminate abstinence education funding from the 2010 budget. NAEA also urges the Administration to retract its overreaching decision to zero out abstinence education funding. Abstinence education programs must continue using the same legislative guidelines as have been applied under the previous administrations of Clinton and Bush.
To support doctors who are confronted with challenging issues in medical practice, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria have developed a DVD that provides doctors with tips on managing difficult situations while maintaining their legal and ethical obligations.
Scotland has one of the highest rates in the world of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and its incidence is rising among Scots children. Now researchers have begun a major Scotland wide study into IBD - which encompasses Crohn"s disease and ulcerative colitis - which afflicts around 1,000 people under 18 years old in Scotland. Their work - led by the University of Aberdeen - is being supported by a research grant of ÷£182, 235 from the Chief Scientist Office.
A recent local study shows a new approach to treating bunions could save up to 400 million dollars a year.
Researchers in Japan are reporting new evidence that the ordinary vinegar - a staple in oil-and-vinegar salad dressings, pickles, and other foods - may live up to its age-old reputation in folk medicine as a health promoter. They are reporting new evidence that vinegar can help prevent accumulation of body fat and weight gain. Their study is scheduled for the July 8 issue of ACS" Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.
Injuries to mothers during childbirth decreased significantly between 2000 and 2006, according to the latest news and numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The number of mothers who experienced injuries while giving birth vaginally without the use of forceps or other instruments dropped by 30 percent. For mothers giving birth vaginally with the use of instruments and by cesarean section, injuries declined about 20 percent.
Health and religion have always been intertwined, most obviously through prayer on behalf of the sick. Does intercessory prayer for sick people actually help heal them? For thousands of years some people have believed so. But new Brandeis University research in the Journal of Religion this month shows that over the last four decades, medical studies of intercessory prayer - the prayer of strangers at a distance - actually say more about the scientists conducting the studies than about the power of prayer to heal.
The world"s first virtual heart has been developed to improve teaching of peri-operative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) skills in the care of patients with heart disease. HeartWorks, a uniquely realistic computer-generated model of the heart and echocardiography simulator, is the result of a 4 year project driven by a team of three London-based cardiac anaesthesiologists. Recognising the power of education through simulation and its increasingly widespread adoption throughout clinical practice, the team is spearheading a pathway change in education in one of the most interesting and challenging areas of cardiac care. Now in production by Inventive Medical, a subsidiary of UCLH Charity London, HeartWorks is set to dramatically transform TEE training by university teaching hospitals worldwide.
BOSTON - Favorable 12-month outcomes are maintained through 30 months of follow-up when renal transplant patients are converted from a cyclosporine (CsA)-based regimen to a sirolimus (SRL)-based regimen three months post-transplant, according to results of the CONCEPT study announced here at the American Transplant Congress (ATC) 2009.
VaxInnate Corporation today reported positive preclinical results for a recombinant swine flu vaccine it developed in less than three weeks, making it one of the first companies in the world to begin testing a vaccine that could help halt the spread of the swine flu pandemic.
The Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission (Commission) has completed its evaluation of the 147 applications in response to its three official Requests for Applications (RFAs). The board of directors of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) reviewed the Commission"s recommendations today and approved 59 projects totaling $18.9 million in funding through the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) under the Maryland Stem Cell Research Act of 2006.
Diagnostic display monitors have experienced slow growth in 2007 due to picture archiving and communication system (PACS) installations across radiology departments of European hospitals having reached saturation. However, favourable regulations mandating the sales of 5MP displays for digital mammography have ensured high-volume sales in several European countries. The increasing demand for clinical review display monitors from private practitioners has also ensured very high growth rates for medical imaging display monitors.
An overactive enzyme is behind a leaky calcium channel that plays a role in the development of atrial fibrillation, which is the most common cardiac arrhythmia that is responsible for a third of all strokes. However, it doesn"t act alone, say researchers at Baylor College of Medicine. The findings can be found online in the current edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.