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New platform can deliver gene therapy precisely to specific areas of the brain

A novel approach to gene therapy is improving lives in ways once thought impossible. Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine have developed a new platform to deliver the gene therapy precisely to specific areas of the brain.

18 Apr 2024

Lurie Children's Hospital administers first gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy in Illinois

On March 27, 2024, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago treated its first patient with ELEVIDYS (delandistrogene moxeparvovec-rokl), the first gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy – a rare, genetic disease characterized by progressive muscle damage and weakness.

3 Apr 2024

Defining how exercise affects cardiovascular health in people using wheelchairs

Delphia Brown (left) exercises at the Stephen A. Orthwein Center, a wheelchair-accessible gym in St. Louis operated by Paraquad, an organization that helps people with disabilities achieve independence.

2 Apr 2024

After Appalachian hospitals merged into a monopoly, their ERs slowed to a crawl

In the small Appalachian city of Bristol, Virginia, City Council member Neal Osborne left a meeting on the morning of Jan. 3 and rushed himself to the hospital.

25 Mar 2024

Investigational gene therapy shows promise for rare childhood neurodegenerative disease

An investigational gene therapy for a rare neurodegenerative disease that begins in early childhood, known as giant axonal neuropathy (GAN), was well tolerated and showed signs of therapeutic benefit in a clinical trial led by the National Institutes of Health.

20 Mar 2024

Revolutionizing mobility with the introduction of TWIN robotic exoskeleton

TWIN is the name of the new robotic exoskeleton for lower limbs, designed and developed by Rehab Technologies IIT – INAIL, the joint laboratory between the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) and the Prosthetic Center of INAIL (the prosthetic unit of the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work), which will allow patients to wear it more easily.

23 Feb 2024

UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry opens special-care dental clinic in South Texas

The UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry has opened a special-care dental clinic, the first of its kind in an academic setting in South Texas that will serve people of all ages with intellectual, developmental, cognitive or physical disabilities.

9 Feb 2024

Unbiased assessment of vamorolone for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy

The drug vamorolone (Agamree) has been hailed as a promising new drug to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

25 Jan 2024

America’s health system isn’t ready for the surge of seniors with disabilities

The number of older adults with disabilities — difficulty with walking, seeing, hearing, memory, cognition, or performing daily tasks such as bathing or using the bathroom — will soar in the decades ahead, as baby boomers enter their 70s, 80s, and 90s.

17 Jan 2024

Is AI the future of personalized hypertension risk assessment, diagnosis, and treatment?

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications for treating hypertension (HTN) and its comorbidities.

16 Jan 2024

People with disabilities hope autonomous vehicles deliver independence

Myrna Peterson predicts self-driving vehicles will be a ticket out of isolation and loneliness for people like her, who live outside big cities and have disabilities that prevent them from driving.

12 Dec 2023

Being Black and pregnant in the deep South can be a dangerous combination

O'laysha Davis was a few weeks shy of her due date when in mid-August she decided it was time to switch doctors.

8 Dec 2023

Desperate families search for affordable home care

It's a good day when Frank Lee, a retired chef, can slip out to the hardware store, fairly confident that his wife, Robin, is in the hands of reliable help. He spends nearly every hour of every day anxiously overseeing her care at their home on the Isle of Palms, a barrier island near Charleston, South Carolina.

4 Dec 2023

She once advised the president on aging issues. Now, she’s battling serious disability and depression.

The GoFundMe request jumped out at me as I was scrolling through posts on LinkedIn.

28 Nov 2023

Researchers take step toward developing cell therapy treatment for MS

An international team has shown that the injection of a type of stem cell into the brains of patients living with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) is safe, well tolerated and has a long-lasting effect that appears to protect the brain from further damage.

27 Nov 2023

Extra fees drive assisted living profits

Assisted living centers have become an appealing retirement option for hundreds of thousands of boomers who can no longer live independently, promising a cheerful alternative to the institutional feel of a nursing home.

20 Nov 2023

Adult children discuss the trials of caring for their aging parents

I am 39 years old. I had to care for my father, who passed from cancer in 2019; my mother, who passed in November 2021 from cancer; and since my mother's passing, I have inherited the care of my grandmother.

14 Nov 2023

Facing financial ruin as costs soar for elder care

Margaret Newcomb, 69, a retired French teacher, is desperately trying to protect her retirement savings by caring for her 82-year-old husband, who has severe dementia, at home in Seattle.

14 Nov 2023

Covid relief payments triggered feds to demand money back from Social Security recipients

As the nation reeled from covid-19, the federal government sent many Americans a financial lifeline.

18 Oct 2023

A third of schools don’t have a nurse. Here’s why that’s a problem.

Jodi Bobbitt, the school nurse at William Ramsay Elementary in Alexandria, Virginia, is always ready to see children with a wide range of injuries and illnesses. One day during the first week of school, the parade started before the first bell when a little girl walked in with red, irritated eyes.

16 Oct 2023