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Smart sensors can enable orthopaedicians to collect objective, quantifiable information

Imagine a smart sensor customized to provide vital, real-time information about a patient's recent orthopaedic surgery. Instead of relying on X-rays or invasive procedures, surgeons will be able to collect diagnostic data from an implantable sensor.

15 Feb 2012

Study to examine relationship between oral and silent reading in children

When a beginning reader reads aloud, her progress is apparent: Hunched over a book, little index finger blazing the way, she moves intently from sound to sound, word to word. I do not like green eggs and ham! I do not like them, Sam-I-am! But when that same child reads silently, it's much harder to measure how much she is reading -- or understanding. Yet as she advances through school, teachers will expect her to learn increasingly through silent rather than oral reading.

15 Feb 2012

Critics find much to fault in Obama budget

Republicans say the budget doesn't do enough to restrain entitlement spending. Health care industry groups, meanwhile, call proposed payment cuts unfair and unworkable.

15 Feb 2012

Obama 2013 budget would cut $360 billion from Medicaid and Medicare

The budget released Monday would trim spending on federal health-care programs by about $360 billion over the next decade, primarily by reducing payments to drug companies and other providers. Starting in 2017, Obama also proposes to raise Medicare premiums for new retirees and seniors with higher incomes, start charging co-payments for home health-care services, and penalize patients who buy Medigap policies to take care of Medicare co-payments and deductibles.

15 Feb 2012

Fewer health care dollars would flow to states under Obama budget plan

The president wants to phase out a Medicaid provider tax that Malloy has used to help balance his budget. The White House also wants to "blend" Medicaid rates with the rates received from the federal government for a health program for children. That could mean fewer federal health dollars for Connecticut.

15 Feb 2012

Steady increase in Low Molecular Weight Heparin use for blood clots: Study

The use of an injectable, clot-preventing drug known as Low Molecular Weight Heparin to treat patients with advanced cancer complicated by blood clots increased steadily between 2000 and 2007, according to a new study published in The Oncologist, funded by the National Cancer Institute and led by Kaiser Permanente Colorado.

15 Feb 2012

Incidence of TBI likely greater than previously estimated

Though researchers are becoming increasingly aware of the long-term effects of head injury, few studies have looked at the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in all age groups, including males and females, taking into account both mild and serious events. In a recent study published in Epidemiology, Mayo Clinic researchers applied a new, refined system for classifying injuries caused by force to the head and found that the incidence of traumatic brain injury is likely greater than has been estimated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

15 Feb 2012

Book focuses on gender and well-being

Provisioning for basic human needs is done in three main kind of institutions: the familial household; the commercial enterprise selling goods and services; the institutions of the Welfare State that provide education, medical care and other goods and personal services to all or to some specific groups of citizens in need. The purpose of this book is to study the interplay of these institutions and their impact on well-being, and to analyze key policies and measures that have been implemented in European countries.

15 Feb 2012

New WSU model system focuses on causes of everyday MS symptoms

Annoying, frustrating symptoms like difficulty hearing or remembering things can complicate everyday living for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, but most research to date has focused on the disease's less frequent but more debilitating consequences.

15 Feb 2012

New vaccine can prevent bacterial infection of orthopaedic implants

Methicillin resistant staph aureus (MRSA) infections are resistant to antibiotics and can cause a myriad of problems -- bone erosion, or osteomyelitis, which shorten the effective life of an implant and greatly hinder replacement of that implant. MRSA can result in prolonged disability, amputation and even death.

15 Feb 2012

UBC community to take part in 2012 AAAS annual meeting

The University of British Columbia community has come out in full force to take part in the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest general scientific gathering in the world.

15 Feb 2012

Study: ACL injury mechanism involves combination of factors

Landing from a jump can cause a non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. But evidence presented at the Orthopaedic Research Society 2012 Annual Meeting demonstrates that the injury mechanism that causes that ACL injury involves a combination of factors rather than a single factor as some have claimed.

15 Feb 2012

American Physical Society commends President's 2013 budget

The American Physical Society (APS) commends President Obama's Fiscal Year 2013 budget, which prioritizes scientific research, spurs innovation and keeps the nation on a path toward economic prosperity.

14 Feb 2012

First large-scale investigation into diabetes risk among young people in South Asia

Scientists at King's College London and the National Diabetes Centre (Sri Lanka) have found evidence of a high number of risk factors for type 2 diabetes among the young urban population in Sri Lanka. The study is the first large-scale investigation into diabetes risk among children and young people in South Asia, and provides further evidence that the region is rapidly becoming a hotspot in the growing international diabetes epidemic.

14 Feb 2012

Cartilage graft can stimulate bone regeneration

A person has a tumor removed from her femur. A soldier is struck by an improvised explosive device and loses a portion of his tibia. A child undergoes chemotherapy for osteosarcoma but part of the bone dies as a result.

14 Feb 2012

National Library of Medicine acquires papers of sickle cell disease expert

The National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world's largest medical library, announced recently the acquisition of the papers of Charles F. Whitten, M.D., distinguished professor of pediatrics and associate dean of medicine emeritus at Wayne State University. Whitten passed away in 2008.

14 Feb 2012

Unstructured free play, recess need to be reinstated in schools

Evaluating the Let's Move! Initiative, Dr. Melinda Sothern, Professor of Public Health and Jim Finks Chair of Health Promotion at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, calls First Lady Michelle Obama brave for taking on the challenge of childhood obesity and suggests that she now consider working to move it up to the policy level.

14 Feb 2012

Machine-learning methods show that patients with severe brain injury could communicate accurately

Only by employing complex machine-learning techniques to decipher repeated advanced brain scans were researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell able to provide evidence that a patient with a severe brain injury could, in her way, communicate accurately.

14 Feb 2012

First Edition: February 14, 2012

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations include news on congressional package to payroll taxes and stop a Medicare payment cut and analysis of President Barack Obama's budget.

14 Feb 2012

Radiation treatment transforms breast cancer stem cells into new iBCSCs

Breast cancer stem cells are thought to be the sole source of tumor recurrence and are known to be resistant to radiation therapy and don't respond well to chemotherapy.

14 Feb 2012