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California's Medicaid program - known as Medi-Cal - provides health insurance and long-term care coverage to low-income children, their parents, elderly, and disabled people in the state.
AACE applauds the American Medical Association for recognizing obesity as disease state

AACE applauds the American Medical Association for recognizing obesity as disease state

The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) applauds the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates for its action today to approve a resolution recognizing obesity as a disease state requiring a range of interventions to advance obesity treatment and prevention. AACE, the sponsor of the resolution, was joined by specialty and state medical societies in advocating for recognition of obesity as a disease state, including The Endocrine Society, American College of Cardiology, American College of Surgeons, American Urological Association, and the Texas State Delegation among many others. [More]
Scientists discover new drug that cripples TB bug by dissolving its protective fatty coating

Scientists discover new drug that cripples TB bug by dissolving its protective fatty coating

Most humans would like to shed their fatty exteriors, but tuberculosis (TB)-causing bacteria rely on theirs for survival. Scientists at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-New Jersey Medical School have now discovered a drug that cripples the TB bug by dissolving its protective fatty coating, a finding that could eventually be used to improve TB treatment in humans. The study has been posted online by Nature Chemical Biology. [More]

New chemical probe confirms that hydrogen sulfide is generated by body's growing cells.

A new study confirms directly what scientists previously knew only indirectly: The poisonous "rotten egg" gas hydrogen sulfide is generated by our body's growing cells. [More]
Storytelling may improve medical students' perceptions of people affected by dementia

Storytelling may improve medical students' perceptions of people affected by dementia

Treating patients with dementia can be viewed as a difficult task for doctors, but Penn State College of Medicine researchers say that storytelling may be one way to improve medical students' perceptions of people affected by the condition. Participation in a creative storytelling program called TimeSlips creates a substantial improvement in student attitudes. [More]
Home environment and parenting can influence child's health by shaping dietary and physical behaviors

Home environment and parenting can influence child's health by shaping dietary and physical behaviors

Kids whose moms encourage them to exercise and eat well, and model those healthy behaviors themselves, are more likely to be active and healthy eaters, according to researchers at Duke Medicine. [More]

High Court: Feds can sue pharmaceutical companies over deals to delay generic drug sales

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Federal Trade Commission can challenge name brand drug makers for potential antitrust violations. [More]
Ico Therapeutics completes Phase 2 iDEAL study for treatment of diabetic macular edema

Ico Therapeutics completes Phase 2 iDEAL study for treatment of diabetic macular edema

iCo Therapeutics Inc. announced today that it has completed enrollment of its Phase 2 iDEAL study evaluating the efficacy and safety after repeated injections of iCo-007 in patients with Diabetic Macular Edema (DME). The study has shown a good safety profile with no drug-related serious adverse events to date. [More]
Endosonographic aspiration procedures result in greater diagnostic yield in treating pulmonary sarcoidosis

Endosonographic aspiration procedures result in greater diagnostic yield in treating pulmonary sarcoidosis

Among patients with suspected stage I/II pulmonary sarcoidosis who were undergoing confirmation of the condition via tissue sampling, the use of the procedure known as endosonographic nodal aspiration compared with bronchoscopic biopsy, the current diagnostic standard, resulted in greater diagnostic yield, according to a study in the June 19 issue of JAMA. [More]
World-renowned leader in care and treatment of burn injury awarded highest honor from Loyola University

World-renowned leader in care and treatment of burn injury awarded highest honor from Loyola University

Richard L. Gamelli, MD, FACS, a world-renowned leader in the care and treatment of burn injury, is being awarded Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine's highest honor. [More]
New framework to improve safety and effectiveness of surgical procedures, implantable devices

New framework to improve safety and effectiveness of surgical procedures, implantable devices

An international team of investigators co-led by Weill Cornell Medical College is offering a new framework for evidence-based surgery and device research, similar to the kind of risk and benefit analysis used in evidence-based medicine. [More]
Spinal infection at contaminated drug injection site detected using contrast-enhanced MRI screening

Spinal infection at contaminated drug injection site detected using contrast-enhanced MRI screening

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at the site of injection of a contaminated lot of a steroid drug to treat symptoms such as back pain resulted in earlier identification of patients with probable or confirmed fungal spinal or paraspinal infection, allowing early initiation of medical and surgical treatment, according to a study in the June 19 issue of JAMA. [More]
OHSU analysis finds previous studies have overstated effectiveness of bone growth product used in spinal surgeries

OHSU analysis finds previous studies have overstated effectiveness of bone growth product used in spinal surgeries

An analysis by the Evidence-based Practice Center at Oregon Health & Science University has found that previously published clinical trial studies about a controversial bone growth product used in spinal surgeries overstated the product's effectiveness. [More]

New breakthrough in chemical nanoengineering may help develop light-regulated therapeutic molecules

The scientific cooperation between chemists, biotechnologists and physicists from various Catalan institutes, headed by Pau Gorostiza, from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), and Ernest Giralt, from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), has led to a breakthrough that will favor the development of light-regulated therapeutic molecules. [More]
NIH awards $12.7M to research groups to explore new treatments for patients in eight disease areas

NIH awards $12.7M to research groups to explore new treatments for patients in eight disease areas

The National Institutes of Health has awarded $12.7 million to match nine academic research groups with a selection of pharmaceutical industry compounds to explore new treatments for patients in eight disease areas, including Alzheimer's disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and schizophrenia. [More]

First Edition: June 19, 2013

Today's headlines include reports the development of the health law's online marketplaces is falling behind schedule. [More]

Viewpoints: Controlling costs; Health law's guarantee of coverage; ACO liability

In the impassioned debates over healthcare, one fact is often lost-;Americans pay more but get less for their health care than residents of other high-income countries. I believe we can change that. We can improve the quality of care and reduce our expenses, saving a trillion dollars or more a year, by making our health care system more efficient (William A. Haseltine, 6/17). [More]
Combination of two proteins released after head injury might be best way to diagnose MTBI

Combination of two proteins released after head injury might be best way to diagnose MTBI

Scientists are scrambling to gather data for the FDA to support the need for a blood test to diagnose brain injury in the United States. The University of Rochester Medical Center just added significant evidence by reporting in the Journal of Neurotrauma that it might be clinically useful to measure two brain biomarkers instead of one. [More]
Researchers discover a rational source of pain in skin of patients with fibromyalgia

Researchers discover a rational source of pain in skin of patients with fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia, a painful condition affecting approximately 10 million people in the U.S., is not imaginary after all, as some doctors have believed. A discovery, published this month in PAIN MEDICINE (the journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine), clearly now demonstrates that fibromyalgia may have a rational biological basis located in the skin. [More]

MRI screening of aortic atherosclerosis can predict risk of heart attacks and other CVDs

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of aortic atherosclerosis can predict the risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular events in otherwise healthy individuals, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. [More]
State highlights: Texas pharmacists want Medicaid price transparency

State highlights: Texas pharmacists want Medicaid price transparency

Pennsylvania is joining about 20 other states in limiting coverage of abortions under health care insurance policies offered in a federally-run insurance marketplace starting next year under a sweeping federal law. The office of Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican who opposes abortion rights, said he signed the bill Monday, without offering any comment (6/17). [More]