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Virginia Tech receives NIH grant to develop new systems biology approaches for cell study

The National Institutes of Health has awarded Virginia Tech researchers a $2.13 million grant to develop new systems biology approaches to study cells, one of the most basic units of life.

5 May 2011

Researchers seek scientific evaluation for visual perception of adults with cleft lip, palate

The impact of physical attractiveness on social communication is a truth universally acknowledged. It is not surprising, therefore, that individuals with a cleft lip and palate have experienced social isolation and poor self-esteem.

16 Apr 2011

House Panel approves Ryan 2012 budget blueprint on party-line vote

The GOP budget proposal's Medicare provisions continue to draw scrutiny and debate about what the program's future should look like, how the plan would change senior citizens' health care costs and what its political implications might be.

8 Apr 2011

Mount Sinai's Cardiac Catheterization Lab wins New York State's highest 'two-star' safety rating

Mount Sinai's Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory has been awarded New York State's highest "two-star" safety rating in every category of case the state tracks for percutaneous coronary intervention, according to new data released this month that examine patient discharges from 2006 - 2008.

27 Jan 2011

NIDA awards Scripps Research, University of Pennsylvania $8.2M grant to develop tobacco addiction treatment

The Scripps Research Institute and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have been awarded approximately $8.2 million over five years to develop novel compounds that could eventually become drug candidates for the treatment of tobacco addiction. Of the funds awarded, $5.7 million will go to Scripps Research, and $2.5 million to the University of Pennsylvania.

12 Jan 2011

Driving convertible cars with top open may increase risk of noise-induced hearing loss

Driving convertible cars with the top open at speeds exceeding 88.5 kilometres per hour may put drivers at increased risk of noise-induced hearing loss, according to new research published in The Journal of Laryngology and Otology, by Cambridge University Press on behalf of JLO Ltd from the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Missouri and The Ear Institute of Texas, San Antonio.

7 Jan 2011

Mortality is higher in for-profit than non-profit dialysis centers, says study

If you need dialysis for advanced kidney disease, where you get it could make a big difference. A large study found that patients in certain large chain facilities are significantly more likely to die than those treated elsewhere. Mortality was also higher in for-profit than non-profit dialysis centers.

9 Dec 2010

Financial Times contrasts 'bottom up' and 'top down' approaches to developing country drugs

The Financial Times contrasts the model of drug development for developing countries being used by non-profit groups like the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP), which recently rolled out the MenAfriVac, to that of some pharmaceutical companies.

8 Dec 2010

Virally structured nano-electrodes boost energy capacity ten-fold

Viruses have a bad rep—and rightly so. The ability of a virus to quickly and precisely replicate itself makes it a destructive scourge to animals and plants alike. Now an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, brought together by Professor Reza Ghodssi, is turning the tables, harnessing and exploiting the "self-renewing" and "self-assembling" properties of viruses for a higher purpose: to build a new generation of small, powerful and highly efficient batteries and fuel cells.

7 Dec 2010

Opinions: Obama's Global Fund pledge; harm reduction in Iran; HIV prevention; African development

There are some encouraging signs in the epic battle against AIDS and HIV infections. But those bright spots dim considerably in the face of the fact that about 7,100 people a day become infected.

30 Nov 2010

Good Samaritan Hospital of Los Angeles wins Paradigm Award for labor excellence

The Paradigm Award Committee announced that Good Samaritan Hospital of Los Angeles, a leading hospital based in Southern California, was recently selected to receive the prestigious Paradigm Award.

26 Nov 2010

U.N. MDG summit begins; UNAIDS data shows 22 African countries see drop in new HIV infections

"Ten years after world leaders set the most ambitious goals ever to tackle global poverty, they are meeting again to try to spur action to meet the targets by the 2015 deadline - which the U.N. says will be difficult, if not impossible, in some cases," the Associated Press reports. More than 140 world leaders are scheduled to participate in the three-day U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which kicks off Monday.

21 Sep 2010

Financial Times examines U.S. foreign aid reform

The Obama "administration's bold drive to improve the U.S.'s notoriously bureaucratic and dysfunctional foreign aid programme is setting out with highly uncertain chances of success," the Financial Times writes. "Officials acknowledge inadequacies in the traditional U.S. approach. The U.S. programme involves overlapping bureaucracies ... [and] frequently 'ties' U.S. aid to the purchase of American food and other goods and consultancy services," according to the article.

21 Sep 2010

World Water Week kicks off with a focus on pollution, quality

A group of over 2,500 leading water experts from 130 countries gathered in Stockholm on Sunday to kick off World Water Week, where they will focus on "increasing water pollution and dwindling water quality around the globe," Agence France-Presse reports (Larson, 9/5).

7 Sep 2010

Implementation of electronic health records in England likely to be a long, complex and iterative process

Interim results from the first comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of electronic health records in secondary care in England have found delays and frustration with the system, according to research published on bmj.com today.

3 Sep 2010

New method for tracing brain circuits

The brain has been mapped to the smallest fold for at least a century, but still no one knows how all the parts talk to each other.

10 Aug 2010

U.N. report recommends changes for fragmented global aid system

"A proliferation of aid agencies, donors, and projects is fragmenting the global aid system, increasing transaction costs, and weakening efforts to reduce poverty and poor health," according to the U.N.'s recent World Economic and Social Survey (.pdf), BMJ News reports.

9 Jul 2010

Experts show the continuing global impact of Framingham Heart Study

Few medical investigations have had the impact of the Framingham Heart Study. This study, started in 1948, was designed as a cohort, observational study of cardiovascular disease, then recognized as a growing health threat but now has emerged as much more. The Framingham Heart study came to revolutionize thinking about cardiovascular disease, change the study of epidemiology, and even force the biostatistics community to develop multivariate analysis.

7 Jul 2010

Imaging algorithm distributed in top-down fashion reduces unnecessary cervical spine radiographs

An imaging algorithm produced by a radiology department and distributed through the medical director's office, in a top-down fashion, enabled a large, academic medical center to significantly reduce the number of unnecessary cervical spine radiographs (X-rays) in the emergency department, according to a study published in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

2 Jul 2010

Book on governance, social justice and epidemic diseases

Recent disease events such as SARS, H1N1 and avian influenza, and haemorrhagic fevers have focussed policy and public concern as never before on epidemics and so-called 'emerging infectious diseases'. Understanding and responding to these often unpredictable events have become major challenges for local, national and international bodies.