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New law brings changes to health insurance rules this week

A variety of consumer friendly health reform rules will go into effect this week, promising to make life easier for young adults, parents, children with preexisting conditions, people with chronic diseases, and people appealing claims that have been denied. Starting Thursday, insurance companies must allow young adults to remain on their parents' plans until age 26, with some conditions.

20 Sep 2010

Insurers say new health benefits will raise premiums

Starting next week, your insurance company can no longer put dollar limits on essential benefits such as hospital and lab services. Dependent children will be covered to age 26. You'll get preventive care with no deductible or co-pay. But there's a price some insurers are saying they will have to raise premium prices, CBS News reports.

20 Sep 2010

Warning on Australian clinics offering safe alternatives to mammograms

Experts have warned that some private clinics that are offering safe alternatives to mammograms as breast cancer screening are doing more harm than good. It is seen that clinics offering services like botox, liposuction and spray tans are increasingly providing breast cancer screening that uses thermal imaging and “electrical impedance” technology. These methods are being used on women as young as 20, with claims they can detect cancer years earlier than mammograms.

20 Sep 2010

Improper biological clocks tend to develop diabetes, obesity: Research

Biologists have found that a key protein that regulates the biological clocks of mammals also regulates glucose production in the liver and that altering the levels of this protein can improve the health of diabetic mice.

20 Sep 2010

BRCA1 gene mutation increases breast cancer risk: Research

Individuals with disrupting mutations in the BRCA1 gene are known to be at substantially increased risk of breast cancer throughout their lives. Now, discoveries from an international research team led by Mayo Clinic researchers show that some of those persons may possess additional genetic variants that modify their risk. These new findings enhancing individualized medicine appear in the current Nature Genetics.

20 Sep 2010

Tiotropium bromide shows potential as an alternative asthma treatment

A drug commonly used for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) successfully treats adults whose asthma is not well-controlled on low doses of inhaled corticosteroids, reported researchers supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

20 Sep 2010

Scientists discover new genetic variants, pave way for early detection of ovarian cancer

An international consortium of scientists has discovered new genetic variants in five regions of the genome that affect the risk of ovarian cancer in the general population, according to two separate studies published today (Sunday), online in Nature Genetics.

20 Sep 2010

Male circumcision shown to help prevent HIV transmission

According to a new study published in the Medical Journal of Australia, male circumcision can be seen as a “surgical vaccine” in the fight against heterosexual HIV transmission. The study based on spread of the virus in Africa showed that there was a reduced rate of transmission in regions where male circumcision was the norm.

19 Sep 2010

Immunotherapy accepted for coverage in MEDLINE®

Future Medicine Ltd announced today that its journal Immunotherapy (ISSN 1750-743X) has been selected for coverage in MEDLINE®. Maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE® (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online) is a premier bibliographic database containing approximately 13 million references to journal articles in life sciences.

19 Sep 2010

Medical technology paving the way

The annual Australian technology “Academy Awards” presentation marked a significant milestone for Sydney headquartered technology company Iris Interactive taking out three awards which sets them up for the world stage. Iris Interactive started 15 years ago by a working mother, Janaki Joshi, who identified a gap in the market for enterprise software focused on product commercialisation.

19 Sep 2010

New findings in brain plasticity and development

Brain plasticity – the brain’s ability to reorganise neural pathways – will be discussed at a major symposium this week at the University of New South Wales (Friday 24 September).

19 Sep 2010

Blood test developed for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease diagnosis

Scientists at the Basque Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC bioGUNE) and OWL Genomics Ltd. (Bilbao, Spain), in collaboration with researchers at the INSERM and University Hospitals (APHP Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital, Pierre & Marie Curie University Paris and Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Nice, University of Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, Nice, France), Vanderbilt University (Nashville, US), the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, US), Clinic Hospital and IDIBAPS (Barcelona, Spain) and the Alcalá de Henares University (Alcalá de Henares, Spain) have used metabolomics technology to develop a blood test for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) diagnosis.

19 Sep 2010

ABC Entertainment, CafePress launch official Dancing with the Stars team t-shirts for Stand Up To Cancer

ABC Entertainment Group and CafePress today announce the launch of official Dancing with the Stars team t-shirts with sales benefiting Stand Up To Cancer.

18 Sep 2010

Political Cartoon: 'Waiting for the gavel to drop'

Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Waiting For The Gavel To Drop" by Jeff Parker.

18 Sep 2010

PNNL, 59th Medical Wing collaborate to improve drug tests for illicit usage

A new collaboration between the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Air Force's 59th Medical Wing hopes to improve on drug tests for illicit drug use and abuse. Not only are the researchers looking for a better indicator of current or past use, but they'd like to be able to identify people prone to abusing drugs in the first place.

18 Sep 2010

Two-thirds of public hospitals are in rural areas

Two-thirds of the nation's 1,131 public hospitals were in rural areas in 2008, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

18 Sep 2010

Hastings Center Report examines ethical controversies over use of personalized medicine

As government support for personalized medicine grows, a consumer advocate, a patient, and bioethicists explore ethical controversies. Direct-to-consumer genetic tests, privacy, targeted cancer therapies, and Henrietta Lacks are among topics in a special issue of the Hastings center Report

18 Sep 2010

FAU, Max Planck Florida Institute to host Neuroscience Symposium

To mark the launch of a new, joint Integrative Biology and Neuroscience graduate program, Max Planck Florida Institute and Florida Atlantic University (FAU) are hosting an inaugural Neuroscience Symposium, September 28-29 in the Senate Chambers of the Student Union at FAU's Boca Raton campus.

18 Sep 2010

UCLA conference to provide information about latest developments to help enhance quality of life of seniors

While aging impacts everyday living in many ways, the latest technologies in the medical, consumer and lifestyle fields have the potential to help older adults live better for longer.

18 Sep 2010

Murphy Analytics releases report on Bohai Pharmaceuticals

Bohai Pharmaceuticals Group, Inc., a China-based pharmaceutical company engaged in the production, manufacturing and distribution of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China, today announced the release of an in-depth initiation report by Patrick Murphy, CFA, principal of fee-based independent research firm Murphy Analytics.

18 Sep 2010