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Applied Spine Technologies receives U.S. Patent for stabilization device with travel-limiting functionality

Applied Spine Technologies, a medical device company focused on motion preservation of the lumbar spine, received a Notice of Allowance on July 12, 2010 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. To be clinically useful, a dynamic stabilization device needs to allow the spine to move, but not move excessively.

22 Jul 2010

Hospital updates: ERs try to shorten waits, Florida Children's Hospital to join with Johns Hopkins

To attract patients, hospitals are increasingly posting wait times for their emergency rooms "on billboards, websites, social media outlets like Twitter and in text messages," The Salt Lake Tribune reports. "It's a competitive strategy, but also a tool for bending the wait-time curve and, hopefully, improving patient care, said Mary Joe Jones, chief clinical nursing officer at St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City."

22 Jul 2010

Capsaicin may cause weight loss, fight fat buildup: Study

Capsaicin, the stuff that gives chili peppers their kick, may cause weight loss and fight fat buildup by triggering certain beneficial protein changes in the body, according to a new study on the topic. The report, which could lead to new treatments for obesity, appears in ACS' monthly Journal of Proteome Research.

22 Jul 2010

Eli Lilly CEO says U.S. drugmakers' biggest challenge is sustaining innovation

USA Today/Indianapolis Star: Drugmakers are facing an array of challenges, like lawsuits and patent losses, but also new opportunities including global growth and an expected surge in the number of U.S. residents with health insurance. Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter comments in a Q&A: "The biggest challenge facing the industry is to be able to sustain the flow of innovative medicines from our pipelines that can effectively compete against the generic versions of our own products" (Chu, 7/21).

22 Jul 2010

Study shows how muscle, fat could play role in survival of heart failure patients

University of Alberta research has discovered heart failure patients with more muscle have the potential to increase their length of life. Antigone Oreopoulos, a researcher from the U of A's School of Public Health, studied 140 patients with heart failure. Study participants underwent a special scan to measure their muscle mass and body fat.

22 Jul 2010

Researchers receive $780,000 to study estrogen levels, behavior of breast cancer tumors

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine received nearly $780,000 from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure for two studies regarding estrogen levels and the behavior of breast cancer tumors.

22 Jul 2010

Despite law, mental health coverage lacking in many insurance plans

Kaiser Health News staff writer Kate Steadman checks in with Andrew Sperling, the National Alliance on Mental Illness's director of federal legislative advocacy, for a progress report on the implementation of the new mental health parity law (Steadman, 7/21).

22 Jul 2010

Current myths vs. realities in global AIDS funding

Activists at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna are charging developed and developing country governments with writing checques that bounce to the millions of people in need of lifesaving HIV treatment. Despite the gains in treatment numbers reported by WHO, the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition's (ITPC), latest report, Rationing Funds, Risking Lives, documents early warnings of the global pullback on AIDS commitment and funding.

22 Jul 2010

Wal-Mart sued for limiting employee medical care

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is facing a class-action lawsuit in Colorado accusing the company "of conspiring to limit medical care for injured employees in a bid to save money," The Wall Street Journal reports.

22 Jul 2010

HighRes Biosolutions, Tekon Biotech announce exclusive distribution agreement

HighRes Biosolutions, the leader in laboratory automation solutions for life science applications, announced today that it has selected Tekon Biotech Ltd., a leading full-service distributor to analytical and research laboratories, as exclusive distributor of its uniquely modular automation technologies to the top laboratories of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

22 Jul 2010

Gladstone Institutes, H. Lundbeck collaborate to identify therapeutic candidates for neurological diseases

The Gladstone Institutes and the international pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck A/S have announced a collaborative research agreement to study and identify therapeutic candidates for neurological diseases. The agreement funds research at the Gladstone Center for Translational Research led by Gladstone investigator Katerina Akassoglou, PhD, and establishes the new Lundbeck Center for Neurovascular and Immuno-imaging at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease.

22 Jul 2010

AU Pre-Summit on Gender concludes

The African Union (AU) Pre-Summit on Gender concludes Wednesday after three days of discussion about how African countries could improve progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targeting women and children's health, the Independent reports.

22 Jul 2010

SAIC-F selects SAIC-F selects Precision Antibody to provide characterization for reference antibody resource development

Precision Antibody announced today its selection by Science Applications International Corporation-Frederick to provide antibody and antigen characterization, including surface plasmon resonance analysis, for the National Cancer Institute's "Clinical Proteomic Technologies for Cancer" initiative. A goal of the CPTC is to develop a standardized resource of very high-quality, renewable reference antibodies generated against cancer-related proteins. The antibodies will be made available to proteomics researchers, along with characterization data and other information intended to support replication and standardization.

22 Jul 2010

Severe state budget shortfalls trigger Medicaid program cuts

As states face severe budget shortfalls, many have cut home-care services for the elderly or the disabled, programs that have been shown to save states money in the long run because they keep people out of nursing homes. Since the start of the recession, at least 25 states and the District of Columbia have curtailed programs that include meal deliveries, housekeeping aid and assistance for family caregivers, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research organization.

22 Jul 2010

Call for American manufacturers to include medicinal ingredients from around the globe in foods, beverages

As consumers overseas embrace foods and beverages made with ingredients long known to have health and wellness benefits, American manufacturers can take a cue from their success and add such medicinal ingredients to their foods and beverages, according to a scientific discussion at the 2010 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting and Food Expo®.

22 Jul 2010

Super hemoglobin allows moles to grow underground

'Super hemoglobin' allows moles to thrive underground. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology have made the first identification of an adaptation in the blood of Eastern moles which allows more efficient transport of carbon dioxide, facilitating the moles' burrowing behavior.

22 Jul 2010

Enrollment jump helps UnitedHealth Group profits soar 31 percent

Health insurer UnitedHealth Group reported a second quarter profit jump of 31 percent as enrollment in the insurer's plans went up, The Associated Press/The New York Times reports. "The company's total enrollment grew about 1 percent, to 32.5 million compared with last year, with gains in Medicare and Medicaid businesses offsetting commercial health insurance losses." The company's commercial enrollment fell 440,000 as the sector deals with job cuts and the recession (7/20).

22 Jul 2010

Cultivated cucumber, melon originated in Asia and Australia

Sites of origin and regions of domestication of many of our most important cultivated plants are still unknown. The botanical genus Cucumis, to which both the cucumber (Cucumis sativus) and the honeydew melon (C. melo) belong, was long thought to have originated and diversified in Africa, because many wild species of Cucumis are found there. "A molecular genetic analysis has now shown that the wild populations that gave rise to melons and cucumbers originated in Asia", says LMU botanist Professor Susanne Renner.

22 Jul 2010

Harvard cracks down on doctors' ties to industry

In the face of increased scrutiny of ties between industry and medical school faculty, Harvard is tightening its conflict-of-interest policies, The Boston Globe reports.

22 Jul 2010

Study marks significant milestone for microbicide research field, HIV prevention

Today we congratulate the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa and the people of South Africa on the positive findings from the CAPRISA 004 microbicide study, which marks a significant milestone both for the microbicide research field and HIV prevention as a whole.

22 Jul 2010

Research News and Research

Applied Spine Technologies receives U.S. Patent for stabilization device with travel-limiting functionality

Hospital updates: ERs try to shorten waits, Florida Children's Hospital to join with Johns Hopkins

Capsaicin may cause weight loss, fight fat buildup: Study

Eli Lilly CEO says U.S. drugmakers' biggest challenge is sustaining innovation

Study shows how muscle, fat could play role in survival of heart failure patients

Researchers receive $780,000 to study estrogen levels, behavior of breast cancer tumors

Despite law, mental health coverage lacking in many insurance plans

Current myths vs. realities in global AIDS funding

Wal-Mart sued for limiting employee medical care

HighRes Biosolutions, Tekon Biotech announce exclusive distribution agreement

Gladstone Institutes, H. Lundbeck collaborate to identify therapeutic candidates for neurological diseases

AU Pre-Summit on Gender concludes

SAIC-F selects SAIC-F selects Precision Antibody to provide characterization for reference antibody resource development

Severe state budget shortfalls trigger Medicaid program cuts

Call for American manufacturers to include medicinal ingredients from around the globe in foods, beverages

Super hemoglobin allows moles to grow underground

Enrollment jump helps UnitedHealth Group profits soar 31 percent

Cultivated cucumber, melon originated in Asia and Australia

Harvard cracks down on doctors' ties to industry

Study marks significant milestone for microbicide research field, HIV prevention

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