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New survey reveals more than half of patients prescribed opioids have leftover pills

In the midst of an epidemic of prescription painkiller addiction and overdose deaths, a new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health survey suggests that more than half of patients prescribed opioids have leftover pills -- and many save them to use later.

14 Jun 2016

Poor physical fitness, passive hobbies may increase pain conditions in children

Poor physical fitness and sedentary behaviour are linked to increased pain conditions in children as young as 6-8 years old, according to the Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children Study ongoing at the University of Eastern Finland. The findings were published in the Journal of Pain.

14 Jun 2016

Marijuana and alcohol use during adolescence linked to poor academic performance, mental health

Adolescents who use both marijuana and alcohol during middle school and high school are more likely to have poor academic performance and mental health during high school, according to a new study by the nonprofit RAND Corporation that followed a group of students over a seven-year period.

14 Jun 2016

Stroke can cause long-term damage to blood-spinal cord barrier, study finds

A team of researchers at the University of South Florida investigating the short and long-term effects of ischemic stroke in a rodent model has found that stroke can cause long-term damage to the blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB), creating a "toxic environment" in the spinal cord that might leave stroke survivors susceptible to motor dysfunction and disease pathology.

14 Jun 2016

Tiny molecular scaffolding could be key to fight against antibiotic resistance

Tiny molecular scaffolding that joins molecules together could be the key to our battle against antibiotic resistance. Research published in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters shows that carbon nanodot scaffolding assembled with small molecules called polyamines can kill some dangerous drug-resistant bacteria, including Acinetobacter baumanii and Klebsiella pneumonia.

14 Jun 2016

T memory cells with naive phenotype can help boost immunity in older adults

Sixty-five is the age when many people retire, kick back and take it easy. And so it often is with the human immune system.

14 Jun 2016

Screening PSA levels in younger men could accurately predict future risk of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer screening with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has been shown to reduce death and the spread of prostate cancer to other parts of the body, but the PSA test remains highly controversial as it frequently leads to over diagnosis and over treatment of men who may not be at risk.

14 Jun 2016

Surgeons take first step towards eliminating surgical care disparities

Surgeons and researchers, responding to the known prevalence of inequalities in U.S. surgical care, have taken the first steps toward eliminating surgical care disparities by grouping their causes into themes and identifying modifiable contributing factors.

13 Jun 2016

Southern Europe may be at risk of Zika outbreaks during this summer

Established Aedes-mosquito population could spread the Zika virus in Europe this summer if infected travelers introduce the virus. An analysis of temperatures, vectorial capacity, basic reproductive number (R0), and air traveler flows suggests parts of Southern Europe may be at risk for Zika outbreaks between June and August.

13 Jun 2016

Comprehensive workplace hand hygiene program helps reduce medical insurance claims for illnesses

A workplace outcome study published in The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that offices equipped with alcohol-based hand sanitizers and hand sanitizing wipes throughout the building and at employees' desks resulted in 24.3 percent fewer healthcare claims for hand hygiene preventable illnesses -- such as cold, flu and respiratory illnesses -- than the office and employees in the control group without these products.

13 Jun 2016

Behavioural intervention could be effective way to improve health of RA patients

The results of a study presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress showed for the first time that a combination of text messages and individual counselling sessions to motivate patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) to be more active resulted in improved patient-reported clinical outcomes.

13 Jun 2016

Air pollution becomes leading risk factor for stroke worldwide

Air pollution – including environmental and household air pollution - has emerged as a leading risk factor for stroke worldwide, associated with about a third of the global burden of stroke in 2013, according to a new study published in The Lancet Neurology journal.

13 Jun 2016

Innovative advances in medical paediatric orthotics shared at Primary Care and Public Health 2016

Innovative, clinician-led advances in orthotic techniques have the capacity to dramatically improve short term progress and long term outcomes for selective dorsal rhizotomy and scoliosis patients as well as patients with neurological disorders affecting movement.

13 Jun 2016

FDA approves Vaxchora for prevention of cholera

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Vaxchora, a vaccine for the prevention of cholera caused by serogroup O1 in adults 18 through 64 years of age traveling to cholera-affected areas. Vaxchora is the only FDA-approved vaccine for the prevention of cholera.

13 Jun 2016

Controlling corneal blindness by 2030: an interview with Dr Pravin Vaddavalli

Corneal blindness is estimated to be the second most prevalent cause of blindness in many less developed countries. Globally, bilateral corneal blindness is estimated to afflict 4.9 million persons and accounts for 12% of 39 million blind, utilizing WHO 2010 global blindness data.

13 Jun 2016

About 30% of iPSCs not safe for clinical use, report multi-institutional researchers

As the promise of using regenerative stem cell therapies draws closer, a consortium of biomedical scientists reports about 30 percent of induced pluripotent stem cells they analyzed from 10 research institutions were genetically unstable and not safe for clinical use.

10 Jun 2016

NIH awards grant to lay policy groundwork to translate genomics into clinical care

The National Institutes of Health has awarded the first-ever grant dedicated to laying the policy groundwork needed to translate genomic medicine into clinical application.

10 Jun 2016

FDA takes action against websites that illegally sell unapproved prescription drugs

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in partnership with international regulatory and law enforcement agencies, announced that it took action this week against 4,402 websites that illegally sell potentially dangerous, unapproved prescription drugs to U.S. consumers.

10 Jun 2016

Unique method opens door to development of simple diagnostic tests for myriad diseases

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have developed a unique method for detecting antibodies in the blood of patients in a proof-of-principle study that opens the door to development of simple diagnostic tests for diseases for which no microbial cause is known, including auto-immune diseases, cancers and other conditions.

10 Jun 2016

Tackling Healthcare Challenges in a Changing World: an Interview with Professor Jeremy Nicholson

As individuals and as populations our risks of getting diseases are determined partly genetically and partly from the environment that we live in. An important part of that environment that mediates between the outside world and the inside world of our bodies is the microbiome.

10 Jun 2016

Public Health News and Research

New survey reveals more than half of patients prescribed opioids have leftover pills

Poor physical fitness, passive hobbies may increase pain conditions in children

Marijuana and alcohol use during adolescence linked to poor academic performance, mental health

Stroke can cause long-term damage to blood-spinal cord barrier, study finds

Tiny molecular scaffolding could be key to fight against antibiotic resistance

T memory cells with naive phenotype can help boost immunity in older adults

Screening PSA levels in younger men could accurately predict future risk of prostate cancer

Surgeons take first step towards eliminating surgical care disparities

Southern Europe may be at risk of Zika outbreaks during this summer

Comprehensive workplace hand hygiene program helps reduce medical insurance claims for illnesses

Behavioural intervention could be effective way to improve health of RA patients

Air pollution becomes leading risk factor for stroke worldwide

Innovative advances in medical paediatric orthotics shared at Primary Care and Public Health 2016

FDA approves Vaxchora for prevention of cholera

Controlling corneal blindness by 2030: an interview with Dr Pravin Vaddavalli

About 30% of iPSCs not safe for clinical use, report multi-institutional researchers

NIH awards grant to lay policy groundwork to translate genomics into clinical care

FDA takes action against websites that illegally sell unapproved prescription drugs

Unique method opens door to development of simple diagnostic tests for myriad diseases

Tackling Healthcare Challenges in a Changing World: an Interview with Professor Jeremy Nicholson

News Medical 2025: Healthcare Shifts That Mattered Most eBook

How ELRIG Is Helping Mid-Career Scientists Navigate Leadership, Career Change and Redundancy

The role of UV-Vis in biopharma QC

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