Public Health News and Research

RSS

Drug-related morbidity perceived to affect half of all patients attending healthcare

It is well known that drug-related morbidity is common among hospitalized patients, and is to some extent preventable, but less is known about drug-related morbidity outside hospitals. Two new studies conducted at the Nordic School of Public Health NHV, show that healthcare professionals perceive drug-related morbidity to affect half of all patients attending healthcare.

7 May 2012

Researchers discover how diabetes affects specific brain area leading to memory loss

Badly controlled diabetes are known to affect the brain causing memory and learning problems and even an increased incidence of dementia, although how this occurs is not clear.

7 May 2012

Dengue fever costs Puerto Rico nearly $38M a year, study shows

"The costs of treating and coping with dengue fever in Puerto Rico total nearly $38 million a year, a new study," published Wednesday in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, finds, according to U.S. News & World Report.

5 May 2012

DST Health Solutions, Johns Hopkins to celebrate 20th Anniversary of ACG System

DST Health Solutions, LLC, today announced that they and Johns Hopkins University will celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the ACG System this year. Johns Hopkins' ACG System offers one of the best in class case mix methodologies, providing Predictive Modeling, Risk Adjustment and Population Case Mix methods to achieve better disease and case management, and ultimately, better patient care.

5 May 2012

Highlights: D.C. may have funds for illegal immigrant health care; Fla. passed up $200M because it comes from health law; Texas to build 2 new med schools

D.C. Council member David A. Catania has found an additional $20 million in the budget to continue offering free health insurance to 19,000 undocumented immigrants, reversing a proposal by Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) that could have restricted them from receiving emergency care. Catania (I-At Large) … has made full funding of the Alliance Insurance program a chief priority as the council prepares for final budget deliberations.

5 May 2012

New research about why people forego colorectal cancer screening

New research about why people forego colorectal cancer (CRC) screening suggests that three fears play a significant role; fear of embarrassment, fear of getting AIDS and fear of pain may make some seniors skip the potentially lifesaving tests.

5 May 2012

Primary-care physicians hard to find in low-income Hispanic metropolitan neighborhoods

New research into "health care deserts" finds that primary-care physicians are especially hard to find in predominantly Black and/or low-income Hispanic metropolitan neighborhoods.

5 May 2012

Johns Hopkins receives $15 million NIH grant to establish CFAR

Johns Hopkins University has been awarded $15 million over the next five years from the National Institutes of Health to establish the new Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). CFAR will support more than 180 HIV investigators from the University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing and other schools. A major priority for CFAR will be to address Baltimore's HIV epidemic in addition to training new investigators and conducting international research.

5 May 2012

More than 15000 health-care facilities to participate in WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands Initiative

On Hand Hygiene Day (5 May), more than 15 000 health-care facilities from 156 countries are participating in the WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands Initiative by committing to improve patient safety by practicing better hand hygiene.

5 May 2012

Growing role of body image drugs

In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics Kanayama et al. analyse the growing role of body image drugs.

4 May 2012

Nature publishes first of two controversial studies on H5N1 avian flu

"In a long-awaited study that helped prompt a contentious debate over the wisdom of conducting research that has the potential to help as well as harm, scientists reported Wednesday that they had engineered a mutant strain of [H5N1] bird flu that can spread easily between ferrets -- a laboratory animal that responds to flu viruses much as people do," the Los Angeles Times (Brown, 5/3).

4 May 2012

One of the controversial avian flu studies published in full finally

After endless debates and controversies on whether two studies that demonstrated how bird flu, also known as avian H5N1 influenza, or avian flu, should be published, one of them has appeared in the latest issue of the journal Nature in its entirety. The two studies aimed for publication in journals Nature and Science show how the bird flu virus could become transmissible from mammal-to-mammal; as humans are mammals, the same would apply to humans.

4 May 2012

Aspirin versus warfarin for heart failure patients

In a new study on more than 2,000 patients, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that aspirin was as effective as the commonly prescribed drug warfarin. It said each drug had risks, but they had similar benefits overall.

4 May 2012

Hispanics more likely to develop precancerous colorectal polyps

Blacks and Hispanics have a significantly higher risk of developing precancerous colorectal polyps compared with whites, according to a study by researchers at NewYork - Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

4 May 2012

Clinical trial to investigate statins in patients with acute severe respiratory failure

Queen's University and NUI Galway and are leading a clinical trial to investigate the possibility that statins, a drug commonly used to combat cholesterol, might help patients with acute severe respiratory failure.

4 May 2012

Repeated blows to the head associated with long term cognitive, pathologic changes

NFL great Junior Seau's apparent suicide might shock the sports world, but to neurosurgeons and neurologists accustomed to seeing an increase in the incidence of concussions, especially among football players, the news isn't as surprising.

3 May 2012

Portfolio theory applied to basic science research portfolio

Researchers suggest that application of Nobel-prize-winning portfolio theory could provide objective funding allocations that would improve risk/reward trade-off in years of life lost.

3 May 2012

FDA recommended to continue monitoring drugs' safety after approval

Pharmaceutical drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but later re-called from the market-such as the antidiabetic drug Avandia and pain-reliever Vioxx-were the impetus for an Institute of Medicine committee report released yesterday, recommending that the FDA take proactive steps to continue monitoring drugs' safety after initial approval and throughout their time on the market.

3 May 2012

Lay health workers can make a great contribution to care but they need to be cared for

Sixteen years after apartheid the public health system in South Africa continues to be plagued by health worker shortages. "But lay health workers can make a great contribution to care", says Karen Daniels at Nordic School of Public Health. But they also need greatly to be cared for. Here thesis explores how ordinary people trained to assist in health care is an option to tackling this crisis.

3 May 2012

HSPH introduces Obesity Prevention Source website

What is causing the obesity epidemic-and how can we stop and reverse this worldwide weight problem? A new website offers authoritative answers to these pressing questions and sheds light on one of the most challenging public health threats of our time.

3 May 2012

Public Health News and Research

Drug-related morbidity perceived to affect half of all patients attending healthcare

Researchers discover how diabetes affects specific brain area leading to memory loss

Dengue fever costs Puerto Rico nearly $38M a year, study shows

DST Health Solutions, Johns Hopkins to celebrate 20th Anniversary of ACG System

Highlights: D.C. may have funds for illegal immigrant health care; Fla. passed up $200M because it comes from health law; Texas to build 2 new med schools

New research about why people forego colorectal cancer screening

Primary-care physicians hard to find in low-income Hispanic metropolitan neighborhoods

Johns Hopkins receives $15 million NIH grant to establish CFAR

More than 15000 health-care facilities to participate in WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands Initiative

Growing role of body image drugs

Nature publishes first of two controversial studies on H5N1 avian flu

One of the controversial avian flu studies published in full finally

Aspirin versus warfarin for heart failure patients

Hispanics more likely to develop precancerous colorectal polyps

Clinical trial to investigate statins in patients with acute severe respiratory failure

Repeated blows to the head associated with long term cognitive, pathologic changes

Portfolio theory applied to basic science research portfolio

FDA recommended to continue monitoring drugs' safety after approval

Lay health workers can make a great contribution to care but they need to be cared for

HSPH introduces Obesity Prevention Source website

Discover how SciY empowers scientists

Why use light scattering to analyze proteins and viral vectors?

Changing the landscape of R&D to build clinical success from the ground up

Latest News