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Speech training holds promise for cochlear implant recipients

Behavioral speech therapy programs are effective and efficient for training speech sound production in adults who have received a cochlear implant, exploratory research findings show.

16 Jan 2013

Researchers identify new group of growth factor receptors that signal to brain tumours

One in 25,000 people worldwide is affected by neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2), a condition where the loss of a tumour suppressor called Merlin results in multiple tumours in the brain and nervous system.

16 Jan 2013

Hospital fees, provider cuts to steady Medicaid programs in Ga., Calif. linger

New hospital fees and provider cuts in Georgia and California aim to make their Medicaid programs more solvent, but fights over details are keeping the plans shelved for now.

16 Jan 2013

Functionally deaf patients can gain normal hearing with new implant that replaces the middle ear

Functionally deaf patients can gain normal hearing with a new implant that replaces the middle ear. The unique invention from the Chalmers University of Technology has been approved for a clinical study. The first operation was performed on a patient in December 2012.

15 Jan 2013

Hearing loss with radiotherapy for head and neck tumors

Radiotherapy for head and neck tumors has permanent, progressive, and dose-dependent effects on patients’ hearing, report researchers.

15 Jan 2013

New hope for people with sound-induced deafness

Preliminary results from a study in mice suggest it may be possible to regenerate cochlear hair cells that have been damaged due to excessive noise exposure.

15 Jan 2013

State highlights: Calif. governor earmarks money for Medi-Cal expansion; Mental health reforms take shape in Kan., Colo.

Brown earmarked $350 million in his spending plan to help enroll more Californians in Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance program for the poor. Under the proposal, enrollment rules would be simplified to cover residents who are currently eligible but not enrolled.

15 Jan 2013

Graft recommendation bursts onto eardrum repair scene

Researchers say that a 0.2-mm partial thickness graft is optimal for reconstruction of subtotal tympanic membrane perforation.

14 Jan 2013

Bionic devices: an interview with Dr Rylie Green

Bionic devices are implants which replace biological functions which have been lost due to nerve damage. They use electrical signals to stimulate the remaining nerve cells following disease or injury. Although the term bionic was only coined in the late 1950s, the earliest bionic devices were cardiac pacemakers, developed in the early 1900s. However the first commercial implantable units were not available until the 1950s.

14 Jan 2013

SLU researchers to test new screening method for MPS disorders among infants

Researchers at Saint Louis University have received a five-year, $2.5 million National Institutes of Health grant to test a new method of screening newborns for a group of rare, but serious genetic disorders that affect approximately 200 babies born in the U.S., each year.

11 Jan 2013

Viewpoints: Fla. Gov. fears Medicaid expansion as Idaho, Missouri and Colorado wrestle with issue ; Few acceptable options for improving Medicare

Twenty-three states, most led by Republican officials, have declared that they will not set up their own health insurance exchanges to help individuals and small businesses find affordable coverage. ... Residents of states where political leaders seem bent on frustrating or sabotaging the health care reforms might well be better off with a federally run exchange.

8 Jan 2013

Confusion surrounds regulation of various types of drug makers

Far from triggering a quick fix, the deaths or illnesses of 620 people in 19 states that have been linked to a Massachusetts pharmacy have only underscored confusion over how to regulate the various types of drug-makers in the United States.

4 Jan 2013

Babies begin absorbing language while still in the womb

Babies only hours old are able to differentiate between sounds from their native language and a foreign language, scientists have discovered. The study indicates that babies begin absorbing language while still in the womb, earlier than previously thought.

2 Jan 2013

Roundup: Calif. hospitals fined over serious errors; Mass. pharmacy waiting period continues; Hospitals acquiring 'tough reimbursement climate' in Alabama?

Ten California hospitals received fines Thursday for errors that resulted in either serious injury or death to a patient. The California Department of Public Health issued a total of $785,000 in penalties for errors that include removing the wrong kidney, leaving surgical objects behind and failing to call for assistance when a patient began bleeding excessively (Gorman, 12/21).

21 Dec 2012

Republicans press Obama administration for information on contractors

GOP members of the Senate Finance Committee say they want more information from the Department of Health and Human Services, even as House and Senate GOP lawmakers pressed for details about the contractors who will set up insurance markets in states that don't do it themselves.

21 Dec 2012

Ambulance diversion not an effective way to control emergency department crowding

Massachusetts' 2009 ban on ambulance diversion not only did not increase emergency department length of stay or ambulance turnaround time but may actually have led to improvements in both areas, according to a study published online today in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("The Effect of an Ambulance Diversion Ban on Emergency Department Length of Stay and Ambulance Turnaround Time").

21 Dec 2012