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Access to nature can support the overall health of people in cities

Your local city park may be improving your health, according to a new paper led by Stanford University researchers.

11 May 2021

Study: Even a small amount for health insurance could make healthy low-income people to drop coverage

Twenty dollars a month might not seem like a lot to pay for health insurance. But for people getting by on $15,000 a year, it's enough to make some drop their coverage - especially if they're healthy, a new study of Medicaid expansion participants in Michigan finds.

10 May 2021

Esophageal cancers turn on ancient viral DNA hidden in our genome

Scientists have discovered that many esophageal cancers turn on ancient viral DNA that was embedded in our genome hundreds of millions of years ago.

10 May 2021

New technique can help to non-invasively assess progression of sickle cell retinopathy

Ophthalmologists at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai have created a new technique to evaluate patients with sickle cell retinopathy and assess the disease before it progresses and leads to permanent vision loss.

10 May 2021

Research suggests Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine reprograms innate immune responses

Researchers in The Netherlands have warned that Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine induces complex reprogramming of innate immune responses that should be considered in the development and use of mRNA-based vaccines.

10 May 2021

Korea's first large-scale project reaches milestone of sequencing 10,000 whole genomes

On April 26, UNIST and Ulsan City officially announced that their ambitious 10,000 Genome Project has finally reached the milestone of sequencing 10,000 whole genomes.

10 May 2021

New low cost, non-electric warmer effectively treats infant hypothermia

Neonatal hypothermia -- which occurs when an infant's core body temperature falls below the normal range needed to maintain health -- contributes to approximately one million deaths each year, and countless cases of stunted growth, almost exclusively in low- and middle-income countries.

7 May 2021

Sleep disorders increase health care utilization and costs

Sleep disorders are associated with significantly higher rates of health care utilization, conservatively placing an additional $94.9 billion in costs each year to the United States health care system, according to a new study from researchers at Mass Eye and Ear, a member hospital of Mass General Brigham.

7 May 2021

Researchers highlight the need for more reliable methods to predict risk of relapse into depression

At least half of patients recovering from depression will experience a relapse, but there are currently no evidence-based tools to help GPs or other healthcare professionals to identify those at high risk.

7 May 2021

Absence of key gene causes severe hearing loss

A gene called GAS2 plays a key role in normal hearing, and its absence causes severe hearing loss, according to a study led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

7 May 2021

Algorithms can assess unconsciousness under general anesthesia with accuracy and reliability

Anesthestic drugs act on the brain but most anesthesiologists rely on heart rate, respiratory rate, and movement to infer whether surgery patients remain unconscious to the desired degree.

7 May 2021

New strategy could increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatments

New research led by a team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) points to a promising strategy to boost tumors' intake of cancer drugs, thereby increasing the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatments.

7 May 2021

Opioid prescribing behavior can also be decreased by supply shortage, shows study

When evaluating the opioid crisis, research reveals that external factors - such as the volume of pre-filled syringes, or a default number of opioid tablets that could easily be ordered at discharge for the patient - can shift prescribing and compel emergency department (ED) physicians to administer or prescribe greater quantities of opioids.

6 May 2021

Indian SARS-CoV-2 variant shows enhanced host cell entry and immune evasion

A study conducted by researchers in Germany has found that the B.1.617 variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has emerged in India entered certain types of lung and intestine cells with slightly increased efficiency compared with the original wild-type strain.

6 May 2021