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Care reforms raise concerns over patient access to GP services

GP services could be compromised by new provisions enabling commercial companies to provide primary care through locally negotiated contracts, researchers warn.

10 Sep 2007

FDA warns Melanocorp for illegal sale of Melanotan II

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a Warning Letter to Brian Manookian, owner of Melanocorp, Inc. in Hendersonville, Tenn. for the illegal sale and marketing of the product Melanotan II, which is not FDA-approved, on Melanocorp's Web site.

5 Sep 2007

Adolescents need to see their doctors more often to receive the HPV vaccine

Despite recommendations for annual preventive exams for adolescents, only 10 percent of teens have enough visits within 12 months to receive the recommended three shots needed for HPV vaccine. Ideally the three shots are delivered within six months, and only 1 percent of teens see their physicians that often.

5 Sep 2007

Primary care depression treatment often does not follow quality guidelines

Most patients with depression who are treated by primary care physicians do not receive care consistent with quality standards, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

5 Sep 2007

Healthy Steps for Young Children Program has sustained benefits for children and families

The Healthy Steps for Young Children Program, which added behavior and development services to pediatric practices, continued to benefit families more than two years after the intervention ended, according to a study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

5 Sep 2007

Clinical handover at the patient's bedside key to improving safety in hospitals

The handover of patient information during nursing shift changes is a key area under investigation in a national effort to improve patient safety in hospitals.

5 Sep 2007

Experts call for more resources worldwide to deal with mental illness

Experts in Britain are calling for better recognition of the impact of mental illness on other health problems and for more resources worldwide to deal with mental health issues.

5 Sep 2007

WHO calls for greater mental health priority

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is appealing to countries to increase their support for mental health services.

4 Sep 2007

Urgent need for better understanding of bipolar disease in children and adolescents

The number of visits to a doctor's office that resulted in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents has increased by 40 times over the last decade, reported researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

4 Sep 2007

Psychiatrists are the least religious of all physicians

A nationwide survey of the religious beliefs and practices of American physicians has found that the least religious of all medical specialties is psychiatry.

4 Sep 2007

Researchers look at malaria resistance to chloroquine

Funded by a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), scientists at Binghamton University, State University of New York, hope to understand how the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum evolved resistance to the once-effective medication chloroquine.

3 Sep 2007

Quarter of HIV patients believe their doctors stigmatize them

Physicians might want to be extra careful about how they treat HIV-infected patients - not just in the clinical sense but in the way they behave toward them. Even the perception that physicians are stigmatizing patients for carrying the virus that causes AIDS can discourage these individuals from seeking proper medical care, according to a new UCLA study.

3 Sep 2007

African-Americans and other racial minorities more likely to have sleep durations associated with increased mortality

African-Americans and other racial minorities have sleep durations associated with increased mortality. This is consistent with the belief that unhealthy sleep patterns among minorities - long sleep or short sleep - may contribute to health differentials, according to a study published in the September 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

3 Sep 2007

A mysterious illness in the Congo has experts scratching their heads

A mysterious illness in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has experts scratching their heads.

3 Sep 2007

Symposium on children born with clubfoot

We often think that high-tech, surgical methods are the best approach when it comes to medical care. But for children born with clubfoot, there is growing, worldwide interest in a low-tech, non-surgical method of treatment that is more effective, less expensive and easier to provide than surgery.

3 Sep 2007

How to influence the risk profile of a nation

Professor Geoffrey Rose was a pioneer in the field of prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD). He emphasized in his works how CHD prevention calls for general reduction in risk factor levels in the population, i.e. population based approach. Geoffrey Rose wrote: "It makes little sense to expect individuals to behave differently form their peers, it is more appropriate to seek a general change in behavioural norms and in the circumstances which facilitate their adoption."

3 Sep 2007

Blood pressure drugs cut death rate in diabetes

The largest-ever study of treatments for diabetes has shown that a fixed combination of two blood pressure lowering drugs reduces the risk of death, as well as the risks of heart and kidney disease. Results from the ADVANCE (Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease) Study were presented today at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2007 in Vienna.

2 Sep 2007

Efficacy of non-invasive ventilation in patients with acute cardiogenic pulmonary oede

Acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema, or "fluid on the lung", is a common, extremely distressing and often fatal condition that is a major consumer of health care resources. The aim of the 3CPO trial was to establish whether high-pressure oxygen, given by a simple facemask, could help reduce the death rate in patients with this condition.

2 Sep 2007

University of Portsmouth launches a UK first in healthcare education

A new course which will train professionals in the healthcare professions - the first of its kind in the country – is being launched by the University of Portsmouth in October.

30 Aug 2007

Triage guidelines for emergency heart patients studied

Two new studies led by researchers at the University of Iowa and the Department of Veterans Affairs Iowa City Health Care System provide reassuring findings for patients evaluated in the emergency room for possible acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and the physicians who treat them.

30 Aug 2007