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Roundup: Calif. insurer's Avastin decision; Kansas dental care; Gov. Brown vetoes nursing bill

Blue Shield of California will stop covering new Avastin prescriptions for breast cancer patients starting Oct. 17. Patients already on the drug will still be covered, and exceptions could be made for individual cases reviewed by a panel of cancer experts. The not-for-profit insurer cited an unprecedented vote by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel that found the drug was not effective enough against breast cancer to risk its potentially dangerous side effects.

12 Oct 2011

ASHG to honor U of U geneticist with William Allan Award

As a teenager just moved to Iowa from war-ravaged Germany in 1951, John M. Opitz, M.D., wanted to study developmental biology, but his "very Prussian" mother insisted he go to medical school instead.

12 Oct 2011

Thomson Reuters launches Infection Xpert solution

Thomson Reuters, a global provider of information for healthcare professionals, has launched Infection Xpert — a clinical intelligence dashboard that helps infection preventionists (IPs) manage and reduce hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), capture and submit mandated infection reporting metrics, and analyze hospital infection data to improve patient safety.

12 Oct 2011

Shield commences two ST10 Phase 3 studies in iron deficiency anaemia

Shield Therapeutics (Shield), the independent specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of late-stage, mineral-derived hospital pharmaceuticals which address areas of high unmet medical need, today announced that the first patients have been treated in the two Phase 3 clinical studies of ST10 for the treatment of iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) in subjects with inflammatory bowel disease.

12 Oct 2011

Chromosomal microarray can provide important information for patient treatment

Chromosomal microarray (CMA)—a powerful test for diagnosing the genetic abnormalities causing some types of developmental delay and birth defects—can be used in an evidence-based manner to provide important information for patient treatment, according to a pair of studies in the September issue of Genetics in Medicine, the official peer-reviewed journal of The American College of Medical Genetics.

12 Oct 2011

Journal of Alzheimer's Disease supplement explores neuroimaging

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common problem that is becoming progressively burdensome throughout the world. A new supplement to the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Imaging the Alzheimer Brain, clearly shows that multiple imaging systems are now available to help understand, diagnose, and treat the disease.

12 Oct 2011

Furiex announces publications and presentations about antibacterial drug JNJ-Q2

Furiex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced recent and upcoming publications and presentations about the novel investigational antibacterial drug JNJ-Q2.

12 Oct 2011

UPC develops active knee-ankle orthosis to assist gait in people with incomplete SCI

A team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering Research Centre (CREB) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. BarcelonaTech (UPC) has developed an active knee-ankle orthosis to assist gait in people with incomplete spinal cord injury. The project is being carried out in collaboration with the University of A Coruña and the University of Extremadura.

12 Oct 2011

CHOP, Albert Einstein College of Medicine to study genetics of conotruncal defects

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and collaborators at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) a five-year, $6.7 million grant to study the genetics of both rare and common congenital heart abnormalities known as conotruncal defects.

12 Oct 2011

Health situation grim as Greece weathers economic crisis

Researchers warn that the health of people in Greece could be in danger in the wake of the financial crisis. Writing in The Lancet, they said cuts to hospitals' budgets meant they were being overstretched.

11 Oct 2011

PSA test for prostate cancer may confuse: Experts debate its continued use

According to new research the PSA test for prostate cancer does more harm than good. This week, the United States Preventive Services Task Force is expected to announce its recommendation against routine testing for blood levels of prostate-specific antigen, the protein that can be a signal of prostate cancer.

11 Oct 2011

Effects of hospital competition on quality of care questioned

More research is needed before conclusions can be drawn about the effect of recent reforms on hospital quality, let alone about the merits of the coalition government's proposals to extend competition, warn experts on bmj.com today.

11 Oct 2011

Receptor tyrosine kinases control PI3K signaling in human KRAS mutant colorectal cancers

Some cancers can be effectively treated with drugs inhibiting proteins known as receptor tyrosine kinases, but not those cancers caused by mutations in the KRAS gene. A team of researchers led by Jeffrey Engelman, at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, has now identified a potential way to effectively use receptor tyrosine kinases inhibitors to treat individuals with KRAS mutant colorectal cancers - combine them with inhibitors of the MEK/ERK signaling pathway.

11 Oct 2011

Aspirin desensitization procedure can benefit patients with sinusitis, asthma and AERD

Beth Moore can now keep up with her children. The suburban Philadelphia mother of two had suffered from allergies and chronic sinusitis since her teens. With age her symptoms became more severe, turning into bronchitis and eventually asthma, diminishing her ability to breathe and sapping her of her energy. The only complete relief came from aspirin; and the aspirin desensitization that allowed her to overcome her aspirin allergy and end her decades-long battle with sinusitis.

11 Oct 2011

Many cancer survivors continue to have poorer health years after completion of treatment

Forty-five per cent of cancer survivors in Northern Ireland suffer from physical and mental health problems years after their treatment has finished, according to new research from Macmillan Cancer Support and Queen's University Belfast.

11 Oct 2011

Rwandan government, UNFPA step up campaign to end obstetric fistula

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Food Program and Engender Health have partnered with Rwanda's Ministry of Health in "a campaign to treat and end obstetric fistula in women in Rwanda," the New Times/AllAfrica.com reports.

11 Oct 2011

Diethylstilbestrol in utero affects immune system of the fetus

A synthetic estrogen — diethylstilbestrol (DES), prescribed to women in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s to prevent miscarriages, had serious, untoward effects in daughters of these women, including the development of a rare type of cancer of the uterus.

11 Oct 2011

Researchers issue warning of health crisis in Greece amid country's financial crisis

"Economically vulnerable Greeks are losing health care access amid dwindling budgets, facing higher risks of HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases, and in some cases, even dying, according to a study released online Monday by The Lancet," the Associated Press/ABC News reports.

11 Oct 2011

SIS Anesthesia Version 5 receives Drummond Group's ONC-ATCB certification

Surgical Information Systems (SIS), a leader in perioperative information systems, announced today that SIS Anesthesia Version 5 has been certified to meet 2011/2012 Stage 1 meaningful use measures as a modular Electronic Health Record.

11 Oct 2011

Georgia hospitals present varying financial pictures

One hospital run by Children's Healthcare Of Atlanta had its best financial results of the decade in 2010, but many of the state's independent hospitals are facing hard times. Medical staff issues and attempted aquisitions are also in the news.

11 Oct 2011