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FDA grants Fast Track designation to Opexa's Tovaxin for treatment of SPMS

Opexa Therapeutics, Inc., announced today that its lead drug candidate Tovaxin® has been granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.

8 Nov 2011

Study to explore how people with disabilities can better access personal health records

Personal health records have been going electronic, and patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers are learning to navigate the new digital world of health information. Now three institutions are teaming up to discover how a large population—people with disabilities—can best access this information.

8 Nov 2011

New book: Aging Our Way

In 1998, Hallmark unveiled a series of "One-Hundredth-Birthday" cards; by 2007 annual sales of the cards were at 85,000. America is rapidly graying: between now and 2030, the number of people in the U.S. over the age of 80 is expected to almost triple. But how long people live raises the question of how well they live.

8 Nov 2011

High-field MRI can reveal tiny brain injuries in preterm infant

Pediatric neuroscientists at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital are the first to use high magnetic field strength MRI to reveal tiny white matter injuries in the developing brain previously undetectable using standard MRI.

8 Nov 2011

Study evaluates JIA disease activity after treatment with etanercept

Among patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) who initiated treatment with the drug etanercept, one-third achieved an excellent response, and this response was associated with low measures of disability at study entry, younger age at the onset of JIA, and fewer disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs used before initiating etanercept, according to a study appearing in JAMA.

7 Nov 2011

Sports participation may increase risk of knee osteoarthritis

According to research presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago, participating in certain sports such as soccer, as well as elite long distance running, weight lighting and wrestling may increase the risk of developing knee osteoarthritis.

7 Nov 2011

Metier obtains $9 million verdict against Campbell County Memorial Hospital

Tom Metier of Metier Law Firm, LLC, of Cheyenne, Wyoming and Fort Colllins, Colorado, obtained a $9 million verdict for plaintiffs Louis and Rebecca Prager against Campbell County Memorial Hospital and Brian Cullison, M.D. for medical negligence.

5 Nov 2011

InsurCard Virtual Card for P&C provider payments to be showcased at NWCD Conference and Expo

InsurCard, leading provider of Workers Compensation & Property Claims Payment Solutions, announced today that they will be introducing their newest product, InsurCard Virtual Card for P&C provider payments at the National Workers Compensation and Disability Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

5 Nov 2011

Incorporating mental health into agenda to ensure access to services for all

In this Lancet editorial, Giuseppe Raviola, Anne Becker and Paul Farmer, professors with the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, write, "Unprecedented opportunities to promote excellence and equity in health care delivery for the world's most underserved populations are upon us," but "delivery of mental health services in low-resource settings lags unacceptably and unjustly far behind that of other services."

5 Nov 2011

State roundup: Puerto Rico settles disability battle with Feds

Puerto Rico has reached an agreement with the U.S. government ending a 12-year legal battle to improve the island's health system for the mentally disabled, local justice officials said Thursday. Federal officials had accused the U.S. territory of abusing and neglecting hundreds of mentally disabled people by not providing food, medication, adequate housing, therapy or mental health care.

5 Nov 2011

Three Cigna disability case managers win Dorland Health People Award

Three Cigna disability case managers were recognized for excellence during the recent annual Dorland Health People Awards, created by publisher Dorland Health.

5 Nov 2011

Key Assets expands foster care provision in Western Australia

Key Assets is expanding its foster care provision in Western Australia with the upcoming launch of a new disability services program.

5 Nov 2011

KU research to strengthen special-needs families in the military

Raising a child with a mental or a physical disability is tough work for any parent. But just imagine the added stresses for a parent on active duty in the U.S. armed forces: Possible deployments to war zones, base reassignments and recurrent training pose even more challenges to securing quality care and therapy for a special-needs child.

4 Nov 2011

AHA/ASA honors UH Case Medical Center with Get With The Guidelines-Stroke award

For the third consecutive year, University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines--Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

4 Nov 2011

Senate GOP attempts to officially undo CLASS Act

An attempt to bring up a bill to fast-track efforts to repeal the CLASS Act was beaten back by Democrats. But the AARP and 50 other advocacy groups sent a letter to lawmakers asking them not to touch the measure.

4 Nov 2011

November issue of WHO Bulletin now available online

The November issue of the WHO Bulletin features an editorial on maternal death surveillance and response; a public health round-up; an article on the trends in the prevalence of disability in China from 1987 to 2006; and a paper evaluating large-scale health programs at a district level in resource-limited countries.

3 Nov 2011

Many spinal fusion surgery patients have low levels of vitamin D

A new study indicates that many patients undergoing spine surgery have low levels of vitamin D, which may delay their recovery. In a study of 313 patients undergoing spinal fusion surgery, orthopaedic surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that more than half had inadequate levels of vitamin D, including one-fourth who were more severely deficient.

3 Nov 2011