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Patient Services to join National Organization for Rare Disorders

Patient Services, Inc. will join the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) and others around the world in observing Rare Disease Day on February 29. The purpose is to focus attention on the needs of patients and families affected by rare diseases.

18 Feb 2012

TRANSFUSION publishes positive results from CryoStor collaborative research

BioLife Solutions, Inc., a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary clinical grade hypothermic storage and cryopreservation freeze media for cells and tissues, today announced that TRANSFUSION, the foremost publication in the world for new information regarding transfusion medicine, has published a peer-reviewed journal article reporting positive results of collaborative research on CryoStor, BioLife's serum-free, protein-free cryopreservation freeze media.

18 Feb 2012

Ventas 2011 normalized FFO increases 71.1% to $777.0 million

Ventas, Inc. said today that normalized Funds From Operations for the year ended December 31, 2011 increased approximately 71.1 percent to $777.0 million, from $454.0 million for the comparable 2010 period.

18 Feb 2012

Canadian study quantifies effects of safe water, sanitation on health for first time

"In a study of 193 countries to be released Thursday, Canadian-based researchers say they've been able to quantify -- for the first time -- how safe water and public sanitation efforts affect health when factoring out other variables such as a nation's wealth, fertility or location," USA Today's "Your Life" reports.

17 Feb 2012

Private U.S. investments improve maternal care capacity in Ethiopia

Writing on the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition's website, Sarah Sagely Klotz, executive director of Hamlin Fistula USA, reports on how private U.S. investments "are building maternal care capacity and producing tremendous results" in Ethiopia.

16 Feb 2012

Diet exerts a strong influence on heart health

Food is your friend and your biggest foe. A healthy diet sustains us, but a poor diet can raise blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar levels and weight and put you at risk for heart disease.

16 Feb 2012

CDC report: Suicide rate increases 2.4% in the U.S. between 2008 and 2009

The CDC report showed that between 2008 and 2009, the suicide rate increased 2.4 percent, with 36,909 suicide deaths reported nationally.

16 Feb 2012

Oxford Gene Technology develops optimised rare disease sequencing and analysis service

Oxford Gene Technology (OGT), a provider of innovative clinical genetics and diagnostic solutions to advance molecular medicine, has extended its Genefficiency™ Sequencing Service to provide a dedicated service for investigating rare diseases. The specifically optimised version of the service will help investigators and clinicians identify causative mutations quickly, easily and without the need for in-house technical or bioinformatics expertise.

From Oxford Gene Technology 16 Feb 2012

Wikipedia the most highly rated mental health source

University of Melbourne researchers have found Wikipedia is the most highly rated website for accessing information on mental-health related topics.

16 Feb 2012

Patient feedback on how NHS hospitals are doing important

Patients are reportedly happy with the services they received at the Weston General Hospital outpatient department. The survey of 850 patients revealed Weston Area Health NHS Trust has improved in 13 areas since the last survey in 2009 and performs significantly better than other NHS trusts in 12 areas.

15 Feb 2012

Health professionals should routinely recommend chemo websites for cancer patients

Doctors and nurses may be underestimating the value placed on internet chemotherapy information by cancer patients and missing out on opportunities to discuss this information with them, new research finds today.

15 Feb 2012

UnitedHealth to offer industry cloud computing option

UnitedHealth Group's health services division, Optum, hopes to do for the complex and fragmented health care system what Apple has done for all manner of information that consumers need. The idea is to get health care data out of scattered hospitals, doctors' offices and insurance claims departments and move it to the cloud, an Internet-based platform that would let doctors and patients get access to all the information they need through one website.

15 Feb 2012

First study to look at suicide ideation and self-harm in LGBT youths

What protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youths from considering suicide and, conversely, what makes them most vulnerable to it? The question is of paramount concern because these youths are at least twice as likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual youths, prompting the national "It Gets Better Project" with encouraging video messages from such public figures as Lady Gaga and President Barack Obama.

15 Feb 2012

UBC community to take part in 2012 AAAS annual meeting

The University of British Columbia community has come out in full force to take part in the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest general scientific gathering in the world.

15 Feb 2012

Switching from calorie-laden beverages to water can help lose weight

Making a simple substitution of water or diet soft drinks for drinks with calories can help people lose 4 to 5 pounds, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study shows.

14 Feb 2012

Study examines how motivation to exercise is linked to behavior

For many people, the motivation to exercise fluctuates from week to week, and these fluctuations predict whether they will be physically active, according to researchers at Penn State. In an effort to understand how the motivation to exercise is linked to behavior, the researchers examined college students' intentions to be physically active as well as their actual activity levels.

14 Feb 2012

CSIS report examines polio eradication efforts in Nigeria

This report -- titled "The Race to Eradication," published on Friday by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), and written by Jennifer Cooke, director of the CSIS Africa Program, and Farha Tahir, a program coordinator and research associate in the program -- examines efforts to eradicate polio in Nigeria, a country that "remains one of the most entrenched reservoirs of poliovirus in the world," according to the report summary.

14 Feb 2012

New software key for personalized cancer medicine

High-throughput DNA sequencing technologies are leading to a revolution in how clinicians diagnose and treat cancer. The molecular profiles of individual tumors are beginning to be used in the design of chemotherapeutic programs optimized for the treatment of individual patients.

14 Feb 2012

Help combat antibiotic resistance with better patient communication

The latest NPS News highlights the vital role that prescribers play in limiting the spread of antibiotic resistance, and reviews the latest evidence about antibiotic resistance in the individual.

13 Feb 2012

Internet addiction, shyness, defiance and grief on bereavement could be mental disorders – Debate on proposed DSM-5

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has attracted a lot of debate on its proposed amendments to its newest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) the outlines psychiatric symptoms in the mental-health industry.

13 Feb 2012