Medicine News and Research

RSS

WHO regulation on human toxicity helps in reducing acute pesticide poisoning

Current WHO pesticide classifications are based on toxicity in rats but basing regulation on human toxicity will make pesticide poisoning less hazardous and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths globally without compromising agricultural needs. These are the key findings from a study by Andrew Dawson (South Asian Clinical Toxicology Research Collaboration, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka) and colleagues published in this week's PLoS Medicine.

27 Oct 2010

New intervention strategies help manage depression

In the 15 minutes a primary care doctor typically has with a patient, she's expected to diagnose the current ailment, help manage ongoing health issues and provide preventive care. In this setting, confronting all but the most obvious and immediate mental health needs of patients is an ongoing challenge.

27 Oct 2010

New York DOH and NYeC plan to create country's largest network for EHRs

The New York Department of Health (DOH) and public-private partnership New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) on Tuesday presented a plan to change the face of health care for all New Yorkers by creating the country's largest network for electronic medical records.

27 Oct 2010

ENDOMETRIN Vaginal Insert offers effective luteal support in IVF procedures

Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc. presented study results demonstrating that ENDOMETRIN (progesterone) Vaginal Insert provides effective luteal support compared to intramuscular (IM) progesterone-in-oil (PIO) in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) using gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist.

27 Oct 2010

Anti-enolase antibody may contribute to bile duct injury in biliary atresia: Research

Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and The Children's Hospital have taken a big step toward understanding what causes one of the most serious liver diseases in infants.

27 Oct 2010

Diabetic patients unwilling to pay physicians for outside scheduled office visits

Many patients with diabetes might make a phone call or send an e-mail to communicate with their physicians outside of scheduled office visits but the majority of patients are not willing to pay for these services, according to research presented at the American Osteopathic Association's (AOA) 115th Osteopathic Medical Conference & Exposition, known as OMED 2010 Unified, in San Francisco.

27 Oct 2010

Researchers recommend vaginal delivery for breech babies

Most babies are delivered head-first, but in about 4% of all deliveries babies are "born breech" ― with their buttocks or feet first. Doctors usually exercise caution and use caesarean sections (C-sections) as the delivery method of choice for such births, believing it safer for the baby. After a large-scale international study in 2000, C-sections became the near-universal choice for such births.

27 Oct 2010

New G-DOC repository for biological information

Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center, announces the launch of the Georgetown Database of Cancer or G-DOC. Under development for two years, G-DOC is a repository for biological information that is normally only available in scattered information libraries and tissue banks, if at all. Data sets grow as researchers deposit new information. G-DOC also contains relevant tools to analyze the data, plus new ones not seen before.

27 Oct 2010

Study suggests need to explore new infertility tests

The method used to assess infertility in at-home tests might not be the best for identifying which women will have trouble getting pregnant, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

27 Oct 2010

New guideline for using ESAs drugs in cancer patients

An updated joint guideline by the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) advises physicians about the appropriate use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs), a class of drugs that stimulate the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells, to treat cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced anemia.

27 Oct 2010

Older adults with severe sepsis at higher risk for cognitive impairment

Older adults who survive severe sepsis are at higher risk for long-term cognitive impairment and physical limitations than those hospitalized for other reasons, according to researchers from the University of Michigan Health System.

27 Oct 2010

Human haptoglobin gene mutation increases risk of diabetic complications

Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is a multifactorial disease of complex etiology characterized by the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells. In addition to genetic susceptibility, it is generally accepted that environmental factors play important roles in triggering disease, with virus infection having perhaps the strongest association.

27 Oct 2010

New Australian start-up venture could lead to a revolution in personalized medicine

Pharmaceuticals that seek out cancerous cells and deliver treatments to them; imaging techniques that can help doctors detect diseases before the physical signs begin to appear; and medicines that are tailor-made for individual patients, are within the sights of an exciting new Australian start-up venture.

27 Oct 2010

Study demonstrates changing levels of nitrite and nitrate in breast milk

Ask someone in the know to list the substances in breast milk that make it the ideal food for newborns and you may hear about proteins that guard against infection, fats that aid in the development of the nervous system and carbohydrates that promote the growth of healthy bacteria. But, you may not hear too much about the nitrite and nitrate in breast milk and their contributions to developing gastrointestinal, immune and cardiovascular systems.

27 Oct 2010

Lifestyle intervention programs result in significant weight loss for overweight and severly obese adults

Lifestyle interventions, including physical activity and structured weight loss programs, can result in significant weight loss for overweight, obese and severely obese adults, according to two reports that were posted online October 9 by JAMA. The studies and accompanying editorials were made available early online to coincide with the presentation of these papers at the 28th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Obesity Society. The articles appear in the October 27 print issue of JAMA.

27 Oct 2010

University of Padua Professor wins Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize

Frankfurt am Main. The chemist and biologist Professor Cesare Montecucco, 62, of the Department of Biomedical Research at the University of Padua, Italy, has won the 100,000 euro Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2011 for his contribution to research in the field of bacterial diseases, including tetanus, botulism, anthrax and Helicobacter pylori associated diseases.

27 Oct 2010

IMRT reduces gastrointestinal complications in prostate cancer patients

Prostate cancer patients who receive intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) are less apt to suffer serious gastrointestinal complications following their treatment than those who receive three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (CRT), according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

27 Oct 2010

Physicians' efforts keep payments on Medicare database confidential

The Wall Street Journal mined a database with extensive information about tax payments that suggests fraud and discovered a New York City doctor who most likely took more than $2 million from Medicare. But the paper could not name her because of strict confidentiality requirements on physician reimbursements.

27 Oct 2010

New technologies streamline health IT system; Electronic medical records raise privacy issues

The Associated Press: Although many healthcare providers are making the jump to computerized medical records, an "e-chart stored in one doctor's computer too often can't be read by another's across town." Surescripts, "the country's largest network for paperless prescribing," is expanding "so that doctors around the country can choose to share medical reports, X-rays and other health data over its network much as they send e-prescriptions to drugstores today, regardless of what competing brand of computerized health records they use."

27 Oct 2010

Jamieson releases flu-fighting formula with echinacea

Jamieson Laboratories, Canada's largest manufacturer of advanced natural-health products, announced the release of FluShield™, a clinically proven flu-fighting formula that is made with a patented, next-generation echinacea extract known as LPx3.

27 Oct 2010