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Viewpoints: Health costs crushing Detroit; Military care still faces funding issues; Romneycare scores

Legacy costs are bankrupting Detroit just as they crushed its automakers. Firefighters can retire at 55 and earn 70% of their highest salary plus a 2.25% annual cost-of-living inflator in perpetuity. The result? Employee benefits alone now make up about half of the city's general fund. Health costs have grown by more than 60% since 2008 while the city's pension bill has quadrupled to $200 million.

16 Mar 2012

Medical school students to learn their fate on Match Day

Medical school students around the country will learn their fate this Friday, March 16, on what is known as Match Day.

16 Mar 2012

EORTC, EASL publish first joint CPGs on management of hepatocellular carcinoma

The European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) today publish their first joint Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) on the management of hepatocellular carcinoma.

16 Mar 2012

Addition of inflammatory biomarkers to clinical variables improve mortality prediction in COPD

The addition of changes in inflammatory biomarkers to established clinical variables improves the prediction of mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a new study.

16 Mar 2012

New FSU technology could decrease the cost of drug discovery

New technology being developed at Florida State University could significantly decrease the cost of drug discovery, potentially leading to increased access to high-quality health care and cancer patients receiving personalized chemotherapy treatments.

16 Mar 2012

CDC takes critical step to reinvigorate fight against tobacco use

The following is a statement by Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today has taken a critical step to reinvigorate the fight against tobacco use – the nation's leading preventable cause of death – by launching the government's first-ever paid, nationwide media campaign to encourage smokers to quit and prevent children from starting to smoke.

16 Mar 2012

UM, Shock Trauma partner to train dental students, residents

The University of Maryland's (UM) School of Dentistry has teamed up with the UM School of Medicine's R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center for training future dentists to respond efficiently and effectively to life threatening medical emergencies in a dental setting.

16 Mar 2012

New telemetric system safe and effective for ICP measurement

A new implantable sensor device provides a less-invasive alternative for monitoring pressure within the skull (intracranial pressure, or ICP), suggests a pilot study in Operative Neurosurgery, a quarterly supplement to Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

16 Mar 2012

Third International Symposium on Thymosins in Health and Disease to take place on GW campus

The George Washington University is host to the world's leaders in the area of research that focuses on Thymosins- small proteins present in many animal tissues that have diverse biological activities- Two in particular, thymosins α1 and β4, have potentially important uses in medicine, and research has already progressed from the laboratory to the clinic.

16 Mar 2012

Keeneland Conference to take place from April 17-19 in Lexington

Prominent health leaders representing the public, private and nonprofit sectors will speak next month at the 2012 Keeneland Conference, sponsored by the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and Systems Research which is housed at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

16 Mar 2012

OHRI, uOttawa to lead first stem cell therapy trial for septic shock

A team of researchers from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) has been awarded $367,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and $75,000 from the Stem Cell Network to lead the first clinical trial in the world of a stem cell therapy for septic shock.

16 Mar 2012

Health Canada approves Mylan-Rosuvastatin Calcium Tablets

Mylan Pharmaceuticals ULC, the Canadian subsidiary of Mylan Inc., today received approval from Health Canada for Mylan-Rosuvastatin Calcium Tablets, 5mg, 10mg, 20mg and 40mg. Mylan-Rosuvastatin is the generic version of Astra Zeneca's Crestor Tablets, which are used for the management of primary hypercholesterolaemia, mixed dyslipidaemia, and familial hypercholesterolaemia.

16 Mar 2012

Combination therapy may improve life span and motor function of infants with Batten disease

Infants with Batten disease, a rare but fatal neurological disorder, appear healthy at birth. But within a few short years, the illness takes a heavy toll, leaving children blind, speechless and paralyzed. Most die by age 5.

16 Mar 2012

Exposure to radiation from cell phones during pregnancy affects brain development of offspring

Exposure to radiation from cell phones during pregnancy affects the brain development of offspring, potentially leading to hyperactivity, Yale School of Medicine researchers have determined.

16 Mar 2012

New technique can sensitize cancer cells to radiation

Researchers at Winship Cancer Institute are developing a technique to remove cancer cells' defenses against radiation.

16 Mar 2012

Western University develops DeskCAT- Multi-slice CT Scanner

Biophysics professors at Western University, in London, Canada, have developed a CT (Computed Tomography) scanner small enough to sit on a desk. Jerry Battista, Chair of the Department of Medical Biophysics at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Kevin Jordan of the London Regional Cancer Program at London Health Sciences Centre invented the DeskCAT- Multi-slice CT Scanner as a novel and interactive way to teach CT imaging techniques to a wide range of students.

16 Mar 2012

Longer looks: Last interview with Oregon's assisted-suicide law architect; Med students spurn primary care for hospital jobs

Dr. Peter Goodwin, a family physician and right-to-die activist, took his own life on March 11, 2012, at age 83. He did it legally, with the blessing of his family and doctors, under the Oregon law allowing physician-assisted suicide - the first such law in the country - that Goodwin was instrumental in creating. … He did not look like a dying man; he was chirpy and alert ... However, as a result of his fatal disease - a Parkinsons-like condition called coritcobasal degeneration - he could not use his right hand or do much reliably with his left.

16 Mar 2012

Sleep less, eat more – Recipe for weight gain

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., studied a group of 17 healthy volunteers between the ages 18 and 40 for a week in their homes, monitoring how much each of the typically slept and ate.

15 Mar 2012

New guidelines on cervical cancer screening

Many women over the last few decades have gone in for their Pap smear tests each year. Now, two influential groups of medical experts say that having cervical cancer screening once a year is not necessary and, in fact, should be discouraged. Many women can wait as long as five years between screenings, the new guidelines say.

15 Mar 2012

Prostate cancer screening debate continues

Routine tests that help detect prostate cancer actually do reduce the risk of death from the disease, researchers said. Screening is done with a simple blood test that measures levels of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA.

15 Mar 2012