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USPSTF releases draft recommendation on prostate cancer screening

Yesterday, the United States Preventive Services Task Force released a draft recommendation that states healthy men should no longer receive a P.S.A test for prostate cancer as it often leads to unnecessary testing and procedures and does not save lives.

10 Oct 2011

Researchers examine effects of antirejection drugs in kidney transplant patients

Modern medicine's ability to save lives through organ transplantation has been revolutionized by the development of drugs that prevent the human body from rejecting the transplanted organ.

10 Oct 2011

Lack of sleep during adolescence could lead to more than dragging, foggy teens

An ongoing lack of sleep during adolescence could lead to more than dragging, foggy teens, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study suggests.

10 Oct 2011

NCI selects UT Southwestern, Parkland to improve colorectal cancer screening

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has selected UT Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Health & Hospital System as a national site to improve screening for colorectal cancer, the nation's No. 3 cancer killer.

10 Oct 2011

Advocates prepare for battle on PSA testing; insurers review options

A day after a government panel said that healthy men should no longer get screened for prostate cancer, some doctors' groups and cancer patients' advocates began a campaign to convince the nation that the advice was misguided. Their hope is to copy the success of women's groups that successfully persuaded much of the country two years ago that it was a mistake for the same panel, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, to recommend against routine mammograms for women in their 40s.

10 Oct 2011

Boehringer Ingelheim receives FDA approval for COMBIVENT RESPIMAT to treat COPD

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved COMBIVENT RESPIMAT, a new, propellant-free inhaler product that uses a slow-moving mist to deliver the same active ingredients of COMBIVENT Inhalation Aerosol in a metered dose inhaler.

10 Oct 2011

UNC professor to co-direct Barrett's Esophagus Translational Research Network projects

A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researcher is one of five co-principal investigators in a new collaborative network created to study genetic determinants of Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

10 Oct 2011

Novartis, IBM announce NCD Challenge

IBM and Novartis today announced the NCD Challenge, a competition among a number of the world's leading universities designed to tap the inventiveness of students to find new ways to address the rise of non-communicable diseases in both developing and developed countries.

10 Oct 2011

Caffeine may predict risk of drug abuse

Parents of young caffeine consumers take heed: that high-calorie energy drink or soda might present more than just obesity risk. In fact, according to a double-blind, placebo-controlled study that examined responses to stimulants, an individual's subjective response to caffeine may predict how he or she will respond to other stimulant drugs, possibly reflecting differences in risk for abuse of other more serious drugs of abuse, such as amphetamine and cocaine.

10 Oct 2011

A new approach to cancer treatment

Scientists have discovered a mechanism that causes an aggressive type of lung cancer to re-grow following chemotherapy, offering hope for new therapies.

9 Oct 2011

Coalition calls for affordable and flexible essential health benefits package

The newly-formed Essential Health Benefits Coalition today urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to hold the cost and affordability of the essential health benefits package paramount as recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

7 Oct 2011

NIH awards LSUHSC $9 million grant to develop pneumonia vaccine

Dr. Judd Shellito, Chief of the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has been awarded approximately $9 million in grant funding to develop a vaccine against Pneumocystis, an important cause of pneumonia in people with HIV infection. This potentially fatal illness is the most common serious opportunistic infection in people with HIV.

7 Oct 2011

IOM: Essential benefits package must be developed with affordability in mind

In its 297-page report, the Institute of Medicine recommended that cost should be a factor in deciding what benefits would be included in plans sold on the health law's new insurance exchanges.

7 Oct 2011

Viewpoints: Defining 'essential benefits;' 'Super committee' special pleadings; Limiting consumer choice in prescriptions

The IOM report acknowledges that "the determination of the (essential health benefits) is a politically and socially charged endeavor."

7 Oct 2011

Increasing levels of 'good' cholesterol reduces risk for heart attack and stroke among diabetics

Increasing levels of high-density lipoproteins, better known as HDL or "good" cholesterol, reduced the risk for heart attack and stroke among patients with diabetes. That's according to a new study appearing online today in The American Journal of Cardiology.

7 Oct 2011

Research roundup: Health disparities; Prescription drug abuse in Medicare Part D; Medicaid's role for HIV patients

Achieving Equity In Health -- This policy brief examines the outlining factors that cause disparities in the health care system and focuses on the October issue of the journal, which is devoted to research on the subject.

7 Oct 2011

Brain smells what it expects rather than what it sniffs

In the moments before you "stop and smell the roses," it's likely your brain is already preparing your sensory system for that familiar floral smell. New research from Northwestern Medicine offers strong evidence that the brain uses predictive coding to generate "predictive templates" of specific smells -- setting up a mental expectation of a scent before it hits your nostrils.

7 Oct 2011

First Edition: October 7, 2011

In today's headlines, reports about what the Institute of Medicine recommends in terms of the criteria and methods the Department of Health and Human Services should follow in developing the health law's essential benefits package.

7 Oct 2011

New set of strategies could improve U.S. health care system for vulnerable populations

A new set of strategies released today by the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System could dramatically improve how the U.S. health care system serves vulnerable populations-those in the U.S. who are uninsured, low-income, or members of racial and ethnic minority groups.

7 Oct 2011

NHC applauds IOM for recommendations on how to develop EHB package

The National Health Council (NHC) applauded the Institute of Medicine (IOM) for its thoughtful recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on how to develop an essential health benefits (EHB) package.

7 Oct 2011