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Biochemical battle of the bulge: New developments

Dozens of researchers in the coming days will lay out what's around the corner in the biochemical battle of the bulge as part of the Experimental Biology 2011 conference in Washington, D.C.

8 Apr 2011

Health Coalition on Liability and Access testifies before House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee

The Health Coalition on Liability and Access (HCLA) testified today before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a hearing titled, "The Cost of the Medical Liability System Proposals for Reform, including H.R. 5, the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011."

8 Apr 2011

New publication on therapeutic hypothermia and temperature management

The successful use and evaluation of therapeutic hypothermia to improve survival and reduce the risk of neurological consequences following an out-of-hospital heart attack are explored in the premier issue of Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management, a new quarterly peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

8 Apr 2011

NEJM: Perspectives from Aaron, Reinhardt, Iglehart, Annas, Chambers and others

This week's New England Journal of Medicine features perspectives from prominent authors on Medicare and Medicaid. NEJM granted KHN permission to excerpt substantial portions of these columns.

8 Apr 2011

Frailty in older patients not linked to high risk of adverse drug reactions

Contrary to popular belief among physicians, frailty in elderly patients is not associated with an increased risk of adverse reactions to medications, according to a study led by Michael Steinman, MD, a geriatrician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

8 Apr 2011

HALT-C trial reveals high mortality rates among patients with HCV

A three-year follow-up study of patients in the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-term Treatment against Cirrhosis trial revealed that increased mortality among patients with advanced chronic hepatitis C who received long-term peginterferon therapy was attributed to non-liver related causes and occurred primarily in patients with bridging fibrosis.

8 Apr 2011

IBM discovers biodegradable nanoparticles that seek out and destroy drug-resistant bacteria

IBM's announcement of the first biodegradable nanoparticles that can seek out and destroy drug-resistant bacteria caps off a century of healthcare and life sciences innovation from IBM.

8 Apr 2011

ASBMB to honor 11 scientists with annual awards for biomedical research

The winners of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual awards will give lectures at the Experimental Biology 2011 conference April 9-13 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

8 Apr 2011

New Clinical Practice Guideline for evaluation and treatment of pituitary incidentalomas

Today, The Endocrine Society released a new Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) for the evaluation and treatment of pituitary incidentalomas. The CPG is published in the April 2011 issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), a publication of The Endocrine Society.

8 Apr 2011

Hospira focuses on clinical surveillance systems to help reduce antimicrobial resistance

As part of World Health Day 2011, the World Health Organization is calling on policy makers, providers, the public and the healthcare industry to take action to combat the serious health threat of antimicrobial resistance.

8 Apr 2011

Long-term delivery of CNTF slows loss of visual acuity caused by geographic atrophy

A phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of a severe form of age-related macular degeneration called geographic atrophy (GA) has become the first study to show the benefit of a therapy to slow the progression of vision loss for this disease. The results highlight the benefit of the use of a neurotrophic factor to treat GA and provide hope to nearly one million Americans suffering from GA.

8 Apr 2011

Scientists discover unknown function of dopamine in brain

A study of the salamander brain has led researchers at Karolinska Institutet to discover a hitherto unknown function of the neurotransmitter dopamine. In an article published in the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell they show how in acting as a kind of switch for stem cells, dopamine controls the formation of new neurons in the adult brain. Their findings may one day contribute to new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's.

8 Apr 2011

New discovery in cancer and gene therapy

DNA's role as the master blueprint of the cell means that even small sequence changes can have catastrophic consequences. For this reason, much of our understanding of cancer development comes from studying how cells copy DNA and repair sequence errors--and how these processes can go wrong.

8 Apr 2011

ASBMB honors South Carolina researcher with Avanti Award for sphingolipid work

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology has named Yusuf Hannun, professor and department chairman at the Medical University of South Carolina, in Charleston, S.C., the winner of the Avanti Award in Lipids.

8 Apr 2011

Study: Hospital adverse-event figures exceed previous estimates

The research, which was published in the journal Health Affairs, used new tools to find that as many as one in three people in the U.S. will experience some type of mistake during a hospital stay. Also, the findings estimate the number of actual hospital errors to be as much as 10 times higher than found by voluntary reporting programs.

8 Apr 2011

New ATA recommendations on outpatient 131I therapy aim to treat thyroid cancer

New recommendations from the American Thyroid Association on outpatient radioiodine treatment aim to minimize unintended radiation exposure and maximize the safety of patients, their families, and the public.

8 Apr 2011

BioParadox's VitaKine PCT can serve as promising therapy for heart attack patients

BioParadox, Inc., a regenerative medicine company pioneering point-of-care biologic treatments for cardiovascular disease, today announced data supporting the use of VitaKine- Platelet Cell Therapy as a promising treatment for heart attack patients.

8 Apr 2011

Johns Hopkins patient safety expert: Unreliable "outcomes" measures hamper efforts to assure better, safer care

With a push to make hospitals and doctors more accountable for health care quality, more attention must be paid to the accuracy and reliability of measures used to evaluate caregivers, says a prominent Johns Hopkins patient safety expert.

8 Apr 2011

Genzyme's alemtuzumab Phase 2 trial data in MS to be presented at AAN meeting

Genzyme, a subsidiary of sanofi-aventis Group, announced today that it will present new data from its completed Phase 2 trial of the investigational drug alemtuzumab for multiple sclerosis at the American Academy of Neurology's 63rd Annual Meeting in Hawaii, April 9 - 16, 2011.

8 Apr 2011

National policy needed to address heath care system for immigrants, ACP says

As the U.S. immigrant population grows it will be necessary to address the vast number of immigrants who do not have access to health insurance coverage, or who face other barriers to accessing health care, the American College of Physicians said in a new policy paper released today at Internal Medicine 2011, ACP's annual scientific meeting.

8 Apr 2011