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Flu worries continue

The flu season continues to affect more people. Experts have warned the Britons are still at risk as the surge in flu cases has still not yet peaked. The cases would increase they warn, over the next two to four weeks. World Health Organization released figures that show the rate of influenza-like illnesses is still low across continental Europe but has risen dramatically in Britain since the flu season began in October.

3 Jan 2011

Deceptive food labels lead to increased risk of deadly diseases

Did you know that when you pick up a product promoted as trans fat free, you may still be ingesting a significant amount of this potentially harmful substance? An article by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine student Eric Brandt, published in the January/February 2011 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion, reveals that misleading labeling practices can result in medically significant intake of harmful trans fat, despite what you read on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved labels.

3 Jan 2011

FDA authorizes Juventas' JVS-100 Phase II clinical trial for critical limb ischemia

Juventas Therapeutics, a clinical-stage regenerative medicine company developing novel therapies for cardiovascular disease, announces that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized commencement of a Phase II clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of its lead product, JVS-100, for the treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI).

3 Jan 2011

Today's Opinions: End-of-life counseling; Rising costs of boomers; Controlling infections in hospitals

Death panels. Government-sponsored euthanasia. Pulling the plug on grandma. Those were just some of the blatantly false terms conservatives threw around last year to scare Congress into stripping a provision out of the health-reform bill that would have allowed Medicare to reimburse doctors for providing voluntary, end-of-life counseling to their patients. The scare tactics worked (1/2).

3 Jan 2011

FDA clears ACT's IND to treat AMD using hESC derived RPE cells

Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., a leader in the field of regenerative medicine, announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Company's Investigational New Drug (IND) application to treat Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) using retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).

3 Jan 2011

Saint John's Health System and St.Vincent Jennings parter with Indiana Health Information Exchange

Joining a network that includes 19,000 physicians and over 80 hospitals, long-term care facilities and other healthcare organizations, Saint John's Health System and St.Vincent Jennings Hospitals are now part of the Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE). The two hospitals are now connected through their participation in IHIE's DOCS4DOCS ® Service.

3 Jan 2011

MEDNAX acquires Neonatal Medical Associates

MEDNAX, Inc., today announced the acquisition of a neonatal physician group in Long Beach, CA.

3 Jan 2011

Genocea announces close of $35 million Series B venture financing round

Genocea Biosciences Inc., a vaccine discovery and development company pioneering a new class of T cell-based vaccines, today announced that it has closed a $35 million Series B round of venture financing, with new investors Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), Skyline Ventures and MP Healthcare Venture Management, Inc. (MPH) joining existing investors Polaris Venture Partners, Lux Capital Management, SR One, Cycad Group, Auriga Partners and Morningside Ventures.

3 Jan 2011

Book on the business side of medicine

The Medical Entrepreneur Pearls, Pitfalls and Practical Business Advice for Doctors (Nano 2.0 Business Press 2010) was written to help physicians, residents and medical students prepare for the business side of private practice. "In medical school curricula there is barely enough time to cover all the necessary medical courses so there certainly is no room for teaching the business of medicine," says Dr. Steven Hacker, author of The Medical Entrepreneur and a successful physician entrepreneur.

3 Jan 2011

New guideline provides evidence-based recommendation for children undergoing tonsillectomy

A multidisciplinary clinical practice guideline, "Tonsillectomy in Children" will be published in the January issue of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

3 Jan 2011

Tips to prevent a hangover

Dr. Andrew Yacht, director of the division of general medicine and vice chair of medicine for education at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City said, “Alcohol clearly causes hangovers, but why it causes hangovers isn’t very well understood…Part of the suspected cause is dehydration and an electrolyte and hormonal imbalance. Some of the symptoms may be caused by low blood sugar. Or, it may be that the direct toxic effects of alcohol are causing the symptoms.”

2 Jan 2011

General anaesthesia brings reversible coma and not sleep: Study

Anaesthesia has been one of the greatest gifts of science and use of general anaesthesia is a routine part of surgical operations at hospitals and medical facilities around the world. However precise biological mechanisms of the drugs’ effects on the brain are only now being analyzed. In a review article published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists have tried to analyze a range of disciplines, including neuroscience and sleep medicine to understand how anaesthesia actually works.

2 Jan 2011

Team care to help multiple chronic conditions

According to a new study patients with multiple chronic diseases like diabetes mellitus and heart disease are at higher risk of depression that can render medication ineffective. Lead researcher Dr. Wayne J. Katon and colleagues at University of Washington in the study found that patients who received care from nurses who worked with patients and physicians to manage the care for depression and diabetes and heart disease had better outcomes. The study was published in the Dec 30, 2010 issue of New England Journal of Medicine.

2 Jan 2011

Sleep-deprived physicians not to perform elective surgeries without patient's consent

While regulations have been put in place to restrict the work hours of doctors in training, no such regulations exist for fully trained physicians. An editorial in this week's New England Journal of Medicine argues that sleep-deprived physicians should not be permitted to proceed with an elective surgery without a patient's informed, written consent.

30 Dec 2010

General anesthesia's similarities with and differences from sleep and coma

The use of general anesthesia is a routine part of surgical operations at hospitals and medical facilities around the world, but the precise biological mechanisms that underlie anesthetic drugs' effects on the brain and the body are only beginning to be understood. A review article in the December 30 New England Journal of Medicine brings together for the first time information from a range of disciplines, including neuroscience and sleep medicine, to lay the groundwork for more comprehensive investigations of processes underlying general anesthesia.

30 Dec 2010

Low levels of microbe-killing molecules improve survival rate of people with CGD

Investigators at the National Institutes of Health have observed that the survival rate of people with a rare immunodeficiency disease called chronic granulomatous disease is greatly improved when even very low levels of microbe-killing molecules are present.

30 Dec 2010

Interaction of light with circadian systems

In a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Aziz Sancar, MD, PhD, the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the UNC School of Medicine, and his colleagues have taken an important step in understanding the underlying molecular signals that influence a broad array of biological processes ranging from the sleep-wake cycle to cancer growth and development.

30 Dec 2010

Researchers to identify gene variants that cause ischemic stroke

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine are coordinating an international team of scientists working to identify genes or gene variants that may make a person more likely to have a particular type of stroke called an ischemic stroke.

30 Dec 2010

Neuroscientists say that general anesthesia is a reversible coma

The brain under general anesthesia isn't "asleep" as surgery patients are often told -- it is placed into a state that is a reversible coma, according to three neuroscientists who have published an extensive review of general anesthesia, sleep and coma, in the Dec. 30 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

30 Dec 2010

FDA approves Endo's FORTESTA Gel for low testosterone

Endo Pharmaceuticals today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved FORTESTA Gel for the treatment of low testosterone, or 'Low T,' also known as hypogonadism. Symptoms associated with Low T include erectile dysfunction and decreased sexual desire, fatigue and loss of energy, mood depression, regression of secondary sexual characteristics and osteoporosis.

29 Dec 2010