Research News and Research

RSS

First Edition: July 26, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about an effort by some GOP lawmakers to force a showdown over health law funding.

26 Jul 2013

Leapfrog unveils new tool that allows purchasers to calculate money spent on medical errors

During a time of flux for U.S. health care, employers and purchasers are increasingly concerned about how much value they receive for their enormous investment in health care. In a presentation yesterday evening at the World Health Congress Innovative Drivers of Value Based Purchasing Seminar, Leah Binder, president and CEO of the employer-driven nonprofit The Leapfrog Group, unveiled a new tool that allows purchasers to calculate how much they spend annually on unnecessary costs due to medical errors that occur within general acute care hospitals.

26 Jul 2013

Viewpoints: Doctors' sway over Medicare pay; hospital rankings not all they seem; legal immigrants' health needs overlooked

Reporters Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating have opened Post readers' eyes to the fact that Medicare pays for physician services - a $69.6 billion item in 2012 - according to an arcane and little-known price list, over which doctors themselves exercise considerable and less-than-totally-transparent influence (7/24).

26 Jul 2013

IGTP, UAB discover first genetic biomarker to detect Lewy body dementia

The Germans Trias i Pujol Health Sciences Research Institute and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona have discovered the first genetic biomarker to detect Lewy body dementia, a disease that can be confused with Alzheimer's.

26 Jul 2013

State highlights: D.C. to use cash reserves to pay Medicaid providers off; Texas, Planned Parenthood reach overbilling settlement; Veteran health centers at colleges

How do you spend $48 million in unbudgeted taxpayer money without getting an OK from elected lawmakers? In the District of Columbia, there's pretty much only one way, and that's the way Mayor Vincent C. Gray is proposing to settle a high-stakes dispute with D.C. Chartered Health Plan. Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro confirmed Wednesday that the plan is to pay the District's share of the settlement -- a little over $35 million, with federal Medicaid dollars accounting for the rest -- out of the city's contingency cash reserve (DeBonis, 7/24).

26 Jul 2013

Implanting false memory in the brain can be possible, say MIT neuroscientists

The phenomenon of false memory has been well-documented: In many court cases, defendants have been found guilty based on testimony from witnesses and victims who were sure of their recollections, but DNA evidence later overturned the conviction.

26 Jul 2013

Weekend reading: The mystery of some innovations that are slow to be accepted; myths about the obesity crisis

Why do some innovations spread so swiftly and others so slowly? Consider the very different trajectories of surgical anesthesia and antiseptics. ... On October 16, 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Morton administered his gas through an inhaler in the mouth of a young man undergoing the excision of a tumor in his jaw. ... By February, anesthesia had been used in almost all the capitals of Europe, and by June in most regions of the world.

26 Jul 2013

Gout, uric acid levels and risk of death: an interview with Professor Austin Stack, Graduate Entry Medical School, University of Limerick

Gout is a relatively common arthritic disease that affects about 4% (I in 25) of the population. It results from the deposition of uric acid in joints due to elevated blood levels and a resulting inflammation ensues which is very painful.

26 Jul 2013

Researchers create calcium-sensitive proteins that respond quickly to changes in neuron activity

Princeton University researchers have created "souped up" versions of the calcium-sensitive proteins that for the past decade or so have given scientists an unparalleled view and understanding of brain-cell communication.

26 Jul 2013

FDA grants orphan-drug designation for Ligand’s Captisol-enabled Topiramate Injection

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan-drug designation for its proprietary Captisol-enabled Topiramate Injection for the treatment of partial onset or primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures in hospitalized epilepsy patients who are unable to take oral topiramate.

26 Jul 2013

Professor to receive Janet L. Norwood Award for Outstanding Achievement by Woman in Statistical Sciences

Carnegie Mellon University's Kathryn Roeder has been chosen to receive the Janet L. Norwood Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Statistical Sciences.

26 Jul 2013

Rapamycin extends mice lifespan but has limited effects on aging

The body's repair mechanisms begin to fail with increasing age. As a result, signs of wear and tear appear and the risk for many diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders and cancer, increases.

26 Jul 2013

Nanofiber scaffolds regulate apoptosis, proliferation in neural stem cells by altering gene expression

The surface characteristics of nanoscaffolds made by nanotechnology are more similar to the three-dimensional topological structure of the extracellular matrix and the effects on the biological behaviors of cells and tissue repair are more beneficial.

26 Jul 2013

New way of looking at DNA

Stem cell genes seek each other in the cell nucleus. So a study by the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, the Netherlands, has found, published this week in Nature. “It’s a new way of looking at DNA.”

26 Jul 2013

Adaptimmune initiates Phase I/IIa open-label clinical trial in patients with ovarian cancer

Adaptimmune announced today that it has opened a Phase I/IIa, multiple-site, two-cohort, open-label clinical trial in ovarian cancer at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in Buffalo, N.Y., and City of Hope (COH) in Duarte, Calif.

26 Jul 2013

Scientists show link between lunar cycles and human sleep behavior

Many people complain about poor sleep around full moon. Scientists at the University of Basel in Switzerland now report evidence that lunar cycles and human sleep behavior are in fact connected.

26 Jul 2013

Crunch time in the countdown to health exchanges' opening day

News reports also offer insights to how these online marketplaces are taking shape in Oregon and Connecticut.

26 Jul 2013

Report shows almost 4 million Canadians struggle to afford food

A new report by researchers at the University of Toronto shows that almost four million Canadians are struggling to put the food they need on the table because of food insecurity.

26 Jul 2013

Non-invasive optical techniques use LED, laser to view beneath skin

Impressive examples of new non-invasive optical techniques using lasers, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and spectroscopic methods to probe and render images from beneath the surface of the skin are featured in a newly completed special section in the Journal of Biomedical Optics published by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.

26 Jul 2013

Inner ear supporting cells protect hair cells by secreting HSP70

An underlying cause of hearing loss is the death of sensory hair cells in the inner ear, which can be damaged in response to a variety of factors including the use of aminoglycoside antibiotics.

26 Jul 2013

Research News and Research

First Edition: July 26, 2013

Leapfrog unveils new tool that allows purchasers to calculate money spent on medical errors

Viewpoints: Doctors' sway over Medicare pay; hospital rankings not all they seem; legal immigrants' health needs overlooked

IGTP, UAB discover first genetic biomarker to detect Lewy body dementia

State highlights: D.C. to use cash reserves to pay Medicaid providers off; Texas, Planned Parenthood reach overbilling settlement; Veteran health centers at colleges

Implanting false memory in the brain can be possible, say MIT neuroscientists

Weekend reading: The mystery of some innovations that are slow to be accepted; myths about the obesity crisis

Gout, uric acid levels and risk of death: an interview with Professor Austin Stack, Graduate Entry Medical School, University of Limerick

Researchers create calcium-sensitive proteins that respond quickly to changes in neuron activity

FDA grants orphan-drug designation for Ligand’s Captisol-enabled Topiramate Injection

Professor to receive Janet L. Norwood Award for Outstanding Achievement by Woman in Statistical Sciences

Rapamycin extends mice lifespan but has limited effects on aging

Nanofiber scaffolds regulate apoptosis, proliferation in neural stem cells by altering gene expression

New way of looking at DNA

Adaptimmune initiates Phase I/IIa open-label clinical trial in patients with ovarian cancer

Scientists show link between lunar cycles and human sleep behavior

Crunch time in the countdown to health exchanges' opening day

Report shows almost 4 million Canadians struggle to afford food

Non-invasive optical techniques use LED, laser to view beneath skin

Inner ear supporting cells protect hair cells by secreting HSP70

Industry Focus eBook - Life Science Microscopy (2nd Edition) eBook

Latest eBooks

Editorial Focus eBook - Proteomics (2nd Edition)

Industry Focus eBook - Life Science Microscopy (2nd Edition)

BFEB: Advances in microplate-based assays and analysis

Biologics stability screening toolkit: Three practical workflows for accelerating formulation development

Advancing Neuroscience Research Through Collaboration and Patient-Centered Innovation

The impact of vibration on microscopy

How Omics Technologies Are Transforming Biological Research and Drug Discovery