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Most undergraduate doctors in the UK receive only 5 minutes education on sleep medicine

Teaching staff at Warwick Medical School have long been concerned that trainee doctors do not get enough sleep. Sleep in the classroom that is. Despite sleep patterns being a major contributor to a number of illnesses on average most undergraduate doctors in the UK receive only 5 minutes education on sleep medicine.

28 Jul 2005

Unemployment has become a serious threat to junior doctors

Intense competition for posts has left many junior doctors (whose training costs around £237,000 each) without jobs to go to when their contracts end next Tuesday. Many are now considering leaving the country, abandoning the profession, or claiming unemployment benefit.

27 Jul 2005

Doctors not responsible for patient gaps

Australian Medical Association (AMA) President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, said it was mischievous of the Australian Health Industry Association (AHIA) to be running around in the media this morning blaming doctors for private patients being confronted with high gap payments.

26 Jul 2005

U-M Health System study finds patient education video is excellent teaching tool but doctors are better at calming fears

In an age when people often learn health information from surfing the Web and watching television shows set in hospitals, researchers have found that showing patients an educational video about their condition teaches them the facts about their disease even better than when their doctor tells them about the condition.

26 Jul 2005

UK health services regulator says NHS still leaves a lot to be desired

The UK Healthcare Commission, in its second annual report to Parliament, says that a quarter of people waited more than two days for an appointment with their GP, despite Government assurances that almost everyone can see a doctor within 48 hours.

23 Jul 2005

Doctor shortage looms as baby boomers retire

The retirement of 'baby boomer' doctors and nurses will place unprecedented pressure on Australia's medical workforce in the next 20 years, according to a study by two University of Sydney researchers.

21 Jul 2005

Eighty-three percent of Medicare beneficiaries have at least one chronic condition

Eighty-three percent of Medicare beneficiaries have at least one chronic condition, such as congestive heart failure, Alzheimer's disease or diabetes. Two-thirds of Medicare spending is incurred by the 9.5 million beneficiaries with five or more chronic conditions. These percentages suggest that the Medicare program needs to address chronic conditions rather than the acute, episodic illnesses that have been the focus of the Medicare program since it began in 1966.

20 Jul 2005

Videotaping advance directives would allow people to express medical decisions to their physicians and families more easily

Ray Moseley sees the trouble with advance health-care directives every time he speaks to a group of senior citizens: Several in the crowd always know someone who had a living will but whose end-of-life decisions were not honored anyway.

19 Jul 2005

Discount injectables bought offshore not worth the price

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) has announced that patients need to be wary of “bargain” injectables or other treatments that are not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Unregulated injectables or treatments can compromise patient health and put patient lives at risk.

19 Jul 2005

Diagnosing diabetes early saves lives

Australian Medical Association (AMA) President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, said today that while 520,000 Australians have been diagnosed with diabetes, there are probably as many again who remain undiagnosed, exposing them to serious complications caused by the disease, including kidney disease, heart attacks and eye problems.

19 Jul 2005

Smokers who give up are much less likely to lose their teeth prematurely

Dental researchers at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, observed a group of cigarette smokers with chronic gum disease over one year and found some symptoms were more likely to improve in the people who quit during the study period.

18 Jul 2005

Nebivolol may help control high blood pressure

According to research presented at ISHIB2005, nebivolol was shown to be statistically significantly better than placebo in reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure among African-American hypertensive patients in a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

18 Jul 2005

Menopause symptoms return with a vengence when women stop HRT

In somewhat depressing news for women battling that often miserable phase in their lives, the menopause, it appears that more than half of women who start taking hormone replacement therapy to relieve the discomfort, can expect to see a dramatic resurgence of those symptoms, when they discontinue the therapy.

12 Jul 2005

Gambling and sex addiction caused by Parkinson's drug

According to a doctor at a clinic in the U.S., a certain category of drug, which is often prescribed for Parkinson's disease, can cause some patients to become compulsive gamblers or addicted to sex.

11 Jul 2005

Most people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are not depressed

Contrary to what you might think, most people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are not depressed. They are also not more likely to get depressed as the end of life approaches, and they are not more likely to be depressed if they want to die or hasten their own death.

11 Jul 2005

California's medical marijuana program put on hold

As a direct result of a Supreme Court ruling last month that said the U.S. government could prosecute medical marijuana use, California officials say they will stop issuing identification cards to state residents who smoke marijuana to treat medical conditions.

11 Jul 2005

Texas medical malpractice claims examined

New research published in the latest issue of Journal of Empirical Legal Studies examines Texas medical malpractice claims and finds no tort crisis.

6 Jul 2005

Helping children deal with chronic pain

One in fifty children and adolescents live with severely debilitating and recurrent pain but there is an "embarrassing" lack of data on the best ways to treat them, according to researchers.

6 Jul 2005

Drug abusers are increasingly turning to a slow-release form of drug fentanyl

Drug abusers are increasingly turning to a slow-release form of a powerful painkiller for a quick and dangerous high, University of Florida researchers warn. The trend is raising alarm as the number of people dying from an overdose of the drug fentanyl, an opioid 100 times more potent than morphine, rises.

6 Jul 2005

Early detection of colorectal cancer

The largest study to date on the early detection of colorectal cancer offers benchmark data for what could be expected from large-scale use of flexible sigmoidoscopy as a screening tool for colorectal cancer.

6 Jul 2005