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Farmer still under consideration for Obama administration position, takes Harvard Medical School appointment

While Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer is still being considered for a senior role in the Obama administration, Farmer has been appointed chair of Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine -- Jeffrey Flier, the medical school's dean, said on Wednesday -- the Boston Globe reports. Flier said that Farmer will take a leave of absence from the medical school if he is offered a position with the administration. For now, Farmer is slated to succeed the current chair, Jim Kim, on July 1 (Smith, Boston Globe, 5/28).

28 May 2009

Humans may be genetically programmed to care about the long-term future, finds new study of behaviour

Dr Peter Sozou suggests that individuals may have an innate tendency to care about the long-term future of their communities, over timescales much longer than an individual's lifespan. This in turn may help to explain people's wish to take action over long-term environmental problems.

27 May 2009

New therapy shows potential for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered a new therapy that shows potential to treat people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal disease and the most common form of muscular dystrophy in children.

26 May 2009

Strict maternal control over eating habits not linked to child weight gain

A new study published online in the journal Obesity provides further evidence that strict maternal control over eating habits - such as determining how much a child should eat and coaxing them to eat certain foods - during early childhood may not lead to significant future weight gain in boys or girls. Instead, this behavior may be a response to concerns over a child's increasing weight.

26 May 2009

Terminally ill patients and their physicians delay conversations about end-of-life choices, study finds

About half of terminally ill patients do not have discussions with their physicians regarding end-of-life choices, according to a Harvard Medical School study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the Boston Globe reports.

26 May 2009

Scientists discover stem cell clue to lung cancer development

Cancer Research UK scientists have revealed that stem cells become 'activated' in severely damaged lungs and help to repair them, according to a study published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences today (Monday).

26 May 2009

Hospice care under-used by many terminally ill patients

Hospice, a well-established approach to palliative care, has enabled countless people worldwide to die with dignity. Through focusing on the patient rather than the disease, individuals can spend the last weeks of their lives in an environment where hospice caregivers minimize their pain, maximize their comfort, and provide bereavement services for loved ones and family members.

25 May 2009

Parent’s trust in doctor is key for black asthmatic children

Children under 12 with persistent asthma need highly motivated parents if they are to get the benefits of regular steroid inhaler treatments and have fewer asthma attacks. That motivation starts with a good relationship between parent and doctor.

22 May 2009

Discovery of gene that controls sugar production, implications for diabetes

Scientists in Sydney and Boston believe they may have identified a gene that controls abnormal production of sugar in the liver, a very troublesome problem for people with diabetes.

22 May 2009

Genetic testing for breast or ovarian cancer risk may be greatly underutilized

Although a test for gene mutations known to significantly increase the risk of hereditary breast or ovarian cancer has been available for more than a decade, a new study finds that few women with family histories of these cancers are even discussing genetic testing with their physicians or other health care providers.

22 May 2009

Aspirin and an anti-clotting drug ‘combo’ reduces risk of dialysis access failure

For the first time, a combination of aspirin and the anti-platelet drug dipyridamole has been shown to significantly reduce blockages and extend the useful life of new artery-vein access grafts used for hemodialysis, according to a study by the Dialysis Access Consortium (DAC).

21 May 2009

A new slow-release hydrogen sulfide donating molecule may hold the key to the development of new anti-inflammatory drugs

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter have synthesized a new molecule which releases hydrogen sulfide (H2S) - the gas that gives rotten eggs their characteristic smell and which has recently been found to be produced naturally in the body - and discovered that it could in time lead to a range of new, safer and effective anti-inflammatory drugs for human use.

20 May 2009

Arsenic exposure linked to influenza A (H1N1) susceptibility

The ability to mount an immune response to influenza A (H1N1) infection is significantly compromised by a low level of arsenic exposure that commonly occurs through drinking contaminated well water, scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Dartmouth Medical School have found.

20 May 2009

Innovative prism glasses help hemianopia patients

In a study of specially designed peripheral prism glasses for hemianopia patients (blinded in half the visual field in both eyes), scientists found that two-thirds of patients continued to wear the glasses at the end of the study period and beyond, indicating a high level of success.

19 May 2009

Doctors often miss whooping cough diagnosis in teens

Doctors can do a better job of diagnosing whooping cough among teens, an age group with a growing incidence of the illness, according to a University of Michigan study.

19 May 2009

Genetic variations may contribute to depression in heart disease patients

Individuals with heart disease are twice as likely to suffer from depression as the general population, an association the medical community has largely been unable to explain.

19 May 2009

Intradigm issued RNA interference (RNAi) patent covering potent siRNA sequence

Intradigm Corporation has announced the issuance of United States patent 7,534,878, titled "Composition and Methods of RNAi Therapeutics for Treatment of Cancer and Other Neovascularization Diseases."

19 May 2009

Asian-Americans in California adopting unhealthy sun-exposure behaviors

A new survey from the Stanford University School of Medicine suggests that a significant number of Asian Americans living in California adopt unhealthy sun-exposure behaviors as they become more westernized.

18 May 2009

New insight into primate eye evolution

Researchers comparing the fetal development of the eye of the owl monkey with that of the capuchin monkey have found that only a minor difference in the timing of cell proliferation can explain the multiple anatomical differences in the two kinds of eyes.

18 May 2009

Trends in gallbladder cancer over forty years

Overall prognosis for gallbladder cancer appears to be improving, although many patients still have incurable disease and poor survival rates, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Surgery.

18 May 2009