Research News and Research

RSS

Romney, Gingrich targeting Medicaid to pay for other programs

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney yesterday called on Congress to take money from Medicaid, not defense, to compensate for the failure of the congressional supercommittee to agree on deficit reductions.

23 Nov 2011

Live cell encapsulation technology helps overcome obstacles facing applications of live stem cell usage

Nuvilex, Inc. announced today testing confirmed that through use of live cell encapsulation technology, two major obstacles facing the vast and broad applications of live stem cell use have been overcome.

23 Nov 2011

Balanced approach needed to fight cholera outbreaks in Haiti

Jason Nickerson, a respiratory therapist and doctoral candidate in Population Health at the University of Ottawa, in this Global Health Hub post, recounts recent controversy surrounding "the health and humanitarian response to the earthquake and cholera outbreaks" in Haiti, noting tension "between the provision of [a cholera] vaccine as opposed to spending the money on improvements to water and sanitation" in the country.

23 Nov 2011

Cancer medicine component could prevent heart attacks

A substance in medicines for cancer and epilepsy could also prevent heart attacks, according to researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who have been using it to stimulate the body's own defence system against blood clots.

23 Nov 2011

BIOTRONIK announces first implantations of new Lumax 740 ICDs

BIOTRONIK, a leading manufacturer of innovative medical technology, announced today the first implantations of the new Lumax 740 implantable cardiac defibrillators—the world's first and only ICDs eligible for use with magnetic resonance imaging.

23 Nov 2011

TLRs contribute to brain damage following hypoxia in newborns

Two out of every thousand babies are at risk of brain damage in connection with birth. Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have identified mechanisms behind these injuries, which could lead to better treatment and a richer life for the infants affected.

23 Nov 2011

University of Rochester receives U.S. patent for HPV vaccine research

The University of Rochester has been awarded a U.S. patent for research essential to both human papillomavirus vaccines on the market.

23 Nov 2011

J-shaped relationship between wine intake and reduced cardiovascular risk

Research published in the European Journal of Epidemiology by Costanzo S, Di Castelnuovo de Gaetano G et al has sought to separate the effects of wine, beer or spirit drinking in relation to fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events. The Italian authors carried out an updated meta-analysis on the relationship between wine, beer or spirit consumption and cardiovascular outcomes, using state-of-the-art statistical techniques.

23 Nov 2011

UCF researchers use stem cells to create nerve-muscle junctions

University of Central Florida researchers, for the first time, have used stem cells to grow neuromuscular junctions between human muscle cells and human spinal cord cells, the key connectors used by the brain to communicate and control muscles in the body.

23 Nov 2011

Saving Lives at Birth partnership supports two bold ideas that address maternal, newborn deaths

Although Kenyan Sam Agutu and Nigerian Aminu Gamawa come from different countries and backgrounds, they share a common passionate commitment - to save the lives of women giving birth and guarantee infants a healthy start.

23 Nov 2011

Mutations that affect lysosomes play a role in causing persistent stuttering

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have obtained new evidence that at least some persistent stuttering is caused by mutations in a gene governing not speech, but a metabolic pathway involved in recycling old cell parts.

23 Nov 2011

Crackdown at social security disability program upsets doctors

Earlier this year, senior managers at the Social Security Administration in Baltimore, frustrated by a growing backlog of applications for federal disability benefits, called meetings with 140 of the agency's doctors.

23 Nov 2011

Commonwealth Fund president to step down at end of 2012

Karen Davis will retire as president of the Commonwealth Fund, a health care research foundation, at the end of 2012. The foundation, based in New York, has hired an executive search firm to find Davis' successor. In a news release announcing her retirement, Davis said she would spend her final year helping with the leadership transition and "pursuing opportunities for contributing toward the work that is so important to ensuring that every American receives the best possible care and the opportunity to lead healthy, productive lives."

23 Nov 2011

Study reveals principal mechanism of action for paracetamol

Researchers at King's College London have discovered how one of the most common household painkillers works, which could pave the way for less harmful pain relief medications to be developed in the future.

23 Nov 2011

WHO director-general Chan nominated for second term

The WHO "said on Monday it has received just one application for the U.N. health agency's top post," which was submitted by China and nominated Margaret Chan, the current WHO director-general and former Hong Kong health chief, Agence France-Presse reports.

23 Nov 2011

Prioritizing the family planning needs of young women

The world reached a population milestone in October, but "in the many discussions that have sprung up around the seven billion benchmark -- all of them important and illuminating -- I don't hear enough about our world's most vulnerable: our youth," Jill Sheffield, founder and president of Women Deliver, writes in this Huffington Post opinion piece.

23 Nov 2011

Flagging medical errors; Expediting malpractice settlements in N.Y.

Flagging medical errors through a system that emphasizes a lack of punishment and maintains anonymity yields more reports than a traditional method of reporting errors, a team of doctors has found. After introducing the new system at a pediatric clinic in North Carolina, the number of reported mistakes jumped from five to 86 per year on average.

23 Nov 2011

Complications following breast reduction surgery more common in older women

Complications following breast reduction surgery—particularly infections—are more common in women older than 50, reports a study in the December issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

23 Nov 2011

Health spending still in jeopardy despite end of super committee

Although Medicare and Medicaid were largely protected when the panel broke up, budget cutters will continue to eye them, and other health programs will likely have funding reduced.

23 Nov 2011

Link between loss of wildlife access and micronutrient deficiencies in children

For the first time, researchers have uncovered a powerful connection between loss of access to wildlife and micronutrient deficiencies in children, according to a recently published study by the University of California-Berkeley, Harvard Center for the Environment and Harvard School of Public Health, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and others.

23 Nov 2011