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RWJF grant to study relationship between people's neighborhoods, hospital locations and care outcomes

Matthew D. McHugh, PhD, CRNP, MPH, JD, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, has won a competitive grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to study the relationships among where people live, where they receive hospital care, and the outcomes of that care.

14 Oct 2011

First Edition: October 14, 2011

In today's headlines, more status report on the super committee's deficit-reduction deliberations.

14 Oct 2011

Researchers identify gut bacteria bile acids linked to effectiveness of statin drugs in lowering cholesterol

Statins can be effective at lowering cholesterol, but they have a perplexing tendency to work for some people and not others. Gut bacteria may be the reason.

14 Oct 2011

Aid donors, NGOs should ensure development work benefits disabled people

In this post in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog," Tim Wainwright, CEO of ADD International, writes, "It puzzles me why so much of mainstream development's resources, research, campaigning efforts and attention ignore disabled people," which account for one in seven of the world's population, or one billion people.

14 Oct 2011

Four companies receive NIAID contracts to develop broad-spectrum therapeutics

Four companies are to develop broad-spectrum therapeutics-antibiotics, antivirals and an antitoxin-to prevent or treat diseases caused by multiple types of bacteria or viruses, under contracts awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

14 Oct 2011

Researchers demonstrate that iPS stem cells may be used for gene therapy

This research, published on Oct. 12 on the Nature review website, provides evidence of a major concept could pave the way for the future use of these stem cells to treat humans, through perspective gene therapies.

14 Oct 2011

IRMS tracks course of designer 'legal high' drugs manufacture

Urgently needed tests which could help identify the manufacturers of designer 'legal high' drugs are being developed in research led at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

14 Oct 2011

Survey measures what Americans know about the U.S. foreign aid budget

This post in Population Services International's (PSI) "Healthy Lives" blog reports the results of a "survey of 507 Americans [administered] at the end of September [that] sought to capture what, exactly, Americans know about the foreign aid budget."

14 Oct 2011

NIH-funded study to evaluate rescue medications for victims of toxic gases

National Jewish Health researchers have received nearly $13 million from the National Institutes of Health to evaluate potential rescue medications for victims of terrorist attacks, wartime use of toxic gases, and/or inhalation disasters. The gases of greatest interest in these studies will be 'mustard gas' (sulfur mustard) and chlorine gas.

14 Oct 2011

Research provides data on nutritional content of broccoli for breeders

Research performed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and published recently in the journal Crop Science has demonstrated that mineral levels in new varieties of broccoli have not declined since 1975, and that the broccoli contains the same levels of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium and other minerals that have made the vegetable a healthy staple of American diets for decades.

14 Oct 2011

Different molecular mechanisms in suprachiasmatic nucleus linked to jet lag differences

It's no secret that long-distance, west-to-east air travel - Seattle to Paris, for example - can raise havoc with a person's sleep and waking patterns, and that the effects are substantially less pronounced when traveling in the opposite direction.

14 Oct 2011

APS conference explores gender disparities in cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease and other gender-specific conditions - such as menopause, pregnancy, depression, and obesity - will be explored in depth at a two day conference being sponsored by the American Physiology Society (APS), the nation's leading organization for the advancement of this vital science, with support from the American Heart Association and the Society for Women's Health Research.

14 Oct 2011

USAID award supports study of SILCS diaphragm plus tenofovir gel on HIV, HSV

USAID awarded CONRAD a five year project with a $2 million ceiling to focus on testing the safety and effectiveness of the SILCS diaphragm, the one-size-fits-most contraceptive barrier, combined with tenofovir gel -- the only topical product proven to prevent the acquisition of HIV and Herpes Simplex Virus.

14 Oct 2011

First physical evidence that bilingualism delays onset of Alzheimer's

Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have found that people who speak more than one language have twice as much brain damage as unilingual people before they exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. It's the first physical evidence that bilingualism delays the onset of the disease.

14 Oct 2011

AiC: Health Research receives U.S. Army grant for neuroimaging studies of human performance

The Arlington Innovation Center: Health Research (AiC: Health Research), of Virginia Tech's National Capital Region, has been awarded a $1.5 million cooperative research and development agreement from the U.S. Army for neuroimaging studies of human performance.

14 Oct 2011

Current ultrasound guidelines for detection of miscarriage may lead to wrong diagnosis

Current guidelines that help clinicians decide whether a woman has had a miscarriage are inadequate and not reliable, and following them may lead to the inadvertent termination of wanted pregnancies. This is the conclusion of a series of papers published in the international journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

14 Oct 2011

Scientists conclude pesticide contamination as a major problem in Europe

Pesticides are a bigger problem than had long been assumed. This is the conclusion of a study in which scientists analysed data on 500 organic substances in the basins of four major European rivers. It was revealed that 38 per cent of these chemicals are present in concentrations which could potentially have an effect on organisms.

14 Oct 2011

Grim economic times could cause men to seek more sexual partners

Grim economic times could cause men to seek more sexual partners, giving them more chances to reproduce, according to research by Omri Gillath, a social psychology professor at the University of Kansas.

14 Oct 2011

Medical panels continue to wrestle with conflict-of-interest issues

Financial conflicts abound on medical panels that set practice guidelines. ... Researchers found conflicts of interest were prevalent among experts who served on 14 U.S. and Canadian panels that came up with guidelines for the treatment of diabetes and high cholesterol between 2000 and 2010. All told, 52 percent (or 150 of 288 people) had financial conflicts of interest.

14 Oct 2011

Women to benefit from new TFRI ovarian cancer initiative

Women throughout the world will benefit from a new, pan-Canadian Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI) initiative that aims to change the way in which ovarian cancer is diagnosed and managed.

14 Oct 2011