Consultation News and Research

RSS

New 'movements' seek to introduce preventive, mental health care in new settings

A nationwide effort to coordinate mental health with primary care is underway, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. "The idea is to give simple interventions in 15- to 30-minute visits that will address behavioral issues ranging from stress to traumatic reactions that often go untreated." Some clinics have coupled licensed social workers with their other clinical staff; the mental health experts provide services while patients and family members receive physical care.

30 Sep 2009

Spectranetics seeks FDA clearance for treating in-stent restenosis in the legs

Spectranetics Corporation today announced that it has filed a 510(k) application with the Food and Drug Administration seeking clearance for the treatment of in-stent restenosis (ISR) in the legs with its commercially available peripheral atherectomy products. ISR is caused by the re-growth of tissue within the stent, known as neointimal hyperplasia, which can lead to blockages in the affected leg artery.

29 Sep 2009

NINDS: $50 billion spent each year for low back pain

A study by researchers at The George Institute for International Health in Australia found that it is rare for patients presenting to PCPs with acute lower back pain to have previously undiagnosed serious diseases. The most common serious disease cause documented was vertebral fracture, with half of the cases identified at the time of initial consultation.

29 Sep 2009

Abnormal results on outpatient imaging tests may not receive timely follow-up, says report

Abnormal results on outpatient imaging tests sometimes may not receive timely follow-up even when clinicians receive and read results in an advanced, integrated electronic medical record system, according to a report in the September 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

29 Sep 2009

AMA President: Alberta's health care system needs change

Alberta's health care system needs change, but change must be planned with proper consultation and true feedback from physicians, the public and other health professionals. This was the message of outgoing Alberta Medical Association (AMA) President Dr. Noel W. Grisdale.

28 Sep 2009

Students live with elder residents as part of the Learning by Living project

A geriatric training method pioneered by Marilyn R. Gugliucci, PhD, president of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (the educational branch of The Gerontological Society of America) has proved successful enough that she plans to implement it on a national level.

25 Sep 2009

Registered Nurses of CNA/NNOC requests meeting with HCA regarding its policy on use of surgical masks

In response to a new policy imposed by the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) mandating flu shots for all employees and requiring masks, the Registered Nurses of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) have requested a meeting with hospital executives on behalf of the chain's 50,000 RNs over this life-and-death issue.

25 Sep 2009

Huachansu may slow cancer progression

Huachansu, a Chinese medicine that comes from the dried venom secreted by the skin glands of toads, has tolerable toxicity levels, even at doses eight times those normally administered, and may slow disease progression in some cancer patients, say researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

25 Sep 2009

Polycom's scalable solutions for the healthcare industry

Polycom, Inc., the global leader in telepresence, video and voice communication solutions, is making it easier and more cost-effective for hospitals and other healthcare organizations to deploy and scale telehealth and telemedicine networks. Through an enhanced, highly scalable solution, Polycom allows healthcare organizations to easily and securely extend visual communication capabilities outside of their private networks to a broader group of partner hospitals, community clinics and physicians.

24 Sep 2009

It is possible to reduce the risk of HIV infection with a vaccine: AVAC

"Today marks an historic milestone in the search for an AIDS vaccine; we now have evidence that it is possible to reduce the risk of HIV infection with a vaccine," said AVAC executive director Mitchell Warren, reacting to the results of the first AIDS vaccine trial to ever show efficacy at preventing HIV. "It will take time and resources to fully analyze, understand and validate the data, but there is little doubt that this finding will energize and redirect the AIDS vaccine field as all of us begin the hard work to translate this landmark result into true public health benefit."

24 Sep 2009

DataSource partners with Rural Health to help customers secure grants for EHR projects

DataSource Mobility is committed to helping healthcare customers achieve their IT goals. As part of that commitment, they have extended their capabilities by partnering with Rural Health IT Corporation (Rural Health), to provide customers with assistance in securing grant funding for EHR projects up to $1.2 million.

22 Sep 2009

Program to promote patients’ overall health following kidney transplant surgery

Patient adherence after a kidney transplant, or faithfully following a prescribed medical regimen, is vital to a transplant recipient's health and the survival of their new organ.

19 Sep 2009

Partnership between Wellcome Trust and Merck & Co

The Wellcome Trust and Merck & Co., Inc. today announced the creation of the MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories (www.hillemanlaboratories.in), the first of its kind research and development joint venture with a not-for-profit mission to focus on developing affordable vaccines to prevent diseases that commonly affect low-income countries.

18 Sep 2009

Zargis Medical receives FDA approval for marketing Signal X6 device

Zargis Medical Corp., a spin-off from Siemens Corporate Research and a majority-owned subsidiary of Speedus Corp., announced today it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance to market its new Signal X6(TM) device.

18 Sep 2009

Heart Institute's first LHIN program in Ontario for emergency heart attacks

Heart attack victims who live outside Ottawa's urban centre now are part of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute's (UOHI) far-reaching emergency life-saving program, ensuring urgent standardized treatment regardless of geography and, for the first time in Ontario, throughout an entire regional health district.

18 Sep 2009

Canada's health care associations urge health ministers to tackle pressing issues at the ministers' annual meeting

Canada's leading health care associations are calling on federal and provincial/territorial health ministers to tackle a number of pressing issues at the ministers' annual meeting, taking place in Winnipeg September 17.

17 Sep 2009

Children's Hospital enrolls patients for ExCell clinical study

Children's Hospital of Colorado and the Gamida Cell-Teva Joint Venture announced today that Children's Hospital is enrolling patients for the ExCell study. Children's Hospital is the 24th in a series of cord blood transplant sites worldwide, five of which are children's centers, participating in the study in the U.S., Spain, Italy, Hungary and Israel.

16 Sep 2009

Winner of LA's Best Award 2009

Los Angeles dentist, Dr. Sam Muslin, DDS, MAGD, has been awarded LA's Best Award (tm) 2009 for his leading edge, high quality dentistry.

16 Sep 2009

FDA approves sBLA for Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of the sanofi-aventis Group, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the company's supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for licensure of its Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine.

16 Sep 2009

Breast cancer prevention drugs may negatively affect patients

Three drugs, including tamoxifen, reduce a woman's chance of getting breast cancer, but each drug carries distinct potential harms of its own, according to a new report from HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

16 Sep 2009