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Toyota builds employee health clinic in new factory to reduce health care costs

In an effort to contain health care spending, Toyota Motor will construct a $9 million medical clinic for employees and their families at its new San Antonio truck factory, the Detroit News reports.

8 Nov 2006

Problems with billing for Medicare prescription drug benefit premiums persist

About 50,000 of the 4.7 million Medicare beneficiaries who opted to have their Medicare prescription drug benefit premiums automatically withdrawn from their Social Security checks still are having incorrect amounts deducted, CMS officials said, USA Today reports.

8 Nov 2006

Shaped-beam radiosurgery treats tiniest lung tumors

Patients with metastatic cancer tumors in their lungs are much more likely to live disease-free if they have an experimental treatment involving shaped-beam radiosurgery rather that conventional treatment, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study.

8 Nov 2006

Scientists discover how androgen plays a role in the development of prostate cancer

Scientists have discovered for the first time a specific biochemical pathway by which the sex hormone, androgen, increases levels of harmful chemicals called reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the prostate gland that play a role in the development of prostate cancer.

8 Nov 2006

Cardiologists say a dramatic change is needed in treating some heart patients

According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. a dramatic change is needed in the way hundreds of thousands of Americans with a form of heart failure should be treated.

8 Nov 2006

Arthritis drugs not as risky as first thought

Researchers now say that two biotech drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Humira (Abbott Laboratories) and Remicade (Johnson & Johnson), may not raise the risk of cancer and infections as much as was initially feared.

8 Nov 2006

UIC study evaluates two medications for ADHD

University of Illinois at Chicago researchers are comparing two drugs commonly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to determine if genetic factors predict which children will respond to either or both drugs.

7 Nov 2006

Anabolic steroids and antisocial behaviour go together

Swedish researchers have found that there could well be a link between the use of anabolic steroids and antisocial behaviour.

7 Nov 2006

$70 million boost will help fight AIDS in Kenya

Kenya has been given $70 million from the Global Fund to fund programmes providing antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to people living with HIV.

7 Nov 2006

Formulation of functionalized PLGA-PEG nanoparticles for in vivo targeted drug delivery

Though researchers have made substantial progress in developing drug-ferrying nanoparticles that successfully target tumor cells in living animals, including humans, investigators have only now started the detailed work needed to identify formulation parameters that would optimize drug delivery to malignant cells.

6 Nov 2006

Chronic fatigue syndrome a public health epidemic says CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States says more than a million Americans suffer from Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

6 Nov 2006

The lifetime cost of current HIV care in the United States

"The Lifetime Cost of Current HIV Care in the United States," a major study appearing in the November 2006 issue of Medical Care, projects the cost of treatment for HIV-infected adults using current standards of care.

1 Nov 2006

Scientists spot mechanism behind promising new sleep drug

An experimental drug called gaboxadol may soon help millions of bleary-eyed insomniacs get to sleep, and a multi-center team of U.S. scientists believes they've pinpointed just how the drug works.

1 Nov 2006

Symptoms of schizophrenia eased by music therapy

According to British researchers, some of the symptoms of schizophrenia may be eased with music therapy.

1 Nov 2006

Mini artificial liver grown from stem cells

Scientists in Britain have grown the first artificial liver from stem cells, which is the first step in a process which within 10 years could see livers being grown in a laboratory for human transplants.

1 Nov 2006

Potential for first diagnostic DNA test to guide antidepressant treatment

Treatment of depression is difficult for both patients and for psychiatrists. While there are numerous drugs available that work, finding the right one -- or right combination -- is, at times, a matter of trial and error.

31 Oct 2006

Weill Cornell findings could foil two potential bioterror agents - viral peptide prevents deadly Hendra, Nipah viruses from infecting cells

Two lethal and easily transmitted viruses -- both potential bioterror agents -- may soon be much less dangerous, thanks to research led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

31 Oct 2006

Acupuncture and Turmeric could be viable treatment options for arthritis sufferers

People who suffer from osteoarthritis (OA) as a rule find it has to varying degrees an impact on their mobility and quality of life.

31 Oct 2006

HIV/AIDS and poverty in Zambia threatens economic growth

HIV/AIDS and poverty in Zambia "are threatening" economic growth the country has achieved since gaining its independence in 1964, President Levy Mwanawasa said last week in a speech on the eve of Zambia's 42nd anniversary of independence, Reuters reports.

30 Oct 2006

Sequencing of chemotherapy and radiation therapy for early breast cancer

For women who have had surgery for early breast cancer, it may not matter whether they receive follow-up chemotherapy before, after or during radiation therapy, according to a new review of studies.

30 Oct 2006