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OncoLife web-based cancer survivorhip care plan

A team of cancer specialists from OncoLink.org, the award-winning cancer Web-based resource of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, has launched OncoLife, the first and only individualized plan-of-care based on the national Institute of Medicine's recommendations for adult cancer survivors.

4 Jul 2007

New drug resistance screening method

A growing number of drug-resistant strains of HIV are a threat to the effectiveness of current treatments despite anti-HIV drug cocktails decreasing the number of HIV-related deaths and improving the quality of life for HIV patients.

29 Jun 2007

Strong work ethic and sense of place delays elderly heart patients from seeking care

A strong work ethic and sense of place appear to influence how elderly rural Albertans with congestive heart failure manage their illness, in that these values may delay them from seeking help at critical times, a University of Alberta study shows.

23 Jun 2007

Mild cognitive disorder often an early symptom of Alzheimer's disease

Using new MRI techniques to analyze tissue composition and structure in the brain, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the National Institute on Aging successfully detected mild cognitive disorder (MCI), a condition in which patients suffer mild memory problems and is often an early symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

14 Jun 2007

Child care trends

As baby boomers age and women with young children return to the work force, families are increasingly turning to paid workers to care for children and elderly parents and grandparents.

8 Jun 2007

Policy changes have direct effect on nursing home care

States that set high staffing standards for elder care in nursing homes are the only ones that come close to having enough staff nurses to prevent serious safety violations, according to a new study by a professor in the UCSF School of Nursing.

1 Jun 2007

COX inhibitors may weaken protective qualities of estrogen therapy

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found in a database study of women heart patients that COX inhibitors such as traditional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may undermine any purported protection against heart disease in participants taking estrogen therapy.

24 May 2007

New pandemic flu guidance for healthcare workers

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has unveiled new safety and health guidance that will help healthcare workers and their employers prepare for a possible influenza pandemic.

23 May 2007

Care received in chain-owned nursing homes generally not on par with care received in nonprofit and singly-owned nursing homes

Standard marketing and strategic planning practices can hurt patient care throughout a nursing home chain, but only if too much emphasis is placed on such administrative standards to the detriment of clinical and facility standards, a new study indicates.

22 May 2007

Mammals have the power to regenerate

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that hair follicles in adult mice regenerate by re-awakening genes once active only in developing embryos.

18 May 2007

Surgeons rebuild war veteran's nose using his own body parts

It took only seconds for the Humvee to flip over and crash on a highway near Camp Bucca in southern Iraq in August 2005.

17 May 2007

Estrogen may influence the risk for prostate cancer

Although women are four times more likely than men to develop osteoporosis, or porous bone, one in 12 men also suffer from the disease, which can lead to debilitating - or even life-threatening - fractures, mainly of the spine, hip and wrist.

11 May 2007

Humanizing approaches to dementia care may extend patients' lives

Through an intensive comparative study of two nursing home units using contrasting approaches to dementia care for elders with severely disturbed behaviors, Central Michigan University professor of anthropology Athena McLean has found that "humanizing" approaches to dementia care may not only extend quality of life for patients, but also their length of life.

25 Apr 2007

New and improved techniques to treat cardiac arrest

Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has been named Director of Penn's new Center for Resuscitation Science.

4 Apr 2007

NYT examines 'gray market' for in-home long-term care aides

Many middle-class families facing the "crushing burden of indefinite home-care expenses" have begun to hire in-home long-term care aides through the "gray market," an "over-the-back-fence network of women," although the practice "is fraught with risks," the New York Times reports.

4 Mar 2007

Washington, D.C., hospital house call program provides care for elderly residents

A program developed by the geriatric department of Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., hopes to reduce health care costs by providing house calls to elderly residents, the Washington Times reports.

26 Oct 2006

Alliance between disability advocates, Bush administration officials helped develop program to encourage home care for Medicaid beneficiaries

NPR's "Morning Edition" on Friday examined how an "unlikely alliance" between a group of disability advocates and Bush administration officials resulted in a major change to federal funding for long-term care of Medicaid beneficiaries (Shapiro, "Morning Edition," NPR, 9/15).

20 Sep 2006

Record your electrocardiogram wearing a shirt

World Congress of Cardiology Report - A shirt capable of recording the electrocardiogram (electrical activity of the heart) has been developed and tested in a European research project (WEALTHY, Wearable Health Care System), funded by the European Community.

5 Sep 2006

New initiative to provide nutritional assistance to people in Ethiopia living with HIV/AIDS

About 54,000 people in Ethiopia living with or affected by HIV/AIDS will receive nutritional assistance from the U.N. World Food Programme under a new agreement announced Tuesday, the Daily Monitor/AllAfrica.com reports.

30 Aug 2006

CMS rejects Georgia plan to raise threshold for exemptions to Medicaid estate recovery rules

CMS has rejected a Georgia law that would have prohibited the state from recovering up to $100,000 of a deceased Medicaid beneficiary's estate to recover costs for nursing home care, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

20 Aug 2006