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Bed rest may not delay preterm births, says Frances Payne professor

Despite lack of evidence about bed rest's effectiveness, doctors annually prescribe it for roughly 1 million pregnant women to delay preterm births.

11 Nov 2010

Recommendations for safe and effective testing of artificial pancreas systems in real-life settings

Diabetes experts at a meeting convened by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) took the next step in advancing efforts toward the development of an artificial pancreas: putting forth clinical recommendations to ensure the safe and effective testing of artificial pancreas technology in real-life situations.

11 Nov 2010

New Desktop medicine model helps physician to implement disease prevention

Gone are the days when a doctor's only way of helping patients is by treating the disease after symptoms have started. Instead, a new approach to medicine, called "Desktop Medicine" is emerging, in which the emphasis shifts from diagnosing diseases and treating symptoms to identifying risk-factors for medical conditions such as hypertension and osteoporosis, and intervening before they develop. The commentary appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

11 Nov 2010

Marker for aggressive form of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis discovered

A diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is not much better than a death sentence, given a survival rate averaging 4 to 6 years as the disease robs its victim of the ability to breathe.

11 Nov 2010

New SMILEY tool helps assess QoL of children with lupus

A newly designed tool is helping researchers shed light on the quality of life (QoL) of children with lupus around the world, according to research presented at the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) annual meeting, held Nov. 7-11, in Atlanta.

11 Nov 2010

Dana-Farber lends iPads to cancer patients to help them pass the time in clinic

Andrea Casella comes to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute every week for chemotherapy to treat her lung cancer. It's a full day. Recognizing that patients can spend hours in the clinic for treatment and tests, Dana-Farber has started lending iPads to patients like Casella to help them pass the time.

11 Nov 2010

MCAN invests $4 million to improve asthma management in four high risk cities

The Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN), today announced it is targeting four high risk cities with nearly $4 million for programs that will combine evidence-based science, case management and asthma trigger removal plans to manage a disease that requires more than the right medical care.

11 Nov 2010

Combination of antiviral drugs outperforms single-drug therapy in children with hepatitis C

Children with hepatitis C fare decidedly better with a supercharged combination of two antiviral drugs than with the usual and standard single-drug regimen, according to research led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children Center.

11 Nov 2010

Genetic constitution can influence changes in tumor growth: Study

The genes we possess not only determine the color of our eyes and hair and how our bodies grow, they might also influence the changes that occur in tumors when we develop cancer.

11 Nov 2010

Childhood asthma risk linked with prenatal paracetamol exposure depends on antioxidant genes in mother

Evidence suggesting that the risk of childhood asthma associated with prenatal paracetamol exposure may depend on antioxidant genes in the mother has been found by a team of UK scientists. The results of their study - which strengthens the argument for a causal link between paracetamol exposure in early life and later childhood asthma - are published online (10 November) in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

11 Nov 2010

New discovery can develop diagnostic test to identify gene mutation in AML

Decoding the DNA of a woman who died of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has led researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to a gene that they found to be commonly altered in many patients who died quickly of the disease.

11 Nov 2010

Nplate reduces treatment failure and splenectomies in adults with chronic immune thrombocytopenia

Amgen Inc. today announced the publication of results from the first open-label study to compare Nplate® (romiplostim) treatment to standard of care therapies (SOC) in non-splenectomized adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). The study results, which were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), show that both the incidence of treatment failure and need for splenectomy were reduced among the Nplate-treated patients.

11 Nov 2010

Dietary intervention reduces emergence of diabetes-predictive autoantibodies by 50%

A Finnish study published in the November 11, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine confirms the hypothesis that infant feeding plays a role in the initiation of the disease process leading to type 1 diabetes in children carrying increased genetic disease risk.

11 Nov 2010

tDCS electric stimulation can improve motor function in stroke patients

A noninvasive electric stimulation technique administered to both sides of the brain can help stroke patients who have lost motor skills in their hands and arms, according to a new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).

10 Nov 2010

Elsevier partners with APM to publish Psychosomatic journal

Elsevier, the world's leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information, announced today that it is partnering with the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (APM) to publish Psychosomatics, the official journal of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine.

10 Nov 2010

5 questions: Should a hospital develop an ACO?

Becker's Hospital Review reports on how to determine whether a hospital should develop or join an accountable care organization.

10 Nov 2010

New stem cell gene, enzyme replacement treatment for Tay-Sachs disease

StemCellRegenMed, Inc. announces that a new stem cell gene and enzyme replacement treatment has been performed on a fourteen month old child with Tay-Sachs disease on November 2, 2010. Tay-Sachs is a devastating disease that afflicts children primarily of parents of Jewish heritage and in very rare cases families of Eastern European background and the Cajun region in the U.S.A.

10 Nov 2010

Ky. Health Plan audit; employee costs in Massachusetts; state reform implementation politics

An organization that manages taxpayer-funded health services for Kentucky's poor and disabled spent freely on luxury hotels, meals, salaries, lobbying and consulting, a state auditor found in a 200-plus-page report which calls for stricter accountability for Passport Health Plan, a Medicaid managed-care provider that serves 164,000 people in Louisville and more than a dozen nearby counties.

10 Nov 2010

Mont. Medicaid managed care plan chills health industry

A plan to privatize some Medicaid services trumpeted by Montana's Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer has received a chilly reception from the health industry, leaving no clear resolution to the state's Medicaid funding problems, The Billings (Mont.) Gazette reports.

10 Nov 2010

Dementia deaths & incidence on the rise

A new report highlights the fact that one in six deaths are caused by dementia in England. The report looked at death certificates between 2001 and 2009 and found that conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease account for 15 per cent of deaths in England. Two-thirds of victims died in nursing or residential care homes and a third in hospital. Most campaigners claim that the actual figures may be higher and put it as one in three deaths. The report also says that the total number of deaths due to dementia are rising.

10 Nov 2010