Medicine News and Research

RSS

Medicare advisory panel urges co-pay for home health visits

The Medicare Payment Advisory Panel recommended this policy as a means to discourage overuse of home health services, which are estimated to cost taxpayers nearly $20 billion a year and are also a source of health care fraud. Meanwhile, another story, this one from WBUR, offers tips for Medicare "wellness" visits.

14 Jan 2011

Developmental Systems Approach can make early intervention more effective in children

Viewing early childhood intervention through a systems perspective ties together the wide range of strategies offered to young children facing developmental delays—and may help in developing more effective policies and strategies to help vulnerable children and their families, according to a special article in the January/March issue of Infants & Young Children: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Early Intervention.

14 Jan 2011

First Round Table Meeting on Metabolomics & Diabetes takes place in Vienna

Metabolomic biomarker research is a young research area that carries great hopes for both medicine and the nutritional sciences, particularly for the early detection of genetically determined diseases.

14 Jan 2011

Researcher tests new method of treatment for both humans and dogs with back trouble

Both humans and dogs can develop back problems. Slipped discs have similar symptoms and can be treated with the same methods regardless of whether the patient has two legs or four.

14 Jan 2011

Unintended direct conflict between pharmaceutical marketing and public health

Drugs that pharmaceutical companies market most aggressively to physicians and patients tend to offer less benefit and more harm to most patients - a phenomenon described as the "inverse benefit law" in a paper from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

14 Jan 2011

CINJ clinical trial explores anti-malaria drug against melanoma

Building upon recent laboratory discoveries on resistance by cancer cells to therapies that attempt to starve cancer, scientists at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) are conducting a clinical trial that further explores how to prevent that action.

14 Jan 2011

Sleep medications increase risk for nighttime falls and potential injury

Adults who take one of the world's most commonly prescribed sleep medications are significantly more at risk for nighttime falls and potential injury, according to a new study by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

14 Jan 2011

Living at higher altitudes may increase risk for suicide

Twenty years of mortality data from counties across the United States led to the striking discovery that living at higher altitudes may be a risk factor for suicide, according to a provocative study published online ahead of print in High Altitude Medicine & Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is attached.

14 Jan 2011

Study finds racial disparities in weight-related counseling

When it comes to advising obese patients, blacks receive less weight reduction and exercise counseling from physicians than their white counterparts. This is according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who examined the impact of patient and doctor race concordance on weight-related counseling.

14 Jan 2011

Gut bacteria may play a role in weight loss and gastrointestinal problems: New research

If you are looking to lose weight in the coming year, you may need help from an unexpected place: the bacteria in your gut. That's because scientists have discovered that the bacteria living in your intestines may play a far more significant role in weight loss and gastrointestinal problems than ever imagined.

14 Jan 2011

Vanderbilt, Scripps Research form partnership to open new institute

The Scripps Research Institute and Vanderbilt University have formed a partnership to advance science at the interface of chemistry and medicine, the institutions announced today.

14 Jan 2011

News outlets examine reaction to WHO plan to contain drug-resistant malaria

In follow-up coverage of the WHO's announcement Wednesday of a plan to contain the spread of artemisinin-resistant malaria, news outlets examined the scope of the problem, reactions to the plan and speculations of how the anticipated $175 million annual cost would be funded.

14 Jan 2011

Cataloguing microbes in gut could lead to cause of necrotizing enterocolitis

Scientists have for the first time sequenced and reconstructed the genomes of most of the microbes in the gut of a premature newborn and documented how the microbe populations changed over time.

14 Jan 2011

Ruptured brain aneurysm treated through the nose

During breakfast one Sunday, Alfreda Cordero was struck suddenly and violently by the worst headache she had ever experienced. A day later, she would make medical history as the first person to have a ruptured brain aneurysm treated through the nose.

14 Jan 2011

Merck announces changes in vorapaxar clinical studies

Merck today provided the following statement on the changes to the clinical studies for vorapaxar, one of the Company's investigational cardiovascular medicines, following an announcement from the two academic centers leading the studies of vorapaxar.

14 Jan 2011

Patients on dialysis may face risk of death from atrial fibrillation: Study

The abnormal heart rhythm, atrial fibrillation, is increasingly common in patients on dialysis and is linked to a sharp rise in death, in an already at-risk population, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

14 Jan 2011

Viewpoints: Health law repeal; Individual mandate; Essential benefits package; Arizona transplant program

If the government fails, then costs will rise inexorably. Nothing in the law guarantees success: The law embodies almost every idea anyone has offered and hopes a couple of them will work.

14 Jan 2011

T.A. Sciences receives US patent for TA-65 to tackle aging process

Telomerase Activation Sciences, today announced the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 7,846,904 to the Geron Corporation. The patent covers the use of certain compounds to upregulate telomerase expression in cells.

14 Jan 2011

Study reports long-term complications in childhood survivors of bacterial meningitis

Nearly half of children who survive an episode of bacterial meningitis experience persistent behavioral, intellectual, or other complications, reports a study in the January issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

14 Jan 2011

CJSM highlights emerging issues in sport medicine

Should electrocardiograms be included in cardiovascular screening of athletes? What's the current status of research into long-term effects of concussions? These and other hot topics are the focus of the January Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, a special issue on "Emerging Issues in Sport Medicine."

14 Jan 2011