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How Huntington's disease proteins move from cell to cell

One bad apple is all it takes to spoil the barrel. And one misfolded protein may be all that's necessary to corrupt other proteins, forming large aggregations linked to several incurable neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

19 Feb 2011

Author provides tips to combat symptoms of seasonal affective disorder

Winter's chill, dark days, devoid of sunshine can send the best of us spiraling into a bad case of the blues. But those dreary winter months - particularly, February - can debilitate people living with depression.

19 Feb 2011

Opeds: Leavitt on HHS secretary's power; entitlements and fed budget; health threat of Wisc. 'showdown'

If I may, as a former HHS secretary, offer a suggestion to the current secretary, it would be this: Use these expanded discretionary powers to grant states and the private sector more flexibility and more autonomy.

19 Feb 2011

In 'largest-ever' bust, Medicare Fraud Task Force arrests 111

Los Angeles Times: Medicare Fraud Task Force Arrests 111 Doctors, Nurses And Executives In 'Largest-Ever' Federal Healthcare Sweep The federal government's Medicare Fraud Task Force brought criminal charges Thursday against doctors, nurses and healthcare company executives - in all, 111 people in nine cities - in what was billed as the nation's "largest-ever federal healthcare fraud takedown" (Serrano, 2/17).

19 Feb 2011

G20 finance ministers kick off meeting in Paris after groups call for food price issues to be addressed

"G20 ministers gather in Paris Friday to hammer out common criteria for measuring global economic imbalances at a two-day session that host France hopes will lead to an overhaul of world finance," Agence France-Presse reports.

19 Feb 2011

American Cancer Society receives AAHPM Presidential Citation Award for palliative care research

The American Cancer Society has been selected to receive a Presidential Citation Award from American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine recognizing the Society's commitment to support research to address quality of life issues and to promote patient-centered care.

19 Feb 2011

Medical students can bebefit from ACMG Summer Genetics Scholar Program

Medical students from around the country will have an opportunity to experience firsthand the new frontier of medicine in a revolutionary new genetics summer training program just announced by the American College of Medical Genetics Foundation, a prominent non-profit genetics foundation.

19 Feb 2011

Deep brain stimulation therapy promising against severe OCD

When obsessive-compulsive disorder is of crippling severity and drugs and behavior therapy can't help, there has been for just over a year a thread - or rather a wire - of hope. By inserting a thin electrode deep into the brain, doctors can precisely deliver an electrical current to a cord of the brain's wiring and soften the severity of the symptoms. "Deep brain stimulation" therapy for OCD won Food and Drug Administration approval in 2009 for extreme cases under its humanitarian device exemption.

19 Feb 2011

Justice Department asks judge for more clarity on health law decision

Administration officials went back to a federal judge in Florida Thursday to ask him to clarify an earlier ruling against the new health law.

19 Feb 2011

Crustacean inspired technology leads to better calcium supplements

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have developed a unique technology that stabilizes an otherwise unstable form of calcium carbonate. This mineral form provides significantly higher biological absorption and retention rates than other sources presently used as dietary calcium supplements.

19 Feb 2011

House to vote on FY11 budget bill, Senate likely to reject it

House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) said on Thursday that Republicans had reached an agreement with Democrats to reduce the the number of pending amendments to a bill that would fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year, CQ reports (Carter, 2/17). "A final vote on the 2011 budget measure may come as soon as today. It then would go to the Senate, where the Democratic majority is likely to reject the proposal, raising the prospect of a government shutdown," Bloomberg Businessweek reports (Faler, 2/18).

19 Feb 2011

Scientist uses rat whisker system to understand neural mechanics that generate sense of touch

In her search to understand one of the most basic human senses - touch - Mitra Hartmann turns to what is becoming one of the best studied model systems in neuroscience: the whiskers of a rat. In her research, Hartmann, associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University, uses the rat whisker system as a model to understand how the brain seamlessly integrates the sense of touch with movement.

19 Feb 2011

House Republicans begin work to defund health law

On Capitol Hill, government spending is the hot topic. House Republicans look to save money by defunding the new health law, and some members of the Senate are examining ways to cut entitlements.

19 Feb 2011

New research: Incidence of PE after knee arthroscopy is 0.028%

Until now, the risk of pulmonary embolism after a knee arthroscopy has not been accurately defined and risk factors have only been suggested but not proven. New research, presented today at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons shows that the incidence of symptomatic PE after outpatient knee arthroscopy is .028 percent.

19 Feb 2011

Research roundup: Racial disparities in hospital readmissions; evaluating home oxygen costs; Medicare funding hurdles

Thirty-Day Readmission Rates For Medicare Beneficiaries By Race And Site of Care - Using national Medicare data on 30-day readmissions after hospitalizations for heart attack, congestive heart failure and pneumonia, the authors report that "black patients had 13% higher odds of all-cause 30-day readmission than white patients.

19 Feb 2011

HHS approves Medicaid expansion for Minnesota

Gov. Mark Dayton's plan to expand the state's Medicaid rolls by 95,000 people has been approved by federal authorities, his office said Thursday. The move, which begins March 1, will provide health insurance to 12,000 low-income adults who previously were uninsured, and broader coverage at lower cost to another 83,000 who received care under two state-funded programs, MinnesotaCare and General Assistance Medical Care (2/17).

19 Feb 2011

State roundup: Mass. cost control plan advances; Texas Senate's abortion bill vote; Miami's public hospital crisis

The governor of Massachusetts proposed changes on Thursday to the state's comprehensive healthcare program, one often seen as a prototype for national reforms, to attempt to bring rising costs under control. The plan would give the U.S. state more authority to scrutinize fees paid to hospitals and doctors, reform the current standard by which healthcare providers are compensated and enact medical malpractice reform.

19 Feb 2011

GIBH, Saint Louis University form global research partnership to combat malaria

The Center for World Health & Medicine at Saint Louis University and China's Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health are forming a global research partnership that initially will focus on new treatments for malaria.

19 Feb 2011

Ways and Means Committee passes 1099 repeal

The House Ways and Means Committee passes a bill to get rid of a health law provision requiring business to report some purchases.

19 Feb 2011

Research suggests weight loss greatly improves knee pain related to OA

Knee pain related to osteoarthritis is a common complaint among obese individuals and retired professional athletes, especially former NFL players, but researchers presenting their work at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day program say they have a simple solution: lose weight.

19 Feb 2011