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UBC develops algorithm to predict how and when proteins misfold

Several neurodegenerative diseases - including Alzheimer's and ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) - are caused when the body's own proteins fold incorrectly, recruit and convert healthy proteins to the misfolded form, and aggregate in large clumps that gum up the works of the nervous system. "For Star Trek fans, this is like the Borg, a fictional race of cyborgs that abduct and assimilate humans and other species," says Steven Plotkin, a biophysicist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver who studies the process of protein misfolding.

24 Feb 2012

New experiments may provide insights into possible modes of heart damage from alcohol

Beyond the personal tragedy of chronic alcoholism there is heartbreak in the biological sense, too. Scientists know severe alcoholism stresses the heart and that mitochondria, the cellular energy factories, are especially vulnerable to dysfunction. But they don't know the precise mechanism.

24 Feb 2012

Hibernation may provide insight into arrhythmia therapies

How much calcium could a hibernating woodchuck's heart cells sequester, if a hibernating woodchuck's heart cells could sequester calcium? More than enough, it turns out, to protect the animals from cardiac arrhythmias - abnormal heart rhythms such as ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation that can lead to sudden cardiac death - according to a new study of the hibernating animals that may provide insight into arrhythmia therapies.

23 Feb 2012

Colonoscopy reduces mortality from colorectal cancer

For the first time, a new study has shown that removing polyps by colonoscopy not only prevents colorectal cancer from developing, but also prevents deaths from the disease. Patients in the study were evaluated for up to 23 years after having the procedure, providing the longest follow-up results to date.

23 Feb 2012

New phone number to University of Michigan memory loss and dementia services

Her diagnosis was scary: Alzheimer's Disease. So Myriam Torres was desperate for accurate information and help with coping with what the future might bring.

23 Feb 2012

Machine perfusion offers significant improvements for 3-year graft survival in kidney transplantation

Study results published today in the New-England-Journal of Medicine show that 3-year graft survival is significantly greater in all transplanted kidneys machine perfused in the LifePort Kidney Transporter compared to those stored in a traditional box of ice. The graft survival difference at three years was most pronounced for kidneys from expanded criteria donors.

23 Feb 2012

Care Connectivity Consortium to demonstrate data exchange technology at 2012 HIMSS conference

Less than one year after announcing a new initiative to securely exchange electronic health data, the five innovative and leading health systems that make up the Care Connectivity Consortium, will demonstrate their data exchange technology and process at the 2012 Annual Health Information Management Systems Society Conference in Las Vegas, Nev. Feb. 20-24.

23 Feb 2012

High-tech human patient simulation bolsters faculty teaching capacity and enhances clinical learning

To address the faculty shortage problem, schools of nursing are reexamining how they provide clinical education to undergraduate students to find ways to use faculty resources more efficiently so they can maintain student enrollment and meet the future need for nurses.

23 Feb 2012

ATA predicts 2012 as the most significant year ever for telemedicine growth

The Industry Council Chairman for the American Telemedicine Association is predicting that 2012 will be lauded as the most significant year ever for telemedicine growth.

23 Feb 2012

Porter surgeon first in the U.S. to perform single-incision cholecystectomy

Taking advantage of another breakthrough in robotic surgery, a surgeon at Porter Adventist Hospital is among the first in the country and is the first in the Rocky Mountain Region to perform a robotically-assisted removal of the gallbladder through a single small incision.

23 Feb 2012

Health Fidelity to participate in BluePrint Health IT Innovation Exchange Summit

Health Fidelity, Inc., provider of a breakthrough natural language processing (NLP) platform for healthcare, has been selected to participate with major health systems as one of 10 Innovator Finalists at the West Coast BluePrint Health IT Innovation Exchange Summit.

23 Feb 2012

Self-propelled devices through the bloodstream a reality

Someday, your doctor may turn to you and say, "Take two surgeons and call me in the morning." If that day arrives, you may just have Ada Poon to thank.

23 Feb 2012

Kaiser Permanente to display new mobile offerings at HIMSS12

Kaiser Permanente, the nation's leading health care provider and not-for-profit health plan, will showcase its new collection of industry-leading mobile health applications at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society 12th Annual Conference and Exhibition at the Venetian Sands Expo Center.

23 Feb 2012

Women over 40 have better prognosis after mammography screening

Based on a study of nearly 2,000 breast cancer patients, researchers at the Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle say that, in women between the ages of 40 and 49, breast cancers detected by mammography have a better prognosis. The study appears in the March issue of Radiology.

23 Feb 2012

State officials debate whether, how to set up health exchanges

Lawmakers in Maryland, Nebraska and Kansas consider bills to advance or block the marketplaces; California officials wrestle with the nitty gritty of implementation.

23 Feb 2012

Adoption of Health IT still an uphill climb

The effort to drag the health-care industry into the technology age trudges onward, and it's still not clear whether the nation's 500,000 to 600,000 physicians will successfully make the journey. That's the finding from a number of health-care industry officials charged with pulling the medical profession into the 21st Century when it comes to managing patient records as well as automating the back-office operations of hospitals and clinics.

23 Feb 2012

Pediatricians should screen all children for vitamin D deficiency

As study after study shows the fundamental role vitamin D plays in disease and health, vitamin D deficiency — which often develops insidiously in childhood — should be on every parent's and pediatrician's radar, say physicians from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

23 Feb 2012

HIMSS awards Kaiser Permanente for leadership in use of health information technology

Kaiser Permanente, the nation's leading health care provider, with the largest private-sector electronic health record system in the world, received two awards today from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society for its leadership in the use of health information technology.

23 Feb 2012

Ventral striatum drives motivation during cognitive and motor actions

A team coordinated by Mathias Pessiglione, Inserm researcher at the -Centre de recherche en neurosciences de la Piti- Salp-tri-re- (Inserm/UPMC-Universit- Pierre and Marie Curie/CNRS) have identified the part of the brain driving motivation during actions that combine physical and mental effort: the ventral striatum.

23 Feb 2012

Accelitech announces new CyberKnife Cancer Institute of Chicago

Accelitech LLC, a leading developer of stereotactic radiosurgery and cancer treatment programs, is pleased to announce its newest CyberKnife cancer center, which will begin treating patients in Chicago in the summer of 2012.

23 Feb 2012