Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Study highlights shared burden of young carers in the UK and Tanzania

It's not just distance that separates the children of Tanzania and the UK. Their lifestyles, aspirations and access to employment, education and healthcare are worlds apart.

24 Sep 2007

Why some people find it so difficult to stop smoking

Mark Twain boasted that it was easy to quit smoking because he did it every day.

24 Sep 2007

Top five prescribed drugs

With a total nearly $5 billion, Lipitor, a cholesterol-reducing drug, ranked first in terms of total spending on prescription medicines by adults ages 18 to 64 in 2004, and another cholesterol-fighting drug, Zocor, ranked fourth at $2.3 billion, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

21 Sep 2007

Functional brain imaging shows neural circuits contributing to pedophilia

Pedophilia, the sexual attraction of adults to children, is a significant public health concern and it does not respond well to treatment.

21 Sep 2007

Genetic variation affects smoking cessation treatment

Mark Twain boasted that it was easy to quit smoking because he did it every day.

21 Sep 2007

AHRQ and FDA to collaborate in ADHD study

Two U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agencies will collaborate in the most comprehensive study to date of prescription medications used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the potential for increased risk of heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular problems.

21 Sep 2007

Public health response to the poisoning of Mr Alexander Litvinenko

The poisoning of Mr Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium-210 in London in November 2006 had political consequences internationally and presented the Health Protection Agency with some unique public health challenges. Professor Pat Troop, Chief Executive of the Agency, will open a session on the response to the incident at the HPA conference at Warwick University today and give a keynote address on how it was handled.

20 Sep 2007

Dizziness in aging

Dizziness is the distortion of the perception of space; vertigo is a special type of dizziness, which induces a sensation of spinning around.

20 Sep 2007

Unanticipated consequences of healthcare information technology

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) have developed a framework to help hospital managers, physicians, and nurses handle the tough challenges of implementing health information technology (HIT) by directly addressing the unintended consequences that undermine safety and quality.

18 Sep 2007

Higher education brings healthier behaviors

Both education and income can determine whether a person will remain healthy, but those who stay in school longer have the best odds, largely because education so strongly influences income, say the authors of a new study.

18 Sep 2007

Possible hepatitis C vaccine

The British Midlands Development Corporation has announced that the University of Nottingham in the British Midlands has released a statement promoting the development of a possible Hepatitis C Vaccine.

18 Sep 2007

Teaching adolescents to use condoms when abstinence fails

Teaching adolescents to use condoms when abstinence fails is a reasonable strategy for preventing HIV, according to a new research study in PLoS Medicine.

18 Sep 2007

RFID implant cancer questions concern patients

News that radio frequency identification (RFID) implants could pose dangerous health risks -- even cancer -- has the healthcare and personal health records (PHR) industries wondering how to provide medical professionals with vital patient health records in case of emergency.

18 Sep 2007

Moxifloxacin drug combo speeds up treatment of tuberculosis

A team of tuberculosis (TB) experts at Johns Hopkins and in Brazil have evidence that substituting the antibiotic moxifloxacin in the regimen of drugs used to treat the highly contagious form of lung disease could dramatically shorten the time needed to cure the illness from six months to four.

18 Sep 2007