Medical News

RSS

WHO presents updated health promotion strategy for Africa

The WHO "has unveiled a new set of priority actions to better address preventable health conditions in Africa," presented on Tuesday at the 62nd WHO Regional Committee for Africa session in Luanda, Angola, Devex reports.

22 Nov 2012

Iridoid synthase can make powerful chemicals from catnip to vinblastine

Scientists have discovered an enzyme used in nature to make powerful chemicals from catnip to a cancer drug, vinblastine. The discovery opens up the prospect of producing these chemicals cheaply and efficiently.

22 Nov 2012

Online access to Colorado docs linked to more office visits

The assumption had always been that offering patients email access to their doctors and records would reduce office visits, but a new study from Kaiser Permanente of Colorado showed the opposite.

22 Nov 2012

Medgenics’ EPODURE Biopump technology for EPO delivery receives U.S. patent

Medgenics, Inc., the developer of BiopumpTM a novel technology for the sustained production and delivery of therapeutic proteins in patients using their own tissue, today announced a patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) protecting the use of Medgenics' EPODURE Biopump technology for delivery of erythropoietin (EPO).

22 Nov 2012

OB-GYN group calls for over-the-counter birth control pills

In an attempt to reduce unintended pregnancies that cost the nation an estimated $11.1 billion a year, the nation's largest group of obstetricians and gynecologists said Tuesday that oral contraceptives should be available without a prescription.

22 Nov 2012

Habitual physical activity improves midlife women's health

Moving 6,000 or more steps a day-no matter how-adds up to a healthier life for midlife women. That level of physical activity decreases the risk of diabetes and metabolic syndrome (a diabetes precursor and a risk for cardiovascular disease), showed a study published online this month in Menopause, the journal of the North American Menopause Society.

22 Nov 2012

Obesity and oxidative stress: an interview with Dr Elizabeth New

Even though oxygen is essential for us to live, it can react with other compounds in the body to produce molecules called free radicals, which are highly reactive and damaging.

22 Nov 2012

Study predicts shortage of primary care doctors will worsen

The United States will need about 52,000 new primary-care doctors as the population grows and ages, according to a new study. Research published in the Annals of Family Medicine estimated that most of the doctor shortage will be caused by the rising U.S. population.

22 Nov 2012

Six-step approach can help clinicians identify and effectively manage dementia symptoms

Behavior changes are among the most visible, disruptive and distressing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. From confusion, repetitive questioning and combativeness to wandering, hallucinations and loss of inhibition, the symptoms carry their own risks of injury.

22 Nov 2012

Aetna CEO: Deficit fix rests on slowing health care wasteful spending

Washington lawmakers are still working to avoid the fiscal cliff. That's the expiring of tax cuts at the end of the year and deep spending cuts that could throw the economy into recession.

22 Nov 2012

New approach could help orthopaedic surgeons better deal with battlefield injuries

Bones are resilient and heal well after most fractures. But in cases of traumatic injury, in which big pieces of bone are missing, healing is much more difficult, if not impossible. These so-called "large segmental defects" are a major clinical problem, and orthopaedic surgeons struggle to treat them, especially among the military in places like Afghanistan.

22 Nov 2012

Meningitis outbreak could prompt call for executive jail time

A tough prosecutor and high public scrutiny could mean jail time for executives of the New England Compounding Center -- the pharmacy at the center of the deadly meningitis outbreak. In the meantime, the pharmacy's lawyers counter that the executives had no direct hand in the illnesses.

22 Nov 2012

University of Liverpool to conduct immunoglobulin clinical study for complex regional pain syndrome

Scientists at the University of Liverpool are leading a -1.5 million project to study `immunoglobulin', a type of drug which has been shown to ease complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).

22 Nov 2012

UNICEF releases demographic report on Universal Children's Day

On Universal Children's Day, November 20, "UNICEF issued a new research paper highlighting global demographic shifts forecast for the coming generation of children that present major challenges to policy makers and planners," according to a UNICEF press release.

22 Nov 2012

Important knowledge about how stem cells develop best into insulin-producing cells

Scientists from The Danish Stem Cell Center (DanStem) at the University of Copenhagen are contributing important knowledge about how stem cells develop best into insulin-producing cells. In the long term this new knowledge can improve diabetes treatment with cell therapy.

22 Nov 2012

UNAIDS report indicates end to AIDS possible but challenges remain

UNAIDS' World AIDS Day report: Results, released on Tuesday, said the goal of eventually ending the global AIDS epidemic "is more than merely visionary" and "is entirely feasible," primarily because of "historic success" in scaling up HIV programs and improving access to antiretroviral drugs to treat and prevent HIV, Reuters reports.

22 Nov 2012

CHKD surgeons use vacuum bell device to treat pectus excavatum

Surgeons at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters (CHKD) have fitted a patient with a device that might eliminate the need for surgery in some patients with one of the world's most common chest deformities, pectus excavatum, often called sunken chest syndrome.

22 Nov 2012

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi accepts role as UNAIDS ambassador

"Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has accepted a new role with UNAIDS to advance efforts to eliminate stigma and discrimination against those affected by the epidemic," the U.N. News Centre reports.

22 Nov 2012

Max Planck Institute develops neural event-triggered functional magnetic resonance imaging

While in deep dreamless sleep, our hippocampus sends messages to our cortex and changes its plasticity, possibly transferring recently acquired knowledge to long-term memory. But how exactly is this done? Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics have now developed a novel multimodal methodology called "neural event-triggered functional magnetic resonance imaging" (NET-fMRI) and presented the very first results obtained using it in experiments with both anesthetized and awake, behaving monkeys.

22 Nov 2012