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North Shore-LIJ Health System acquires 15 GE low-dose CT scanners

In the interest of advancing patient safety and improving care, the North Shore-LIJ Health System today announced with GE Healthcare the $12 million purchase of 15 GE Low-Dose CT Scanners that will be installed at 10 locations throughout the New York area over the next year.

22 Jun 2012

Success in fighting malaria helping to fuel Africa's economic growth, Reuters reports

Reuters examines how the fight against malaria in Africa is helping to fuel the continent's economic growth. "

22 Jun 2012

ATS task force recommends annual lung cancer screening using LDCT

A lung screening and surveillance task force, established by the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) and led by medical professionals from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), is strongly recommending new guidelines for lung cancer screening. The guidelines were published this week in the online edition of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (JTCVS).

22 Jun 2012

Alexza resubmits ADASUVE NDA to U.S. FDA

Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has resubmitted its ADASUVE New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to a Complete Response Letter (CRL) received in May 2012.

22 Jun 2012

U.S. journal Science publishes controversial H5N1 research

The U.S. journal Science on Thursday published the results of a controversial study in which researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands "identified five mutations apparently necessary to make the [H5N1] bird flu virus spread easily among ferrets, which catch the same flus that humans do," the New York Times reports (McNeil, 6/21).

22 Jun 2012

European CHMP adopts positive opinion for teduglutide to treat short bowel syndrome

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., jointly announced today that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency has adopted a positive opinion, recommending the granting of a marketing authorisation for the medicinal product teduglutide (Revestive) as a once-daily treatment for adult patients with short bowel syndrome (SBS).

22 Jun 2012

Examining the 'domino effect' of family planning

In this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Megan Averill and Tricia Petruney, senior technical officers with FHI 360's Global Health, Population and Nutrition Group, and Ward Cates, president emeritus at FHI 360, discuss the "domino effect" of family planning.

22 Jun 2012

Wraparound knee brace for osteoarthritis patients

Breg, Inc., a premier provider of sports medicine products and services, has introduced five new products, including a first-of-its-kind wraparound knee brace for osteoarthritis (OA) patients. New products also include two ankle braces designed to help prevent ankle injury, a cold therapy system with longer ice time, and an upgrade to Breg's inventory management system created specifically for the orthopedic office.

22 Jun 2012

Likely 'decision day' moves to next week

Indications are the Supreme Court's much-anticipated ruling on the health law may come on Wednesday or Thursday. However, the court is also scheduled to hand down decisions on Monday.

22 Jun 2012

Risk of cognitive decline linked to severity of diabetes

Preventing diabetes or delaying its onset has been thought to stave off cognitive decline -- a connection strongly supported by the results of a 9-year study led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

22 Jun 2012

Calif. budget cuts will move 880,000 kids to Medi-Cal managed care

Among a series of budget cuts to help California Gov. Jerry Brown close that state's budget deficit is a cut to a health care program for 880,000 low-income kids, who will be shifted to Medi-Cal after the state shutters its "Healthy Families" program.

22 Jun 2012

Parents play a major role in children's TV time

Researchers at Oregon State University have confirmed what we knew all along - children in this country are increasingly sedentary, spending too much time sitting and looking at electronic screens.

22 Jun 2012

Abbott challenges copies of its biologic drugs

If the challenge succeeds, less-expensive versions of complex biologic drugs couldn't go on sale in the U.S. for years, and consumers may never have access to facsimiles of existing treatments such as Abbott's rheumatoid arthritis therapy Humira.

22 Jun 2012

No legal recourse because generic drug caused injury

Carrie Scott went in to the hospital for abnormal bleeding. Days later she returned home without her hand and forearm. The generic form of Phenergan was given improperly, apparently from an inadequate warning label. Scott has no legal recourse because a generic drug caused her injury, rather than its brand-name equivalent.

22 Jun 2012

Boehner: Don't gloat if Supreme Court strikes health law down

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has told fellow Republicans in a memo released Thursday to avoid "spiking the ball" if the Supreme Court strikes down the health law.

22 Jun 2012

A potential drug target for NK/T-cell lymphoma

A discovery by Van Andel Institute researchers has identified a potential drug target for NK/T-cell lymphoma, a type of cancer responsible for claiming the life of a close friend and fellow researcher.

22 Jun 2012

Study: 5.6M new health care jobs by 2020

A new Georgetown University study says the health care sector will create 5.6 million new jobs by 2020, but most of them will require special education and training, leaving many unemployed workers out in the cold.

22 Jun 2012

Structured exercise programmes benefit lung transplant patients

Lung transplant patients who took part in a three-month structured exercise program when they were discharged from hospital improved their health-related quality of life and reduced their risk of cardiovascular problems.

22 Jun 2012

Longer looks: Alzheimer's researcher turns to drug she helped invent

Given her relatively young age, Dr. Rae Lyn Burke didn't think much about her family history of Alzheimer's disease -- a grandmother and an aunt had suffered from it, but they were much older. Ironically, Burke was just in her late 50s when she started having her own symptoms of early onset Alzheimer's. Even more ironic is that Burke had been one of the key developers of the Alzheimer's drug bapineuzumab, which she now takes herself to reduce the progression of the disease in her own brain.

22 Jun 2012

Sleep benefits some Parkinson's patients

Some Parkinson's patients report that their motor function is better upon awakening in the morning, which is contrary to what would be expected after a night without medication. This phenomenon, known as sleep benefit, has been studied but no consistent variables have been found and in the last decade there has been little new research.

22 Jun 2012