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Ventral rectoplexy helps recover sexual function

Laparoscopic ventral rectoplexy may reduce sexual dysfunction in women with complex posterior floor prolapse, say researchers who found many patients appreciated having postoperative investigation of their symptoms.

13 Jun 2012

Investigational Insomnia Medicine from Merck improved patients’ ability to fall and stay asleep according to new phase III Data

Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced new data from two pivotal Phase III efficacy trials for suvorexant, the investigational medicine Merck is developing for the treatment of insomnia. In the studies, suvorexant significantly reduced the time it took patients to fall asleep and increased the time that patients stayed asleep as early as the first night and at the three-month time point compared to placebo. The investigational medicine met statistical significance for all primary endpoints except for one measurement at Month 3 in one of the trials. These late-breaking data were presented here today at SLEEP 2012, the 26th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

13 Jun 2012

Significant increase in use of CT, MRI and PET imaging over the last two decades

Among six large integrated health care systems between 1996 and 2010 there was a substantial increase in the use of advanced diagnostic imaging, including approximately a tripling of the use of computed tomography and nearly a quadrupling of the use of magnetic resonance imaging, as well as a substantial increase in estimated radiation exposure, according to a study in the June 13 issue of JAMA.

13 Jun 2012

ORMC offers bronchial thermoplasty for severe asthma

Doctors at Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC) are delivering heat directly to the source to treat patients with severe asthma - a respiratory disease that causes the airways in the lungs to narrow, making it difficult to breathe.

13 Jun 2012

Kansas plans next moves in Medicaid overhaul

Kansas officials set public hearings on Medicaid changes. In the meantime, the Kansas Health Institute news service examines difficulties Kentucky has experienced with a similar transition.

13 Jun 2012

NCATS' Therapeutics Discovery program gains more industry collaborators

Five additional pharmaceutical companies have joined a National Institutes of Health-led effort to help scientists research promising new treatments for patients. Funding and molecular compound information is available now for the initial phase of the recently unveiled Discovering New Therapeutic Uses for Existing Molecules program.

13 Jun 2012

First Edition: June 13, 2012

Today's headlines feature reports about new government projections for the nation's health care spending and the latest from the campaign trail.

13 Jun 2012

ChromaDex’s pTeroPure safe for human consumption

ChromaDex Corporation, an innovative natural products company that provides proprietary, science-based solutions and ingredients to the dietary supplement, food & beverage, animal health, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries announced today its patented pTeroPure (pterostilbene) was shown to be safe for human consumption according to data from the first clinical trial of the substance.

13 Jun 2012

Fluidigm unveils details of new C1 Single-Cell AutoPrep System at ISSCR meeting

Fluidigm today unveiled the details of its new C1 Single-Cell AutoPrep System to attendees at the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) meeting in Yokohama, Japan.

13 Jun 2012

New microfluidic device can sort cancer cells, particles

In life, we sort soiled laundry from clean; ripe fruit from rotten. Two Johns Hopkins engineers say they have found an easy way to use gravity or simple forces to similarly sort microscopic particles and bits of biological matter -- including circulating tumor cells.

13 Jun 2012

New study on motor chunking

You pick up your cell phone and dial the new number of a friend. Ten numbers. One. Number. At. A. Time. Because you haven't actually typed the number before, your brain handles each button press separately, as a sequence of distinct movements.

13 Jun 2012

Patient Safety files lawsuit against ClearCount over SmartSponge systems

Patient Safety Technologies, Inc. today announced that it has filed a lawsuit against ClearCount Medical Solutions in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, asserting a claim against ClearCount for infringement of United States Patent No. 5,931,824 entitled "Identification and Accountability System for Surgical Sponges."

13 Jun 2012

CMS predicts modest health spending growth, then acceleration

The nation's been enjoying a respite from rising health care costs, but government experts say don't look for it to last. Health care spending will grow faster than the economy for the foreseeable future, says a report Tuesday from Medicare's nonpartisan economic analysts. ... By 2021, health care spending will be growing roughly 2 percentage points faster than the overall economy, about the same rate as the last 30 years.

13 Jun 2012

Compounds related to curcumin receive U.S. patent

A U.S patent issued today to the University of Rochester and two other entities for the use of compounds related to a popular spice in the fight against cancer, acne, baldness, and other medical conditions.

13 Jun 2012

A father's love contributes more to a child's development

A father's love contributes as much - and sometimes more - to a child's development as does a mother's love. That is one of many findings in a new large-scale analysis of research about the power of parental rejection and acceptance in shaping our personalities as children and into adulthood.

13 Jun 2012

Children of GBS meningitis continue to have substantial long-term morbidity

Parents of infants who survive bacterial meningitis caused by group B Streptococcus might have to live with the effects of the disease on their children long after they're discharged from the hospital. A new study in the journal Pediatrics finds that even though mortality rates of children infected with GBS meningitis have decreased in the past 25 years, just under half of children who survive the disease will suffer impairment as a result of the disease.

13 Jun 2012

Disparities in managing depression among HIV-positive pregnant women

It seems logical that programs to screen and manage depression in pregnant, HIV-positive Medicaid patients should already be in place, but they aren't. It's the kind of glaring oversight that Rajesh Balkrishnan, associate professor at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy, said he finds all the time in his research on health disparities.

13 Jun 2012

Sebelius touts health law for 'bolstering' Medicare

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' comments were made during a White House-sponsored town hall meeting for senior citizens. Meanwhile, new figures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services indicate that some Medicare beneficiaries are not taking advantage of some of the new benefits.

13 Jun 2012

Short-term intensive weight management program effective alternative to bariatric surgery

A study by a team of clinicians and researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston has shown for the first time that patients with diabetes who enrolled in a short-term intensive weight management program were able to lose weight and keep it off on their own for four years.

13 Jun 2012

MD Anderson installs first TomoHD System in Florida

Cancer patients in the Southeast now have access to the world's most advanced radiation treatment system. MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando has installed the first TomoHD System in Florida.

13 Jun 2012