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Capsules: House debates Ryan budget: Predictably partisan

Now on Kaiser Health News' blog, Marilyn Werber Serafini reports on the latest develoments regarding the Ryan budget plan: "The tone was immediately and undoubtedly partisan Wednesday when the House began considering the Republican-backed 2013 budget resolution that the House Budget Committee recently approved."

29 Mar 2012

BHECN designs new online training modules to treat mental health issues

It's estimated that more than half of all U.S. mental health care takes place at the primary care level and that percentage jumps considerably in rural areas where there often are no mental health practitioners for hundreds of miles. New online training modules have been designed by the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) to help primary care providers better treat patients with mental health issues.

29 Mar 2012

PLoS launches new publication for disasters-related researchers, practitioners

Despite the breadth of technological possibilities available, publishers and scientific journals have not provided adequate solutions for publication during fast moving emergencies. The UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction has identified that "the sharing of research findings, lessons learned and best practices" are a priority in its Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015.

29 Mar 2012

High court's Medicaid ruling could have significant ripple effects

A ruling against Medicaid could touch a variety of federal statutes and reshape the federal-state legal framework.

29 Mar 2012

A double dose of arguments -- severability, Medicaid expansion on today's docket

In the final day of debate, the justices consider whether the entire law must be thrown out if the mandate is overturned. That issue will get 90 minutes, while the challenge to the expansion of Medicaid is on for 60 minutes.

29 Mar 2012

VasoStitch percutaneous access-and-closure system featured at ACC annual meeting

VasoStitch is developing a percutaneous access-and-closure system for the nonsurgical deployment of large-diameter transcatheter therapeutic devices, such as Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implants (TAVI) and Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) devices. The VasoStitch system is designed to reduce procedural complexity and eliminate the need for an "open" surgical procedure.

29 Mar 2012

JDRF, iCo Therapeutics partner for iCo-007 Phase II trial in DME

iCo Therapeutics, a Vancouver-based drug reprofiling company and JDRF, the largest charitable funder of type 1 Diabetes (T1D) research have joined forces to investigate a potential new treatment for one of the most common complications of diabetes, diabetic macular edema.

29 Mar 2012

Ember, Joslin aims to utilize brown fat for treatment of obesity and diabetes

Joslin Diabetes Center and Ember Therapeutics, Inc. today announced an agreement aimed at utilizing "brown fat," a type of fat that helps increase energy expenditure within the body, as a novel technique for managing obesity and diabetes. Joslin's Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Ronald Kahn and other Joslin faculty, Drs. Yu-Hua Tseng and Aaron Cypess, have performed pioneering work in this field over the past several years, and were the first to show that a natural protein called BMP7 can help modulate the levels of brown fat.

29 Mar 2012

Increasing incidences of brain tumours calls for more spend on vital research

With more children and people under the age of 40 dying of a brain tumour than any other cancer in the United Kingdom, a leading researcher at Queen's University Belfast is calling for an increase in spending on vital research.

29 Mar 2012

Outside the court: Roaring rallies, rhetoric and reviews

The second day of the momentous Supreme Court hearing on President Obama's health law ended almost exactly at noon. By 12:03, many conservative lawmakers and television commentators who had been in the packed chambers stood on the marble steps outside, saying the health insurance mandate at the heart of the law appeared to be in deep trouble.

29 Mar 2012

Anthropologists discover lower testosterone levels in Tsimane men

As part of an isolated indigenous group in central Bolivia, Tsimane men spend much of their time hunting, foraging, fishing, and clearing land by hand to grow crops. Their ability to maintain the physical activity required to survive each day might imply they have higher than average male testosterone levels.

29 Mar 2012

Justices explore merits of preserving parts of the health law if mandate is overturned

On the third day of the Supreme Court's consideration of the health law, justices sparred over whether some parts of the measure could proceed even if the court decides to void its insurance mandate.

29 Mar 2012

Broad Institute, Novartis develop cancer cell line encyclopedia

Novartis and the Broad Institute have developed a cancer cell line encyclopedia that catalogues the genetic and molecular profiles of almost 1,000 human cancer cell lines used in drug research and development. Results of the collaboration, published in the journal Nature and released in advance online today, may allow scientists around the world to use this information to improve cancer clinical trial design and further cancer research.

29 Mar 2012

Roche announces increase in offer price for outstanding Illumina shares

Roche announced today that it has increased its offer price for all outstanding publicly-held shares of Illumina, Inc. to US$ 51.00 per share in cash.

From Illumina, Inc. 29 Mar 2012

States offer mixed legislative bag on abortion, birth control

Birth control and abortion legislation are making the rounds at state capitols. An abortion bill in Georgia was stopped Tuesday while Idaho backed away from its own pre-abortion ultrasound bill. Missouri advanced a bill to let some employers opt-out of providing coverage for contraception.

29 Mar 2012

Roberts, Kennedy emerge as the court's key swing votes

If the wily chief justice felt squeamish about leading the Supreme Court into an election-year political maelstrom, that was nowhere on display Tuesday, when the Roberts-led conservative majority signaled its collective skepticism, even hostility, for President Barack Obama's health care law.

29 Mar 2012

Navidea announces data from Lymphoseek Phase 3 study on oral and squamous cell cancers

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on precision diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, today announced that data from its Phase 3 clinical study investigating 99m-Tc-Tilmanocept in oral and squamous cell cancers (SCC) were presented as a poster presentation at the 65th Annual Cancer Symposium of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) meeting held in Orlando, Florida, March 21-24, 2012.

29 Mar 2012

Depression more prevalent among stroke and transient ischemic attack survivors

Depression is more prevalent among stroke and transient ischemic attack survivors than in the general population, researchers reported in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.

29 Mar 2012

New treatment approach halts spread of cancer cells into normal brain tissue

Treating invasive brain tumors with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation has improved clinical outcomes, but few patients survive longer than two years after diagnosis. The effectiveness of the treatment is limited by the tumor's aggressive invasion of healthy brain tissue, which restricts chemotherapy access to the cancer cells and complicates surgical removal of the tumor.

29 Mar 2012

Global Fund's general manager discusses future direction, achievement of fund in interview

Gabriel Jaramillo, general manager of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, "has given an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, in which he outlines the direction and achievements to-date in making the Global Fund a more efficient and successful organization," according to a Global Fund press release.

29 Mar 2012