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Guardian blog interviews researcher regarding artemisinin synthesis discovery

In this post in the Guardian's "The Observer," Mark Honigsbaum, a research associate at the University of Zurich's Institute for Medical History, interviews Peter Seeberger, the director of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, about a recent announcement that Seeberger and colleague François Lévesque "have discovered a simple and cost-effective way of synthesizing artemisinin from the waste products of the" sweet wormwood plant from which it is extracted.

8 Feb 2012

New technologies safe and effective for fat removal

For many people, getting rid of excess fat can be a lifelong battle. Whether it is undesirable love handles, excess fat around the knees or flabby upper arms, pockets of fat can be difficult to reduce and sometimes diet and exercise are not enough to make a noticeable difference. Now, dermatologists are finding that the introduction of non-invasive fat removal technologies is opening the door for more people who are not candidates for liposuction to remove stubborn fat, safely and effectively.

8 Feb 2012

National Alzheimer's plan to include more research funding

The Obama administration wants to spend just over half a billion dollars on Alzheimer's research next year, hoping to battle back against what could become the defining disease of the aging baby-boom generation. ... The move is part of the administration's development of the first National Alzheimer's Plan, a congressionally-ordered strategy that will combine research toward better dementia treatments with steps to help overwhelmed families to better cope today.

8 Feb 2012

Research!America 2012 National Health Research Forum to be held on Mar. 14

Research!America 2012 National Health Research Forum-a unique interactive gathering of top policy makers. This discussion brings together heads of federal agencies for health research, as well as nationally recognized leaders from industry, academia and patient advocacy.

8 Feb 2012

Question for cardiologists has far-reaching implications for health care costs

The affordability of American medical care in the future will depend, in part, on the ability of physicians to simplify and economize, which are two things they've never been good at. With national health expenditures amounting to $2.6 trillion a year - 45 percent of it paid by government - prosperity and political stability may also be at stake.

8 Feb 2012

Simple, innovative program can detect and prevent falls among seniors

It's a scenario played out all too frequently: Adult children, worried about the safety of their aging parents, foist devices on them to monitor their safety. And their parents, resentful of having their privacy invaded and losing their independence, resist fiercely.

8 Feb 2012

States busy implementing local, federal health reforms

Vermont may for the short term allow small businesses to offer low-premium, "bronze" insurance plans. In other news, a N.J. legislative committee approved a bill to establish a state health insurance exchange, and a California plan to move 875,000 children to Medicaid raises concerns.

8 Feb 2012

Communities with small, locally-owned businesses have healthier populations

Counties and parishes with a greater concentration of small, locally-owned businesses have healthier populations - with lower rates of mortality, obesity and diabetes - than do those that rely on large companies with "absentee" owners, according to a national study by sociologists at LSU and Baylor University.

8 Feb 2012

Texas begins enforcing strict abortion sonogram law

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said in a ruling Monday that he cannot stop a new sonogram law from taking effect and pointedly suggested that three appellate court judges who overruled him last month had misapplied an earlier U.S. Court decision involving abortion. The state of Texas will begin enforcing the law Tuesday, according to a spokeswoman for the Texas Health Services Commission.

8 Feb 2012

Study examines impact of CPOE systems in five Mass. community hospitals

Despite a national mandate to implement electronic health records and computer order entry systems (CPOE) by 2014, only approximately 30 percent of hospitals nationwide have done so and around 40 percent of hospitals in the state of Massachusetts have made this transition.

8 Feb 2012

World Economic Forum helps 'improve global cooperation' surrounding health issues

Meetings such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) "are highly beneficial for the health sector, since there is a genuine need for reaching out to non-state actors in the midst of the many transformations shaping global and domestic health sector public policy," Sania Nishtar, founder of Heartfile and Heartfile Health Financing, writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece.

8 Feb 2012

Spectrum Health installs Toshiba's Aplio 500 ultrasound system

To enhance the diagnostic capabilities of ultrasound and improve patient care, Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Mich., has installed the first Aplio 500 ultrasound system from Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. Aplio 500 offers advanced visualization capabilities, workflow automation tools, superior ergonomics and cutting-edge Fly Thru and Smart Fusion technologies, enabling clinicians to see what they have never seen before.

8 Feb 2012

Action needed to reach ambitious targets set forth in President's World AIDS Day speech

President Barack Obama's December 1 World AIDS Day speech "could be pivotal, but only if it is followed by changes in how we tackle global AIDS," Chris Collins, vice president and director of public policy at amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, writes in this Huffington Post "Global Motherhood" opinion piece.

8 Feb 2012

Researchers discover function and expression of CD97 in malignant gliomas

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center's VCU Massey Cancer Center and Harold F. Young Neurosurgical Center and Old Dominion University have discovered that suppression of Wilms tumor 1 protein (WT1) results in downregulation of CD97 gene expression in three glioblastoma cell lines and reduces the characteristic invasiveness exhibited by glial tumor cells.

8 Feb 2012

USAID provides testing equipment to Vietnam to help speed diagnoses of drug-resistant TB

USAID on Monday said it has "delivered the first two of 17 planned laboratory devices" to help quickly diagnose drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis (TB), VOA's "Breaking News" blog reports.

8 Feb 2012

Gerresheimer revenue increases 6.8% to EUR 1094.7m

Gerresheimer AG, one of the leading global partners to the pharma and healthcare industry, has closed the 2011 financial year with strong growth in revenues and profits. "Our revenues and profits have developed very positively in 2011.

8 Feb 2012

Pointing to health care, contraception policies, Mitt Romney goes on offense against Obama

Romney and GOP presidential primary rival Rick Santorum also trade barbs, while the Associated Press takes a look at Newt Gingrich's ties to lobbying.

8 Feb 2012

APP to launch Meropenem, Cilastatin and Imipenem in the U.S.

APP Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Fresenius Kabi Company, announced today that it will launch both Imipenem and Cilastatin for Injection, USP and Meropenem for Injection, USP in the United States. APP will begin shipping Meropenem for Injection the week of February 13, 2012 with Imipenem and Cilastatin for Injection scheduled to ship in the next three to five weeks.

8 Feb 2012

President's budget plan to include Medicare and Medicaid spending cuts but no structural changes

The president will propose cutting spending on Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly, and Medicaid, the joint federal-state program for the poor and disabled. However, he isn't proposing the structural changes that experts say are needed to control spending in these programs over the long term.

8 Feb 2012

MRI techniques can measure changes in microstructural properties of white matter

Innovative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques that can measure changes in the microstructure of the white matter likely to affect brain function and the ability of different regions of the brain to communicate are presented in an article in the groundbreaking new neuroscience journal Brain Connectivity, a bimonthly peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

8 Feb 2012