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White House staff changes will tighten circle of health policy insiders

With President Barack Obama's reshuffling of White House personnel this week, the already small circle of administration officials driving the health policy has gotten even smaller and closer to the president - and to each other. That means most of the important health care policy decisions will continue to be primarily driven by two people: Nancy-Ann DeParle, deputy White House chief of staff, and Jeanne Lambrew, deputy assistant to the president for health policy.

13 Jan 2012

CHUMS project to measure outcomes of NHS care in children with neurodisabilites

An exciting new study that will help put children with neurodisabilites at the centre of evaluating their own care has received almost a quarter of a million pounds (£250,00) in funding. The CHildren's oUtcome Measurement Study (CHUMS) will assess how to capture the views and experiences of children with neurodisability and their families in order to measure the outcomes of the NHS care they receive.

13 Jan 2012

Scientists identify chemical signals that promote aggregation in roundworms

Scientists have long seen evidence of social behavior among many species of animals, both on the earth and in the sea. Dolphins frolic together, lions live in packs, and hornets construct nests that can house a large number of the insects. And, right under our feet, it appears that nematodes-also known as roundworms-are having their own little gatherings in the soil. Until recently, it was unknown how the worms communicate to one another when it's time to come together.

13 Jan 2012

NimbleGen Sequence Capture 385K array identifies gene mutations linked with hereditary hearing loss

Hereditary hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder in humans. A German research team led by Ingo Kurth from the Institute of Human Genetics at the University Hospital Jena, Germany, used a number of different methods, including Roche's NimbleGen Custom Sequence Capture 385K array to identify the gene mutated in the disease locus of the X-chromosome of a Spanish family with hereditary hearing loss.

13 Jan 2012

Gingrich, Romney abortion ads question conservative credentials

GOP presidential contenders Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are trading blows on abortion with a series of ads that question each candidate's conservative credentials on the issue. In the meantime, Kaiser Health News looks at the differences among the GOP candidates in how they would reform Medicare.

13 Jan 2012

Four Loyola anesthesiologists have written chapters for Manual of Clinical Anesthesiology

Four Loyola anesthesiologists have written chapters for the Manual of Clinical Anesthesiology, a popular reference and teaching tool used in hospitals across the nation.

13 Jan 2012

Wildlife products smuggled into U.S. pose potential human health risk, study suggests

"In a new study published on Tuesday in the journal PLoS One, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the EcoHealth Alliance, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other institutions reported on the first effort to identify new viruses in wildlife products that had been smuggled illegally into the U.S.," TIME's "Ecocentric" blog reports.

13 Jan 2012

Smart injectable nanotherapeutics could improve treatment for Type I diabetes

A research collaboration between the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Children's Hospital Boston has developed "smart" injectable nanotherapeutics that can be programmed to selectively deliver drugs to the cells of the pancreas. Although this nanotechnology will need significant additional testing and development before being ready for clinical use, it could potentially improve treatment for Type I diabetes by increasing therapeutic efficacy and reducing side effects.

13 Jan 2012

Study describes first known case of necrotizing fasciitis from bath salts

A study led by Russell R. Russo, MD, a third-year Orthopaedic Surgery resident at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, has identified a new source of life-threatening necrotizing fasciitis - "bath salts."

13 Jan 2012

Breaking down the issues related to outpatient medical errors

The attention paid over the past decade to reducing medical errors in the hospital setting has reduced deaths, infections and injuries caused by other surgical and hospital errors - and now there's a call for similar attention on outpatient procedures.

13 Jan 2012

Researchers publish first detailed figures that show risk of Rasilez and ACE inhibitors or ARBs

Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have published the first detailed figures showing the risk of using the prescription drug Rasilez in combination with certain other blood pressure-lowering medications.

13 Jan 2012

Federal judge halts Calif. plan to cut Medicaid payments for medical transportation

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday to halt a 10% Medi-Cal provider reimbursement cut to medical transportation services. It was the third time the state has lost in court on this issue. State officials said the state will appeal.

13 Jan 2012

Researchers discover previously unknown effect of opioids

A team of researchers at the MedUni Vienna's Department of Neurophysiology has discovered a previously unknown effect of opioids: the study, which has now been published in the highly respected magazine "Science" and was led by Ruth Drdla-Schutting and Jürgen Sandkühler, shows that opioids not only temporarily relieve pain, but at the right dose can also erase memory traces of pain in the spinal cord and therefore eliminate a key cause of chronic pain.

13 Jan 2012

State-level action on health exchanges draws political responses, control questions

Some Idaho Democrats say they may vote with the GOP against legislation to create a state-run exchange. In Ohio, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor has control issues about health exchanges -- whether they are run by the state or by the federal government.

13 Jan 2012

Researchers discover a way to sensitize glioblastoma to chemotherapy

Brain cancer cells are particularly resistant to chemotherapy - toxins enter the cells, but before the toxins can kill, cancer cells quickly pump them back outside. In fact, brain cancer cells are even better than healthy cells at cleaning themselves. This means that when hit with chemotherapy, healthy cells tend to die before brain cancer cells. Especially in the brain, killing healthy cells is bad.

13 Jan 2012

Promoting new investments in global health workforce

In this post in the Public Health Institute's (PHI) "Dialogue4Health" blog, Jeff Meer, director of PHI's Washington-based advocacy on global health, reports on the Frontline Health Workers Coalition, launched Wednesday, which is "developing support for new investments in the global health workforce, particularly those working at the community level who are the first and often the only link to health care for millions of people."

13 Jan 2012

Scientists discover specific immune system T cells that trigger destruction of type 1 diabetes

Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology have proven - for the first time in human tissues -- the specific immune system T cells which trigger the destruction of type 1 diabetes in the pancreas. The finding is an important advance that verifies in humans several important disease characteristics shown in mouse studies and provides a key focal point for interrupting the disease process.

13 Jan 2012

Melinda Gates, Nicholas Kristof answer more questions about Bangladesh, public health

Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof continue to answer readers' questions in this second installment on Kristof's "On the Ground" blog.

13 Jan 2012

Complex PCI: Left Main and CTO Summit to be held Feb. 23-25, 2012

The Complex PCI: Left Main and CTO Summit is a three-day conference featuring state-of-the-art technologies, research findings and new developments in therapeutic procedures essential for interventional cardiologists to optimize success in chronic total coronary occlusions and left main coronary interventions.

13 Jan 2012

Supreme Court considers medical leave lawsuit

The high court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the case that will determine how the federal Family and Medical Leave Act applies to state government workers.

13 Jan 2012

Medical News

White House staff changes will tighten circle of health policy insiders

CHUMS project to measure outcomes of NHS care in children with neurodisabilites

Scientists identify chemical signals that promote aggregation in roundworms

NimbleGen Sequence Capture 385K array identifies gene mutations linked with hereditary hearing loss

Gingrich, Romney abortion ads question conservative credentials

Four Loyola anesthesiologists have written chapters for Manual of Clinical Anesthesiology

Wildlife products smuggled into U.S. pose potential human health risk, study suggests

Smart injectable nanotherapeutics could improve treatment for Type I diabetes

Study describes first known case of necrotizing fasciitis from bath salts

Breaking down the issues related to outpatient medical errors

Researchers publish first detailed figures that show risk of Rasilez and ACE inhibitors or ARBs

Federal judge halts Calif. plan to cut Medicaid payments for medical transportation

Researchers discover previously unknown effect of opioids

State-level action on health exchanges draws political responses, control questions

Researchers discover a way to sensitize glioblastoma to chemotherapy

Promoting new investments in global health workforce

Scientists discover specific immune system T cells that trigger destruction of type 1 diabetes

Melinda Gates, Nicholas Kristof answer more questions about Bangladesh, public health

Complex PCI: Left Main and CTO Summit to be held Feb. 23-25, 2012

Supreme Court considers medical leave lawsuit

Advancing Menopause Care: Non-Hormonal Treatments for Vasomotor Symptoms

Building quality into drug development for safer, faster medicines

How Pulp Fixin Is Turning Paper into High-Performance Sustainable Labware

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