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Four insurers may help provide answers to health cost puzzle

Four major health insurers announced plans yesterday to pool their health care claims data into a single database to enable researchers to mine for information about trends in costs, utilization and intensity of care.

22 Sep 2011

Quidel, Life Technologies to distribute and commercialize molecular diagnostics in Europe

Life Technologies Corporation today announced that the company has signed an agreement with Quidel Corporation to distribute and commercialize molecular diagnostic assays for the European market.

22 Sep 2011

Addressing the exclusion of mental health from the MDGs

PRI's "The World" highlights the state of mental health care in Uganda in an examination of how the exclusion of mental health from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has, according to some advocates, held back mental health as a global health issue. Julius Kayiira, director of Mental Health Uganda, an organization that provides social support, job training and care to people with mental illness, "says organizations like his face an enormous funding gap, and he blames that gap, in part, on the United Nations," according to "The World."

22 Sep 2011

Virginia G. Piper, TGen and Scottsdale Healthcare begin AP26113 Phase 1 study in NSCLC

Patients at Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials are the first in the nation to participate in a clinical trial to determine the safety, tolerability and preliminary activity of an investigational drug that targets cell-signaling proteins associated with the most common form of lung cancer, as well as other forms of cancer such as lymphomas and neuroblastoma.

22 Sep 2011

Indian government responds to new avian flu outbreak

"Authorities in eastern India will start culling chickens and destroying eggs to contain a new outbreak of H5 bird flu, the government said in a statement on Tuesday, as a mutant strain of the virus is spreading elsewhere in Asia," Reuters reports.

22 Sep 2011

Wnt signaling pathway plays an important role in early-onset dementia

No cure exists for frontotemporal dementia, which strikes between the ages of 40 and 64 and accounts for at least one in four cases of early-onset dementia. Caused by the death of cells in the front and sides of the brain, the disease can lead to dramatic changes in a patient's personality and behavior, including the loss of the ability to communicate.

22 Sep 2011

'ResistanceMap' tracks antibiotic resistance online

"Extending the Cure," a research project of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy that looks at antibiotic resistance, on Wednesday launched a map "designed to be a tool for public health, researchers, doctors, the media and the public to track resistant pathogens, which is a growing problem around the world," the Washington Post's "The Checkup" blog reports.

22 Sep 2011

HSPH receives CDC grant to evaluate HIV combination prevention initiative in Botswana

A new four-year, $20 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will enable Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers to evaluate the impact and cost-effectiveness of a unique combination of HIV prevention strategies in Botswana.

22 Sep 2011

Rockefeller: 'Blended rate' proposal could be end of CHIP

The $320 billion package of Medicare and Medicaid cuts President Obama announced yesterday as part of his plan to reduce deficit spending would effectively end the Children's Health Insurance Program, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV said Tuesday. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., a leading advocate of the program on Capitol Hill, was referring specifically to a part of the plan, known as the "blended rate" proposal that would start in 2017.

22 Sep 2011

Researchers analyse effects of BPA in an in-vitro culture of ovaries

Researchers at Universitat Aut-noma de Barcelona, in collaboration with the Vall d'Hebron Hospital Fetal Tissue Bank, the Department of Gynaecology and the Research Unit of Paediatric Endocrinology, analysed the effects of Bisphenol A (BPA), a polymer widely used to manufacture plastics, in an in vitro culture of ovaries.

22 Sep 2011

USA Today: Seniors key to fighting Medicare fraud

Officials believe that if older Americans - including the growing crop of eligible Baby Boomers - know how to spot errors and fraud, "more criminals will be put in jail where they belong," Barbara Dieker told a group of volunteers recently. Dieker directs the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Elder Rights, which oversees the Senior Medicare Patrols.

22 Sep 2011

Aradigm announces two ciprofloxacin Phase 2b study data on non-CF bronchiectasis

Aradigm Corporation today announced it is presenting data on September 26, 2011, from its Phase 2b studies at the ERS Annual Congress in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The two podium presentations review the results from the Company's two clinical trials of inhaled ciprofloxacin in non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (BE) patients.

22 Sep 2011

Archbishop Tutu calls on Obama to lead the world in expansion of HIV treatment

Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights advocate Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes in a Washington Post opinion piece that President Barack Obama "is in a position to make a game-changing impact on the war against AIDS" and he "should lead the world in a massive effort to expand access to treatment and rid humanity of AIDS -- the most devastating disease of our time."

22 Sep 2011

OPTOS to acquire ophthalmic instrumentation business from OPKO

OPKO Health, Inc. has agreed to sell its ophthalmic instrumentation business to OPTOS, Inc., a subsidiary of Optos plc, a leading and rapidly growing medical technology company engaged in the design, development, manufacture and marketing of devices to image the retina of the eye. Optos will pay OPKO $17.5 million in cash at closing, plus future royalties.

22 Sep 2011

Early ART cost effectiveness in resource-poor settings

A study published in PLoS Medicine shows "that the new WHO guidelines for early [antiretroviral treatment (ART)] initiation can be cost-effective in resource-poor settings, information that should help policymakers in developing countries allocate their often limited resources," according to a PLoS press release.

22 Sep 2011

Humour therapy as effective as antipsychotic drugs in managing agitation in dementia patients

Humour therapy is as effective as widely used antipsychotic drugs in managing agitation in patients with dementia - and avoids serious drug side effects, a new study shows.

22 Sep 2011

States get grants to aid rate-review efforts

On Tuesday, the Obama administration announced $109 million in grants to states to help them improve insurance industry oversight, especially regarding their scrutiny of premium increases.

22 Sep 2011

InSightec's ExAblate Neuro system may treat chronic brain disorders

InSightec Ltd., the global leader in MR guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) technology, announced today that its investigational ExAblate(R) Neuro system has been used in clinical studies to treat 30 patients suffering from chronic neurological disorders.

22 Sep 2011

Molecular pathways could play important role in fight against obesity and diabetes

Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have identified for the first time two molecular pathways that are critical to activating a type of "good" fat found in the body, a discovery that could play an important role in the fight against obesity and diabetes.

22 Sep 2011

Cannabinoids may block development of PTSD symptoms after traumatic experience

Cannabinoids (marijuana) administration after experiencing a traumatic event blocks the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-like symptoms in rats, according to a new study conducted at the University of Haifa and published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

22 Sep 2011