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CMS: Medicare advantage rate increases will be lower-than-expected

The payments will be lower than initially projected because of lower-than-expected spending on doctor visits.

6 Apr 2011

ABAM accredites 10 new addiction training programs for physicians

The American Board of Addiction Medicine Foundation today accredited 10 training programs, the nation's first post-graduate addiction medicine residencies for physicians. The Foundation also released its Program Requirements and Curriculum Objectives, national guidelines for addiction medicine residencies.

6 Apr 2011

Comprehensive book on chronic pain and addiction

Up to date and comprehensive, this book is relevant to all professionals engaged in the care of patients with chronic pain or addiction and all others interested in these contemporary issues, particularly non-clinicians seeking clarity in the controversy over the best approach to patients with chronic pain.

6 Apr 2011

New data finds 50% decline in heart surgery wait times in Alberta and BC

New data from the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine shows that wait times for a number of heart surgeries have gone down close to 50 per cent in Alberta and British Columbia.

6 Apr 2011

Combination of molecularly targeted cancer drug and anti-malarial drug stops tumor growth

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine may have found a way to turn an adaptive cellular response into a liability for cancer cells. When normal cells are starved for food, they chew up existing proteins and membranes to stay alive. Cancer cells have corrupted that process, called autophagy, using it to survive when they run out of nutrients and to evade death after damage from chemotherapy and other sources.

6 Apr 2011

EKG test is a poor predictor of sudden death syndrome in young athletes

The sudden death of a young athlete always prompts full media attention, most recently spurring a call for preventative screening methods, including costly electrocardiogram tests for all school-age athletes.

6 Apr 2011

High clusterin levels linked to Alzheimer's prevalence and severity

Higher levels in blood of the protein clusterin, also known as apolipoprotein J, are significantly associated with the prevalence and severity of Alzheimer's disease, but not with the risk of onset of new disease, according to a study in the April 6 issue of JAMA.

6 Apr 2011

Study finds marked increases in teen use of marijuana and Ecstasy

Following a decade of steady declines, a new national study released today by The Partnership at Drugfree.org and MetLife Foundation indicates that teen drug and alcohol use is headed in the wrong direction, with marked increases in teen use of marijuana and Ecstasy over the past three years.

6 Apr 2011

Nanotechnology can help better assess whether cancer drugs hit their targets

A Purdue University biochemist has demonstrated a process using nanotechnology to better assess whether cancer drugs hit their targets, which may help reduce drug side effects.

6 Apr 2011

Gender gap in general surgery specialty shrinking

The gender gap among United States Medical Graduates (USMG) in the traditionally male-dominated specialty of general surgery is shrinking, according to study results published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. These findings align with the overall trend of increasingly equal gender enrollment of medical students.

6 Apr 2011

LDL particles may be a more accurate measure of subclinical atherosclerosis than LDL cholesterol

LipoScience, Inc., a highly innovative diagnostic company that is advancing patient care by developing high value proprietary blood tests using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology, today announced presentations of two clinical studies "from the podium" at the 60th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology.

6 Apr 2011

Increased risk of virologic failure associated with NNRTI-based regimens in HIV-1 drug resistance mutations

An analysis of data from 10 studies indicates that the presence of low frequency (also called "minority") human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) drug resistance mutations, particularly those involving nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) resistance, are significantly associated with an increased risk of first-line antiretroviral treatment failure, according to an article in the April 6 issue of JAMA.

6 Apr 2011

Bill Gates travels to Europe to promote global health investments

Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is in Europe this week "in an effort to persuade Europeans not to cut aid budgets in the face of austerity - and in particular not to reduce spending on vaccinations and agriculture," the Wall Street Journal reports.

6 Apr 2011

Avila's PI3Kα inhibitor preclinical study data presented at AACR meeting

Avila Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel targeted covalent drugs, today presented results of preclinical studies on its novel Phosphoinositide 3-kinase alpha inhibitor at the American Association for Cancer Research 102nd Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

6 Apr 2011

Henry Ford performs partial nephrectomy with new, robotically controlled ultrasound probe

Henry Ford Hospital was the first hospital world-wide to use a new, robotically controlled ultrasound probe to help remove a cancerous tumor from a kidney.

6 Apr 2011

New amniochip to detect 150 genetic genetic syndromes

Genetadi Biotech has presented to the scientific community - meeting at the XXVI National Congress on Human Genetics held in Murcia - a prenatal diagnostic device based on amniocentesis.

6 Apr 2011

HaloSource introduces new line of finished devices for in home point-of-use water treatment

HaloSource, Inc., the clean water and antimicrobial technology company, today launches its line of finished devices for in home point-of-use water treatment, powered by HaloPure(R) drinking water disinfection technology.

6 Apr 2011

NYC scientists receive $420,000 S.L.E. Lupus Foundation grant for new research

New York City's S.L.E. Lupus Foundation is pleased to name the latest recipients of its Career Development and Basic Science Fellowships: Josephine Isgro, MD of Hospital for Special Surgery, Dipyaman Ganguly, PhD of Columbia University Medical Center, and Yi Yan, PhD of the Feinstein Institute at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Hospital.

6 Apr 2011

Expression of key tumor suppressor protein induces premature aging

Cancer risk increases with age, and scientists have long perceived a possible evolutionary tradeoff between longer lifespan and greater risk of cancer. Now, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center find direct evidence for that tradeoff in new data showing that expression of a key tumor suppressor protein induces premature aging in mice.

6 Apr 2011

Neurotech’s NT-501 intraocular implant slows progression of vision loss in GA subjects

Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that it was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that its product candidate NT-501 slowed progression of vision loss in patients with geographic atrophy (GA) associated with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in a Phase 2 study.

6 Apr 2011