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Study: Physicians' empathy can improve patients' positive clinical outcomes

It has been thought that the quality of the physician-patient relationship is integral to positive outcomes but until now, data to confirm such beliefs has been hard to find. Through a landmark study, a research team from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University has been able to quantify a relationship between physicians' empathy and their patients' positive clinical outcomes, suggesting that a physician's empathy is an important factor associated with clinical competence.

8 Mar 2011

Study shows how individual cells behave during blood vessel formation

Biologists tend to look at cells in bulk, observing them as a group and taking the average behavior as the norm - the assumption is that genetically identical cells all behave the same way.

8 Mar 2011

Study explores nine nutrition education online courses

Most of us have heard of Phoenix, no, not the mystical bird or the capital of Arizona, but the online university. According to the Babson Survey Research Group, enrollment in online courses is growing faster than overall higher education offerings due to various reasons like the economic downturn. With the increase in demand for online education, a study in the March/April 2011 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior explores nine online nutrition courses.

8 Mar 2011

Scientists receive March of Dimes grant for preterm birth research

With the help of funding from the March of Dimes, scientists will study whether low doses of inhaled carbon monoxide may prevent inflammation that triggers preterm labor, analyze the role genes play in causing preterm delivery, and develop blood tests to help identify women at risk of preterm delivery.

8 Mar 2011

IRB approves Guided Therapeutics light-based Barrett's Esophagus detection technology for human trial

Guided Therapeutics, Inc., developer of a rapid and painless testing platform that uses biophotonics for the early detection of disease, today announced that it has received Institutional Review Board approval to begin testing its light-based detection technology in humans for Barrett's Esophagus, a precursor for esophageal cancer.

8 Mar 2011

Top-line results from Repligen RG2417 Phase 2b trial results in patients with bipolar depression

Repligen Corporation announced today results of a Phase 2b clinical trial of RG2417, an oral formulation of uridine, in patients with bipolar depression.

8 Mar 2011

Medicaid pressures push governors to consider ways to stretch their dollars

Across the U.S., governors are contemplating ways to ease the fiscal pressure Medicaid has placed on their state budgets. The approaches currently on the table include freezing the enrollment of childless adults, transforming Medicaid into a block grant program and convincing Congress to give states more flexibility to administer the program.

8 Mar 2011

Spacelabs Healthcare receives FDA clearance for Enhanced Flow Meter Visualization

Spacelabs Healthcare announced today that it has received FDA 510k clearance for Enhanced Flow Meter Visualization on its BleaseSirius Anesthesia System.

8 Mar 2011

Researchers find new strategy for long-term care of seniors

America's 75 million aging adults soon will face decisions about where and how to live as they age. Current options for long-term care, including nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, are costly and require seniors to move from place to place.

8 Mar 2011

North Shore-LIJ launches new prenatal quality initiative

Having a child is a life event that is equal parts magic and fear. Will the baby be healthy? Will labor and delivery pose challenges? Are there ways to reduce the risk for adverse events? Hospital obstetrical units face these questions round-the-clock.

8 Mar 2011

Humana joins with iCan to offer new individual healthcare plans

Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) has teamed with the iCan Benefit Group to offer a new line of discounted products for individual consumers. Effective immediately, people can access a variety of discounted packages that include dental, vision and pharmacy products.

8 Mar 2011

Parents play a key role in prevention of alcohol consumption in teenagers

Parents who are both present and engaged are the very best way of preventing teenagers from consuming large quantities of alcohol. Adolescents who smoke, stay out with their friends and have access to alcohol - from their parents, for example - when they are as young as 13 are at greater risk of becoming binge drinkers in their late teens, reveals a new thesis from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

8 Mar 2011

Health law funding again in play as Congress seeks current-year spending deal

With lawmakers trying to reach a compromise to avert a government shutdown and set the federal government's spending for the rest of the year, funding for the health law could face challenges in the House and the Senate.

8 Mar 2011

Bupa introduces new health section online for international audience

Bupa has announced the launch of the first part of its new health section online at bupa-intl.com, featuring more interactive content and 50 medical factsheets for an international audience.

8 Mar 2011

Scientists sequence Clostridium botulinum genome that produces neurotoxin

Scientists on the Norwich Research Park have sequenced the genome of a novel strain of Clostridium botulinum, one of the most dangerous pathogens known to man. The strain produces an unusual botulinum neurotoxin, known as type A5 neurotoxin, which was isolated by the Health Protection Agency, following a case of wound botulism.

8 Mar 2011

GOP presidential hopeful Romney continues defense of Mass. health overhaul

In defending the reform he oversaw as the state's governor, he continues to draw differences between that plan and the federal health law.

8 Mar 2011

UCSF's new pharmacy to focus on direct patient care

Although it won't be obvious to UCSF Medical Center patients, behind the scenes a family of giant robots now counts and processes their medications. With a new automated hospital pharmacy, believed to be the nation's most comprehensive, UCSF is using robotic technology and electronics to prepare and track medications with the goal of improving patient safety.

8 Mar 2011

Scientists develop innovative device to efficiently identify CTCs in blood

Circulating tumor cells, which play a crucial role in cancer metastasis, have been known to science for more than 100 years, and researchers have long endeavored to track and capture them.

8 Mar 2011

Two studies show how laminin plays a central role in breast cancer development

Laminin, long thought to be only a structural support protein in the microenvironment of breast and other epithelial tissues, is "famous" for its cross-like shape.

8 Mar 2011

hUCBs and MenSCs transplant may offer future therapeutic benefit for AD, stroke, ALS

Transplanting stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood cells and menstrual blood cells may offer future therapeutic benefit for those suffering from stroke, Alzheimer's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, says a team of neuroscience researchers from the University of South Florida's Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair and collaborators from three private-sector research groups, Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc., Tampa, FL, Cryo-Cell International, Inc., Oldsmar, FL, and Cryopraxis, Cell Praxis, BioRio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

8 Mar 2011