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Insurers will pick up preventive care costs under new rules

The recommendations of a federal task force on preventive care - once just suggestions for doctors - will soon become coverage requirements for private insurers under regulations unveiled Wednesday by the Obama administration, according to Kaiser Health News and The Washington Post. "Under the new health care overhaul law, insurers will be required to pay fully for services that get an "A" or "B" recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a volunteer group made up of primary care and public health experts."

16 Jul 2010

High blood pressure, diabetes leads to CKD

People with diabetes and high blood pressure need to take care of their kidneys. According to the July issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource, chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a growing problem in the United States. The most common causes are diabetes and high blood pressure

16 Jul 2010

Noscira presents results of Nypta Phase IIa clinical trial for AD at ICAD 2010

Noscira, the Grupo Zeltia (ZEL.MC) subsidiary specialized in researching and developing drugs for treating neurodegenerative diseases, presented the results of a Phase IIa clinical trial of Nypta(R) (Tideglusib) on Alzheimer's disease (AD) at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD), held in Honolulu (Hawaii) from July 10-15, 2010.

16 Jul 2010

Sumner M. Redstone donates $24M to Keck School of Medicine of USC to support cancer research

The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California has announced a $24 million charitable gift from media executive and philanthropist Sumner M. Redstone. The multi-million dollar gift will support cancer research directed by renowned oncologist David Agus, M.D., professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and director of the USC Center for Applied Molecular Medicine and the USC Westside Prostate Cancer Center.

16 Jul 2010

Waist circumference predicts diabetes risk

Waist circumference gives a better prediction of diabetes risk than does BMI. This is the conclusion drawn by Silke Feller and her colleagues from the German Institute for Nutritional Research in Potsdam-Rehbr-cke, in the current edition of Deutsches -rzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2010; 107[26]: 470-6).

16 Jul 2010

Can abortion-rights activists return the procedure to mainstream medicine?

In the early 90s, anti-abortion activist Randall Terry declared doctors were "the weak link" in the fight against the procedure, The New York Times reports. Soon, the first of eight deadly attacks on doctors who perform abortion occurred, marking one facet of a shift of mainstream medicine away from abortions and leaving women seeking that type of care to go to specialty clinics operated by sympathetic feminists.

16 Jul 2010

Restricting salt intake to 6g per day lowers risk of cardiovascular morbidities

Restricting the amount of sodium chloride in food can lower the risk of cardiovascular morbidities. This is the conclusion that Dieter Klaus and colleagues come to in the current issue of Deutsches -rzteblatt International.

16 Jul 2010

i26 hyperimmune egg balances improper immune inflammatory response

Our immune systems are in a constant battle with foreign invaders to keep our bodies healthy. Outside forces like pollution, poor nutrition and new strains of disease keep our immune systems at an overly boosted or inflamed state, which affects energy levels, body and emotional health and overall quality of life. Through inflammatory immune cells, our bodies fight to defend us from this onslaught. Too few of these cells can result in illness, while too many could lead to a high immune response, resulting in heightened inflammation and collateral damage to the body's once-healthy tissues.

16 Jul 2010

Feds approve more funding for Medicaid recipients in Ohio while health costs strain town budgets in New Jersey

Federal regulators have approved a state plan to pay hospitals an additional $87 million this year for the care they provide to low-income Ohioans on Medicaid. The funds will be disbursed to hospitals by the end of this month. The bulk payment and a 5 percent increase in Medicaid reimbursement fees effective in October were included in last year's state budget to let hospitals recoup some of the money they were losing through a new state franchise fee. The fee is projected to cost hospitals statewide $718 million over the two-year budget ending June 30, 2011.

16 Jul 2010

Public, private efforts to boost health IT connectivity

First, Computerworld reports, "Verizon announced on Wednesday a new cloud-based service offering for healthcare providers that will handle the sharing of patient information electronically between disparate platforms. The new service, called the Verizon Health Information Exchange, consolidates clinical patient data from various providers and translates it into a standardized format that can then be accessed via a secure Web portal" (Mearian, 7/14).

16 Jul 2010

Scientists discover that C35 gene becomes overactive in HER2 positive tumours

UK scientists have discovered that a gene called C35 can work together with other cancer-promoting genes to drive the growth and invasion of breast cancer cells in the lab.

16 Jul 2010

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles awarded $7M of $56.8M NIH grant for biomedical research

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has been awarded $7 million of a $56.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The remainder of the award will be distributed to other members of the Los Angeles Basin Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). This award, to be distributed over five years, will fund biomedical research with the objective of reducing the time it takes a laboratory discovery to become a clinical reality.

16 Jul 2010

Duke University researchers, African colleagues to study malaria control strategies

A team of Duke University researchers and African colleagues will be studying strategies to curb the spread of malaria while protecting human and environmental health. The work in regions where the potentially deadly, mosquito-borne disease occurs will be supported by a $2.2 million, four-year grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

16 Jul 2010

U.S. News releases 2010 Best Hospitals rankings

U.S. News & World Report has released its 2010 rankings of the best hospitals. Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore topped this year's honor roll. "The special quality shared by the 152 that made it into the new 2010-11 Best Hospitals rankings (out of nearly 5,000 that were considered) is their ability to take on and meet the most difficult challenges" (Comarow, 7/14).

16 Jul 2010

Early HIV treatment reduces death, likelihood of TB, study finds

"Early treatment for HIV cuts patients' risk of death by about 75 percent," according to a study conducted in Haiti and published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. The study also demonstrated that "early antiretroviral treatment reduces the likelihood of tuberculosis, a leading cause of death among HIV patients, by 50 percent," the news service writes (Aquino, 7/14).

16 Jul 2010

BioSTAR biodegradable implant achieves comparable closure rates to Amplatzer ASO

A novel study by Canadian physicians reported that the BioSTARTM biodegradable implant achieved comparable closure rates to the Amplatzer Septal OccluderTM (ASO) in children with atrial septal defect (ASD). The BioSTAR device displayed successful outcomes, while avoiding issues associated with implants containing substantial amounts of metal.

16 Jul 2010

New findings on macrophage activation can facilitate development of early diagnosis tools

Immune system cells called macrophages spring into action to surround and destroy threats such as viruses or cancer cells. But sometimes the would-be protective response leads to persistent inflammation, which, in turn, can cause disease.Scientists don't know exactly how macrophages cross the line from being good cops to bad cops, but researchers at the University of Florida recently unearthed several clues about the mechanisms involved. Through the lens of two inflammation-related diseases, HIV and rheumatoid arthritis, they identified changes in specific proteins linked to the action of macrophages, white blood cells that are key to the body's natural defenses.

16 Jul 2010

Cubist Pharmaceuticals total net revenues for second-quarter 2010 increase 29%

Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010.

16 Jul 2010

KHN column – Behind the scenes of health reform: The National Association of Insurance Commissioners

In this Kaiser Health News column, Timothy Jost writes: "The new health reform act has been widely criticized as a federal government takeover of the health care system. To a remarkable degree, however, the law actually relies on the states to reform health insurance" (7/15).

16 Jul 2010

ACTOS offers safety profile regarding risk of CV events in people with type 2 diabetes: Takeda

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee held a joint meeting primarily focused on reviewing the cardiovascular safety of rosiglitazone, as presented by the FDA and GlaxoSmithKline. Following this two day discussion, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc. ("Takeda") underscores its position that ACTOS (pioglitazone HCl) offers an established safety profile regarding the risk of CV events in people living with type 2 diabetes.

16 Jul 2010

Medical News

Insurers will pick up preventive care costs under new rules

High blood pressure, diabetes leads to CKD

Noscira presents results of Nypta Phase IIa clinical trial for AD at ICAD 2010

Sumner M. Redstone donates $24M to Keck School of Medicine of USC to support cancer research

Waist circumference predicts diabetes risk

Can abortion-rights activists return the procedure to mainstream medicine?

Restricting salt intake to 6g per day lowers risk of cardiovascular morbidities

i26 hyperimmune egg balances improper immune inflammatory response

Feds approve more funding for Medicaid recipients in Ohio while health costs strain town budgets in New Jersey

Public, private efforts to boost health IT connectivity

Scientists discover that C35 gene becomes overactive in HER2 positive tumours

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles awarded $7M of $56.8M NIH grant for biomedical research

Duke University researchers, African colleagues to study malaria control strategies

U.S. News releases 2010 Best Hospitals rankings

Early HIV treatment reduces death, likelihood of TB, study finds

BioSTAR biodegradable implant achieves comparable closure rates to Amplatzer ASO

New findings on macrophage activation can facilitate development of early diagnosis tools

Cubist Pharmaceuticals total net revenues for second-quarter 2010 increase 29%

KHN column – Behind the scenes of health reform: The National Association of Insurance Commissioners

ACTOS offers safety profile regarding risk of CV events in people with type 2 diabetes: Takeda

Digital pathology and the PathoVerse: A conversation with Dr. Singh

Bioprocess Efficiency with Cell Density Monitoring

Exploring electron microscopy for plant and microbial imaging at the John Innes Centre

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