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Real-world solutions to improve patient safety and quality of care

The National Patient Safety Foundation will launch an innovative Learning & Simulation Center at the annual NPSF Patient Safety Congress on May 17-19 in Orlando, creating a remarkable environment for attendees to engage in diverse, hands-on, interactive settings and take away real-world solutions to improve patient safety and quality of care.

7 May 2010

HealthMap's H1N1 survey identifies disparities in international public health systems

As H1N1 began to emerge in April 2009, HealthMap - an automated online disease tracking and mapping tool created by researchers in the Informatics Program at Children's Hospital Boston - was already collecting information about the virus and plotting that information on a map of the globe, creating a freely available, real-time, digestible display of the outbreak.

7 May 2010

THI at St. Luke's reveals new insights on how adult stem cells repair damaged hearts following heart attack

Physician scientists at the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (THI at St. Luke's) are publishing research this week that reveals new insights into how a particular set of human adult stem cells helps repair damaged hearts following a heart attack in laboratory mice.

7 May 2010

Peptides: A new clue on the origins of life

Emory University scientists have discovered that simple peptides can organize into bi-layer membranes. The finding suggests a "missing link" between the pre-biotic Earth's chemical inventory and the organizational scaffolding essential to life.

7 May 2010

WellPoint rate hikes face further scrutiny, says it will review rates more closely

WellPoint Inc., responding to criticism and close scrutiny from lawmakers and officials, will add "new layers of oversight to pricing practices," The Wall Street Journal reports. WellPoint CEO Angela Braly sent a memo to 40,000 employees saying that the company will "implement third-party reviews of its 2010 rate filings and investigate why its actuaries did not find miscalculations uncovered last week by the California Department of Insurance.

7 May 2010

New study may help design better vaccines for dengue fever

Some of the human immune system's defences against the virus that causes dengue fever actually help the virus to infect more cells, according to new research published today in the journal Science.

7 May 2010

54% of liver cirrhosis patients experience neurocognitive impairments

More than half of patients who have cirrhosis of the liver also display neurocognitive impairments such as short term memory loss, a study led by a Loyola University Health System researcher has found.

7 May 2010

Children living near highway and railroad intersections more likely to develop asthma

Mayo Clinic researchers recently released study data showing children who lived near major highway or railroad intersections have higher diagnoses of asthma.

7 May 2010

DXA testing can prevent osteoporosis in at-risk women

Geisinger has exceeded the national benchmark for testing women who are at risk for developing osteoporosis - a silent and serious disease.

7 May 2010

Medtronic initiates U.S. clinical trial of RestoreSensor neurostimulator in chronic pain patients

Medtronic, Inc. today announced the initiation of a prospective, multi-center, randomized U.S. clinical trial for the RestoreSensorTM neurostimulator that adapts therapy to the changing needs of chronic pain patients by responding automatically to changes in body position and activity in an upright position.

7 May 2010

Rising health costs straining public budgets in Massachusetts

The Boston Globe: The town budget in Framingham, Mass. is strained, leading to layoffs and other cuts. "Everyone here seems to agree that a major factor is the rising cost of health care insurance for employees and retirees, which has jumped by $20 million in 10 years." The town picks up 87 percent of the premiums for most public employees and retirees, as negotiated through collective bargaining.

7 May 2010

CML HealthCare reports 2.3% decrease in first-quarter 2010 revenue

CML HealthCare Income Fund, today reported its financial results for the three month period ended March 31, 2010.

7 May 2010

The emerging science of epigenetics

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) possess remarkable properties of self-renewal and pluripotency, the ability to become almost any kind of cell within the body. And yet they share the same genome or set of genes with lineage-committed cells, cells fated to be or do one thing.

7 May 2010

NHLBI grants MU $8.47 million for research on cardiovascular diseases

One of the largest medical research grants ever awarded to the University of Missouri was announced today by MU scientists and administrators. The National Institutes of Health grant will help answer important questions about such prevalent health problems as high blood pressure, diabetes and stroke. The conditions are closely associated with cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death in Missouri and the nation.

7 May 2010

Florida health agency will use voice recognition to crack down on health fraud

The Associated Press/Miami Herald: Florida health officials announced they will "begin using voice recognition technology to verify whether patients in Miami-Dade County are actually receiving home health care services the state is being billed for."

7 May 2010

Sleep problems can increase depression and reduce quality of life in older people

In a study of residents of Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs) in Los Angeles showed that 65% had clinically significant sleeping problems and that poor sleep was associated with declining quality of life and increased depression over a six month follow-up period. This study is published today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

7 May 2010

Amira Pharmaceuticals' LPA1 receptor antagonist program data published in British Journal of Pharmacology

Amira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that preclinical data from its LPA1 receptor antagonist program has been published in the British Journal of Pharmacology.

7 May 2010

Telik first-quarter net loss decreases to $5.3 million

Telik, Inc. today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010. The net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2010 was $5.3 million, or $0.10 per share, compared with a net loss of $7.7 million, or $0.14 per share, for the same period in 2009.

7 May 2010

Researchers study effects of dark chocolates in reducing heart disease

Volunteers are to have chocolate delivered to their homes and be encouraged to eat 50g of it every day for eight weeks as part of a new research study.

7 May 2010

VA plans to limit surgeries at some of its facilities

The Department of Veterans Affairs will limit the kinds of surgeries at some hospitals after a review of surgical deaths at a hospital in southern Illinois, The Associated Press reports. "Under a new system, the VA has given each hospital a 'surgical complexity' level. Because of that, hospitals in at least five states — Louisiana, West Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois and Washington state — will now only perform less-complicated surgeries. The VA will pick up the tab for patients who have surgeries performed elsewhere" (Hefling, 5/6).

7 May 2010