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More big companies report charges spurred by health law

News regarding the health law's early impact on large companies - millions of dollars in lost tax exemptions - is continuing to emerge.

2 Apr 2010

Democrats, Republicans vie to claim public opinion about health reform

USA Today: "A week after Congress passed President Obama's 10-year, $938 billion health care plan, lawmakers from both parties are spending their spring break trying to turn the historic legislation to their political advantage. At stake are the large majorities Democrats have built up over the past two elections, including a 76-vote margin in the House and an 18-vote cushion in the Senate."

2 Apr 2010

International, four-year study finds dutasteride reduces risk of prostate cancer diagnosis in men

A drug already prescribed to shrink benign, enlarged prostates has been shown to reduce the risk of a prostate cancer diagnosis by 23 percent in men with an increased risk of the disease, a large international trial has found. Results are reported April 1 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

2 Apr 2010

Liver function tests misinterpreted in majority of children's hospitals

New research led by physician-scientists at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine shows that the test most commonly used to screen pediatric patients for chronic liver disease is often incorrectly interpreted in many children's hospitals throughout the United States.

2 Apr 2010

Implementation outreach aims to educate the public on health care changes

USA Today reports on "Enroll America" a private campaign aimed at "making it easy for Americans who qualify for Medicaid or private insurance subsidies to sign up" in the wake of health care reform changes. The effort has been prompted by difficulties and confusion that occurred four years ago after a Medicare prescription law encountered major glitches in implementation.

2 Apr 2010

Schering-Plough HealthCare Products commences promotion of ZEGERID OTC in North America

Santarus, Inc., a specialty biopharmaceutical company, today announced that Schering-Plough HealthCare Products, Inc., the consumer healthcare subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., has commenced promotion of ZEGERID OTC™ (omeprazole 20 mg/sodium bicarbonate 1100 mg capsules) under its licensing agreement with Santarus for the over-the-counter (OTC) market in North America. The OTC heartburn market in the U.S. is estimated at approximately $1.8 billion based on data from market research firm Information Resources, Inc. and Santarus estimates.

2 Apr 2010

MRI study reveals worry may offset negative effects of fear and depression

A new study of brain activity in depressed and anxious people indicates that some of the ill effects of depression are modified - for better or for worse - by anxiety

2 Apr 2010

Researchers identify link between genetic mutation and schizophrenia

In what may provide the most compelling evidence to date, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have illuminated how a genetic variant may lead to schizophrenia by causing a disruption in communication between the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex regions of the brain, areas believed to be responsible for carrying out working memory.

2 Apr 2010

Mouse study indicates rapamycin drug prevents Alzheimer's disease, extends lifespan

If research results continue to be repeated and are turned into clinical trials, a drug already approved for some uses could be marshaled - sooner than we expect - to prevent Alzheimer's disease in humans and improve health to the end of life.

2 Apr 2010

Gene therapy improve survival rates among heart attack patients

Gene therapy could be an effective way to improve survival rates among heart attack patients, new research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) suggests. Academics at the University of Bristol found that boosting levels of a natural growth factor in the heart could help the muscle to recover after a heart attack. The death rate from a heart attack was halved in mice that received the treatment.

1 Apr 2010

An inability to switch off - workers stressed by technology

The much-touted "work/life balance" has been found to be riddled with paradox with new research showing work-related email invading workers' homes and leisure spaces, causing stress, anxiety, an inability to switch off, as well as potential damage to family relationships.

1 Apr 2010

Innovative drug design wins medical research prize

The development of a new way to treat iron overload disease has won the 2010 Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund Prize for Medical Research.

1 Apr 2010

Athletes and ethicists look at fairness in sport

Just in time for baseball’s opening day, a series of articles in the Hastings Center Report asks what constitutes fairness in elite sports and what it takes to stop cheating. New issues, including the prospect of gene doping and questions about which athletes are really “female,” are explored.

1 Apr 2010

Protein vaccines for needle-free immunization through the skin

Most immunizations currently involve an injection in the arm. In the future, vaccination may be accomplished without the unpleasant jab of a needle: a team led by Victor C. Yang at the University of Michigan (USA) has developed a method by which vaccines can pass directly through the skin without a needle. As the researchers report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, merely linking a special short peptide molecule to the vaccine, which can then be administered in the form of a patch, will do the job.

1 Apr 2010

Young athletes overuse their bodies and strike out too early

Today, leaders in healthcare, wellness, safety and fitness came together to launch the STOP Sports Injuries campaign. The campaign will educate athletes, parents, trainers, coaches and healthcare providers about the rapid increase in youth sports injuries, the necessary steps to help reverse the trend and the need to keep young athletes healthy.

1 Apr 2010

Short of cash before Easter? Error in payment of Queensland Healthcare staff

In one of the largest pay hitches of its kind in the recent years, the Queensland government has been forced to apologize for shortchanging thousands of doctors and nurses. Due to a recent new system of pay there has been an error in payment with several complaints from the injured parties. With the Easter break round the corner many are frazzled with the error.

1 Apr 2010

Living donor exchange poses new option for liver transplantation

Two major transplant centers in Hong Kong and South Korea released results from their paired donor exchange programs for living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). A single paired exchange, performed by the Hong Kong team under emergency circumstances, was a success. The Korean team reported 16 donor exchanges conducted over a 6-year period were successful. Full details of this novel approach to organ transplantation appear in the April issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

1 Apr 2010

New development in treatment of African Sleeping Sickness

African sleeping sickness or Human African Typanosomiasis is a potentially fatal disease affecting 50 to 70 thousand Africans each year. Carried by the bite tsetse fly this fatal disease is actually caused by a tiny parasite that attacks the nervous system, brain, spinal column resulting in mental confusion and finally death.

1 Apr 2010

Young mother dies of post-liver transplant complications in Singapore

Claire Murray, a 25 year old woman from Perth, suffered from a liver failure due to drug addition. She underwent a controversial second live liver transplant where a part of her aunt’s liver was given to her two weeks ago. She has reportedly succumbed to her condition and died just before 12:00pm (AWST) from complications in Singapore.

1 Apr 2010

Genes improperly granted patents

Some time mid last year six breast cancer patients sued reputed Myriad Genetics, a company that holds patent of two vital genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 that play a role in increasing the risk of breast and ovarian cancers. The fees that the company charges for these genetic tests is a whopping $3,000 which these women claim they cannot afford and the most important of all these women cannot get a second opinion regarding the tests since no one else does them.

1 Apr 2010