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Lawmakers announces proposal to extend health insurance to more children

A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) on Friday announced a proposal that would extend health insurance to an additional nine million U.S. children, the Chicago Tribune reports

21 Feb 2007

Bush Administration has no overall strategy to protect patient privacy in electronic health records

The Bush administration has no overall strategy to ensure patient privacy as it promotes expanded use of electronic health records among insurers, doctors, hospitals and other health care providers, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report, the New York Times reports.

21 Feb 2007

Maryland universal coverage plan estimated to cost $2.5 billion

The Maryland Health Care Commission on Thursday said its proposal to provide health coverage to nearly all of the state's uninsured residents would cost $2.5 billion annually, the Baltimore Sun reports.

21 Feb 2007

White House orders investigation of military hospitals

The White House on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the treatment provided at U.S. military hospitals to veterans who return from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Reuters/Los Angeles Times reports.

21 Feb 2007

Intel, Motion Computing develop tablet computer to reduce medical errors

California-based Intel and Texas-based Motion Computing on Tuesday unveiled a jointly developed tablet computer designed to help health care workers update medical records as they care for patients, Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times reports.

21 Feb 2007

Health Corps response to hurricanes inadequate

The more than 2,100 officers in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who were deployed to the Gulf Coast to respond to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September 2005 lacked adequate training, and the federal response to the hurricanes did not include an adequate number of nurses, dentists and mental health professionals, according to a report recently compiled by the HHS Office of Inspector General, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports.

21 Feb 2007

Experimental vector vaccine reduces stillbirths from cytomegalovirus

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed an experimental vaccine that reduces stillbirths among rodents born to mothers infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) - a common virus that can also cause mental retardation and hearing loss in newborn children who were infected in early fetal life.

21 Feb 2007

Reduced brain growth in alcoholics with family drinking history

The brains of alcohol-dependent individuals are affected not only by their own heavy drinking, but also by genetic or environmental factors associated with their parents- drinking, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

21 Feb 2007

Entire genetic blueprints of more than 2,000 human and avian influenza viruses completed and made public

The Influenza Genome Sequencing Project, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), announced today that it has achieved a major milestone.

21 Feb 2007

A black and white look at breast cancer mortality

African and African American women are more likely to die of breast cancer than their white counterparts because they tend to get the disease before the menopause, suggests new research from the University of East Anglia and the Children’s Hospital Boston in collaboration with researchers in the U.S. and Italy.

21 Feb 2007

Swedish brain researchers gain access to unique IBM supercomputer

Approximately 127 million people in Europe are suffering from some kind of brain disease or injury. With the long term goal to improve diagnostics and find new therapies in their sights, the Stockholm Brain Institute (SBI) and IBM have embarked on a partnership that gives Swedish brain researchers access to a unique supercomputer.

21 Feb 2007

Imaging of disease dynamics during meningococcal sepsis

Each year 170,000 people around the world die of this type of meningitis, according to the World Health Organization, (WHO).

21 Feb 2007

Scientists find new genes linked to Lou Gehrig's disease

In the first genome-wide search for the genetic roots of the most common form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Johns Hopkins scientists have newly identified 34 unique variations in the human genetic code among 276 unrelated subjects with ALS.

21 Feb 2007

BMA warns medical regulation proposals will muzzle doctors

A raft of proposals which together add up to the loss of professionally-led medical regulation have the potential to muzzle doctors in their role of speaking out for their patients, warns the British Medical Association (BMA) today.

21 Feb 2007

Spectranetics announces unfavorable jury verdict in a patent litigation dispute

Spectranetics Corporation has announced that it has received an unfavorable jury verdict in a patent litigation dispute with Dr. Peter Rentrop in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. Spectranetics has filed several post-trial motions seeking to overturn the verdict.

21 Feb 2007

Gardasil reaction report released

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) today released a new analysis of the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports of serious health problems following HPV vaccination (Merck's Gardasil) during the last six months of 2006.

21 Feb 2007

Clarient receives patent for "automated detection of objects in a biological sample"

Clarient, Inc. has announced that it has been granted a new U.S. patent related to the detection and quantification of rare tumor cells in blood and bone marrow.

21 Feb 2007

Provectus receives notice of allowance for acne product

Provectus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today it has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its patent application covering novel acne medications, including the Company's invisible, solid acne treatment, Pure-Stick, which is an over- the-counter (OTC) product.

21 Feb 2007

New changes for UK pharmaceutical regulation

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officers from England, Scotland and Wales came together today to reveal plans for historic changes to the regulation of the pharmacy profession.

21 Feb 2007