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LA BioMed researchers awarded NIH grant to pursue new approaches for treating MRSA

With antibiotic resistant infections on the rise and a scarce pipeline of novel drugs to combat them, researchers at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center are pursuing entirely new approaches to meet the challenge of drug-resistant infections by taming microbes rather than killing them.

27 Feb 2014

Tissue repair drug can improve healing rates in people with diabetic foot ulcer

Patients were twice as likely to have a diabetic foot ulcer heal within eight weeks when they were treated with a tissue repair drug versus a placebo, according to new research accepted for publication in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

27 Feb 2014

Researchers create new nerve cells in brains and spinal cords of living mammals

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers created new nerve cells in the brains and spinal cords of living mammals without the need for stem cell transplants to replenish lost cells.

27 Feb 2014

Researchers use virtual computer environment for distance healthcare education

Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers have demonstrated the potential of using a virtual computer environment for distance healthcare education for an international audience that often has limited access to conventional teaching and training.

27 Feb 2014

Waiting room time helps in effective screening for depression and anxiety

A new study in General Hospital Psychiatry finds patients visiting the hospital for a variety of ailments can be easily screened for depression and anxiety as they wait for care, information that can then be sent immediately to their doctor to address.

27 Feb 2014

Record $4.3 billion in health care fraud recovered

Federal efforts to combat health care fraud recovered a record $4.3 billion in fiscal 2013 and have recouped more than $8 for every $1 spent on enforcement over the past three years, according to an annual report released Wednesday.

27 Feb 2014

Walgreens at UCSF aims to improve medication use, reduce hospital readmissions

UC San Francisco and Walgreens have opened a unique Walgreens store today on the UCSF campus that aims to improve medication safety, decrease health care costs and help patients use medicines more effectively by offering pharmacist-based patient care and expanded health and wellness services to the community.

27 Feb 2014

Dampening immune response may encourage lung transplant rejection

Organ transplant patients routinely receive drugs that stop their immune systems from attacking newly implanted hearts, livers, kidneys or lungs, which the body sees as foreign.

27 Feb 2014

Cedars-Sinai researchers develop unique imaging device to "light up" malignant brain tumors

Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and Department of Neurosurgery have developed a unique, compact, relatively inexpensive imaging device to "light up" malignant brain tumors and other cancers.

27 Feb 2014

Survival rates for bladder cancer in UK are falling, confirms new study

Of the top 10 cancers in the UK, bladder cancer is only one where survival rates have been shown to be getting worse. New figures published this month in the Journal of Clinical Urology confirm in a study of cases of bladder cancer in England over a 19 year period (from 1990 until 2009) that survival rates here in the UK are falling and are worse than in than in other European countries with similar incidence rates.

27 Feb 2014

Administration may be scaling back estimates of young adult enrollment

CNN reports that the White House tamps down expectations that the exchanges will meet CBO's original projection that 40 percent of enrollees would be between the ages of 18 and 34. Also, Politico Pro looks at the large number of states that are not carrying out health law provision that allows young adults who were enrolled in Medicaid before aging out of foster care to receive coverage through age 26.

27 Feb 2014

Organ recovery centers could improve efficiency, reduce costs associated with deceased organ donation

Free-standing organ recovery centers could markedly improve efficiency and reduce costs associated with deceased organ donation, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Transplantation.

27 Feb 2014

Medicare official defends proposed changes to prescription drug program

In written testimony, Jonathan Blum, deputy administrator of the Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services, says the changes are needed to head off cost increases, but an industry-sponsored study argues some of the changes could cost taxpayers more.

27 Feb 2014

Patients with dental extractions before cardiac surgery still at risk for poor outcomes

To pull or not to pull? That is a common question when patients have the potentially dangerous combination of abscessed or infected teeth and the need for heart surgery.

27 Feb 2014

Studies indicate that harvested rainwater frequently harbors pathogens

South Africa has been financing domestic rainwater harvesting tanks in informal low-income settlements and rural areas in five of that nation's nine provinces. But pathogens inhabit such harvested rainwater, potentially posing a public health hazard, especially for children and immunocompromised individuals, according to a team from the University of Stellenbosch.

27 Feb 2014

Vitamin A may play key role in combating TB, says study

Tuberculosis is a major global problem, affecting 2 billion people worldwide and causing an estimated 2 million deaths annually. Western countries are once again tackling the disease, with recent outbreaks in Los Angeles and London.

27 Feb 2014

Greater childhood adversity may explain relationship and health disadvantage for black men

Greater childhood adversity helps to explain why black men are less healthy than white men, and some of this effect appears to operate through childhood adversity's enduring influence on the relationships black men have as adults, according to a new study in the March issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

27 Feb 2014