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First Edition: April 5, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how President Barack Obama's budget proposal -- to be released next week -- will handle Medicare and Medicaid.

5 Apr 2013

UEA research could offer long-lasting solution to eating disorders

Researchers at the University of East Anglia have made a discovery in neuroscience that could offer a long-lasting solution to eating disorders such as obesity.

5 Apr 2013

Acadia Healthcare signs agreement to purchase two acute inpatient psychiatric facilities

Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. today announced that it has signed a definitive purchase agreement with Ten Broeck Tampa, Inc. and Capestrano Investment Company, Inc. to purchase two acute inpatient psychiatric facilities.

5 Apr 2013

FDA approves InVivo Therapeutics' IDE to test biopolymer scaffold product in humans

InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp., a developer of groundbreaking technologies for the treatment of spinal cord injuries and other neurotrauma conditions, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Company's Investigational Device Exemption to begin human studies to test its biopolymer scaffold product, a technology developed to treat patients with acute, traumatic SCI.

5 Apr 2013

Loyola's Stritch School of Medicine to host conference on mannequins, simulation technology

Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine is hosting a conference on mannequins and other simulation technology that increasingly is being used to train doctors and nurses.

5 Apr 2013

New paper examines some suggested descriptions of mental pain

When we think of pain we generally think of something that is related to our body. But there is a devastating form of pain that is not frequently acknowledged and is a topic of a paper by Eliana Tossani (University of Bologna) in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

5 Apr 2013

Roundtable Discussion offers novel strategies, solutions to control childhood obesity

The battle to control the childhood obesity epidemic is being fought on many levels. It could benefit from targeted programs and funding to support and integrate worksite and school-based health promotion initiatives.

5 Apr 2013

Some OECD nations' development aid spending down 4% in 2012, report says

"Government spending on development aid plunged by four percent in 2012, after dropping two percent the year before, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a statement on Wednesday," Devex reports (Santamaria/Jones, 4/3).

5 Apr 2013

Not all mice that come into contact with Borrelia contract Lyme disease, study finds

Like humans, mice can become infected with Borrelia. However, not all mice that come into contact with these bacteria contract the dreaded Lyme disease: Animals with a particular gene variant are immune to the bacteria, as scientists from the universities of Zurich and Lund demonstrate.

5 Apr 2013

Working paper examines global health governance in China, India

"In my new working paper, 'Enter the Dragon and the Elephant: China's and India's Participation in Global Health Governance,' I examine these two leading emerging countries' role in global health governance and how further participation can be complicated by domestic health challenges," Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in Seton Hall University's "Global Health Governance" blog.

5 Apr 2013

Study shows why some stroke patients recover from aphasia and others do not

In a study designed to differentiate why some stroke patients recover from aphasia and others do not, investigators have found that a compensatory reorganization of language function to right hemispheric brain regions bodes poorly for language recovery.

5 Apr 2013

Global interconnectedness influences population health

In a global health review article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Anthony McMichael of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University examines the effects of globalization and "international connectivity" on "human health, international health care, and public health activities."

5 Apr 2013

Penn Medicine study finds lower utilization of CTC for cancer screening

In 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services halted reimbursement for so-called "virtual colonoscopy" for routine colon-cancer screening in asymptomatic patients, in part due to concerns over how this procedure, computed tomography colonography, was being used in the elderly population.

5 Apr 2013

Non-invasive gut health testing breakthrough

Health and functional claims made for foods such as probiotics still need to prove their effectiveness ― an important part of the answer rests in our small intestines and their role in digestion, and immunity.

5 Apr 2013

Editorials discuss GPEI polio eradication plan

he Global Polio Eradication Initiative on Tuesday launched its Global Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan in Washington, D.C.

5 Apr 2013

Anti-vaccination messages spread more easily than positive ones on Twitter, researchers find

On Twitter, a popular microblogging and social-networking service, statements about vaccines may have unexpected effects -- positive messages may backfire, according to a team of Penn State University researchers led by Marcel Salath-, an assistant professor of biology.

5 Apr 2013

Editorial, opinion pieces address emergence of new bird flu strain in China

"Memories of China's repression of news during its tumultuous 2002-03 SARS outbreak could fuel panic and unrest at home and suspicion in the West," Hall, a novelist, writes.

5 Apr 2013

Understanding ethics involved in selecting transplant candidates

Results from an anonymous survey of U.S. transplant providers report that incarceration, marijuana use, and psychiatric diagnoses, particularly suicide attempts, may lower patients' eligibility for liver transplantation.

5 Apr 2013

China reports 2 more cases of H7N9; Researchers continue to investigate transmission routes

"China has found two more cases of a new strain of bird flu and one of the victims has died, state media said on Wednesday, bringing to nine the number of confirmed human infections from the previously unknown flu type," Reuters reports (Blanchard/Kelland, 4/3).

5 Apr 2013

Metallothioneins play major role in virulence of Cryptococcus neoformans

Metallothioneins, proteins able to capture metal ions, play a major role in the virulence of Cryptococcus neoformans, a fungal pathogen which causes severe infections in immunodeficient and immunocompetent individuals (AIDS patients, transplant receivers, etc.)

5 Apr 2013