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Study shows first empirical evidence of exposure to conflict-of-interest policies

Psychiatrists who are exposed to conflict-of-interest (COI) policies during their residency are less likely to prescribe brand-name antidepressants after graduation than those who trained in residency programs without such policies, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

19 Jan 2013

Carter Center Guinea worm eradication program in 'final stages'

"Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced today that the international Guinea worm eradication campaign spearheaded by the Carter Center has reached its final stages with only 542 cases reported worldwide in 2012," a Carter Center press release reports.

19 Jan 2013

New review examines role of nutrition in sarcopenia

Sarcopenia, or the gradual loss of muscle mass, is a common consequence of ageing, and poses a significant risk factor for disability in older adults. As muscle strength plays an important role in the tendency to fall, sarcopenia leads to an increased risk of fractures and other injuries.

19 Jan 2013

Law banning genetic discrimination doesn't apply to some insurers

NPR examines a key loophole in the law designed to keep health insurers from raising rates or denying coverage because of genetic issues. The law doesn't apply to life, disability or long-term-care insurance.

19 Jan 2013

Low blood flow to the premature brain disrupts cells' ability to fully mature

Physician-scientists at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital are challenging the way pediatric neurologists think about brain injury in the pre-term infant. In a study published online in the Jan. 16 issue of Science Translational Medicine, the OHSU Doernbecher researchers report for the first time that low blood and oxygen flow to the developing brain does not, as previously thought, cause an irreversible loss of brain cells, but rather disrupts the cells' ability to fully mature.

19 Jan 2013

DRC reducing mother-to-child HIV transmission, PlusNews reports

"The HIV infection rate has declined among pregnant women in the Republic of Congo from 3.4 percent in 2009 to 2.8 percent in 2012, according to a study by the Ministry of Health, which said it had taken specific action to help this section of the population," PlusNews reports.

19 Jan 2013

Having 2 attending physicians during spinal surgeries can benefit patients in multiple ways

Two heads are better than one, as the saying goes - and a new study by a duo at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) demonstrates how having two attending surgeons in the operating room during spinal surgeries can benefit patients in multiple ways.

19 Jan 2013

Debt ceiling, March spending cuts present policy and political choices

As the White House and congressional Republicans wrestle with strategies to deal with these upcoming budget issues, Medicare and Medicaid will be important factors.

19 Jan 2013

Stage IV cancer cells even more susceptible to grape seed extract than stage II

When the going gets tough, grape seed extract gets going: A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Cancer Letters shows that the more advanced are colorectal cancer cells, the more GSE inhibits their growth and survival. On the other end of the disease spectrum, GSE leaves healthy cells alone entirely.

19 Jan 2013

Accelerated partnerships critical to ensuring malaria elimination goals

Writing in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog in advance of the Monitoring & Evaluation Reference Group (MERG) meeting convened by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and taking place in Namibia this week, Lucy Chesire, executive director and secretary to the board of the TB ACTION Group, interviews Roly Gosling, current head of the Malaria Elimination Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco, "regarding malaria elimination, its importance, and why the Global Fund is critical to achieving that goal worldwide."

19 Jan 2013

Nurse practitioners, certified midwives and PAs can provide safe early abortion care

First trimester abortions are just as safe when performed by trained nurse practitioners, physician assistants and certified nurse midwives as when conducted by physicians, according to a new six-year study led by UCSF.

19 Jan 2013

UnitedHealth indicates limited participation in state-based exchanges

CEO Stephen Hemsley said Thursday that the insurer expects to participate in 10 to 25 of these marketplaces and noted that there should be no assumptions that the company will participate widely. His announcement comes along with news that the company's 4th quarter profits were down slightly, which was mainly attributed to rising medical costs.

19 Jan 2013

Checklists can help surgical teams perform better during emergencies

When doctors, nurses and other hospital operating room staff follow a written safety checklist to respond when a patient experiences cardiac arrest, severe allergic reaction, bleeding followed by an irregular heart beat or other crisis during surgery, they are nearly 75 percent less likely to miss a critical clinical step, according to a new study funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

19 Jan 2013

China, U.K. form global health partnership

"The Chinese and British governments are cooperating on a program to improve global health policy for developing countries, with the launch in Beijing on January 16 of a new U.K.-China partnership," China Daily reports.

19 Jan 2013

G-CON completes delivery and installation of POD system in PaxVax's GMP production facility

G-CON today announced the completed delivery and installation of the ground-breaking POD system in PaxVax's licensed GMP production facility based in San Diego, California where PaxVax manufactures innovative and socially responsible oral vaccines against infectious diseases.

19 Jan 2013

Ban on thiomersal in vaccines would harm global immunization efforts

"Government representatives are meeting in Geneva this week to decide whether to introduce a global ban on mercury that could include thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative that has been used in some vaccine manufacturing since the 1930s to prevent bacterial or fungal contamination of multidose vials of vaccine," Seth Berkley, a medical epidemiologist and chief executive of the GAVI Alliance, writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

19 Jan 2013

Researchers report novel charge zipper principle used by proteins to form functional units

Membrane proteins are the "molecular machines" in biological cell envelopes. They control diverse processes, such as the transport of molecules across the lipid membrane, signal transduction, and photosynthesis. Their shape, i.e. folding of the molecules, plays a decisive role in the formation of, e.g., pores in the cell membrane.

19 Jan 2013

Final day of global maternal health conference focuses on human rights

In her last report from the Second Global Maternal Health Conference in Arusha, Tanzania, Jocalyn Clark, senior editor of PLoS Medicine, writes in the PLoS "Speaking of Medicine" blog about the final day of the three-day conference.

19 Jan 2013

EMA adopts positive opinion for Pfizer’s bosutinib conditional approval in the EU

Pfizer Inc. announced today that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency has adopted a positive opinion regarding the conditional marketing authorization of bosutinib in the European Union for the treatment of adult patients with chronic phase (CP), accelerated phase (AP), and blast phase (BP) Philadelphia chromosome positive chronic myelogenous leukemia previously treated with one or more tyrosine kinase inhibitor(s) (TKIs) and for whom imatinib, nilotinib and dasatinib are not considered appropriate treatment options.

19 Jan 2013

State highlights: Trying to save care for poor with Medicaid budget deals

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley asked legislators in her third State of the State address Wednesday to overhaul how public schools are funded, improve crumbling roads, and make prisons a safer place for those who guard the most violent offenders. She pledged to work to improve residents' health, especially in rural areas, without expanding Medicaid. For example, she said, next year the state's Medicaid agency will begin fully reimbursing rural hospitals for uncompensated care.

19 Jan 2013