Public Health
Long-term complications of critical illness include intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired weakness and neuropsychiatric disease - both of which could be related to the immobilisation caused by sedation. An Article published Online First and in an upcoming edition of The Lancet has found that interrupting sedation in the earliest days of treatment to give critically ill patients physical and occupational therapy leads to better outcomes than standard care.
Cardium Therapeutics (NYSE Amex: CXM) and its subsidiary Tissue Repair Company (TRC) announced a presentation entitled "Phase 2b Study of GAM501 (Ad5PDGF-B/Collagen) in the Treatment of Diabetic Ulcers" at the Late Stage Industry Clinical Trials Symposium at the American Society of Gene Therapy (ASGT) Annual meeting in San Diego, California, on May 27, 2009. Dr. Barbara K. Sosnowski, Cardium"s Vice President of Biologics Development and the Chief Operating Officer of Cardium"s Tissue Repair Company Operating Unit, provided an update on TRC"s Phase 2b MATRIX clinical trial and the new formulation of the Excellarate(TM) product candidate, as well as an overview of the prior clinical study of Excellarate.
Though the growing shift toward oral chemotherapy agents offers cancer patients greater freedom and independence during their treatment, physicians say use of the new medications also poses more chances for patients to skip doses, miss prescription refills, and take their drugs in a dangerous way. An increasing number of cancer patients who receive chemotherapy now do so at home, with the click of a pill bottle each day rather than the drip of an IV medicine that must be delivered in a doctor"s office or hospital.
In a sign of the challenges facing seniors on Medicare, a new study finds that older Americans are more likely to make poor choices when faced with a wide array of drug-coverage plans. Making matters worse, many are confident they made the right decisions.
Covidien (NYSE: COV, BSX: COV), a leading global supplier of healthcare
"Building Momentum as Democrats Forge Health Care Reform," New England Journal of Medicine: In a perspective piece, John Iglehart, a national correspondent for NEJM, reviews recent action on health reform. He discusses industry and provider groups" pledge to reduce spending by $2 trillion over the next 10 years, noting that the groups" pledge was a "recognition that the pace of reform is quickening and they wanted to be a full participant in negotiations." He also addresses congressional action, including discussions of a public insurance option and how lawmakers are attempting to address the cost of reform (Iglehart, NEJM, 5/14).
The average U.S. family and their employers paid an additional $1,017 in health care premiums in 2008 to pay for care of the uninsured, according to a study released on Thursday by Families USA, USA Today reports (Kim, USA Today, 5/28). According to the study, which examined federal data, the uninsured received $116 billion in health care from hospitals, physicians and other providers in 2008 and paid 37% of that amount. Government programs and charities covered an additional 26%, which left another 37%, or about $43 billion, unpaid. The study then estimated how those costs are when spread across the insured through higher premiums, the study found. According to the study, prepared by the actuarial firm Milliman, the average additional amount paid under private coverage for single individuals was about $370 per year (Werner, AP/Austin American-Statesman, 5/28). Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack said, "This is a hidden tax on all insurance premiums, whether it is paid by business for their work or by families when they purchase their own coverage" (USA Today, 5/28).The study is available online.
Digital media are changing the environment for communicating health information. In a new book, "Health Communication and the New Media Landscape," University of Missouri journalism researchers examine how the digital media revolution is affecting health and health care in the United States. Effective health communication can significantly enhance health care and public health as well as reduce inequities in people"s access to health information and services, according to the authors.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) today announced the initiation of a Phase 3 registration program for VX-770, an investigational Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) potentiator that targets the defective CFTR protein that causes cystic fibrosis (CF). The VX-770 registration program will consist of three clinical trials, including a primary 48-week Phase 3 trial that is currently open to enrollment of patients aged 12 years and older who carry the G551D mutation on at least one allele. Two additional trials will evaluate VX-770 in patients aged 6 to 11 years with the G551D mutation on at least one allele and in patients homozygous for the F508del mutation, respectively.
Starting pregnancy at a healthy weight and gaining the right amount during pregnancy is critical to giving a baby a healthy start in life, the March of Dimes said today in response to new guidelines from the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
Burger King Corp.(NYSE:BKC) announced today that it is enhancing its BK® Kids Meal menu with offerings that meet its stringent nutrition criteria for advertised Kids Meals, as part of the company"s commitment to its BK Positive StepsSM program. With three new additions, Burger King Corp. now offers a total of four BK® Kids Meal options that comply with Burger King Corp."s advertising pledge through the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) Children"s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI).
Cytori (NASDAQ:CYTX) completed enrollment in the first study to investigate adipose derived stem and regenerative cells in chronic heart disease. The trial, which has been named the PRECISE study, was carried out at leading cardiology centers in Europe. It specifically enrolled patients suffering from an advanced form of chronic heart disease, known as chronic myocardial ischemia, for which there is no generally accepted treatment.
The health of our skin - one of the body"s first lines of defense against illness and injury - depends upon the delicate balance between our own cells and the millions of bacteria and other one-celled microbes that live on its surface. To better understand this balance, National Institutes of Health researchers have set out to explore the skin"s microbiome, which is all of the DNA, or genomes, of all of the microbes that inhabit human skin. Their initial analysis, published in the journal Science, reveals that our skin is home to a much wider array of bacteria than previously thought.
- 0 confirmed cases in Wales.
A home-based diet and exercise program reduced the rate of functional decline among older, overweight long-term survivors of colorectal, breast and prostate cancer, according to a study in the May 13 issue of JAMA.
We all know that vitamin D and calcium are good for bones, but research teams in Europe and USA have shown that both taken daily reduces the rate of hip fracture in older people by 20%.
Sensory ataxic neuropathy (SAN) is a recently identified neurological
A call to action for more research to be undertaken into catheter ablation in the field of ventricular arrhythmia (VA) has been issued in a joint consensus document from the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the US Heart Rhythm Society (HRS). The consensus document - launched at Heart Rhythm 2009, the Heart Rhythm Society"s 30th Annual Scientific Sessions, being held 13 to 16 May in Boston - provides an up to date review of indications, techniques and outcomes of catheter ablation for treatment of ventricular arrhythmias, a technique now being offered to increasing numbers of patients.
Informa Healthcare - one of the world"s leading medical and scientific publishers- has announced that its peer-reviewed medical titles will be joining the company"s pharmaceutical science titles to form one, united platform for drug discovery and clinical medicine on http://www.Informahealthcare.com.
The Radiology department at King"s College Hospital is now benefiting from enhanced ultrasound image quality and optimised workflow following the installation of an ACUSON S2000™ from Siemens Healthcare. The hospital also uses the S2000"s Virtual Touch™ application for Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) imaging to assist with scanning the liver.
The Centre for Epidemiological Studies into Sexually-Transmitted Diseases and AIDS in Catalonia (CEEISCAT) started a pioneering study in Spain in 2005 to look into the prevalence of sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) among female sex workers (SWs). The objective was to monitor the rates of infection with both HIV and other diseases over time, as well as the prevalence of risky behaviour.
At a time when breast augmentation tops the list for U.S. cosmetic surgical procedures, women are still left choosing between either the safety of saline or the natural result of silicone gel. Plastic surgeons are now looking to offer the best features of both in the revolutionary new technology of the IDEAL IMPLANT® Saline-filled Breast Implant. A clinical trial is launching this month in select markets nationwide, giving some women the opportunity to be among the first to have this new implant.
The European Medicines Agency has been formally notified by BioPartners GmbH of its decision to withdraw its application for Biferonex (interferon beta-1a), 6 million-international-unit solution for injection, prefilled syringes for subcutaneous administration.
Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that several studies evaluating the use of Leukine(R) (sargramostim) will be presented at the 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.
By observing the pattern of activity in the brain, scientists have discovered they can "read" whether a person just heard words spoken in anger, joy, relief, or sadness. The discovery, reported online on May 14th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, is the first to show that emotional information is represented by distinct spatial signatures in the brain that can be generalized across speakers.
CuraGen Corporation (Nasdaq: CRGN) announced plans for three data presentations from its ongoing clinical trials of CR011-vcMMAE, an antibody-drug conjugate that targets GPNMB, in patients with advanced breast cancer and melanoma at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Orlando, Florida.
Congressman James McGovern, D-Massachusetts, has announced National Institutes of Health (NIH) awards for two researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute"s Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park.
Two of the world"s leading Alzheimer"s researchers have co-edited a book critically synthesizing the major new developments in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer"s disease. Building upon a 2007 Alzheimer"s disease conference held in Chile, George Perry, dean of the College of Sciences at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and Ricardo B. Maccioni, neurology professor at The University of Chile Medical School have edited "Current Hypotheses and Research Milestones in Alzheimer"s Disease," a 254-page text written by academics and medical doctors. The book focuses on the most promising hypotheses that illuminate the path to more effective treatment.
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) have established the Stephen and Nancy Grand Multiple Myeloma Translational Initiative, a research collaboration dedicated to translating basic science discoveries into new candidate drugs for testing in clinical trials.
Telemonitoring systems, by which the symptoms of heart failure can be remotely assessed, now provide a strategy for the improved personalised care of patients, according to Professor John Cleland from the University of Hull, UK.1 He told Heart Failure Congress 2009 that the management of heart failure is complex but most effective when tailored to the individual patients" needs and condition.2 "Unfortunately," he added, "the res required to offer this tailored treatment outside a hospital setting are generally not available. Current services provide, at best, only a crude attempt to deliver long-term, personalised healthcare, but telemonitoring provides a strategy which could radically change this situation."
A new study shows that a large majority of patients who present with advanced colorectal cancer that has spread to other organs (stage IV) don"t require immediate surgery to remove the primary tumor in the colon. Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) presented their data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.
The Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group recently called on the country to launch a comprehensive harm reduction program for injection drug users in an effort to help curb the spread of HIV, Thailand"s The Nation reports. According to the group, many IDUs are unable to access drug treatment and substation therapy because of the stigma surrounding drug use in the country. Karyn Kaplan, director of development and policy for the group, said, "Health care workers have denied many injecting drug users access to an antiviral drug and the use of methadone." Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai recently announced that the country"s harm reduction programs have helped to curb the spread of HIV among IDUs, adding that local substitution programs have reduced the number of HIV-positive IDUs and that the country needs increased support from UNAIDS for such efforts. TTAG called for the government to provide prevention and treatment options, such as substitution therapy and needle-exchange programs. The Nation reports that methadone treatment is offered at hospitals across the country as part of the national health care scheme, but many health care workers refuse to administer treatment. In addition, government treatment is offered for 45 days. Kaplan said that the government should revise its policy regarding treatment access for IDUs, as a majority of IDUs are incarcerated and living with HIV or hepatitis-C without treatment access. She called on the government to "implement the international standards of medical treatment for [IDUs], without discrimination and human rights violations" (The Nation, 5/27).
Patients undergoing treatment for advanced head and neck cancers may respond well to the addition of gefinitib to chemotherapy, according to a study sponsored by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and chaired by Ethan Argiris, M.D., associate professor of medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and co-leader of the Head and Neck Cancer Program of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). The results were disclosed at the 45th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on May 30 in Orlando, Fla.
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have recently demonstrated a breakthrough in the quantum control of photons, the energy quanta of light. This is a significant result in quantum computation, and could eventually have implications in banking, drug design, and other applications.
Members of a USC-led research team say they"ve made a big improvement in a new breed of electronic detectors for viruses and other biological materials - one that may be a valuable addition to the battle against epidemics.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have uncovered variation around two genes that are associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer. Testicular cancer is the most common cancer among young men, and its incidence among non-Hispanic Caucasian men has doubled in the last 40 years -- it now affects seven out of 100,000 white men in the United States each year. The discovery, published in the May 31, 2009 online issue of Nature Genetics, is the first step toward understanding which men are at high risk of disease.
Focusing HIV drug development on immune cells called macrophages instead of traditionally targeted T cells could bring us closer to eradicating the disease, according to new research from University of Florida and five other institutions.
A 15-year whistleblower case filed by a former employee against Healthways, Inc. has been settled for approximately $40,000,000 in damages and fees. The case was initiated in June 1994, when A. Scott Pogue, who had recently been fired from his job as a marketing representative for a company called Diabetes Treatment Centers of America, filed a case in Nashville under the United States Civil False Claims Act against his former employer.
GTCbio Announces 4th Annual Assay Development and Screening Conference taking place June 8-9, 2009. As compounds derived from high throughput screening increasingly find their way into clinical trials, drug screening has become widely accepted as a critical step in the drug discovery process. After more than a decade of rapid growth, tremendous progress has been made in assay technology, laboratory automation, and informatics. These technological developments have not only facilitated a drastic increase in throughput and efficiency in drug screening, but have also provided novel solutions in other areas of drug discovery and development. As screening has also become prominent in biological research, screening facilities have become increasingly popular in academic institutions.
A report released by the consumer health organization Families USA spotlights a growing crisis among insured families, as rising health care costs devour a growing portion of their pre-tax income.
A new study showed that the breast cancer drug Herceptin improved survival in patients with HER2-positive stomach cancer, an aggressive form
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a concern for many Americans, but most people are thinking about protecting their skin, not their eyes. Whether it"s a cloudy or sunny day, summer or winter, the American Optometric Association (AOA) reminds Americans to take specific measures to protect their eyes from the sun"s UV rays in order to decrease the risk of vision disorders.
A University initiative to commercialise novel business ideas and inventions has secured its first two licensing agreements and attracted a further ÷Ł400,000 in funding.
Final results from a phase II study presented at ASCO show that 25% of women with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer experienced significant shrinkage of their tumours, when treated with a first in class combination antibody called trastuzumab-DM1 (T-DM1). T-DM1 potentially represents another option for patients with metastatic disease, for which there is no cure.
Interventional radiology is a dynamic and innovative specialty. In the last ten years new image guided therapies for uterine myomata, infertility, pelvic pain, osteoporosis, and varicose veins have largely been developed. Interventional Radiology in Women"s Health, published by Thieme, focuses on women"s health and the expanding role of interventional radiology within this pioneering area of medicine.
The NPA is asking its members to utilise the new NPA IT forums website to comment on the criteria that should be used to demonstrate that EPS is operationally functional ahead of national roll-out. The NPA believes that EPS must work technically, be business and operationally functional, improve service delivery at pharmacies, and is safe for patients, before full roll-out can be contemplated. The website, http://itforums.npa.co.uk, provides an opportunity for members throughout the UK to voice their opinions on the IT programmes affecting their country or on general IT topics which affect all nations.
Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc., a worldwide leader in diagnostic imaging, announces that it has completed patient enrollment of CaRES (Contrast Echocardiography REgistry for Safety Surveillance), the first, multicenter Phase IV observational registry that evaluates the use of ultrasound imaging agents in routine clinical practice. The 1,060 patients who were enrolled at 15 sites in the U.S. were 18 years old or older and required DEFINITY® Vial for (Perflutren Lipid Microsphere) injectable suspension-enhanced echocardiography because of a previous suboptimal, unenhanced echocardiogram.
Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) cells are present in the majority of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), aplastic anemia (AA), and other bone marrow failure syndromes (BMF), according to interim results from 5,285 patients enrolled in the EXPLORE trial. EXPLORE (EXamination of PNH, by Level Of CD59 on REd and white blood cells) is the first large multicenter study to determine the frequency of PNH cells in these patient populations using a central laboratory conducting a high sensitivity test for PNH cells. The findings from EXPLORE will be presented tomorrow at the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The EXPLORE trial was sponsored by Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:ALXN).
With consumer genetics becoming more of a reality to the average consumer and direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetics tests becoming more available, thought leaders, experts and DTC companies will convene in Boston on June 9-11 for the first annual Consumer Genetics Conference to move the issues to the forefront and demystify this emerging field. Preeminent leaders from government, healthcare, biotechnology and diagnostic fields, will examine consumer genetics, including its practical realities and complex policy considerations; speakers and companies will present new advances and information on available genetic tests and developments in this field. The conference is open to all who are curious, impacted by, and interested in consumer genetics, including consumers (http://www.consumergeneticsconference.com).
ACCESS PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.(OTC Bulletin Board: ACCP), provided an update on the progress in the Company"s clinical development plan for ProLindac, a novel DACH platinum drug that has shown to be active in many solid tumor types in human clinical studies. Access recently announced positive safety and efficacy results from its Phase 2 monotherapy clinical study of ProLindac(TM) in late-stage, heavily pretreated ovarian cancer patients. In this study, 66% of patients who received the highest dose achieved clinically meaningful disease stabilization according to RECIST criteria. No patient in any dose group exhibited any signs of acute neurotoxicity, which is a major adverse side-effect of the approved DACH platinum, Eloxatin, and ProLindac was well tolerated overall. The Company has scaled up manufacturing in order to begin the next phase of clinical development. Access plans to conduct several combination trials in different solid tumor types both as Company-sponsored trials and in conjunction with its two previously announced co-development partners.
Mersana Therapeutics presented preliminary results of a Phase 1 clinical trial for its lead development candidate, XMT-1001, in a poster session at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Orlando. XMT-1001 is a broad-spectrum cytotoxic, based on camptothecin (CPT), conjugated to Mersana"s biodegradable polymer platform, Fleximer(R).
An article published Online First and in an upcoming edition of The Lancet reports that women aged between 24 and 45 can be protected by the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, if they have not been already infected by the virus. The report is the work of Dr Nubia Mu÷±oz, from the National Institute of Cancer, Bogot÷ˇ, Colombia, and collaborators.
American Psychological Association 117th Annual Convention in Toronto, Canada, Aug. 6-9, 2009
Maryland intensive care patients will now be connected by voice, video and data lines to specialized physicians and nurses at a tertiary care referral center 130 miles away. A year after announcing six, independent Maryland hospitals, with a $3 million grant from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, were joining together to provide state-of-the-art critical care to their patients, the first hospital, Calvert Memorial Hospital in Prince Frederick, Md., is fully online with the sophisticated care system.
Physicians who treat patients with multiple health problems will fare well under pay-for-performance, which bases physician reimbursement on the quality of care provided, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston in a report in the current issue of the journal Circulation.
The Pima County Health Department is releasing additional
A study in the June 1 issue of the journal SLEEP demonstrates that online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for chronic insomnia significantly improves insomnia severity, daytime fatigue, and sleep quality. Online treatment also reduces erroneous beliefs about sleep and pre-sleep mental arousal.
Low birth weight babies are at greater risk of developing psychosis-like symptoms as they grow up, research suggests.
Health outcomes explored at DDW 2009
The Royal College of Anaesthetists, the professional body representing anaesthesia in the UK, is introducing an interactive e-Learning re to support training and professional development in anaesthesia. The programme will be launched by the President of the College, Dr Judith Hulf, at its annual College Tutors conference on 11 June, 2009.
UCB announced that the European Medicines Agency"s (EMEA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has issued a positive opinion recommending that the European Commission lifts the treatment restrictions for Neupro® (rotigotine transdermal patch) in Europe.
Oligophrenin-1, a Rho-GTPase-activating protein, stabilizes postsynaptic AMPA receptors
If having malodorous armpits (called osmidrosis) and goopy earwax isn"t bad enough, a discovery by Japanese scientists may add a more serious problem for women facing these cosmetic calamities. That"s because they"ve found that a gene responsible for breast cancer causes these physical symptoms. The report describing this finding is featured on the cover of The FASEB Journal"s June 2009 print issue, and should arm physicians with another clue for detecting breast cancer risk.
Causal inference is challenging in all non-experimental studies because of the possibility of hidden bias. Hidden bias may exist as a result of failure to control for unobservable factors, such as doctors" practice/prescription patterns.
San Leandro Hospital registered nurses and physicians will be holding a rally today to protest the threatened closure of the medical center by Sutter Health. The healthcare professionals say that this plan would be a significant loss of public health res for Alameda County, and an unwise move in the face of ongoing threats to public health.
A new method to induce protein folding by taking the pressure off of proteins is up to 100 times faster than previous methods, and could help guide more accurate computer simulations for how complex proteins fold, according to research by a team of University of Illinois scientists accepted for publication in the journal Nature Methods and posted on the journal"s Web site May 31.
The United Kingdom"s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published a Final Appraisal Determination (FAD) recommending the use of the drug Erbitux® (cetuximab) in combination with chemotherapy as a 1st-line treatment for patients with metastatic (advanced) colorectal cancer (mCRC) who have met specific additional criteria1 - presenting the possibility of potentially curative surgery.2 The treatment is recommended for patients in whom the cancer has spread only to the liver and who have normal or "wild-type" KRAS tumors.1 In the UK, a recommendation by NICE is a prerequisite for funding of a medical treatment by the National Health Service.
While the majority of patients with common vision problems can find glasses or contact lenses fairly easily, others who suffer from diseases of the eye that affect the focus of light have more limited options and may simply have to learn to live with poor vision.
The New York Times reports on a series of deep budget cuts to help California, which is some $24 billion in the red, deal with its" ongoing financial woes.
High-throughput whole-genome analysis is becoming a standard laboratory approach for investigating cellular processes. Next-generation sequencing is replacing microarrays as the technique of choice for genome-scale analysis, because it offers advantages in both sensitivity and scale. The June issue of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols features "Native Chromatin Preparation and Illumina/Solexa Library Construction" from Keji Zhao and colleagues at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The article describes sample preparation for sequencing of chromatin-immunoprecipitated DNA (ChIP-Seq) to analyze histone modification patterns using native chromatin and the Solexa/Illumina Genome Analyzer. Step-by-step instructions are given for purification of human CD4+ T cells from lymphocytes and chromatin fragmentation using micrococcal nuclease (MNase) digestion, followed by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and construction of a library for sequencing. The article is freely available on the website for Cold Spring Harbor Protocols (http://cshprotocols.cshlp.org/cgi/content/full/2009/6/pdb.prot5237).
If you want a safe way to take your dog with you on bike rides, the Springer dog exerciser might be the perfect answer.
Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, president of UT Southwestern Medical Center, has received the American Gastroenterological Association"s 2009 Julius Friedenwald Medal for Distinguished Service for his lifelong contributions to the field of gastroenterology.
Today, June 1, kicks off Sun Safety Week, and while the sun is a fundamental, life-fueling force, Health Net Inc. (NYSE:HNT) wants to remind everyone that it"s important to remember that this standout star also is responsible for thousands of deaths annually due to skin cancer and heat-related illnesses.
Some New York City residents with HIV pay as much as 70% of their income on housing because of the financial assistance they receive through the New York City HIV/AIDS Services Administration, New York Daily News columnist Errol Louis writes. According to Louis, lawmakers should pass a bill that would cap the rent contribution of low-income people with HIV/AIDS at 30% of their income, "the standard used for most rent-subsidy programs." The bill is currently before the state"s Assembly Ways and Means Committee. Louis adds that ensuring that people living with HIV are in "stable housing ň€¦ makes them less likely to run up big taxpayer bills by using public hospital emergency rooms for basic health care." He concludes, "Albany has a choice: do what"s cheap and quick in the short run, or do what makes long-term sense and saves lives" (Louis, New York Daily News, 5/31).
This month"s Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery features positive Phase Ib clinical trial results for PARI Pharma"s L-CsA, inhaled liposomal cyclosporine A. In May, PARI Pharma received Orphan Drug Designation from the Food and Drug Administration for L-CsA, delivered via an Investigational eFlow Nebulizer System, for the prevention and treatment of bronchiolitis obliterans, a devastating, incurable disease of the small airways affecting approximately 60,000 patients worldwide.
Two studies from AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) show that symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) patients treated with NEXIUM(R) (esomeprazole magnesium) 20 mg daily experienced greater relief from nighttime heartburn and GERD-related sleep disturbances compared with patients taking placebo over four weeks(1). NEXIUM 20 mg is indicated for the treatment of heartburn and other symptoms associated with GERD. NEXIUM, in a class of drugs called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), demonstrated efficacy in relieving moderate-to-severe nighttime heartburn and GERD-related sleep disturbances in two randomized, placebo-controlled trials(2). These findings were presented in three separate abstracts at Digestive Disease Week 2009 in Chicago.
Local news coverage details concerns about Medicare and Medicaid spending reductions that could affect senior and nursing care.
A troubled county jail, where hundreds of lawsuits have stemmed from mistakes in managing the inmates" health information, would be a perfect testing ground for electronic medical records, the Arizona Republic reports. But Maricopa County officials have not acted on repeated recommendations to implement such a system, "even when faced with hundreds of lawsuits and the loss of accreditation for CHS operations."
TeraMedica Healthcare Technology announced, along with partner, Sun Microsystems, that the two companies will be offering a pre-configured solution for viewing and managing clinical images originating from different modalities and providers to bring secure, consistent image sharing to point-of-care.
Jamaica has already achieved some U.N. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets and is "on track" to attain five more, according to a report that mapped the country"s progress toward the MDGs, the Jamaica Observer reports.
Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) will be demonstrating its full range of brachytherapy cancer treatment equipment and software at the American Brachytherapy Society meeting in Toronto, Canada, from May 31 to June 2. Varian"s exhibit will include the new BrachyVision™ Acuros™ system, which offers a significantly more accurate* way of calculating the dosimetry of cancer treatments.
As swine flu spread from Mexico to Texas and then fanned out farther in the United States, Americans began to alter their behavior. Families kept children home from school, postponed trips to the mall, and stayed home instead of eating out. In so doing, the American population may have inadvertently altered the behavior of the pathogen itself.
Weill Cornell Medical College has announced that it has received a US$100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Dr. Kyu Rhee, assistant attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, titled "Metabolosomes: The Organizing Principle of Latency in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis."
Ryder today announced it is committing $1 million over the next three years through the Ryder Charitable Foundation to support national and local disaster preparedness and response efforts, making it the newest member of the American Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program.
There are many reasons why health care costs in the US are spiraling out of control: ineffective use of res, unmanaged chronic conditions and infrequent implementations of proven prevention strategies all contribute. While it stands to reason that preventative actions are one solution, no one has yet quantified the value of investing in non-traditional prevention programs.
Researchers unveiled data during Digestive Disease Week® (DDW®) 2009 examining the potential risks associated with two commonly-used treatments, particularly among the elderly: acid suppressors and antithrombotics. DDW is the largest international gathering of physicians and researchers in the field of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery.
Researchers at Penn State College of Medicine, working with biochemists, geneticists and clinicians at the University of Bern, Switzerland and in the United Kingdom, have discovered an enzyme that has a key role in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The team, co-led by Judith Bond, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State College of Medicine, and Daniel Lottaz, Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at the University of Bern, Switzerland, could potentially lead to therapies to help the half-a-million Americans affected by ulcerative colitis and Crohn"s disease, collectively referred to as IBD.
Call it advanced warfare on the most elemental of levels.
New data on the persistence of avian influenza viruses in the environment has allowed a team of University of Georgia researchers to create the first model that takes into account both direct and indirect transmission of the viruses among birds. The model, which is detailed in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has the potential to shed new light on how outbreaks begin in wild bird populations.
Three patients at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center were among the first in the United States to be implanted with a next-generation artificial heart pump called the DuraHeart™ Left-Ventricular Assist System. The surgeries took place earlier this year. NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia is one of only three centers in the U.S. currently enrolling patients in a clinical trial studying the device.
Infertility Network Scotland has welcomed the announcement by the Public Health Minister, Shona Robison, that over the next three years the Scottish Government will provide funding to Infertility Network Scotland to work with Health Boards to help them to address the inequity of access that has existed in Scotland for too many years. We also welcomed the news that an expert advisory group will be established this summer to consider an action plan on infertility services.
Sanofi-aventis (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY) and its fully owned subsidiary, BiPar Sciences, announced results from a randomized Phase 2 clinical trial of BSI-201, a poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, in combination with gemcitabine and carboplatin (GC) chemotherapy, in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). BSI-201 is a novel investigational agent that acts by inhibiting PARP1, an enzyme that repairs DNA damage.
Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SLXP) announced on Monday the presentation of new data from its Phase III pivotal clinical trial evaluating the efficacy, safety and tolerability of rifaximin - a non-absorbed (O144. The Effect of Prognostic Factors on the Maintenance of Remission in Hepatic Encephalopathy Patients Treated with Rifaximin
As lawmakers return to Washington to tackle
Although Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor"s confirmation hearings are more than a month away, "it"s easy to predict how they will go," New York Times columnist Ross Douthat writes. Douthat predicts that Senate Judiciary Committee members "will attempt to divine Sotomayor"s position on a variety of controversial topics," such as abortion rights, and in "a series of polite, evasive answers, the nominee will feign a studious neutrality on almost every issue that could come before her during what"s likely to be decades as one of the most powerful women in the world." According to Douthat, the "deeper stakes" that likely will be ignored are that "Sotomayor will be joining a high court that"s gradually become a kind of extra legislative body." He cites research from Harvard Law School professor Jed Shugerman showing that the court over roughly the past 50 years has invalidated both state and federal statutes at an unprecedented rate. Douthat also points to data from Evan Caminker of the University of Michigan showing that in one eight-year period, the court invalidated 16 federal laws in 5-4 votes, something that occurred only 25 times in the previous two centuries. Douthat writes that "settling so many vexing controversies with 5-to-4 votes -- effectively making Anthony Kennedy the nation"s philosopher king -- is an awfully poor way to run a republic."Douthat continues that the "modern court"s most enduringly controversial power grabs -- with Roe v. Wade leading the way -- were usually the work of liberal justices" but that "in practice, the main divide between liberal and conservative judges tends to be over the responsibilities of the federal government, not judicial activism per se." He writes, "There are bipartisan ways that the Court could be reined in, and the legislative branch reinvigorated," including the idea of a supermajority rule that would require a 6-3 vote to overturn federal legislation. This idea "might spur the court toward greater consensus, and perhaps greater modesty as well," according to Douthat. Another possibility would be to implement 12-year term limits, he says. Douthat concludes that these suggestions would not "reduce the Supreme Court"s power directly, but it would help us see the court for what it has become -- a deeply political institution, as fallible as any other, and answerable, when all is said and done, to us" (Douthat, New York Times, 6/2).
A phase III study has shown that adding an antibody-based therapy that harnesses the body"s immune system resulted in a 20 percent increase in the number of children living disease-free for at least two years with neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma, a hard-to-treat cancer arising from nervous system cells, is responsible for 15 percent of cancer-related deaths in children. The researchers reported their findings - the first to show that immunotherapy could be effective against childhood cancer - online May 14, 2009 on the American Society of Clinical Oncology website in advance of presentation June 2.
Why The Health Care Rush? - The Wall Street Journal
The E.U. on Tuesday authorized $11 million in humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe, VOA News reports (VOA News, 6/2). The E.U."s actions come one day after U.N. agencies expressed the need for $718 million in foreign donations to help meet the urgent needs of the people of Zimbabwe (Kaiser Daily Global Health Report, 6/2).
With exciting pre-clinical results showing that its carbohydrate-based vaccine can combat cerebral malaria (CM), which causes inflammation of the brain, Ancora Pharmaceuticals has received another grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to research whether its vaccine candidate will also prevent severe malaria anemia (SMA).
In a development aimed at improving patient outcomes, physicians treating thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA) will now experience a new level of control while placing endografts during thoracic endovascular repair procedures. With the launch of Cook Medical"s new Z-TRAK PLUS™ Introduction System, physicians are provided with improved maneuverability for controllable device orientation and deployment of the Zenith® TX2™ TAA Endovascular Stent Graft compared to earlier Cook delivery systems.
When you were a kid your mom poured it on your scraped finger to stave off infection. When you got older you might have even used it to bleach your hair. Now there"s another possible function for this over-the-counter colorless liquid: your body might be using hydrogen peroxide as an envoy that marshals troops of healing cells to wounded tissue.
Results from a Phase III study presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida today show that patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received erlotinib (Tarceva®) as first-line maintenance treatment benefited from a significant (29%) improvement in the time they lived without the disease advancing, compared with those who received placebo1. Patients in the global multicentre SATURN trial, which included patients from the UK, received maintenance treatment with erlotinib if their cancer had not progressed on initial chemotherapy. The data showed a significant improvement in the length of time patients lived without their disease getting worse, and without the need for further chemotherapy. 1 The improvement was seen in both of the main types of NSCLC (squamous cell as well as non-squamous cell) and these results form the basis of a submission for regulatory approval of erlotinib to be used in the first-line maintenance setting. 1 Erlotinib is not currently licensed for first line maintenance treatment in NSCLC lung cancer in the UK.
This paper investigates 26 patients with painful metal-on-metal resurfacing arthroplasties and describes three tests for the investigation of the phenomenon. The tests are metal artefact-reduction MRI, 3-D CT measurement of the position of the component and inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry.
In the quest for new approaches to treating and preventing disease, one appealing route involves turning genes on or off at will, directly intervening in ailments such as cancer and diabetes, which result when genes fail to turn on and off as they should.
Although it is a relatively widespread phenomenon, the experts have still not been able to come up with an all-encompassing and precise definition of workplace abuse or bullying. Basing their work on previous literature, David González, of the High Court of Justice of Madrid and JosĂ© LuĂs Graña, of the Faculty of Psychology at the Complutense University, have defined it in their study as a "process of systematic and repeated aggression by a person or group towards a workmate, subordinate or superior". Their research has been published in the latest issue of Psicothema.
In the face of rising health care costs, a new study has found that older adults were less likely to identify the plan that minimized their total annual cost and were likely to mistakenly think they had chosen the lowest-cost plan. The study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation® Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research, is currently available online, and will be published in the August 2009 issue of Health Services Research.