Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals (P&GP) welcome the new Final Appraisal Determination (FAD) Guidance for the primary and secondary prevention of osteoporosis from NICE.
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In an ironic twist to the relationship between tobacco and human health, it would seem that the future of the plant may lie in growing vaccines against cancer.
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According to government figures published today, 811,000 people were admitted to hospital with alcohol misuse problems in 2006 in England. The figures hide the individual tragedies that hospital frontline staff see everyday, says the British Medical Association (BMA).
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Monday that a sample of jalapeno pepper from a food distribution centre in McAllen, Texas, was a genetic match to the strain of Salmonella Saintpaul strain behind the current outbreak of Salmonella that has so far infected over 1,200 people nationwide.
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Prescriptions filled for antidepressant drugs increased from 154 million in 2002 to 170 million in 2005, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Among the prescriptions (not including refills) which were written after patients talked with doctors in-person or over the phone.
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The AP/Google.com on Tuesday examined a debate in Bexar County, Texas, over whether needle-exchange programs should be legalized to help curb the spread of HIV. Currently, anyone in possession of drug paraphernalia can be prosecuted, regardless of their intentions.About one year ago, the state Legislature authorized Bexar County to establish a pilot needle-exchange program. State Rep.
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The South Carolina Health Information Exchange this month launched a no-cost Web tool that will give health care providers access to the medical histories of state Medicaid beneficiaries, the Charleston Post and Courier reports. Through SCHIEx's password-protected Web site, providers will be able to access a patient's medical history.
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The Senate on Monday by unanimous consent approved a bill (S 901) that would reauthorize through 2012 three federal programs that provide services to rural and underserved areas, CongressDaily reports. The legislation, proposed by Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), would provide $12.
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Pregnant women with epilepsy who took the seizure drug topiramate, which is sold by Johnson & Johnson under the brand name Topamax, increased their risk of having an infant with birth defects, especially when taken in combination with another drug called valproate, according to a study published in the July 22 issue of journal Neurology, the Los Angeles Times reports.
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The Fiji Australia Business Council and UNAIDS on Monday agreed to a partnership under which they will develop a business coalition in Fiji to strengthen the private sector's response to HIV/AIDS, the Fiji Times reports (Fiji Times, 7/22). According to FABC President Caz Tebbutt Dennis, the business coalition will help companies develop policies such as voluntary HIV/AIDS testing among workers.
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The five major hospitals in the New Orleans area lost a combined $386.8 million between 2005 and 2007 and are expected to continue facing economic troubles, according to a Government Accountability Office report released on Friday, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
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The Christian Science Monitor on Tuesday examined the debate over whether "childbirth is a natural bodily function or a medical event necessitating hospitalization." The Monitor profiled the case of midwife Diane Goslin, who practices in an Amish area of Lancaster County, Pa. Goslin was ordered last fall by the Pennsylvania Board of Medicine to stop assisting pregnant women during childbirth.
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The International Labour Organization recently called on some Middle Eastern countries, including the United Arab Emirates, to end discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS, The National reports. ILO in partnership with UNAIDS and the International Organization for Migration also proposed a code of practice for governments in dealing with migrant workers who become HIV-positive.
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Tuesday signed legislation (AB 1150) that prohibits health insurance companies from rewarding employees who cancel or limit an enrollee's coverage, the Los Angeles Times reports.
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In an effort to maintain the support of the health care business community, sponsors of a health information technology bill (HR 6357) aimed at creating a nationwide system of electronic medical records recently added significant privacy revisions, CongressDaily reports. The legislation, sponsored by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.
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Newly developed software will help to allay patients' fears about who has access to their confidential data. Research published in the open access journal BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making describes a computer program capable of deleting details from medical records which may identify patients, while leaving important medical information intact.
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A report by scientists from The Netherlands published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org/) identifies a compound in human saliva that greatly speeds wound healing. This research may offer hope to people suffering from chronic wounds related to diabetes and other disorders, as well as traumatic injuries and burns.
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Amerigroup on Tuesday said it will enter a $225 million settlement agreement with Illinois and the federal government over allegations that it denied coverage to eligible pregnant women, the Baltimore Sun reports (Baltimore Sun, 7/23).
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Picking up on innuendo and social cues is a central component of engaging in conversation, but people with autism often struggle to determine another person's intentions in a social interaction.
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Is Breast Reduction More Dangerous for Morbidly Obese Women? As the obese population increases, more overweight women are consulting plastic surgeons for breast reductions. In previous studies, this group of patients had been thought to have higher complication rates.
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Three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the Gulf Coast, a new survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health Project on the Public and Biological Security shows that one-third (34%) of those affected by the storm report they are very prepared if a major hurricane were to strike their communities in the next six months.
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A group of scientists who set out to study sex pheromones in a tiny worm found that the same family of pheromones also controls a stage in the worms' life cycle, the long-lived dauer larva. The findings, published in Nature online on July 23, represent the first time that reproduction and lifespan have been linked through so-called small molecules.
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A University of Washington study of top-selling laundry products and air fresheners found the products emitted dozens of different chemicals. All six products tested gave off at least one chemical regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws, but none of those chemicals was listed on the product labels.
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A three-point plan to improve mental health services in England has been proposed today by Unite, the country's largest union. The template for action follows stinging criticism of the mental health system by the Healthcare Commission. One finding revealed that 45% of psychiatric nurses and 15% of patients had been physically attacked in the last year.
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Researchers have made a discovery which could lead the way for new treatments into a rare eye disorder which if not treated can result in permanent blindness in childhood. An eye disorder which leads to "lazy eye" (strabismus) first described in early 1900, and a gene known since 1990 to be widely expressed within the nervous system, have now been linked together.
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The Health Protection Agency has set up a new centre to study the possible health effects of human exposure to nanoparticles. The National Nanotoxicology Research Centre (NNRC) is being developed at the Agency's Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards (CRCE) at Chilton in Oxfordshire.
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Scientists at the University of Aberdeen Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health are starting a new weight loss study to assess mechanisms associated with hunger during dieting. They are particularly interested in the role of diet composition in helping people comply with weight loss diets.
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For decades, researchers have dreamed of creating robots with human-like abilities. Now an interdisciplinary team of European researchers has developed a robotic arm and hand that moves and 'senses' like a human, and is controlled by a human-inspired electronic 'brain'.
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MedHelp announced today a collaboration with Johns Hopkins Medicine, where specialists from Johns Hopkins will personally answer questions on a number of health topics on the MedHelp website, starting immediately with two questions a day each on Brain Tumors and Trigeminal Neuralgia.
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The Wellcome Trust has awarded 4.7 million pounds [5.8 million euros] to EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute [EMBL-EBI] to support the transfer of a large collection of information on the properties and activities of drugs and a large set of drug-like small molecules from the publicly listed company Galapagos NV to the public domain.
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This summer 50 young people with lifelong medical conditions will be fulfilling their dreams with a trip to the David Beckham Football Academy in Greenwich, London. Haemophilia Society Chief Executive, Chris James says: "All the young people are affected by bleeding disorders like haemophilia, which means that their blood doesn't clot properly.
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Biodiversity has long been recognized by EPA as critical for environmental well-being. Humans rely on healthy ecosystems to provide food, clean air, and drinking water. But less understood is the connection between disease and biodiversity (the number and variety of plants and animals found in a geographic region).
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Karl-Erik Andersson, MD, PhD, and Christopher Chapple, MD, Committee Chairs PARIS, FRANCE (UroToday.com) - Dr. Andersson began this presentation with a brief overview of the updated 2002 ICS definitions regarding lower urinary tract function and OAB and proposed theories for the pathophysiology of OAB.
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Serdar Tegkul, MD, Committee Chair PARIS, FRANCE (UroToday.com) - Dr. Tegkul began by noting the difficulties in producing Level 1 data for the pediatric population, as it is very difficult to recruit for randomized controlled trials.
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Drexel University's plasma medicine technologies were licensed to Plasma Technologies, Inc.(PTI), a Texas-based company that intends to design, patent and market medical devices related to wound healing and care, prevention of hospital borne infections, and other medical applications. The technology may have near term impact not only in civilian healthcare settings, but also on the U.S.
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A recent study shows that popular fish oil supplements have an effect on the healing process of small, acute wounds in human skin. But whether that effect is detrimental, as researchers initially suspected, remains a mystery.
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Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York have found that sorafenib (Nexavar) helps patients with advanced liver cancer live about 44 percent longer compared with patients who did not receive the anti-cancer drug.
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Papers delivered at three conferences in the US and Europe this summer report on new research at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering studying interactions of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) with bubble-blowing robots.
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Chris Fry, MD, Committee Chair PARIS, FRANCE (UroToday.com) - Dr. Fry began the second presentation by noting the rapid advances in our understanding of the role of the urothelium and suburothelium in bladder function and symptomatology since the last consultation. This committee addressed 8 separate areas in their report. Dr.
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Jean Hay Smith, MD, and Ingrid Nygaard, MD, Committee Chairs PARIS, FRANCE (UroToday.com) - Dr. Hay Smith presented this committee's findings on conservative management of UI in women and men and POP in women. Dr. Hay Smith noted that the group also examined other LUTS and the affect of aging on conservative management, but these issues will be addressed only in the full written report.
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UroToday.com - In this very important and unique study, the authors note that at 19.2 years average follow-up after percutaneous stone removal (PCNL), the incidence of hypertension (34.1%) is no different than after shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) (36.4%). Of note, the incidence of diabetes (23.5%) at first appeared to be higher than after SWL (16.
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For the first time, a consensus of diabetes and metabolic disorder experts have recommended a comprehensive treatment regimen for patients with pre-diabetes. The recommendations call for specific guidelines on both lifestyle, and pharmaceutical intervention where appropriate.
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A study led by Roy T. Steigbigel, M.D.
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For patients receiving kidney transplants, treatment with cholesterol-lowering "statin" drugs may lead to longer survival, reports a study in the November 2008 Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).
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Kidneys donated after individuals die from cardiovascular causes may be one of the best options for black patients in need of transplants, according to a study appearing in the October 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN).
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The Brain and Spinal Injury Trust Fund Commission releases its 2008 report "Brain and Spinal Injuries in Georgia: A Needs Assessment and State Action Plan" which is in conjunction with the Trust Fund's 10th Anniversary that will be held at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta.
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SpectraScience, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SCIE), a San Diego-based medical devices company, announced that it has placed its LUMA Cervical Imaging System to detect pre-cancers at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa under the direction of Dr. Colleen Kennedy. Dr.
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Marin Institute, the alcohol industry watchdog, held a news conference and town hall meeting in Los Angeles today to release the disturbing findings of its landmark report, The Annual Catastrophe of Alcohol in California. Such a comprehensive study has never been done in California.
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Dendreon Corporation (Nasdaq: DNDN) announced that it expects the Independent Data Monitoring Committee (IDMC) to review in October 2008 the interim analysis of overall survival relating to the Company's Phase 3 IMPACT (IMmunotherapy for Prostate AdenoCarcinoma Treatment, also known as D9902B) clinical trial of PROVENGE(R) (sipuleucel-T).
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FluoroPharma Inc., a company developing breakthrough molecular imaging agents for the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) market, announced positive Phase I results for BFPET, its novel Fluorine-18 labeled tracer for myocardial perfusion imaging. BFPET is FluoroPharma's second cardiovascular product to complete Phase I clinical development.
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