HealthCare Industry News
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:00:00 +0000
A new series of studies is being launched by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, exploring insight knowledge on how laboratory measures of moral qualities, such as compassion, relate to real-life behavior. Founder of the UW's Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM), Dr. Richard J. Davidson at the Waisman Center, was awarded a three-year, $1.7 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation for developing laboratory and real life measures of moral qualities, such as compassion and selflessness...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:00:00 +0000
The February edition of Neurosurgery reports that animal experiments in brain-injured rats have shown that stem cells injected via the carotid artery travel directly to the brain, greatly enhancing functional recovery...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:00:00 +0000
Drinking decaffeinated coffee may improve brain energy metabolism associated with diabetes type 2, according to a study published in Nutritional Neuroscience and carried out by researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Brain energy metabolism is a dysfunction with a known risk factor for dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000
In five years the NHS will require another reform, caution the editors of three leading healthcare publications. In addition, they request a public debate regarding the NHS's future to "salvage some good" from the government's "damaging" reforms. According to a second BMJ report discarding the Health and Social Care Bill, now would save more than £1 billion in 2013. Editors from the BMJ, Nursing Times, and Health Service Journal, explain that: "(the NHS) is far too important to be left at the mercy of ideological and incompetent intervention...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000
According to an investigation of GPs (general practitioners) in one region of South East England, burnout levels in UK general practice are high. The study is published in BMJ Open. The article reveals that primary care physicians (GPs, general practitioners, family doctors) who work in group practices, those who always see the same patient, and male doctors appear to be at considerably higher risk. This finding urged the researchers to reveal that "a significant group of doctors is in trouble...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000
A Missouri State Medical Association, led by two Saint Louis University pediatricians, aims to raise awareness about the importance of getting children vaccinated and change the way in which doctors respond to parents' fears of vaccines. The campaign is the focus point of Ken Haller, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, and Anthony Scalzo, M.D...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000
Though pacemakers require only small amounts of energy (about 1 millionth of a Watt), their batteries have to be replaced periodically, which means multiple surgeries for patients. Researchers have searched for ways to prolong battery life - trying to generate energy to power a pacemaker using blood sugar, or the motion of the hands and legs - but these methods either interfere with metabolism or require a more drastic surgery, such as passing a wire from the limbs to the chest area...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000
A new study recently published in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management (JIPM) shows that from 2003 to 2008, the use of insecticide active ingredients was reduced by about 90% in University of Florida housing buildings after an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program was implemented. IPM is a systematic approach to managing pests based on long-term prevention or suppression by a variety of methods that are cost effective and minimize risks to human health and the environment...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000
The same gene mutations linked to inherited, early-onset Alzheimer's disease have been found in people with the more common late-onset form of the illness. The discovery by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis may lead doctors and researchers to change the way Alzheimer's disease is classified. They reported their findings in the online journal PLoS One (Public Library of Science)...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000
Rutgers scientists have uncovered genetic clues as to why some mice no longer in danger are still fearful while others are resilient to traumatic experiences - knowledge that could help those suffering with crippling anxiety and PTSD. "Our work with mice demonstrates how genes play a role in developing and extinguishing pathological fear like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," says Gleb Shumyatsky, an associate professor in the Department of Genetics in the School of Arts and Sciences...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000
A research team led by investigators at Mayo Clinic in Florida has found that a small device worn on a patient's brow can be useful in monitoring stroke patients in the hospital. The device measures blood oxygen, similar to a pulse oximeter, which is clipped onto a finger. Their study, published in Neurosurgical Focus, suggests this tool, known as frontal near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), could offer hospital physicians a safe and cost-effective way to monitor patients who are being treated for a stroke, in real time...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000
Nighttime visits to the bathroom are generally associated with being pregnant or having an enlarged prostate, but the problem can affect youngsters, too. A new study sheds light on why some children may need to urinate more often during the rest cycle. Danish researchers have found that sleep deprivation causes healthy children, between the ages of eight and twelve, to urinate significantly more frequently, excrete more sodium in their urine, have altered regulation of the hormones important for excretion, and have higher blood pressure and heart rates...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000
Occasional erratic heart rhythms appear to cause about one-fifth of strokes for which a cause is not readily established, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2012. About one-third of survivors leave the hospital with the cause of their stroke still undetermined. "Identifying and treating these patients for irregular rhythm could reduce the recurrence of stroke by 40 percent compared to reducing the risk by treating them with aspirin," said Daniel J. Miller, M.D...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000
Despite advances in the diagnosis and treatment of unruptured brain aneurysms, outcomes have remained stagnant over the last 10 years. This can be explained by the dramatic proliferation of minimally invasive endoscopic coiling procedures at lower-volume community hospitals, where outcomes are inferior. These findings are reported in a study by neurologists, neurosurgeons and neuro-anesthesiologists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and published in the journal Stroke...
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000
An upward revision of the blood pressure numbers used to identify risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) might actually help doctors provide better care for their patients, said the authors of a study in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The researchers found that systolic blood pressure - the "upper number" in a blood pressure reading - was the key variable. Current guidelines call for CKD patients to maintain a systolic pressure of 130/80 or lower in order to prevent ESRD, which is complete or almost complete kidney failure, leading to dialysis, kidney transplant, or death...