Click Here to view the Journal of Managed Care Medicine
|
|
|
Moving clinical genomics beyond the hype
Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
Share
   
More than a decade after the successful mapping of the human genome, clinical genomics is starting to permeate important parts of patient care and ripple throughout the U.S. healthcare system. The increased adoption is partly due to growing acceptance of useful interventions, but is also due to loose regulatory oversight that allows marketing of unproven tests or tests of no value, one expert has warned.
More
Fighting cancer gets personal
Winnipeg Free Press
Share
The made-to-measure cancer treatments one Canadian woman has received highlight the promise — and current limitations — of personalized medicine, which involves using genetic screening or protein analysis to help doctors predict what drugs would work best for a particular patient. The approach, which has reshaped cancer care over the past decade, is a gradual move away from giving every patient the same drugs in the hope of benefiting the fortunate few.
More
Your fat craving may reside in your genes
HealthDay News via U.S. News & World Report
Share
Variations in a certain gene can make people more or less sensitive to the taste of fat and affect their risk for obesity, researchers report. The team at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis studied 21 obese people and found that those with a particular variant of the CD36 gene were far more sensitive to the taste of fat.
More
| Biotech/Diagnostics/Personalized Medicine |
More known about proteins that cause autoimmune diseases
HealthDay News via U.S. News & World Report
Share
A new study says more than 32 million people in the United States have autoantibodies, which are proteins produced in the immune system that attack the body's tissues. Autoantibodies can cause autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and type 1 diabetes, researchers say.
More
US wants effective Alzheimer's treatment by 2025
The Associated Press via Time
Share
The government is setting what it calls an ambitious goal for Alzheimer's disease: Development of effective ways to treat and prevent the mind-destroying illness by 2025. The Obama administration is developing the first National Alzheimer's Plan to find better treatments for the disease and offer better day-to-day care for those afflicted.
More
Cancer patient receives stell cell-made windpipe
CBS News
Share
In only the second operation of its kind, a Baltimore man has received an artificial windpipe made from stem cells to replace one destroyed by cancer. Christopher Lyles, 30, had tracheal cancer that had progressed so far it was considered inoperable. Doctors made him a new windpipe — or trachea — made out of tiny plastic fibers seeded with stem cells from his own bone marrow.
More
Traumatic brain injury may be treated by transplanted stem cells
The Toronto Star
Share
Research at the University of Texas may hold a key for future treatment of traumatic brain injury. The study, published online in the Journal of Neurotrauma, has found that transplanting human neuron stem cells into rats, who had suffered traumatic brain injury, reversed the damage and allowed for the filaments of nerve cells in the brain to reconnect.
More
| Emerging Medical Technologies |
An inflatable tourniquet to slow soldier abdominal bleeding
The Atlantic
Share
Two emergency physicians with some impressive war-time credentials have developed a device to prevent severe abdominal bleeding in soldiers. According to the inventors, when a soldier is shot in the abdomen, severe bleeding occurs due to rupturing of major vessels, making it a difficult fix for field medics. The physicians have come up with an inflatable, wedge-shaped bladder embedded into the abdominal aortic tourniquet.
More
Cardiologist develops app to speed diagnosis of heart attacks
The Washington Post
Share
In theory, the concept seems like a no-brainer for quickly determining if someone is having a heart attack: Use a smartphone, tablet or other device equipped with a camera to take video of the patient's electrocardiogram, or ECG, which is typically used to diagnose heart attacks. CodeHeart, a mobile application to speed diagnosis of heart attacks, has been under development for two years, but it's still struggling to enlist emergency medical crews' participation for a pilot project.
More
US to force drug firms to report money paid to doctors
The New York Times
Share
To head off medical conflicts of interest, the Obama administration is poised to require drug companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment. Many researchers have found evidence that such payments can influence doctors' treatment decisions and contribute to higher costs by encouraging the use of more expensive drugs and devices.
More
What if the doctor is wrong?
The Wall Street Journal (subscription)
Share
Evidence is mounting that second opinions — particularly on radiology images and pathology slides from biopsies — can lead to significant changes in a patient's diagnosis or in recommendations for treating a disease. Some malignancies, including lymphomas and rare cancers of the thyroid and salivary glands, are notoriously tricky to diagnose correctly.
More
| FDA: New Treatments and Technology |
FDA approves drug to mitigate cancer medicine side effects
Bloomberg Businessweek
Share
London-based specialty pharmaceutical company BTG has won U.S. approval for its drug to combat the toxic effects of a cancer treatment. The Food and Drug Administration cleared the medicine to reduce toxic methotrexate levels due to kidney failure, the agency said. Methotrexate is a common chemotherapy used against recurring types of certain cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma.
More
FDA fines Red Cross $9.6M for blood safety lapses
MSNBC
Share
Federal health officials have fined the American Red Cross nearly $9.6 million for sloppy and unsafe blood management practices. The Food and Drug Administration fine follows inspections at 16 Red Cross blood centers that revealed ongoing problems that appeared to endanger donors and to allow potentially contaminated blood into the nation's supply. An FDA spokeswoman said the agency found no evidence of actual harm to blood recipients.
More
FAST FACTS
"An estimated 43,000 pints of donated blood is used every day in the United States and Canada, according to nonprofit America's Blood Centers."
|
|
|
|
Mobile version