Posts tagged with ‘medicine’
Earlier this week, six research universities announced a set of shared principles for increasing access to new medicines in poor countries. Boston University, Brown, Harvard, the Oregon Health and Science University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale joined the Association of University Technology Managers Monday in releasing the statement, which aims to guide licensing decisions [...]
With a bold investment of federal resources into clinician education during their academic training years and throughout their careers, we can improve reproductive health care.
Some discussions of the benefits of electronic health records can sound abstract and stats-based. Only 13 percent of physicians currently use even a basic EHR; 1.5 percent of hospitals responding to a recent survey published in the New England of Medicine have a comprehensive electronic-records system; 8 to 12 percent of hospitals responding to the [...]
The stimulus package President Obama will sign into law today contains $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research. The money will support work to determine what treatments are effective for various conditions and which are boondoggles that unnecessarily increase healthcare costs.
Over at Gooznews.com, Merrill Goozner calls the provision “half a loaf,” lauding its inclusion, but expressing [...]
Food and Drug Administration Acting Director Frank Torti announced Monday in a podcast the creation of a new position in the Office of Chief Scientist: the Senior Genomics Advisor. Dr. Liz Mansfield, a scientist who has worked on scientific policy at both the FDA and in the private sector, will be the first to fill [...]
A physician and ethicist observes that electronic medical records can act as public documents in the context of the local medical community where one’s local reputation as a clinician is forged. With them, all care is now witnessed, open to local peer review: others can read what I write and assess its content, clinical judgment, and quality.
As the new Obama administration develops its innovation, economic development, and workforce policies, it should look to build and sustain regional and networked efforts, rather than only crafting broad national policies.
The over-prescription of statins is costing Americans billions, and the media is complicit with the problem. An independent national institute that compared the effectiveness of treatments could reduce unnecessary spending.
Traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder are major clinical challenges for doctors treating soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Although very different in nature, the symptoms of the two conditions overlap, making diagnosis and treatment difficult.
Biomedical research cannot solve all the problems of public health. An effective overhaul of the current system won’t happen without attention to some basic psychology and economics.
It will be an uphill battle to justify some of the upfront costs of the personalized medicine revolution, given the technical, political, and educational hurdles that stand between where we are and where we want to get: to a place with better care that costs less.
According to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, from 10 to 20 percent of Iraq war vets, or between 150,000 and 300,000 soldiers, have suffered a traumatic brain injury. Developing better ways to diagnose and treat TBI is important, but preventing it in the first place would be even better. Recent research from scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory investigates the mechanics of how blasts affect the brain and may provide an answer.
Drugs that improve attention or prevent fatigue raise ethical questions in many workplace settings. But what about hospitals, where med students can supply themselves with the pills that let them work harder?
Good news this week from the Centers for Disease Control: the vast majority of children in the United States have received nearly all the recommended vaccines. CDC’s new report indicates that immunization rates are “at or near record levels.” The survey data landed just after a new study reinforcing the fact that the measles vaccine has no connection to autism.
Yesterday, the CDC announced that more cases of measles have been reported in the Unites States thus far this year than in any year since 1996. Public health research demonstrates the immense benefits of vaccination, and armed with the best information, public health experts, doctors, and parents can help drive measles rates where they belong: down to zero.
In Sunday’s Outlook section of the
Washington Post, Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Rick Weiss takes a close look at the personal impacts of new direct-to-consumer genetic testing services. He suggests that we need to properly regulate this auspicious technology to harness its benefits.
New research published this week indicates that a genetic mutation prevalent in individuals of African descent may increase susceptibility to HIV infection.
This week, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute stepped in with $600 million in grant funding to 56 biomedical researchers pursuing high-risk, high-return work. The federal government should also fund researchers who “swing for the fences.”
Presidents and candidates for the office voluntarily release their medical records. But with advances in screening and treatment for many kinds of medical conditions, how do we know we’re getting the full story on the health of the Commander-In-Chief? (And do we want it?)
The Associated Press reports that over 200 million children worldwide do not have access to basic health care. As a result, about 10 million children, most from the developing world, die each year from treatable illnesses.
One wonders how much of a public health crisis we need before we rethink our vaccine exemption policies—particularly given that misconceptions floating around about a connection between vaccines and autism are driving more parents to opt against MMR.
Dr. Arno Motulsky, who is now 87, essentially launched the field of pharmacogenomics, which studies how an individual’s genetic makeup affects his or her response to medication, in 1957. The New York Times Science section recently featured an interview with Dr. Motulsky, who has a hopeful but cautionary attitude about the future of genetic medicine.
Vaccine safety has grabbed headlines in recent months, as some parents, fearing alleged links to autism, exempt their children from vaccinations. Multiple studies have demonstrated there is no such link, but there is more to understand about how vaccines keep kids safe, and how public health ensure the safety of vaccines.
On Tuesday, the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on a contaminant in blood thinner heparin that caused 81 deaths. Federal regulators now believe the contamination was deliberate, identifying a Chinese subsidiary of Scientific Protein Laboratories. It is no longer realistic to expect the FDA to make informed decisions if it does not have the resources to undertake foreign inspections.
Attention in the news to conflicts of interest within the medical profession seems to be on the rise. This is an issue that deserves serious scrutiny, particularly given how permissive the attitude of the medical community has been so far.
From an online survey of Nature readers comes data suggesting that a significant number of scientists and engineers use drugs for the non-medical purpose of increasing productivity and brain power.
A quick look at some of the policy-related posts in the science and technology blogosphere: suggestions for best practices in science blogging; the need for more hurricane research; vaccines and public fears; and new research centers to study parallel computing.
The improbability of an HIV vaccine, possibilities for improving scientific communication, and cheap laptops all made news at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting held this past weekend in Boston.
In her latest book, Davis tackles the convoluted history of cancer research, revealing the extent to which governmental anti-cancer efforts were spearheaded by leaders from the very industries producing cancer-causing materials and products.
Is the NIH monitoring conflicts of interest?; EPA won’t explain itself on nixing state emissions caps; controversial framing of new MRSA study; new paths to energy-efficient electronics.
Greenland glaciers melting faster than previously thought; new money to fight African Sleeping Sickness; do plastic drinking bottles leech harmful chemicals?
Health coverage inequalities limit patient access to the free drugs pharmaceutical companies distribute, accelerate the illnesses of elderly patients, and limit access to preventative cancer screenings.
A cocaine vaccine; Navy sonar vs. the whales; racial gaps in ER painkiller prescriptions; Social Security Numbers available on the web; the EU’s Galileo geopositioning system.
Drug-resistant staph, known as MRSA, began making headlines in October, when the CDC released a report indicating that many healthy citizens carry the bacteria, which kills more people each year in the U.S. than AIDS. Two recent stories, one on research on a possible MRSA treatment and another on the threat of the bacteria on factory farms, may put the “superbug” back under the public microscope.
A profile of Shinya Yamanaka; developing a malaria vaccine; providing an overdose antidote to heroin addicts; the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speeches.
The prolonged closure of a Canadian nuclear reactor that supplies over two thirds of the world’s medical radioisotopes has severely hindered the ability of hospitals nationwide to perform a variety of procedures and diagnostic studies for diseases like cancer and heart disease.
An excerpt from a new history of breast cancer, a disease that has entered the bodies of so many American women and the concerns of nearly all the rest, mostly as a result of how we have detected, labeled, and responded to the disease.
The number of women diagnosed with breast cancer rose dramatically in the 20th century, increasing fear of breast cancer and leading more and more women to choose prophylactic mastectomies. But much of this increase represents overdiagnosis. Americans must recognize the overselling of cancer fear, and must question current practices that are based on the often-illusory goal of reasserting some control over fear.
A new vision from Bill and Melinda Gates to eradicate malaria; better math curricula start with algebra; gene transfer likely not cause of death in trial; peer-reviewing bioterrorism intel.
The efforts of China’s State Food and Drug Administration to crack down on drug and medical device companies seems to be improving the industry’s reputation and will hopefully make for a safer marketplace.
NASA has a new face on the web; the NIH says gene therapy wasn’t the cause of death in a recent trial; open-source standards and net neutrality can improve global health; and more.
The United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies recently published a report on human cloning offering the international community two choices: either prepare for the legal and ethical issues associated with living, cloned humans, or prohibit human reproductive cloning.
John Kanzius, a retired electrical engineer and TV and radio station owner, is developing one of the most promising new techniques to kill cancer cells.
Researchers who can move around dense regional clusters of colleagues have more opportunities to share new ideas about their work. A new study focuses on Boston as a prime example.
Sperm banking is largely unregulated, raising controversial genetic, medical, and ethical questions. Yet the remedies are equally contentious.
A new report from the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research is the largest study ever to explore the connection between lifestyle and cancer, and represents the work of nine independent research teams that evaluated over 7000 existing studies over five years.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that 25 to 30 percent of the U.S. population carries the staph bacteria MRSA, which was for responsible for more than 94,000 life-threatening infections and 19,000 deaths in 2005.
This week boasts a slew of congressional hearings on science and technology policy issues including: renewable energy, gene patenting, aviation safety, nanotechnology safety, and drug-resistant TB.
Medical information is only useful when it can travel from provider to provider. That’s Mom’s role today, but the federal government could save everyone money and ensure better care by insisting on interoperable records.
