Study shows patch therapy may be as effective as oral medications
Altoona, Pa., March 31, 2005 Researchers from the Altoona Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center announced today that data presented at the 24th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society suggest that patch therapy provides similar pain relief as oral medications for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain. The exploratory study involved a head to head comparison of applying the lido...March/April 2005 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet
...High-protein diets that include a lot of iron-containing foods, such as the increasingly popular Atkins diet, may not be the best choice for everybody, according to a new study out of the Medical University of South Carolina. Analyzing population-based data from U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, Mainous and colleagues found that people with elevated levels of serum trans...OHSU scientists test medication to treat involuntary weight loss
PORTLAND, Ore. Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University, in collaboration with Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., have successfully tested a research medication that both stimulates appetite and reduces metabolic rate in preclinical trials. Neurocrine, which developed the test medication for this research, is now developing a related medication that will likely be tested in patients suffering...Professionalism and professional ethics in medicine
The March 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine contains several articles relevant to the topic of professionalism in medicine and/or professional ethics. The Archives of Internal Medicine is one of the JAMA/Archives journals. ......"Several years ago, a study conducted by a group at Vanderbilt University demonstrated that unsolicited complaints about physicians correlated with physicians who...Advertising by academic medical centers may risk eroding public trust, says study
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VT and HANOVER, NH Most prominent academic medical centers develop and distribute advertisements to attract patients, but none have a formal review process to assess the balance and straightforwardness of these advertisements, according to a study by researchers at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Dartmouth Medical School (DMS). Several of the ads promote services...NIH state-of-the-science panel calls for 'demedicalization' of menopause
An independent panel convened this week by the National Institutes of Health found that many women move through the menopausal transition with few disabling symptoms, and that it is important that menopause not be viewed as a disease. The tendency among women and their healthcare providers in the U.S. to medicalize menopause concerned the panel because the tendency can lead to overuse of treatmen...Aloe vera: Natural, home remedy treats canker and cold sores
New reports prove that the aloe vera plant, which has been used to heal skin for more than 2,000 years, can also treat many oral health problems including canker sores, cold sores, herpes simplex viruses, lichen planus and gingivitis according to the January/February issue of General Dentistry, the Academy of General Dentistry's (AGD) clinical, peer-reviewed journal. ...... "There is good evidenc...Medically supervised drug injection facilities safer for users
Facilities that provide medical supervision for illicit drug injections could reduce syringe sharing among users, concludes a Canadian study published online by THE LANCET....... Public-health officials in Vancouver opened North America's first medically supervised safer injection facility in September 2003. Injection drug users in the facility can access sterile injecting equipment, inject preob...Mountaineering doctors hike medicine to new heights with Xtreme Everest
Doctors working at the edge of extreme are set to climb the world's tallest mountain to look death in the face and take its pulse. The medical research team will make the first ever measurements of blood oxygen in the 'death zone', at altitudes above 8,000 metres where the human body has struggled - and frequently failed - to survive. ...... The Centre for Aviation, Space and Extreme Environment...Liverpool to lead 20M Department of Health initiative to develop medicines for children
Many of the medicines used to treat children have been designed for adults, and have not been properly tested on the young. Health professionals use their skill and judgement when prescribing medicines for children but uncertainty can result in inappropriate dosing or inadequate efficacy. ...... The initiative will take the development of children's medicines to a new level, with the establishmen...Doctor suggested cannabis for pain relief, says one in six medicinal users in the UKMUHC study
Sixteen per cent of people who use cannabis for medical reasons say that their doctor suggested it, according to research published in the March issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice....... 947 people in the UK reported using cannabis for medical purposes, with more than a third (35 per cent) saying that they used it six or seven days a week. The majority (68 per cent) sai...Use of potentially inappropriate medications among elderly common in some European countries
There are substantial differences between European countries in the potentially inappropriate use of medications among elderly home care patients, according to a study in the March 16 issue of JAMA....... Use of potentially inappropriate medications in elderly patients is a major health care concern, according to background information in the article. It is likely to increase the risk of adverse...Community care tops medical care at preventing heart disease in black Americans
Upgraded community health services, including checkups by phone or in person with a local nurse practitioner at a neighborhood clinic, and free charge cards for medications are almost nine times more likely to benefit black Americans at greater risk of heart disease than full-service physician care alone. The analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins, to be published in the journal Circulation on...Annals of Internal Medicine tip sheet for March 15, 2005
...--It's Not Necessarily the Carbs or Loss of Fluids. It's Fewer Calories...... A new three-week in-hospital study of ten obese volunteers with mild type 2 diabetes mellitus compared a usual diet with a very low-carbohydrate diet (Article, p. 403). ...... During the first study week, participants ate about 3,000 calories and 300 grams of carbohydrates per day and remained at entry weight..........Medicaid enrollment at late stages may partly explain poor outcomes for cancer
A new study concludes that the unavailability of health insurance prior to Medicaid enrollment may contribute to poor outcomes in the Medicaid-insured cancer population. The study, published in the April 15, 2005 issue of CANCER ( ), a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, says the poorest outcomes are among cancer patients who enroll in Medicaid after diagnosis. These individuals...Medical molecules designed to respond to visible light that can penetrate tissue
Blacksburg, Va. -- If you have ever covered a flashlight with your hand and seen the red light that still comes through, then you have seen light in the therapeutic window that magic wavelength that is not absorbed or reflected away by tissue. Scientists believe that they can use light at that wavelength to signal manmade molecules to release drugs at disease sites in the body.... ...Such possib...Philanthropist Paul F. Glenn launches labs for aging research at Harvard Medical School
BOSTON, MA--Seeking to accelerate the pace of research into the molecular mechanisms that govern aging, philanthropist Paul F. Glenn, an alumnus of Harvard Law School and founder of the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research in Santa Barbara, California, has committed $5 million to Harvard Medical School over five years to launch the Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Agin...UCLA Medical Center becomes first hospital to introduce remote presence robots in ICU
UCLA Medical Center has announced initial clinical tests of the RP-6 mobile robot system in its neurosurgery intensive care unit (ICU). The RP-6 robot, made by InTouch Health Inc. in Santa Barbara, Calif., allows doctors to "virtually" consult with patients, family members and health care staff at a moment's notice, even if miles away from the hospital. ......Intensivists -- the physicians who sp...2005 Oral Medicine and Pathology Research Award
Baltimore, Maryland...Professor Newell W. Johnson, Dean of Griffith University's newly created School of Dentistry and Oral Health, Queensland, Australia, has been named the 2005 recipient of the Oral Medicine and Pathology Research Award, conferred by the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), convening here today for its 83rd General Session.... Professor Johnson has had a disti...Breakthrough in medical research: New chemotherapy gives hope to brain tumour patients
A large international study conducted by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute of Canada(NCIC) Clinical Trials Group demonstrated that the addition of a novel chemotherapy agent, Temozolomide (brand name: Temodal) to radiation therapy increases survival in patients suffering from glioblastoma, a very aggressive f...Computerized order entry systems can increase risk of medication errors
A new study suggests that computerized order entry systems which are implemented in part to reduce prescribing errors can actually increase the risk of medication errors in certain situations, according to a study in the March 9 issue of ....... Adverse drug events (ADEs) are estimated to injure or kill more than 770,000 patients in hospitals annually, according to background information on the...Computational tool predicts how drugs work in cells, advancing efforts to design better medicines
(Boston) -- The ability to select and develop compounds that act on specific cellular targets has just gained a computational ally -- a mathematical algorithm that predicts the precise effects a given compound will have on a cell's molecular components or chemical processes. Using this tool, drug developers can design compounds that will act on only desired gene and protein targets, eliciting th...Cognitive behavioral therapy and medication is effective in the treatment of panic disorder
CHICAGO Therapy for panic disorder that combines an evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with medication may be more effective than the usual care offered to these patients in a primary care setting, according to an article in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.... ...Panic disorder is one of the most disabling and costly anxiety dis...New data on Orqis Medical's Cancion CRS to be reported at ACC
Lake Forest, Calif. March 7, 2005 Newly analyzed research on Orqis Medical's Cancion CRS cardiac recovery system for treating congestive heart failure will be presented at the Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), held in Orlando, Florida (March 6-9). ...... The data suggests that patients with acutely decompensated chronic heart failure may benefit from the fi...Jefferson Lab medical imager spots breast cancer
Newport News, VA - A study published in the February issue of the journal Radiology shows that a positron emission mammography (PEM) device designed and built by the Department of Energy's Jefferson Lab scientists is capable of imaging breast cancer tumors. In the pilot study, conducted by Duke University Medical Center researchers, the unit imaged 18 malignant tumors in 23 patients receiving add...Telemedicine revolution is 'disappearing' from the NHS
Despite high expectations, telemedicine and telehealthcare systems, which enable...doctors to interact with patients many miles away via video, digital imaging and electronic data transmission, have had only limited impact on the National Health Service, according to a study sponsored by the ESRC....... The expected revolution in medicine, overcoming problems of access to specialist care and spee...Medical technologies may hinder rather than help newborn survival
Medical interventions during pregnancy and childbirth may not be the best way to improve newborn survival in middle-income countries, suggests a study published online today by THE LANCET....... In Brazil neonatal mortality declined in the 1980's but rates have virtually remained unchanged since the 1990's. Fernando Barros (Hospital de Clinicas, Montevideo, Uruguay) and colleagues studied births...Meditation may reduce heart disease risk
Black adolescents with high normal blood pressure who practice transcendental meditation improve the ability of their blood vessels to relax and may reduce their risk of becoming adults with cardiovascular disease, researchers say....... After eight months of meditation, these adolescents experienced a 21 percent increase in the ability of their blood vessels to dilate compared to a 4 percent dec...Society of Hospital Medicine to launch new medical journal
The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) has announced plans to launch a new peer-reviewed medical journal, The Journal of Hospital Medicine, in 2006 to promote the science and practice of hospital medicine and the enhancement of inpatient care. ...... In addition, SHM has signed an agreement with global publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc. to publish the journal. The agreement represents the second p...LA BioMed medical/research briefs March 2005
......Iraj Khalkhali, MD, a principal investigator at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) and a resident physician in the Department of Radiology/Diagnostic Radiology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, is part of an international group of researchers studying the use of a breast imaging camera, which appears to detect breast cancers missed by stand...Promising new strategy for Swedish medical research
Research scientists at Karolinska Institutet are planning an international initiative to map out the relationships between health, genes and lifestyle. Discussion partners include world-leading researchers from the USA, Britain, Singapore and Norway....... The project has the working title "LifeGene". If realised, it could be classed as one of the largest and most comprehensive medical projects s...Time-reversal acoustics research promises medical breakthroughs
HOBOKEN, N.J. -- Scientists have not yet found a way to actually make time run backward, but in the cutting-edge world of recent acoustics research, they have shown a way to make sound waves run backward in a kind of ultra-focused reverse echo. By the technology known as time-reversal acoustics, sound waves in exact reverse order from the original sound echo directly and very precisely back to...Immediate mammogram reading may decrease stress associated with abnormal results
Women who receive the results of their screening mammograms immediately after their examination have less stress and anxiety compared with women who have to wait several days for their test results, according to a study in the April 7 issue of the . Surprisingly, however, an educational intervention that taught skills to cope with anxiety was not associated with decreased anxiety among a similar...SOS Rx: National medication safety group organized
Washington DC--The nation's oldest consumer advocacy organization today announced the launch of SOS Rx, a national healthcare coalition promoting the safe use of medications. The coalition, run by the National Consumers League, includes participation by more than 60 consumer and patient safety organizations, physician, pharmacist, caregiver, and employer groups, and government. The coalition's pu...Gene therapy may increase cancer cure rates, medical physicists show
Richmond, VA (August 13, 2002)--An innovative combination of two medical procedures-gene therapy and radiation therapy--can increase cancer cure rates by significant amounts compared to the cure rates offered by conventional radiation therapy alone, a Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) team has concluded. The researchers presented their results last month in Montreal at the annual conference...Sutter Health announces plan to deploy Bridge MedPoint error-prevention system
Sutter Health will hold news conferences this morning in Sacramento (10:30 am PST) and San Francisco (9:30 am PST) to announce it will deploy the Bridge MedPoint patient safety system. Deployment is part of a major technology initiative designed to make each of Sutter's 26 hospitals "a hospital of the future" and address quality-improvement goals set by the Leapfrog Group, a national employer co...Armed with AEDs, police save lives by cutting response time
DALLAS, Aug. 13 In communities where police are equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs), people who have a sudden cardiac arrest have a better chance at survival, according to new research reported in Circulation, Journal of the American Heart Association....... Police in Miami-Dade County, Fla., equipped with AEDs cut response time to sudden cardiac arrest victims by almost three...What causes patients to delay seeking medical help?
Researchers in this weeks BMJ interviewed 22 patients who had been admitted to hospital with at least one previous heart attack. Six themes emerged that seemed to influence their decision to seek medical help.... ...Many patients thought that their symptoms were not severe enough to be a heart attack, confusing them with symptoms of angina or indigestion. Some who had already had treatment believ...Standards of medical care on adventure holidays raise concerns
Standards of medical care and safety provided by tour operators on adventure holidays in remote mountainous regions of the world are called into question in this weeks BMJ.... ...Fionn Bellis, Specialist Registrar in Accident and Emergency Medicine, argues that although some companies provide their own medically trained staff, they may rely on doctors on holiday with the group to provide help......Studies suggest new headache treatment is more effective than medication
Valhalla, NY, February 18 - Recent studies suggest a new hope for the 28 million Americans who suffer from migraine headaches. In a controlled study conducted at New York Medical College, a new treatment outperformed Imitrex, the most widely prescribed migraine medication. In an earlier study at the Westchester Medical Center Emergency Room, 80% of patients with extremely severe migraine or ten...