For years, ethical issues hampered progress in stem cell research. Now, experts believe that developments in reprogrammed ‘iPS’ cells will truly revolutionise the treatment of life-threatening illnesses. (The Guardian)

The unconscious man with no ID had been brought in the previous day after being found in a pool of blood. He had vomited an additional 5 liters of blood and his condition remained unstable. If he begins to bleed again, the resident says, the medical team feels there’s little more that can be done. (Stanford Medicine Magazine)

For years people have known of the positive impact nurses can have on the physical and mental well-being of their patients. Now, research being done at the UCLA School of Nursing is showing that nurses can have a critical impact on the many ethical issues patients and their caregivers encounter in the growingly complex world of medicine. (Business Wire)

The room-size robots store drugs in dozens of small boxes in a sterile environment. After the 12-hour prescription is received as a digital file, a robot arm finds the correct labeled drug, prepares the proper dose in bar-coded plastic bags on a ring and spits them out into a large bin. (CNET)

The operation was so risky and rare even the best neurosurgeons in the patient’s home province had performed it just a few times. But surgery was the only way to relieve the severe pain and numbness from the 50-year-old woman’s giant spinal cysts. (The Globe and Mail)

Jennifer McLaughlin of Kirkwood held Anna and Sarah, her two young daughters, in her arms on Thursday evening. “They’ve got me well trained,” she said. A typical domestic scene involving two untypical three-month-old infants—the result of two implanted frozen embryos from a married couple in California. (St. Louis Globe-Democrat)

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has advised two state governments to suspend a vaccination programme against cervical cancer following controversy over violation of guidelines during trials. (SciDev)

Supporters say this would expand mental health care access. Physicians say it would let psychologists practice beyond their expertise, jeopardizing patient safety. (American Medical News)

In “The Hostile Hospital,” from the Lemony Snicket “Series of Unfortunate Events” books, the three young orphans at the center of the story visit the fictitious Heimlich Hospital, where Babs, the head of human resources, asks them if they know what the most important work done in a hospital is. (New York Times)

Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. (Article Ant)

Federal and provincial health officials have launched a sweeping review of Canada’s flu vaccination system in the wake of the H1N1 scare. In a notice sent to the drug industry yesterday, government officials signalled that they plan to overhaul the supply system and move away from the current model of having only one Canadian-based supplier for pandemic vaccines. (The Globe and Mail)

Patients are having their health put at risk by staff who feed them through tubes unnecessarily because they are too busy to help them eat normally, a report has warned. (Telegraph)

We’ve got one brewing right now. Yuval Levin, who worked in the White House domestic policy staff as an aide to George W. Bush, now has got a gig writing news stories for Newsweek. The Nation’s Ari Melber, who got wind of this, notes that when Levin’s first piece ran in the magazine last March, the editors slugged it as an analysis from “a Bush veteran.” No such notation was attached to Levin’s new piece chronicling why “right-of-center candidates are succeeding in the age of Obama.” A few months earlier, Levin even co-authored a piece in the conservative Weekly Standard with Bill Kristol explaining why “Obamacare” was wrong and deserved to be defeated. Melber, who smelled a skunk, called Newsweek, whose spokeswoman offered a defense. (CBS News)

Over the past 20 years or so, there has been a rise of 2 parallel movements, one toward the explicit use of clinical trial data to guide clinical practice (evidence-based medicine) and the other toward patient empowerment through explicit informed consent, shared decision making, and patient-centered care. Both components have been integrated into models of quality clinical care, but sometimes there are conflicts between evidence- and guideline-driven care and patient-centered care. [Premium (JAMA)]

Many practitioners, for instance, do not realize that their scientific research may have ethical ramifications, Grinnell said. When scientists repeat their experiments, they accumulate ten to fifteen notebooks with many sets of data that eventually become a paper. (Science Progress)

Scientists are placing adult stem cells on contact lenses, placing them on patients eyes and they’re seeing (no pun intended) dramatic improvements within weeks!

Dr. Oz explains to Oprah and Michael J. Fox why embryonic stem cell research is dangerous and won’t cure Parkinson’s, but Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell research will!