July 29, 2011
Women seeking an abortion in North Carolina will have to wait 24 hours, receive counseling and be presented with an ultrasound image of the fetus under an informed consent law passed on Thursday over the governor’s objections. (Reuters)
July 29, 2011
Parents who do not allow their children to be vaccinated against polio now risk jail time for defying a government order aimed at ensuring that the disease is eradicated from Africa’s most populous nation, authorities said Friday. (Washington Post)
July 29, 2011
A U.S. federal appeals court has affirmed the right of Myriad Genetics to patent two human genes that form the basis of a widely used genetic test for breast and ovarian cancers. (Reuters)
July 29, 2011
In 1995, an anesthesiologist named Charles Vacanti from the University of Massachusetts and his MIT colleague, chemical engineer Linda Griffith-Cima, implanted a lab-grown cartilage structure in the shape of a human ear under the skin of a hairless mouse. (Wired)
July 29, 2011
New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 364, Issue 26, June 30, 2011) is now available on-line and by subscription only. Articles include: “A Model Health Care Delivery System for Medicaid” by Richard E. Rieselbach, M.D., and Arthur L. Kellermann, M.D., … Read More
July 28, 2011
Almost half the nation’s health-care spending will come from government coffers by 2020, up four percentage points from 2010, according to new federal spending figures to be released Thursday. (Wall Street Journal)
July 28, 2011
Approximately 60 million people across the globe have chronic kidney disease, and many will need dialysis or a transplant. (Medical News Today)
July 28, 2011
Allies of the medical device industry are waging an extraordinary campaign in Washington to discredit a coming report by one of the country’s pre-eminent scientific groups that examines possible new regulations on the industry. (New York Times)
July 28, 2011
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday that tried to block funding of stem-cell research on human embryos. (CNN)
July 28, 2011
“BEFORE 1997 they usually punished us by tearing down our houses for breaching the one-child policy…After 2000 they began to confiscate our children.†Thus Yuan Chaoren, a villager from Longhui county in Hunan province, describing in Caixin magazine the behaviour … Read More
July 27, 2011
Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (Volume 14, Issue 3, August 2011) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Diversity and Bioethics” by Henk ten Have and Bert Gordijn, 227-228. “Respect for Cultural Diversity in Bioethics. Empirical, Conceptual and Normative … Read More
July 27, 2011
Most people looking to get a nose job, or rhinoplasty, hope for a better-looking nose, but a new study found that 33 percent of them show signs of body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, a chronic mental illness characterized by excessive … Read More
July 27, 2011
Putting calorie information on menus encourages healthy eating – but only in a limited way, a review of the scheme in the US shows. (BBC News)
July 27, 2011
Despite evidence showing that medical interventions can significantly decrease the likelihood of breast and ovarian cancer in high-risk women, some doctors still are not adhering to guidelines referring these patients to genetic testing and counseling. (ABC News)
July 27, 2011
The government is proposing sweeping changes in the rules covering research involving human subjects, an effort officials say would strengthen protections while reducing red tape that can impede studies. (New York Times)
July 27, 2011
The familiar heel prick that newborns receive is revealing more about a baby’s health than ever before. But, as technology opens the possibility of screening newborns for hundreds of diseases, there is controversy over how much parents need to know. … Read More
July 26, 2011
Journal of Medical Ethics (Volume 37, Issue 8, August 1, 2011) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Women’s Views on the Moral Status of Nature in the Context of Prenatal Screening Decisions” by Elisa GarcÃa, Danielle R. M. … Read More
July 26, 2011
In the controlled chaos of an hospital emergency department, ensuring that patients are pain-free and can make informed choices about their care often takes a back seat to assessing and stabilizing them and moving them through the system as fast … Read More
July 26, 2011
Married with three children, Mary Ellen lives in the Bronx, N.Y., and likes hiking in the Adirondacks. But until she learned how to manage her Type 2 diabetes, she was tired and hungry all the time. (Globe and Mail)
July 26, 2011
Should drug addicts be vaccinated to help them recover? Some authorities, such as bioethicist Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, have suggested coercing addicts into taking drugs like naltrexone, which curb the highs they crave. (New Scientist)
July 26, 2011
The old adage that money can’t buy happiness may be true not only for individuals, but for society as a whole, according to new international research on depression. (ABC News)
July 26, 2011
The Obama administration will soon take over the review of health insurance rates in 10 states where it says state officials do not adequately regulate premiums for insurance sold to individuals or small businesses. (New York Times)
July 26, 2011
One of the nation’s largest providers of kidney dialysis deliberately wasted medicine in order to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in extra payments from Medicare, a former clinic nurse and a doctor are charging in a whistle-blower lawsuit. (New … Read More
July 25, 2011
The Journal of the American Medical Association (Volume 306, Issue 3, July 20, 2011) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Coinfection With Human Immunodeficiency Virus: Challenges and Advancements in Management” by Colleen Hadigan … Read More
July 25, 2011
The cost of prescription medicines used by millions of people every day is about to plummet. (Chicago Tribune)
