March 16, 2009
Oklahoma Legislature: Adult stem cell research could get tobacco funds
Voters may get a chance to decide whether to take money from the state’s anti-smoking effort and use it for research into adult stem cell therapies. (NewsOK)
Monthly Archives: March 2009
March 16, 2009
Information technology holds promise for advancing healthcare
Obama’s administration is putting $19 billion toward electronic health record systems to improve treatment and lower costs. There’s still no consensus on standards or who should control the systems. (Los Angeles Times)
March 16, 2009
Analysis: Stem cell payoff wait’s decades not days
For all the past week’s headlines about embryonic stem cells’ medical promise there is a sobering reality: The science to prove that promise will take years, probably too long for many of today’s seriously ill. (AP)
March 16, 2009
Bill could boost organ donations
A bill put forward by a Taunton MP, which aims to increase the number of organ donors in the UK, is being debated in the House of Commons. Liberal Democrat Jeremy Browne wants to develop an opt out scheme where … Read More
March 16, 2009
Op-Ed: The Rules on Stem Cells
No sooner had President Obama lifted the Bush-era restrictions on financing embryonic stem cell research than critics began urging that any federal support be limited to work with stem cells derived from surplus embryos at fertility clinics. That would be … Read More
March 16, 2009
European clinical trial rules under fire
European medical research strangled by red tape, scientists warn. (Nature News)
March 16, 2009
Did Hospital Kill Teen For His Organs?
An Ohio couple whose teenage son was injured in a snowboarding accident has filed a lawsuit, claiming his doctors harvested his organs before he was declared dead. (CBS News)
March 16, 2009
The Head’s Kaleidoscope: Exciting Advances in Brain Imaging
… Some of what phrenology purported to do, fMRI actually does, and with scientific rigor at that. Developed in the 1990’s, fMRI offers a quantifiable, noninvasive method for detecting localized changes in brain activity. Unlike traditional MRI and computer tomography … Read More
March 16, 2009
Op-Ed: Obama’s Attack on Medical Civil Liberties
While the media remain fixated on a slumping economy that gets sicker with each punishing presidential prescription, a different set of defining and similarly freedom-diminishing policy directives emerging from the White House goes dissimilarly unnoticed. (Newsmax)
March 13, 2009
Georgia Senate OKs stem cell research limits
Embryonic stem cell research would face limits in Georgia under a bill that passed the state Senate on Thursday. The legislation bans the creation in Georgia of fertilized embryos for research. It passed just days after President Barack Obama freed … Read More
March 13, 2009
Japanese Ministry Issues Guidelines to Reduce Risk from Nanotechnology
The Japanese Ministry of the Environment released guidelines on March 10, 2009, with the intent of reducing the risk of environmental harm from nanomaterials. Japan currently does not have any laws or regulations governing nanomaterials and the new guidelines will … Read More
March 13, 2009
Op-Ed: More than just science
Not many of us would want the federal government to leave military procurement to defense contractors, Medicare reimbursement to doctors or banking regulation to Citigroup. But President Barack Obama says when it comes to allocating federal funds for scientific studies, … Read More
March 13, 2009
New Issue of Nursing Philosophy is Now Available
Nursing Philosophy (Volume 10, Issue 2, April 2009) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “Ethical care for older persons in acute care settings” by Derek Sellman, 69-70. “Nursing and spirituality” by Trevor Hussey, 71-80. “How can Rorty help nursing … Read More
March 12, 2009
Science as Search: Sergey Brin to Fund Parkinson’s Study
On Thursday, 23andMe will announce a project with the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Parkinson’s Institute and Clinical Center to enroll up to 10,000 people with Parkinson’s Disease, get them genotyped using the 23andMe platform, and issue them a … Read More
March 12, 2009
Sick are flocking to CVS in-store clinics
Doctors, who generally opposed the state’s decision to allow retail clinics to open in Massachusetts, said they have mixed opinions of how MinuteClinics are treating their patients so far – some have complained of inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions – but they … Read More
March 12, 2009
Professor proposes controversial bill
A proposed bill by a Keene State College professor regarding physician-assisted suicide would make New Hampshire the third state to legalize the practice. Charles Weed, political science professor and Democratic state representative, has sponsored a bill that would provide terminally … Read More
March 12, 2009
New Zealand: Making decisions in the name of science
Cushla McKinney argues that the dissolution of the Bioethics Council of New Zealand is a hasty mistake. Who, now, will engage the public with the moral and ethical conundrums met at the frontiers of modern technology? (Otago Daily Times)
March 12, 2009
New battle lines on stem cells
Faced with a new federal policy that opens the door for more embryonic stem cell research, conservatives have geared up for a political battle at the national and state level that goes to the core of their beliefs about the … Read More
March 12, 2009
Foreign patient transplant probe
Ministers have ordered an inquiry into NHS organ transplant arrangements for EU residents. It is thought nearly 800 transplants have been carried out by the NHS on non-UK patients over the past decade. (BBC)
March 12, 2009
Geron Stem Cell Trial Risky, Doctors Warn
Geron’s upcoming and widely publicized stem cell trial involving patients with spinal cord injuries was criticized as risky and clinically dubious because the entire rationale for the study is “based on a single experiment in eight rats.” (The Street)
March 12, 2009
Mass. bans drug company gifts to doctors
State officials gave final approval yesterday to regulations banning pharmaceutical and medical device companies from providing gifts to physicians, limiting when companies can pay for doctors’ meals, and requiring companies to publicly disclose payments to doctors over $50 for certain … Read More
March 12, 2009
Brackenridge could be test site for treatment of patients who are paralyzed
Raising its profile in the research world, the University Medical Center at Brackenridge is hosting a summit of scientists seeking to launch a U.S. stem cell trial for people who are paralyzed or have other spinal cord injuries. The hospital … Read More
March 12, 2009
Scientific Community Differs About Stem Cells
The debate about stem cell research has been cast as a dichotomy between religion and science. But many in the scientific community object to this dualistic characterization and the stereotyping of those who oppose the use of embryonic stem cells … Read More
March 12, 2009
Op-Ed: Stem-Cell Doubletalk
President Obama has often claimed that his administration will pursue policies designed to breach the cultural and political divides that rend our country. He has also promised to bring “transparency” to the principal actions of his administration. Unfortunately, the president … Read More
March 12, 2009
Europeans Debate Castration of Sex Offenders
Whether castration can help rehabilitate violent sex offenders has come under new scrutiny after the Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee last month called surgical castration “invasive, irreversible and mutilating†and demanded that the Czech Republic stop offering the procedure to … Read More
