August 12, 2010
Juggling a caregiving role with a full-time job is daunting. But it can be even more difficult working during the end stages of a loved one’s life. Some companies are exploring end-of-life initiatives to help their employees manage the ultimate … Read More
August 12, 2010
Back in June, the US Food and Drug Administration fired a warning shot across the bow of the nascent direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing industry. The FDA felt that some of the services were marketing their products as medical tests, and … Read More
August 12, 2010
Death has changed over the last century. In 1910, probably as in most of recorded human history, most people died in their own bed at home – whether home was a terrace house, peasant’s cottage or a palace. Advances in … Read More
August 12, 2010
Many of the donor sibling connections — about 7,300 of them including the Jacobsons and Clapoffs — have been made through the Donor Sibling Registry, a voluntary website that matches donor siblings based on identification numbers. Occasionally, the site brings … Read More
August 12, 2010
True or false: The new health care law will cut Medicare benefits for seniors. It will slash Medicare payments to doctors. It will ration health care. (USA Today)
August 12, 2010
The news that an international team has found a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease in spinal fluid has surely caused much soul-searching since it was reported two days ago. Perhaps most striking was the observation that, in the dispassionate language of … Read More
August 12, 2010
4th National Conference on Genomics and Public Health Using Genomic Information to Improve Health Now and in the Future Bethesda, Maryland December 8-10, 2010 The 4th National Conference on Genomics and Public Health: Using Genomic Information to Improve Health Now … Read More
August 12, 2010
Biomedical Microdevices (Volume 12, Number 4, 2010) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “What We Know and Don’t Know About the Bioeffects of Nanoparticles: Developing Experimental Approaches for Safety Assessment” by Mel E. Stratmeyer, Peter L. Goering, Victoria … Read More
August 12, 2010
NEJM (Volume 363, Number 2, July 8, 2010) is now available by subscription only. Articles Include: “The SGR for Physician Payment – An Indispensable Abomination” by H.J. Aaron. “Implementing Health Care Reform – Why Medicare Matters” by R.A. Berenson, 101-103. … Read More
August 11, 2010
The government of Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has reversed steps toward protecting women’s health and reproductive rights, and backtracked on its intention to guarantee access to legal abortions, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Tuesday. (New … Read More
August 11, 2010
Many parents begin their struggles with treating their children’s ADHD the way that Barr did: with a suggested diagnosis from a school or day care setting. That’s a problem, doctors say, when there could be many other factors contributing to … Read More
August 11, 2010
Harvard University psychologist Marc Hauser — a well-known scientist and author of the book “Moral Minds’’ — is taking a year-long leave after a lengthy internal investigation found evidence of scientific misconduct in his laboratory. (Boston Globe)
August 11, 2010
There is expected to be a major step toward so-called “Dying with Dignity” laws in Victoria today. The Greens MP Colleen Hartland plans to introduce a motion to the the Upper House of Parliament seeking a review of the 22 … Read More
August 11, 2010
In the first of its kind in recent memory, a woman had sought the high court’s permission to die (voluntary euthanasia) claiming that she is not willing to live a life of heavy pain and misery. (The Times of India)
August 11, 2010
Rapid advances in bioscience are raising alarms among terrorism experts that amateur scientists will soon be able to gin up deadly pathogens for nefarious uses. (Wall Street Journal)
August 11, 2010
Two UC Berkeley professors Tuesday defended a controversial plan to perform genetic testing on incoming freshmen during a legislative hearing that also featured testimony from privacy experts and bioethicists blasting the plan. (Sacramento Bee)
August 11, 2010
Tina Follett and her husband Patrick are in Panama on a two-week all-expenses paid trip. But Tina isn’t on vacation. She’s there to get surgery. The Folletts are among a growing number of Americans whose company health plans now include … Read More
August 10, 2010
As hospitals struggle to integrate electronic medical records, some have already instituted electronic drug ordering systems to help reduce prescription errors. But not all so-called computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems are specially tuned to different patient populations. And while … Read More
August 10, 2010
A lot of interest has been generated by the possibility of deriving gametes from embryonic stem cells and bone marrow stem cells. These stem cell derived gametes may become useful for research and for the treatment of infertility. In this … Read More
August 10, 2010
Like the WikiLeaks documents on the war in Afghanistan, a new study on the relationship between the funding sources of drug trials and their results doesn’t tell us much in general that we didn’t already know. The study found that—surprise!—industry-funded … Read More
August 10, 2010
Every medical study ever conducted has concluded that 100 percent of all Americans will eventually die. This comes as no great surprise, but the amount of money being spent at the very end of people’s lives probably will. (CBS News)
August 10, 2010
Scientists as well as fertility doctors have long tried to figure out what makes a good egg that will produce a healthy embryo. It’s a particularly critical question for fertility doctors deciding which eggs isolated from a woman will produce … Read More
August 10, 2010
The objective of this study—a substudy to a phase I bioequivalence study—was to compare the effect of standard and concise consent forms on research volunteers’ comprehension of and satisfaction with consent forms, as well as to assess the effect of … Read More
August 10, 2010
In June 2010, Bloc MP Francine Lalonde’s private member’s bill seeking to legalize euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide was soundly defeated 228 votes to 59. But the issue is still very much alive, especially in Quebec. In December 2009, the Quebec … Read More
August 9, 2010
What if we could read the mind of a terrorist? Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago say they have taken a step closer to that reality with a test that could uncover nefarious plans by measuring brain waves. (TIME)
