Monthly Archives: June 2011
June 7, 2011
Patients’ own adult stem cells show great potential in regenerative medicine, including orthopedic applications. Stem cells isolated from bone marrow can enable bone and cartilage to heal. (Medical News Today)
June 7, 2011
IT isn’t often that an article in AARP’s magazine gets the attention of People, the London tabloids, The Huffington Post and the celebrity blogosphere. But so it was last year when Michael Douglas, upon turning 65, sat down for an … Read More
June 7, 2011
Jonathan Carey did not die for lack of money. New York State and the federal government provided $1.4 million annually per person to care for Jonathan and the other residents of the Oswald D. Heck Developmental Center, a warren of … Read More
June 7, 2011
Students in Shanghai spend about three hours a day using electronic devices, and experts there believe that could be what’s causing more than half of them to become nearsighted. (ABC News)
June 7, 2011
Dozens of doctors and nurses who treated injured protesters in Bahrain have appeared in court charged with attempting to topple the monarchy. (BBC News)
June 7, 2011
Pfizer Inc. is conducting a drug trial in which patients participate from their homes using computers and smartphones rather than visiting a clinic. (Wall Street Journal)
June 7, 2011
The U.S. Supreme Court today ended a long patent battle over rights to a widely used HIV test, awarding a victory to Roche Molecular Systems Inc. (which developed and marketed the test) while rejecting the royalty demands of Stanford University … Read More
June 7, 2011
For his doctors, Timothy Ray Brown was a shot in the dark. An HIV-positive American who was cured by a unique type of bone marrow transplant, the man known as “the Berlin patient” has become an icon of what scientists … Read More
June 7, 2011
The New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 364, Issue 18, May 5, 2011) is now available on-line and by subscription only. Articles include: “Unintended Consequences — The Cost of Preventing Preterm Births after FDA Approval of a Branded Version of … Read More
June 6, 2011
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi-Aventis have agreed to cut prices through the international vaccine alliance Gavi. (BBC News)
June 6, 2011
Imagine a world in which cancer isn’t diagnosed according to where it is found on the body but according to genes found in the tumor itself. (ABC News)
June 6, 2011
Jack Kevorkian gets widespread credit as a lightning rod who forced a nation to discuss needed improvements in end-of-life care. But specialists say that the nation’s best-known suicide doctor did not provide a dignified death to those who sought him … Read More
June 6, 2011
Looking at vivacious, outgoing college senior Marissa Ayala today, it seems several lifetimes ago that she set the medical world on its ear when she was born for the express purpose of providing bone marrow for her leukemia-stricken sister, Anissa. … Read More
June 6, 2011
Fertility-treatment innovations mean that all sorts of people who would not have been able to have a baby a generation ago are now able to bring life into the world. Now, some are arguing the ranks of the newly fertile … Read More
June 6, 2011
Healthy adults will be able to boost their chances of surviving cancer and diseases such as Alzheimer’s by freezing stem cells taken from their blood for the first time. (Daily Mail)
June 6, 2011
NHS fertility clinics will be ordered to meet their responsibilities and provide adequate levels of IVF treatment, amid growing concerns that a “postcode lottery” is stifling couples’ chances of having a baby. (The Independent)
June 6, 2011
Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine (Volume 13, April 2011) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Determination of fetal chromosome aberrations from fetal DNA in maternal blood: has the challenge finally been met?” by Sinuhe Hahn, Olav Lapaire, Sevgi … Read More
June 3, 2011
The Journal of the American Medical Association (Volume 305, Issue 17, May 2011) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “What’s Next for QALYS?” by Peter J. Neumann, 1806-1807.
June 3, 2011
Vietnamese women who bore babies for foreign couples in an illegal surrogacy ring in Thailand said they suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the gang, a newspaper reported Thursday. (AFP)
June 3, 2011
Britain’s fertility watchdog is to launch a crackdown, forcing private IVF clinics to stop making exaggerated claims about success rates, amid growing complaints that some have been “misleading” patients and charging exorbitantly high fees. (Independent)
June 3, 2011
When “X-Men: First Class,†a prequel to the popular series of comic-book adaptations, hits theaters this weekend, moviegoers will find themselves immersed in yet another superhero origin story, the fourth opening this summer, along with “Thor,†“Green Lantern,†and “Captain … Read More
June 3, 2011
The 17-year-old boy, identified only by his surname, “Zheng”, confessed to his mother that he had sold the kidney after spotting an online advertisement offering cash to anyone prepared to become an organ donor. (Telegraph)
June 3, 2011
Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the audacious Michigan pathologist dubbed “Dr. Death” for his role in assisting the suicides of more than 100 terminally ill people, died early Friday at a Detroit-area hospital after a brief illness. (MSNBC)
June 3, 2011
Wellcome Collection Conference Centre, London, UK Wednesday June 22, 2011 10:00-6:00, followed by a reception Bringing together academics and practitioners from around the world, this symposium will consider the most urgent bioethical question of our time: how should the responsibility … Read More
June 2, 2011
Genetic tests sold directly to consumers that claim to predict risk of disease should be banned, say researchers who studied the products. (CBC)