April 24, 2012
What do hospitals charge to remove an appendix? The startling answer is that it could be the same as the price of a refrigerator — or a house. (Washington Post)
April 24, 2012
More than 382,000 people with kidney disease in the U.S. are on dialysis, a painful procedure that can wreak havoc on blood vessels due to constant jabs from large needles. (Scientific American)
April 24, 2012
Opponents of federally funded human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research returned to a U.S. appeals court today to argue that such research should be banned, despite two earlier court decisions that it is legal. The discussion suggested that the three-judge … Read More
April 24, 2012
A growing number of patient-advocacy groups are playing matchmaker, linking patients to researchers who need them for clinical trials. (Wall Street Journal)
April 24, 2012
Archives of Internal Medicine (Volume 172, Issue 8, January 2012) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Emergency Department Care: When Needed—Not When Better Choices Are Unavailable” by Mitchell H. Katz, 609-610.
April 23, 2012
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Saturday it now spends as much effort and resources on surveilling a drug after it is approved as it does in the pre-approval process. (Reuters)
April 23, 2012
For Jennifer Stella, it’s a question of informed consent. Her son had a seizure after getting childhood vaccinations and her daughter suffered a “head-to-toe†eczema outbreak; she says parents should research the risks and benefits of immunizations and decide which … Read More
April 23, 2012
Last year, cancer researcher Robert Mandic got news no scientist wants to hear. After publishing a paper on a rare head-and-neck cancer, he learned the cells he had been studying were instead cervical cancer. He notified the journal Oral Oncology, … Read More
April 23, 2012
Pam Sakuda was 55 when she found out she was dying. Shortly after having a tumor removed from her colon, she heard the doctor’s dreaded words: Stage 4; metastatic. (NY Times)
April 23, 2012
At 39 years old, Christopher John Nitkowski really has no business trying to pitch in the major leagues. In the harsh reality of professional sports, he’s a has-been. (CNN)
April 23, 2012
U.S. health regulators said consumer products that use nanotechnology may have unknown effects on the human body, and advised food and cosmetic companies to further study the safety of these tiny particles. (Reuters)
April 20, 2012
Politicians, law-enforcement officials and physicians in Kentucky are locking horns over a proposed bill to crack down on the abuse of prescription drugs, in a debate that pits patient privacy against efforts to curb the nation’s expanding epidemic of addiction … Read More
April 20, 2012
Looking for medical information on Internet message boards can be risky for consumers. Some of it is confusing, misleading or downright wrong. But for medical researchers, all that chatter can yield some valuable insights. (Wall Street Journal)
April 20, 2012
By tacking drugs onto molecules targeting rogue brain cells, researchers have alleviated symptoms in newborn rabbits that are similar to those of cerebral palsy in children. Cerebral palsy refers to a group of incurable disorders characterized by impairments in movement, … Read More
April 20, 2012
One of the most deeply divisive issues in Irish society was reignited Wednesday night when the Irish Parliament began debate on a bill that would provide for limited access to abortion. (NY Times)
April 20, 2012
At the turn of the twentieth century, the promise of regenerating damaged tissue was so far-fetched that Thomas Hunt Morgan, despairing that his work on earthworms could ever be applied to humans, abandoned the field to study heredity instead. (Nature … Read More
April 20, 2012
“The burning in the lungs was the worst part, and there’s not much that you can do for that.” Sixty-year-old Johnie Bennett of Newhall, Calif., was diagnosed with lung cancer about a year and a half ago. (ABC News)
April 19, 2012
One hundred years after Alan Turing was born, his eponymous test remains an elusive benchmark for artificial intelligence. Now, for the first time in decades, it’s possible to imagine a machine making the grade. (Wired)
April 19, 2012
In the fall of 2010, Dr. Ferric C. Fang made an unsettling discovery. Dr. Fang, who is editor in chief of the journal Infection and Immunity, found that one of his authors had doctored several papers. (NY Times)
April 19, 2012
What price motherhood? Tens of thousands of pounds? A major operation that sees tissue removed from your ovaries, stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 190C, and then regrafted into your body when you decide you want children? (Telegraph)
April 19, 2012
Scientists have created artificial genetic material that can store information and evolve over generations in a similar way to DNA – a feat expected to drive research in medicine and biotechnology, and shed light on how molecules first replicated and … Read More
April 19, 2012
Babies conceived through certain fertility treatment techniques are about one-third more likely to have a birth defect than babies conceived without any extra help from technology, according to a new review of several dozen studies. (Reuters)
April 18, 2012
When it comes to diagnosing depression in teens, differentiating mental illness from normal mood swings can be difficult. But it can be a crucial diagnosis, given that untreated depression in youth makes them more vulnerable to later substance abuse, social … Read More
April 18, 2012
On a sunny weekday morning, Diane Hinson pauses at the door of a generic office park in Northern Virginia. It’s a routine work appointment for her, but a potentially life-changing event for her clients. (NPR)
April 18, 2012
Researchers and physicians now will have access to the largest-known database of genetic variations thanks to a partnership announced in March between Amazon Web Services and the National Institutes of Health. (American Medical News)
