April 18, 2012
A group of Hawaii physicians is offering to write lethal prescriptions for terminally ill patients in a bid to test whether doctor-assisted suicide is allowed under state law. (American Medical News)
April 18, 2012
Three years ago, Theo Dingermann, a professor of pharmaceutical biology at Goethe University in Frankfurt, sent a glob of spit to the United States. For $200 a company there sequenced part of his genome using DNA from his cheek cells. … Read More
April 18, 2012
A very simple question is changing the delivery of medical care: How is your health affecting your quality of life? (Wall Street Journal)
April 17, 2012
Three decades after hospice emerged as the standard of care for terminally ill patients, the end-of-life treatments that palliative medicine physicians provide are frequently referred to as murder, euthanasia and killing. (American Medical News)
April 17, 2012
THREE DOZEN doctors-in-training recently sat in a conference room in Tucson. Arizona sunshine streamed through open French windows. On the floor were votive candles and peacock feathers, symbols of healing. It was the closing ceremony in a month-long course at … Read More
April 17, 2012
My 92-year-old aunt was a walking pharmacy, and a month ago it nearly killed her. The episode also cost the American medical system several hundred thousand dollars. (NY Times)
April 17, 2012
It was an ordinary work day at the trucking company last July for Donnie Smothers, 39, of Camden, Tenn. — until an 18-wheeler came crashing down off a jack, crushing his head and chest. (ABC News)
April 17, 2012
Ron Fouchier, a researcher at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, whose work on H5N1 avian flu virus has been at the centre of controversy, says that he is prepared to defy government demands and submit the work … Read More
April 17, 2012
Medical geneticists are giving genome sequencing its first big test in the clinic by applying it to some of their most baffling cases. By the end of this year, hundreds of children with unexplained forms of intellectual disability and developmental … Read More
April 16, 2012
Some patients with fatal Lou Gehrig’s disease, frustrated by the slow pace of clinical drug trials or unable to qualify, are trying to brew their own version of an experimental compound at home and testing it on themselves. (Wall Street … Read More
April 16, 2012
The first time Edi Guyton tried to commit suicide, she was 19 years old, wracked with depression and unable to deal with the social and academic pressure of college. (CNN)
April 16, 2012
The Texas Medical Board on Friday approved controversial new rules on the use of adult stem cells, raising concerns that Texans could receive therapies that have not yet been proven to work and that could be unsafe. (NY Times)
April 16, 2012
Jennifer Derrick’s weight had crept to 159 pounds from 125, and she knew she would not fit into her grandmother’s wedding dress. (MSNBC)
April 16, 2012
Chin implants are the fastest growing type of cosmetic procedure in the US according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). (BBC News)
April 16, 2012
“It wasn’t chaotic like I’m used to in past experiences in emergency rooms,” says Denis J. Mulligan, 65, of his recent trip to the new Seniors Emergency Center at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md. (ABC News)
April 13, 2012
The Journal of the American Medical Association (Volume 307, Issue 11, March 21, 2012) is now available by subscription only. Articles include: “Committee Calls for Framework to Assess the Safety of Nanotechnology Materials” by Mike Mitka, 1124-1127.
April 13, 2012
The New England Journal of Medicine (Volume 366, Issue 12, March 22, 2012) is now available on-line and by subscription only. Articles include: “Directions for Bipartisan Medicare Reform” by Gail R. Wilensky, available on-line. “Slower Growth in Medicare Spending — … Read More
April 13, 2012
Doctors are warning that pressure to be young, beautiful, slim and clever, is driving a generation into buying illicit drugs online in the belief they are not ‘good enough’. (Telegraph)
April 13, 2012
More than three decades after Britain produced the world’s first test-tube baby, Europe is a patchwork of restrictions for people who need help having a child. (Washington Post)
April 13, 2012
Brazil’s supreme court has voted to authorize abortions in cases of fetuses with no brains. (Washington Post)
April 13, 2012
Tomorrow the Texas Medical Board will decide whether to sign off on what’s said to be the first state-level policy imposing oversight on the medical use of experimental treatments using adult stem cells. (ScienceInsider)
April 13, 2012
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is enjoying increasing popularity all over the world. But two molecular genetics studies published this week show that the trendy treatments can be harmful, as well. The papers focus attention on the fact that not all … Read More
April 12, 2012
Gone may be the days of substantial and at times clunky medical objects like a hard metal pacemaker placed next to the heart or electrodes implanted within the brain. (ABC News)
April 12, 2012
The BBC has been told by doctors that Uzbekistan is running a secret programme to sterilise women – and has talked to women sterilised without their knowledge or consent. (BBC News)
April 12, 2012
Cases of dementia — and the heavy social and financial burdens associated with them — are set to soar in the coming decades as life expectancy and medical care improve in poorer countries, the World Health Organization says. (The Washington … Read More
