Health News

Making connections in the eye: Wiring diagram of retinal neurons is first step toward mapping the human brain

Date: Aug-08-2013
The human brain has 100 billion neurons, connected to each other in networks that allow us to interpret the world around us, plan for the future, and control our actions and movements. MIT neuroscientist Sebastian Seung wants to map those networks, creating a wiring diagram of the brain that could help scientists learn how we each become our unique selves. In a paper appearing in the Aug...

Truth behind the thousands of "needless" deaths at NHS trusts

Date: Aug-08-2013
Widespread reports of 13,000 preventable deaths at NHS trusts should be ignored, argues Professor David Spiegelhalter on bmj.com. In a feature published on 8 August, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge, David Spiegelhalter, challenged media reports that there had been 13,000 'avoidable' deaths as 14 NHS Hospital Trusts. The Keogh Report, published in July, investigated 14 trusts that had "higher than expected" mortality rates between 2005 and 2012...

Results from large international clinical trials provide dentists and patients with a new level of confidence in dental implants

Date: Aug-08-2013
Results from two of the largest international clinical studies performed to date with dental implants have just been published and demonstrate excellent clinical performance. Together, the studies have evaluated more than one thousand Straumann Bone Level implants in Europe, the US and Australia. The scope of these studies is particularly remarkable in view of the fact that most dental implant companies do not conduct clinical trials because they want to cut costs and do not have the capabilities...

MITA says IPPS final rule will establish flawed payment models, jeopardize patient access to medical imaging technologies

Date: Aug-08-2013
The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) have said that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) final rule will jeopardize patient access to computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MR) services by instituting inaccurate payment models.  "This policy is will result in further cuts to reimbursement for life-saving medical imaging technologies," said Gail Rodriguez, executive director of MITA...

Target adults working with children for whooping cough immunisations, say researchers

Date: Aug-08-2013
Adults working in close contact with children should be targeted for immunisation against whooping cough, according to research published in the British Journal of General Practice this month.  The study found that 22 per cent of adults with acute persistent cough worked with children or in the health sector and that pertussis - commonly known as whooping cough - was three times more likely to be the cause than in other sub-groups...

Teens' smoking influenced by older siblings, parents' lifelong smoking habits

Date: Aug-08-2013
Teens who smoke are significantly influenced by whether older siblings smoke as well as if their parents smoke now or did in the past, according to research from Purdue University. "It's no surprise that the children of heavy smokers smoked, but what is surprising is that the rate of teens whose parents started smoking later in life or who had quit or reduced their smoking was just as high, if not higher," said Mike Vuolo, an assistant professor of sociology who studies youth behavior and substance use...

FDA approves BioGaia's request for orphan drug designation

Date: Aug-08-2013
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a rare and extremely severe disease that affects premature infants. BioGaia is in a very early stage of investigating the possibilities of developing a drug within this field and has submitted a request for orphan drug designation in the USA. The FDA Office of Orphan Product Development has now approved BioGaia's request. Orphan drugs are either drugs or biologics intended for the treatment, diagnosis or prevention of rare diseases or disorders affecting less than 200 000 patients in the USA per year...

BJGP study confirms that GPs are effective at performing skin cancer biopsies, UK

Date: Aug-08-2013
GPs can effectively perform biopsies to test for melanoma without leading to poorer long term outcomes for patients, according to research in the British Journal of General Practice this month.  The analysis by Dr Peter Murchie and colleagues at the University of Aberdeen shows that patients who have their initial diagnostic excision biopsy in primary care experience fewer subsequent hospital admissions and fewer days in hospital...

WHO reinstates important drugs amphotericin B and flucytosine after pressure from leading expert

Date: Aug-08-2013
A Manchester doctor believes the lives of tens of thousands of people worldwide who develop a deadly type of fungal meningitis could now be saved thanks to a U-turn by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Professor David Denning, who is recognised as an international expert in infectious and fungal diseases, has campaigned with others to have two drugs reinstated on the Essential Medicines List following a definitive trial from Vietnam...

Dog control: prevention better than punishment, say vets

Date: Aug-08-2013
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has reiterated its call for preventive action to deal with the problem of out of control dogs, as the Government announces a consultation on increasing penalties for irresponsible dog owners who allow their dogs to attack members of the public.  The BVA has worked alongside the major dog and animal welfare charities, police and other enforcers, and the Communication Workers Union to campaign for the introduction of dog control notices to be served on dog owners at the earliest sign of a problem...