Health News

Britain's relaxed about mobile health data but resistant to technology

Date: Dec-20-2013
New research from legal firm Pinsent Masons and YouGov suggests there is a 'Mobile Mountain' of barriers health operators must overcome before mobile health technology (mHealth) can be successfully adopted in the UK.

Hospital C-suite survey projects ACO participation to double in 2014

Date: Dec-20-2013
Hospital participation in accountable care organizations (ACOs) is projected to double in 2014, according to Premier, Inc.'s fall 2013 Economic Outlook C-suite survey. More than 18 percent of 115 senior executive respondents - primarily CEOs (43.5 percent), chief financial officers and chief operating officers - across 35 states say their hospitals currently participate in an ACO, up from 4.8 percent in spring 2012. This growth is projected to accelerate, with about 50 percent of respondents suggesting their hospitals will participate in an ACO by the end of 2014. Overall, 76.

Glass specialists help create new generation of joint and bone treatments

Date: Dec-20-2013
Research specialists at Glass Technology Services Ltd (GTS) are helping to create a new generation of joint and bone treatments, using specialised bioceramic polymer composites, to address needs such as osteoarthritis, vertebral and maxillofacial bone fractures. Working in partnership with leading universities and manufacturers, GTS scientists are developing specialist materials for osteoarthritis and bone fracture treatments, which are minimising invasive surgery and improving patient recovery.

Study shows therapeutic potential of fat-derived stem cells declines as donor's age rises

Date: Dec-20-2013
A new study released today in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine demonstrates that the therapeutic value of stem cells collected from fat declines when the cells come from older patients."This could restrict the effectiveness of autologous cell therapy using fat, or adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (ADSCs), and require that we test cell material before use and develop ways to pretreat ADSCs from aged patients to enhance their therapeutic potential," said Anastasia Efimenko, M.D., Ph.D. She and Nina Dzhoyashvili, M.D., were first authors of the study led by Yelena Parfyonova, M.D.

How a protein complex revs up T cell activation to fight infections

Date: Dec-20-2013
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have identified a protein complex that is essential for jump-starting the immune response during the critical first 24 hours of an infection. The research appears in the current issue of the scientific journal Immunity.Researchers showed the protein complex mTORC1 helps to ensure that newly activated T cells have the energy necessary to launch proliferation. T cells are white blood cells that fight disease and promote immune system balance.

Pathogen is possible source of pandemic

Date: Dec-20-2013
A team of scientists from Washington State University has discovered how one of the planet's most deadly known viruses employs burglary-ring-like teamwork to infiltrate the human cell.Nipah virus is so menacing that the nation's top infectious disease experts served as consultants in the filmmaking of the 2011 medical thriller, "Contagion," which is based on a global Nipah outbreak.

Timing important when putting toddlers to bed

Date: Dec-20-2013
The bedtime you select for your toddler may be out of sync with his or her internal body clock, which can contribute to difficulties for youngsters attempting to settle in for the night, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study.The study pinpointed the time when the hormone melatonin increased in the evening, indicating the start of the biological night, in a group of 14 toddlers whose sleep also was studied over the course of six days.

Increase in body mass relates to increase in health care costs

Date: Dec-20-2013
Researchers at Duke Medicine are giving people another reason to lose weight in the new year: obesity-related illnesses are expensive. According to a study published in the journal Obesity, health care costs increase in parallel with body mass measurements, even beginning at a recommended healthy weight.The researchers found that costs associated with medical and drug claims rose gradually with each unit increase in body mass index (BMI). Notably, these increases began above a BMI of 19, which falls in the lower range of the healthy BMI category.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria destroyed by blue light phototherapy

Date: Dec-20-2013
Blue light has proven to have powerful bacteria-killing ability in the laboratory. The potent antibacterial effects of irradiation using light in the blue spectra have now also been demonstrated in human and animal tissues. A series of groundbreaking articles that provide compelling evidence of this effect are published in Photomedicine and Laser Surgery, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The articles are available on the Photomedicine and Laser Surgery website.

Molecular biomarkers of vaccine immunity identified

Date: Dec-20-2013
Testing the efficacy of vaccines in clinical trials takes years, even decades. Yet challenging infections like HIV, malaria and dengue are striking today. To speed up vaccine testing, scientists at the Emory Vaccine Center have established a goal of creating a "vaccine gene chip."This device could read the activity of all the genes in the genome in white blood cells within a few days of administration of a test vaccine. Reading such "molecular signatures" would rapidly help predict the ability of that vaccine to stimulate the immune system and protect against disease.