Health News

Results-based financing can achieve 20 percent more health care with same funds in world's less developed nations

Date: Dec-12-2013
Countries and major donors are changing the way they finance maternal and child, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS health programs in low-income countries to increase their impact.The approach, called Results-Based Financing for Health, or RBF, pays providers or recipients of health services after pre-agreed results have been achieved and independently verified.RBF is a change from paying for inputs to paying for services delivered. It works for both donors and developing countries. It assures donors that their funds are being used as intended and producing the desired results.

'Third party punishment' - game theory used to explain complex human behavior

Date: Dec-12-2013
You're shopping for holiday gifts when you spot someone pocketing a nice pair of leather gloves. What do you do?A new study by University of Maryland researchers appearing this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B predicts that whether you alert a manager to the theft or decide to do nothing may depend on whether you're shopping in a local store where you know the owners or in a city far from home.

People who inject drugs taking more risks due to police activities in Thailand

Date: Dec-12-2013
Recent increasing police activities focused on people who inject drugs in Thailand have involved reported injustices that may lead to riskier behaviors in people who inject drugs (PWID), according to a study published this week in PLOS Medicine. The results of the study, by Thomas Kerr and colleagues, from the University of British Columbia, Canada, found that urine drug testing, which has become widely available since around 2000, was identified as a key tool used by the police, with some police requesting PWID to provide urine samples in public places.

Realistic hands-on models created for neurosurgical training using multimaterial 3D printers

Date: Dec-12-2013
Researchers from the University of Malaya in Malaysia, with collaboration from researchers from the University of Portsmouth and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, announce the creation of a cost-effective two-part model of the skull for use in practicing neurosurgical techniques. The model, produced using the latest generation of multimaterial 3D printers, is composed of a variety of materials that simulate the various consistencies and densities of human tissues encountered during neurosurgery.

SIRT5 regulation has dramatic effect on mitochondrial metabolism

Date: Dec-12-2013
The Sirtuin family of protein deacylases has received considerable attention in recent years due to its links to longevity, diabetes, cancer, and metabolic regulation. In a new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism, Buck Institute researchers have now identified widespread regulation of proteins involved in metabolism by the mitochondrial sirtuin, SIRT5.

Finnish research unveils novel cancer cell DNA damage repair mechanism

Date: Dec-12-2013
Cancer cells have an exceptional ability to repair damage to their DNA caused during uncontrolled cell division. Scientists have now unveiled a novel piece of the puzzle of cancer cell DNA repair mechanisms that explain the mechanistic changes in the genetic code of cancer cells. These findings result from application of the cell microarray screening method developed by Juha Rantala, Senior Scientist at VTT. Research with a material impact on cancer drug development was published in Science magazine.

Scientists explore the mechanisms of viruses' shells

Date: Dec-12-2013
Viruses are like small vessels containing an active component, the genetic material, that can infect a host cell. The vessel, called capsid or vector, is basically a shell that changes its shape when it penetrates a cell to infect it, and may even break into pieces. The research team, that includes Guido Polles and Cristian Micheletti of SISSA, carried out computer simulations and used theoretical models to understand how such 'vessel' responds to thermal and mechanic stimulations. In such a way they identified the weak points of capsids and inferred their spontaneous assembly process.

Breast cancer screening: benefit more consistent across studies than previously understood

Date: Dec-12-2013
Re-examination of data from four large studies of the benefits and harms of mammography screening shows that the benefits are more consistent across these studies than previously understood and that all the studies indicate a substantial reduction in breast cancer mortality with screening, according to results presented at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 10-14.

Pediatric leukemia patients benefit from less painful drug delivery

Date: Dec-12-2013
Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of pediatric cancer, can safely receive intravenous infusions of a reformulated mainstay of chemotherapy that has been delivered via painful intramuscular injection for more than 40 years, research suggests.Researchers looked at the four-year, event-free survival and toxicity of E. coli L-asparaginase delivered via IV in its polyethylene glycol (PEG)-conjugated formulation or through IM injection in its native formulation.

Compared with other New England states, health status and preventive care improved in Massachusetts after reform

Date: Dec-12-2013
In 2006, Massachusetts was on the same brink that the entire nation is on today: the brink of expanding health insurance to cover far more people than before, through government-driven, market-based reform.Now, a new study shows the health of residents in that one trailblazing state improved measurably, especially among the poor and near-poor, in just the first five years -- compared with the health of residents in neighboring states.