Health News

Methods examined to reduce acute care costs without sacrificing quality

Date: Dec-05-2013
The acute care system, which includes urgent care and retail clinics, emergency departments, hospitals, and doctors' offices, reflects the best and worst in American medicine. While acting as a safety net for the under- and uninsured, the system is also fragmented, disconnected, and costly.In a study published in the December issue of Health Affairs, Jesse Pines, M.D., director of the Office of Clinical Practice Innovation at the George Washington University (GW), and co-authors describe strategies to contain acute care costs without sacrificing quality.

Body image and Facebook use in teen girls

Date: Dec-05-2013
"Appearance exposure" on the Internet has been linked to body image disturbance among adolescent girls. A new study that links specific Facebook activities, but not overall Facebook use to body dissatisfaction and a drive for thinness in teen girls is published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

A step towards development of drugs for neurodegenerative diseases

Date: Dec-05-2013
A successful joint collaboration between researchers at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem and the startup company TyrNovo may lead to a potential treatment of brain diseases. The researchers found that TyrNovo's novel and unique compound, named NT219, selectively inhibits the process of aging in order to protect the brain from neurodegenerative diseases, without affecting lifespan. This is a first and important step towards the development of future drugs for the treatment of various neurodegenerative maladies.

Identification of emerging threats may be aided by 1950s pandemic bird flu virus

Date: Dec-05-2013
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have evidence that descendants of the H2N2 avian influenza A virus that killed millions worldwide in the 1950s still pose a threat to human health, particularly to those under 50. The research has been published in an advance online edition of the Journal of Virology.The study included 22 H2N2 avian viruses collected from domestic poultry and wild aquatic birds between 1961 and 2008, making it the most comprehensive analysis yet of avian H2N2 viruses.Researchers reported the viruses could infect human respiratory cells.

Higher case load lowers cost of repairing bones that protect eye

Date: Dec-05-2013
Adding to evidence that "high-volume" specialty care in busy teaching hospitals leads to efficiencies unavailable in community hospitals, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers finds that patients undergoing repair of traumatic eye socket injuries at its busy academic medical center fared just as well at far less cost than those treated at all other Maryland hospitals.

Researchers predict seasonal flu outbreaks in 108 cities across the US

Date: Dec-05-2013
Scientists were able to reliably predict the timing of the 2012-2013 influenza season up to nine weeks in advance of its peak. The first large-scale demonstration of the flu forecasting system by scientists at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health was carried out in 108 cities across the United States.Results are published online in the journal Nature Communications.The flu forecasting system adapts techniques used in modern weather prediction to turn real-time, Web-based estimates of influenza infection into local forecasts of the seasonal peak by locality.

Mother Nature has a double-duty antibiotic up her sleeve for tuberculosis

Date: Dec-05-2013
A natural antibiotic turns out to be a lethal weapon in the fight against tuberculosis. Scientists have discovered it has an unexpected dual action that dramatically reduces the probability that TB bacteria will become resistantTechnology has made it possible to synthesize increasingly targeted drugs. But scientists still have much to learn from Mother Nature. Pyridomycin, a substance produced by non-pathogenic soil bacteria, has been found to be a potent antibiotic against a related strain of bacteria that cause tuberculosis.

New receptor discovered that may be instrumental in the body's response to sepsis

Date: Dec-05-2013
Sepsis, or septicaemia, is a devastating disease that is difficult to diagnose early and for which treatment options are limited. The number of deaths from sepsis exceeds those from lung cancer, and from breast and bowel cancer combined.Sepsis can affect any age group and is the leading cause of death in Intensive Care: it is estimated that 37,000 people die from severe sepsis in the UK each year with annual NHS costs exceeding £1.5billion.

Biological changes in PTSD patients may be reversed by talk therapy

Date: Dec-05-2013
A new paper published in Biological Psychiatry suggests that cognitive behavioral therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) not only reduces symptoms but also affects the underlying biology of this disorder.The researchers, led by Dr. Szabolcs Kéri at the National Institute of Psychiatry and Addictions and University of Szeged in Hungary, recruited 39 individuals diagnosed with PTSD to participate in the study. For a comparison group, they also included 31 individuals who had been exposed to trauma, but who did not develop PTSD.

Comparison of side effects, efficacy of osteoporosis drugs

Date: Dec-05-2013
A study comparing the efficacy and tolerability of two popular osteoporosis drugs, denosumab and zoledronic acid, found that denosumab had a significantly greater effect on increasing spine bone mineral density and zoledronic acid caused more flulike symptoms. These findings were presented recently at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research's annual meeting.