Lebanon, N.H. (October 15, 2013) – A new report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project shows that the use of both effective and risky drug therapies by Medicare patients varies widely across U.S. regions, offering further evidence that location is a key determinant in the quality and cost of the medical care that patients receive.
Culture
District nursing homes win high marks for quality, but antipsychotic prescribing remains problematic
WASHINGTON, DC (October 17, 2013)—The District of Columbia Department of Health (DOH) has released a study by the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) investigating prescribing of antipsychotics to District seniors. The study combines pharmaceutical marketing data collected by the District with publicly available data on nursing home quality and Medicare drug claims.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke researchers have connected very rare and precise duplications and deletions in the human genome to their complex disease consequences by duplicating them in zebrafish.
The findings are based on detailed studies of five people missing a small fragment of their genome and suffering from a mysterious syndrome of craniofacial features, visual anomalies and developmental delays.
A source of gut stem cells that can repair a type of inflammatory bowel disease when transplanted into mice has been identified by researchers at the Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute at the University of Cambridge and at BRIC, the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
The findings pave the way for patient-specific regenerative therapies for inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis.
Boston, MA – October 17, 2013 – Celmatix, a biotechnology company focused on helpingphysicians guide patients to treatments that maximize their personal reproductive potential, announced today six research presentations at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), being held October 1217 in Boston. Among the data presented was a new study suggesting that up to 25 percent of patients may be discontinuing assisted reproductive therapies such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) early, while they still have a good chance of having a baby.
TORONTO, ON — The prevalence of depression among those with migraine is approximately twice as high as for those without the disease (men: 8.4% vs. 3.4%; women 12.4% vs. 5.7%), according to a new study published by University of Toronto researchers.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Suspicions about sexual promiscuity and vaccine safety are explored in an article in the November issue of the journal Preventive Medicine, which dedicates a section of that issue to research concerning the human papillomavirus.
"Beliefs, behaviors and HPV vaccine: Correcting the myths and the misinformation" is a review of journal articles and other medical and social science literature exploring beliefs held by the general public that have an impact on HPV vaccination acceptance.
According to a University of Montreal research team, the quality of care provided by female doctors is higher than that of their male counterparts while the productivity of males is greater. The research team reached this conclusion by studying the billing information of over 870 Quebec practitioners (half of whom were women) relating to their procedures with elderly diabetic patients. "Women had significantly higher scores in terms of compliance with practice guidelines.
Alexis Carulli wants to make a difference in fighting human disease. So do the thousands of bright graduate students like her, recent Ph.D. graduates working in medical research laboratories around the country.
Patients who are responding below par to the anticoagulant drug warfarin have several options. They can undergo even more blood tests to monitor their response to the different dosages of this medication which is prescribed to prevent strokes, or they could start using one of the newer, yet more expensive, anticoagulants on the market. In the long run, says Joyce You of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in China, the latter option could actually be more cost-effective and improve a patient's quality of life.
When financial gain depends on cooperation, we might expect that people would put aside their differences and focus on the bottom line. But new research suggests that people's racial biases make them more likely to leave money on the table when a windfall is not split evenly between groups.
The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Contrary to popular belief, the intellectual development of children born to teen mums does not lag behind that of children born to mums in their 20s and 30s, finds research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
While there is some difference in the speed of language development, the spatial and non-verbal skills of children born to teen mums don't differ from those of children born to older mums, after influential factors are taken into account, say the authors.
Chicago(October 16, 2013): Traumatic injuries can be more severe for older adults, yet they often do not get the right level of care, according to a study appearing in the October issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Instead of going to a trauma center, many elderly patients end up in facilities without specialized expertise in trauma care that can treat all of their injuries.
Montreal − You know the saying: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. When it comes to cardiac rehabilitation, a study presented today at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress has the numbers to prove it.
"We found that cardiac rehabilitation programs have a financial 'return on investment' of about seven per cent," says author Dr. Dennis Humen, a professor of medicine at Western University. "Not only is cardiac rehab the pillar of preventing a second cardiac event; it also makes good business sense."
Contrary to popular belief, the intellectual development of children born to teen mums does not lag behind that of children born to mums in their 20s and 30s, finds research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
While there is some difference in the speed of language development, the spatial and non-verbal skills of children born to teen mums don't differ from those of children born to older mums, after influential factors are taken into account, say the authors.