From CNN to Ashton Kutcher everyone is tweeting. In ads, many companies now display the logo of an animated blue bird holding a sign that says "follow me."
Culture
WASHINGTON — A hospital pneumonia survival rate of 93 percent may sound good, but knowing that it's actually merely "fair" can help people pick a better hospital, according to new research. A "good" survival rate would be from 95 percent to 98 percent, medical experts say.
Better use of quality-of-care ratings can lead to greater consumer control, more effective health-care choices, and provider competition over quality instead of cost, says a report published by the American Psychological Association.
COLUMBIA, Mo. –To protect from potential terrorist attacks, federal buildings and other critical infrastructures are made with special windows that contain blast-resistant glass. However, the glass is thick and expensive. Currently, University of Missouri researchers are developing and testing a new type of blast-resistant glass that will be thinner, lighter and less vulnerable to small-scale explosions.
As public health experts warn of potential widespread outbreaks of H1N1 flu this school year, a new study from North Carolina State University shows that students do not comply with basic preventative measures as much as they think do. In other words, the kids aren't washing their hands.
Pregnant women who develop marked increased blood sugar levels during pregnancy can reduce the risk of certain birth complications if they receive treatment. This is a prerequisite for offering all pregnant women routine screening for gestational diabetes. However, potential disadvantages of this type of routine screening have not been thoroughly researched. This is the conclusion of the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) in its final report published on 3 September 2009 and for which an English-language summary is now available.
Researchers from the Catalan Institute of Oncology have studied the impact of the law banning smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants on those working in these places. The results are positive – 5% of waiters have stopped smoking, and the number of cigarettes smoked by those who still smoke has fallen by almost 9%.
This new booklet highlights these approaches and the views of leading experts, policymakers and academic researchers as presented during a Public Policy Seminar jointly organised by the Economic and Social Council (ESRC), the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), held in June 2009.
A new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital researchers has found a strong association between the common sexually transmitted infection, Trichomonas vaginalis, and risk of advanced and lethal prostate cancer in men.
The study appears online on September 9, 2009, on the Journal of the National Cancer Institute website and will appear in a later print edition.
Collaboration with health biotech companies in developing countries represents a major opportunity to strengthen their market reach and innovation potential, acording to the results of a new study.
The study by the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (MRC), based at the University Health Network and the University of Toronto, found that one in four Canadian health biotech firms are involved in some form of partnership initiative in developing countries.
Sharing the fruits of research in the biomedical sciences is critical for the advance of knowledge, yet with the advent of large-scale data gathering following the completion of the genome projects this is becoming harder to facilitate and more difficult to monitor, as reported in Nature today.
MADISON — The prevailing wisdom among many scientists and scientific organizations is that, as a rule, scientists are press shy, and those who aren't are mavericks.
In a new report, University of Illinois professor Barbara H. Fiese urges local, state, and federal governments, as well as business, and community leaders to promote family mealtimes as a matter of public policy.
"There are few things parents can do that are as effective in protecting their families as taking 18 to 20 minutes to eat together and talk with each other three to five times a week," said Fiese, a U of I professor of human development and family studies and the director of the U of I's Family Resiliency Center.
Boston, MA—In a national survey of businesses that looks at their preparations for a possible widespread H1N1 outbreak, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that only one-third believe they could sustain their business without severe operational problems if half their workforce were absent for two weeks due to H1N1 (also known as "swine flu"). Just one-fifth believe they could avoid such problems for one month with half their employees out.
Growing evidence shows that exposure to lead in the environment is associated with cardiovascular disease, including increased risk of hypertension. However, those studies have looked at lead concentrations in blood, not bone lead, a better indicator of cumulative lead exposure over time. In a new study, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Michigan School of Public Health found that bone lead was associated with a higher risk of death from all causes, particularly from cardiovascular disease.