• Society ‘snookered’ by research that isn’t new

    Updated: 2010-08-31 16:57:29
    Peggy Peck of MedPage Today found that research presented as new at the European Society of Cardiology's annual meeting this weekend was actually published in July, despite the society's requirement that information submitted for presentation must be new, unpublished data. When asked by MedPage Today to point out the "news" in ...

  • NAMC folds, qualified members invited to AHCJ

    Updated: 2010-08-31 16:57:29
    The National Association of Medical Communicators, an organization for medical broadcasters, writers, organizational spokespersons and health professionals who communicate with the public on a regular basis, has disbanded. In a blog post about the decision, Barbara Ficarra, who was an NAMC board member and is a member of AHCJ, cites cutbacks ...

  • Mass. won’t post hospitals’ death rates

    Updated: 2010-08-31 16:57:29
    The Boston Globe's Liz Kowalczyk reports that, two years after it was first proposed by a consumer group, the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council has decided it won't publish hospital-wide mortality rates. The problem, it seems, is the lack of an accurate, universal method of computing such numbers. Health ...

  • Initiative to help reporters cover European health

    Updated: 2010-08-31 16:57:29
    AHCJ has launched an effort to help reporters understand and cover health issues in Europe. This new resource includes a series of web pages devoted to European issues and resources, as well as a listserv to allow journalists to share information, ...

  • Identical tubing demonstrates FDA’s inaction

    Updated: 2010-08-31 16:57:29
    In The New York Times, Gardiner Harris  outlines the problem of medical tubing that looks very similar – leading to medical errors – then deftly works his way up the chain in an attempt to find the source of device regulator's failure to solve a problem that seems entirely solvable. Medicine ...

  • Gays excluded from clinical trials

    Updated: 2010-08-31 16:57:29
    Thanks to an awards announcement from the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, we just noticed Jen Colletta's story in the Philadelphia Gay News about the exclusion of gays from clinical trials. Colletta won an Excellence in News Writing Award. The exclusion of gays in clinical trials is an issue ...

  • Dissecting Gawande’s narrative structure

    Updated: 2010-08-31 16:57:29
    In a recent post, Not Exactly Rocket Science's Ed Yong tried to break down Atul Gawande's work and figure out why it can be so darn compelling. Yong and many thousands of others (myself included) were riveted by Gawande's latest New Yorker piece, a treatise on palliative care. Atul Gawande in ...

  • Australia lagging in conflict-of-interest disclosures

    Updated: 2010-08-31 16:57:29
    When a country is holding up the United States as a model of progress on medical conflict of interest issues, you might suspect there are some serious systemic issues there. Such seems to be the case in Australia, based on Melissa Sweet's recent post on the Croakey blog. At present, ...

  • As school starts, so do youth sports injuries

    Updated: 2010-08-31 16:57:29
    The University of Michigan's new Michigan NeuroSport Concussion Program seems to be cropping up everywhere, and as far as I can tell, it's all part of a coordinated effort by the University. They already claim to have one of the only pediatric sport programs in the country, and now they're ...

  • AHCJ pushes for access to publicly funded research

    Updated: 2010-08-31 16:57:29
    The strong public interest in "direct, free and full text access to research articles" prompted the Association of Health Care Journalists to send comments to the House Oversight and Government Reform committee. The letter [PDF] was in support of full-text access to the fruits of publicly-funded research to ...

  • Hospitals face legal dilemma if they test incapacitated patients after needle accidents

    Updated: 2010-08-31 15:54:13
    Anaesthetists are calling for greater clarity on the legal implications of testing incapacitated patients for blood-borne viruses, after a survey found that this is often done following staff needlestick injuries, in possible breach of UK legislation. The paper, in the September issue of Anaesthesia , reports on the results of an anonymous survey of intensive care units in England, Wales...

  • Clinic puts patients at heart of multiple sclerosis research

    Updated: 2010-08-31 15:53:52
    A research clinic for multiple sclerosis patients is being set up with a 10 million donation from the author J K Rowling. The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic at the University of Edinburgh will place patients at the heart of research to improve outcomes for multiple sclerosis sufferers. This will focus on patient-based studies to help find treatments that could slow progres...

  • Study findings show value of dietary supplement SAMe in treatment of adults with major depressive disorders

    Updated: 2010-08-31 15:53:29
    BOSTON (August 31, 2010) A new study conducted by investigators at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) suggests that S-Adenosyl Methionine (SAMe), an over-the-counter dietary supplement, can be an effective, relatively well-tolerated, adjunctive treatment for adults with major depressive disorders who do not respond to their treatment with antidepressant medicatio...

  • WHO on the vaccine-narcolepsy issue

    Updated: 2010-08-31 13:42:36

  • Children in Pakistan hit by flood illnesses

    Updated: 2010-08-31 13:38:17

  • Lower-dose heparin use during coronary procedure does not appear to reduce risk of major bleeding

    Updated: 2010-08-31 13:13:24
    Patients with acute coronary syndromes initially treated with the anticoagulant fondaparinux who underwent a coronary procedure (such as balloon angioplasty) and received a lower dose of the anticoagulant heparin during the procedure did not have a reduced rate of major bleeding and vascular access site complications, according to a study that will appear in the September 22 issue of JAMA . T...

  • Nation's leading ID experts call for mandatory flu vaccine for all health-care personnel

    Updated: 2010-08-31 13:13:17
    (Arlington, VA) Influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel is a professional and ethical responsibility and non-compliance with healthcare facility policies regarding vaccination should not be tolerated, according to a position paper released today by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). The paper, published in this month's Infection Control and Healthcare Epidemiolog...

  • Drug trial results refine treatment during angioplasty operations

    Updated: 2010-08-31 13:13:10
    A landmark international study, coordinated by McMaster University, has found that lower doses of a blood thinner called unfractionated heparin (UFH) during angioplasty did not reduce bleeding or vascular complications compared to standard dose UFH in patients initially treated with a blood thinner, fondaparinux. In a prior study, the OASIS 5 trial, researchers from McMaster University sho...

  • Success stops drug trial

    Updated: 2010-08-31 13:12:56
    The data monitoring committee of the AVERROES study, seeing overwhelming evidence of the success of apixaban in the prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation who are unsuitable for the conventional treatment of warfarin, has recommended early termination of this study. The decision came after repeated review and careful consideration of all efficacy and safety data. The stu...

  • Heart attacks jump in young Italian women

    Updated: 2010-08-31 13:12:53
    (Philadelphia)August 31 -- The incidence of acute myocardial infarction in Italy sharply increased, particularly among young women, between the years 2001 and 2005, according to a comprehensive study funded by the Human Health Foundation (HHF), a nonprofit Italian charity for biomedical research and health education in Spoleto, Italy. The results were published in Aging Clinical Experimental...

  • UK: Avian flu still likely to strike in humans, says Welsh expert

    Updated: 2010-08-31 13:05:19

  • Singapore: Dengue, malaria and chikungunya cases down

    Updated: 2010-08-31 13:00:34

  • Indonesia: Does H5N1 prefer backyard chickens?

    Updated: 2010-08-31 12:55:06

  • Pakistan: The politics of catastrophe

    Updated: 2010-08-31 05:22:21

  • Indonesia: Bird flu-infected chickens sold in E Java

    Updated: 2010-08-31 04:52:31

  • Indonesia: Health concerns in volcano evacuation centres

    Updated: 2010-08-31 04:42:47

  • Global warming and disease

    Updated: 2010-08-31 04:39:14

  • Honduras: 60 dengue deaths

    Updated: 2010-08-31 04:33:40

  • Babies die after superbug infection

    Updated: 2010-08-31 01:00:00
    THREE babies died after being infected with a superbug resistant to common antibiotics at a leading hospital.

  • China: Cholera forces small town eateries to close

    Updated: 2010-08-30 22:40:57

  • CIDRAP: News scan, August 30

    Updated: 2010-08-30 22:37:34

  • WHO: Pakistan bulletin 15

    Updated: 2010-08-30 15:22:46

  • Pakistan: Dengue cases on the rise in Karachi

    Updated: 2010-08-30 13:32:18

  • India: 79 new H1N1 deaths

    Updated: 2010-08-30 13:26:45

  • Nigeria: Government responsible for cholera outbreak

    Updated: 2010-08-30 13:20:27

  • Indonesia: Two posts from Ida

    Updated: 2010-08-30 13:05:42

  • Workers rate safety most important workplace issue in new Labor Day study

    Updated: 2010-08-30 12:14:28
    More than eight of ten workers 85 percent rate workplace safety first in importance among labor standards, even ahead of family and maternity leave, minimum wage, paid sick days, overtime pay and the right to join a union, according to a new study from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. The study, "Public Attitudes Towards and Experiences with Workplace...

  • Moderate Drinking May Boost Risk of Breast Cancer's Return

    Updated: 2010-08-30 10:06:33
    By Alan Mozes HealthDay Reporter MONDAY, Aug. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Drinking even moderate amounts of alcohol may raise the risk for breast cancer recurrence in some women, new research indicates. The association seems confined to former breast cancer patients who are postmenopausal or overweight or obese, the researchers noted. However, drinking moderately (about three t...

  • Older adults experience 'destination amnesia'

    Updated: 2010-08-30 09:18:24
    Toronto, Canada I'm sure I told you that already! Older adults are more likely to have destination memory failures forgetting who they've shared or not shared information with, according to a new study led by Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute. It's the kind of memory faux pas that can lead to awkward or embarrassing social situations and even miscommunication in the doctor's of...

  • Smoked Marijuana May Ease Chronic Nerve Pain

    Updated: 2010-08-30 09:03:01
    By Jenifer Goodwin HealthDay Reporter MONDAY, Aug. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Smoking cannabis, also known as marijuana, reduced pain in patients with nerve pain stemming from injuries or surgical complications, new research shows. Twenty-one adults with chronic nerve pain were taught to take a single inhalation of 25 milligrams of cannabis through a pipe, three times a day, fo...

  • Pakistan: 100,000 pregnant women at risk

    Updated: 2010-08-30 04:43:29

  • Pakistan: Blogging the relief effort

    Updated: 2010-08-29 23:58:50

  • Dengue in Mexico: Week 32

    Updated: 2010-08-29 23:30:12

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