Active Forum Topics | Getting Started | Interviews | EMR Forum | Medical | Billings | Press & News | Voice Recognition | The Water Cooler
Mice treated orally with the diabetes drug metformin had 40-50 percent fewer lung tumors than untreated mice
WASHINGTON — A popular drug that is used by millions of diabetics around the world significantly decreases tobacco-induced lung tumors in mice, a study published Wednesday found.
Researchers led by Philip Dennis, a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), gave the diabetes drug metformin to mice which had been exposed to a carcinogen derived from nicotine.
Mice treated orally with the diabetes drug had 40-50 percent fewer lung tumors than untreated mice, while those treated by injection had nearly three-quarters fewer tumors, the study published in Cancer Prevention Research said.
Based on the findings in mice, the researchers are considering holding clinical trials of metformin to determine if it could be used to prevent lung cancer in smokers.
"Although smoking cessation is the most important step for current smokers, over half of lung cancer cases are diagnosed in former smokers, raising the importance of identifying those at highest risk and identifying effective preventive treatments," Dennis said.
Earlier studies have shown that diabetics who take metformin have a lower risk of developing cancer.
Dr. Murdoch, our top poster in the forum, has written about metformin in the Medical Forum, and I know he favors the use of metformin. Makes me wonder how many other drugs have dual-purpose actions in the body. I think the EMR movement will make many other cross-studies possible as the raw data is delivered up for study.
Actor Michael Douglas
NEW YORK — Hollywood star Michael Douglas has admitted his throat cancer is more serious than first thought, but says he remains optimistic as he undergoes intensive treatment.
"It's a stage four, which is intense, and they gotta go at it," Douglas told chat show host David Letterman on the "Late Show" Tuesday night.
Douglas, 65, who is married to another Hollywood A-lister, British actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, only recently revealed that he had been diagnosed with throat cancer when he returned to the United States from a family holiday three weeks ago.
But he had not mentioned the seriousness of the disease in his earlier interview with People magazine.
I wish him well, Michael Douglas is a great actor with a great voice, and I am glad to see he has a very positive attitude about his illness, something I believe helps people survive cancer.
Games, brain training exercises, crossword puzzles, sudoku and listening to the radio are known to keep the brain active and help to stave off the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia. How they those activities do this is by keeping thoughts active, not allowing the mind to slow down and also by using the person’s memory, which helps put off memory loss.
However, the down side is that when an older person with an active mind get dementia, the onset happen a lot quicker, meaning that while mental problems and deficiencies are held back, they make up for loss time by happening at a much faster rate.
Dementia is one of the scariest things to watch happen to a loved one, I hope a treatment can be found, and I hope if there is an expiration date on our brains, we can learn to extend it.
Obesity drug Meridia. (CBS)
(CBS) This month, the FDA will decide the fate of the controversial diet pill Meridia. On Wed., Sept. 1, the New England Journal of Medicine weighed in with an editorial calling for it to be pulled from the market after a new study revealed an increased risk for heart attacks in some patients. The unusually critical editorial came as a result of the largest long-term study of Meridia. Almost 10,000 overweight or obese people with cardiovascular disease or diabetes were followed for three and a half years, reports CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jonathan LaPook. The group taking Meridia lost on average about 9 lbs., but had a 16 percent higher risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke. The drug company, Abbott, told CBS News there's already a label warning that the drug should not be used in patients with known cardiovascular disease. But the editors of the New England Journal wrote that since Meridia has "a worrisome cardiovascular risk profile," that "it is difficult to discern a credible rationale for keeping this medication on the market." "Meridia plays a small but significant role," said Dr. Louis Aronne, a weight loss expert who has advised Abbott. "We use Meridia when other types of treatments down't work. An FDA committee will meet in two weeks to decide Meridia's fate.
It doesn’t sound like the drug works all that well considering the risk, have our doctors in the forum any comments on Meridia, either for or against?
Allergan Inc., maker of the world famous wrinkle smoother Botox, will pay $375 million after pleading guilty to a misdemeanour misbranding charge related to off-label use of the cosmetic drug, a statement on the company’s website said.
In Allergan’s multi-year investigation plea deal, the company admitted that between 2000 through 2005, its marketing of Botox resulted in off-label uses for the treatment of headache, pain, spasticity and juvenile cerebral palsy.
To settle the investigation, Allergan was asked to terminate it’s First Amendment lawsuit pending in Washington D.C., in which it attempted a ruling to proactively share truthful scientific and medical information with the medical community in evaluating the risks and benefits of Botox off-label to treat certain forms of spasticity.
Allergan, based in Irvine, Calif., also made an agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General that requires the company to submit compliance reports, and to post on its website any payments to doctors, such as honoraria, travel or lodging.
I am happy we have the FDA watching out for us, but I do not want the FDA involved in EMR standards. What would happen to the EMR industry if every medical software product had to have FDA approval?
The developers of Instant Heart Rate, a new Android app, claim that they can use your phone's camera to measure your heart rate. When a user places their index finger over the camera lens, the app will supposedly be able to detect slight changes in skin color as oxygenated blood passes through with each heart beat, and can use this color change to determine heart rate. Although commenters at Android and Me report fairly accurate results, we were unable to get consistent readings with the app. Readers who wish to try Instant Heart Rate for themselves can install it using the QR code to the right, or by searching for the app in the Android marketplace.
Product page: Instant Heart Rate monitor for Android...
(hat tip: Android and Me)
A small computer that fits in the hand seems perfect for medical applications, but some feel the screen is too small. How many doctors are using these “personal computing devices”?
HANDOUT PHOTO
Briana Ojeda's mom says the little girl died from an asthma attack after a cop failed to help her.
The NYPD has suspended a cold-hearted Brooklyn cop who failed to help a woman as she frantically drove her dying daughter to a hospital, police said.
Police Officer Alfonso Mendez, 30, who is assigned to the 84th Precinct in downtown Brooklyn, had his gun and badge taken and will likely face a departmental charge for failing to take proper police action, cops said.
The stunning announcement - which vindicated the grieving mother of Briana Ojeda, 11 - was a quick and surprising turn of events.
Tuesday morning, as the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau hunted for the mystery officer whom Carmen Ojeda blamed for her daughter's death, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters not enough was known to determine if the man was an NYPD cop.
The probe suddenly came together within a few hours Tuesday afternoon - and Mendez, who was suspended without pay, later copped to having been the man in uniform who pulled over Ojeda in Cobble Hill Friday.
"It's a shame that it took four days for this officer to reveal himself. And it should never happen to any other child," said Briana's father, Michael Ojeda, as he and Carmen left their daughter's wake.
This should never have happened, the mother should have been better-prepared for an asthma attack, and the cop should have been better-trained to help a little girl in distress.
Francisco Jimenez Cruz gathers eggs laid by Leghorn hens at Armstrong Egg Farms in Valley Center, Calif., in north San Diego County. (Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times / August 22, 2010)
Reporting from Valley Center, Calif. —
Amid a rolling landscape of browning chaparral and battered trailers, Alan and Ryan Armstrong's metal henhouses line up like military barracks. Keeping their 450,000 birds safe — and Salmonella enteritidis out of their henhouses — is a daily battle.
Since they were old enough to drive the family skip loader and shovel chicken droppings, the Armstrong brothers followed a state-sanctioned quality-assurance program designed to curtail salmonella in eggs. So have dozens more California egg farmers, who helped develop the guidelines alongside federal and state officials following a salmonella outbreak 15 years ago that sickened thousands of people.
I don’t care how much it increases the cost of food to test it for salmonella, and it turns out to be only a matter of pennies to give each hen a vaccine against salmonella as they do in Britain.
Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg News
Can you hear me now? Not so much, according to yet another study documenting the loss of hearing among teenagers.
Researchers in New York examined the ears of 8,710 teenage girls who lived in a foster care facility between 1985 and 2008. These young women were from homes and neighborhoods “stressed by poverty, substance abuse, and violence,” according to a study published online Tuesday in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
It is no joke to have have messed up hearing, I don’t think most people know that those small ear buds can blast your hearing, in my youth, loud music was cool, I hope that trend is diminished.
Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables may decrease the risk of some kinds of lung cancer for smokers
WASHINGTON — Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables may decrease the risk of some kinds of lung cancer for smokers, according to a study released Monday.
"Although quitting smoking is the most important preventive action in reducing lung cancer risk, consuming a mix of different types of fruit and vegetables may also reduce risk, independent of the amount, especially among smokers," said H. Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita of the Netherlands-based National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.
The study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, was based on research involving more than 450,000 people in Europe, including 1,600 who were diagnosed with lung cancer.
The researchers said the variety of fruits and vegetables appeared to be more important than the quantity. They studied 14 commonly eaten fruits and 26 vegetables including fresh, canned or dried products.
"Fruits and vegetables contain many different bioactive compounds, and it makes sense to assume that it is important that you not only eat the recommended amounts, but also consume a rich mix of these bioactive compounds by consuming a large variety," Bueno-de-Mesquita said.
The risk of squamous cell carcinoma decreased substantially when a variety of fruits and vegetables were eaten, the study concluded.
It’s nice to know that eating good food can help fight off disease, but I hope this study does not convince any people to keep smoking along with their veggies and fruit.
Shari Roan / Los Angeles Times
The Food and Drug Administration will consider placing restrictions of the sale of over-the-counter cold remedies containing dextromethorphan, such as Robitussin and Coricidin, according to an agency memo.
An advisory committee will meet on Sept. 14 to review data on the misuse of cough-and-cold remedies among children and adolescents -- an activity known as robo-tripping.
The agency issued its first public warning that the drugs may be misused by teens to get high in 2005. But since then, reports have grown regarding abuse of dextromethorphan-containing products. According to data in the FDA memo posted in advance of the upcoming meeting, emergency room visits due to overdoses of the drug rose from 4,634 in 2004 to 7,988 in 2008. Last year, the national Monitoring the Future Report on youth substance abuse found that non-medical use of cough and cold products among 8th-, 10th- and 12th-grade students was 2.6%, 5.0% and 6.3%, respectively. The drug can cause heightened awareness, hallucinations and euphoria. Deaths have been reported from abuse among adolescents.
Let this article serve as a warning to doctors and parents to lock up the dextromethorphan-containing products, because kids can abuse it. I always wondered at the concept of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom open for all to see and sample. We need a little bit of security for our medicines.
Welch Allyn, in an attempt to improve patient monitoring and record keeping, has unveiled the Connex Electronic Vitals Documentation System. The system revolves around the Connex Vital Signs Monitor 6000 designed in collaboration with frog design, a San Francisco-based product development firm. The Connex system automatically records data coming from various patient monitors and sends it to the Electronic Medical Record for long term storage. Additionally, it displays relevant information and can raise an alarm if trigger parameters are met. To give you a taste of how this system came to be, frog design has an overview on the company's blog outlining the design process.
The Connex VSM (CVSM) is a full-color, touch screen device that acts as three devices in one—providing comprehensive patient documentation on a single display. This documentation includes automatic measurements such as heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and pulse oximetry; manual parameters such as respiration, height, weight and pain level; and modifiers such as body position, O2 therapy details and others. The CVSM also gives the clinician the ability to control alarms, patient data and monitoring in a customized manner for each patient, and they can document this data right on the device—eliminating the need to locate a PC and transcribe it later. The CVSM also enables two-way wireless communication from the bedside. It associates ID numbers to names to help clinicians properly identify patients and allows them to customize which ID fields are required and how they're displayed, including simultaneous display of multiple forms of ID. The wireless technology is built right into the system allowing the monitor to act as a true mobile device, and it works with current wireless networks to deliver up-to-date patient demographics.
The CVSM also enables two-way wireless communication from the bedside. It associates ID numbers to names to help clinicians properly identify patients and allows them to customize which ID fields are required and how they're displayed, including simultaneous display of multiple forms of ID. The wireless technology is built right into the system allowing the monitor to act as a true mobile device, and it works with current wireless networks to deliver up-to-date patient demographics.
Press release: Welch Allyn Unveils Cure for Vital Sign Documentation Errors at the Point of Care...
frog design: How to Build a Better Vital Signs Monitor...
From a well-known supplier, doctors trust this brand name, and many EHR systems can be linked to equipment such as this. The age of digital science will continue to move in medicine for more great gear like this.
(GETTY IMAGES / August 30, 2010)
LOS ANGELES -- Break out the bubbly, drinking moderate amounts of alcohol could help you outlive your non-drinking counterparts. A new study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, finds that moderate drinking (defined as one to three drinks per day), is associated with the lowest mortality rates. Researchers say moderate alcohol use (especially when the beverage of choice is red wine) is believed to improve heart health, circulation and sociability. The shocking part of the study -- non-drinkers had the highest mortality rates. Why?
Are you trying to tell me I should start drinking? My doctor did suggest that I take a drink every day to relax. Is it too late to start at my advanced age? I feel like not drinking is robbing me of years of life. Naw, just kidding, I hate the stuff, but I’ll try to do better in the future.
Image from: http://optimism.thorscave.com/
Multiple sclerosis may be more active in the spring and summer months, new research shows.
In a study using MRI scans to detect brain lesions tied to MS, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that new lesions occurred two to three times more often in the spring and summer compared to colder times of the year.
"We found significantly increased levels of disease activity, as defined by new T2 lesion occurrence, during the spring and summer seasons," the study authors wrote in the Aug. 31 issue of Neurology.
About 400,000 people in the United States have MS, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), and as many as 2.1 million people may be affected by the illness worldwide.
The exact cause of MS is unknown, but it is believed to be an autoimmune disease. That means the body's immune system mistakenly turns on itself and damages or destroys healthy cells instead of diseased ones. Both genetic and environmental factors are believed to play a role in the development of the disease. Environmental factors that have been implicated include geography and vitamin D, a nutrient that is primarily manufactured by the skin when it comes into contact with sunlight.
It may be that sunlight itself has an impact on new lesion growth, perhaps a lack of vitamin D actually helps MS? There are many mysteries in medicine, probably always will be.
The initiation of flu season has already been seen for the year and estimations have been made that this time it is going to be even bigger.
A hefty production of 160 million doses of seasonal flu vaccination is in the progress, as informed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
That totals to almost 40% over the production amount seen in the previous year.
It is for the foremost time that the CDC is suggesting going in for universal influenza vaccination.
Making it simpler to understand that who all are eligible to get jabbed, the list comprises anyone who is over 6 months old.
Tom Skinner, Spokesperson for CDC, said that getting the vaccination is only going to benefit all. The main idea is to get vaccinated at the earliest, so if it is available then there is no point in delaying it.
CVS and Walgreens, pharmacy chains, offer vaccinations in Kansas City.
In the month of April 2009, the influenza struck, which at first was dubbed as ‘swine flu’ that made its appearance in Mexico first, after that in the U. S. and eventually, widening its dimensions all through the world.
Pharma chains consider that memory of last year’s H1N1 will increase the demand for jabs this fall.
Since I failed to get flu shots last year, I am certainly in the market for it this year, and I am never alone in my procrastination, I wouldn’t be surprised to see waiting lines again this year.
Impatience could help explain the rising U.S. cesarean section rate, given that a high percentage of such deliveries probably are performed before women are in active labor, a new National Institutes of Health-sponsored study shows.
The C-section rate has climbed more than 50% since 1996, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. An increasing proportion of first-time mothers are delivering by C-section, while fewer women who have had a previous C-section deliver subsequent babies vaginally.
In 2007, the most recent year for which final data are available, a record 31.8% of births were by C-section, according to the health statistics center, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And preliminary data show the 2008 rate inched up even further, to 32.3%.
I was there in scrubs for my son’s C-section, everything was arranged so that I couldn’t see anything, but I kept peeking, much to my own shock, found the bright colors of the organs amazingly vivid.
Jeff Gentner / AP
Shirley and Stan White's son, Andrew White, died in his sleep on Feb. 12, 2008, while taking a Seroquel, a powerful antipsychotic prescribed as a sleep aid. Shirley White holds a box of her son's prescription medication is photo taken in their son's bedroom in Cross Lanes, W. Va.
WASHINGTON — Andrew White returned from a nine-month tour in Iraq beset with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder: insomnia, nightmares, constant restlessness. Doctors tried to ease his symptoms using three psychiatric drugs, including a potent anti-psychotic called Seroquel.
Thousands of soldiers suffering from PTSD have received the same medication over the last nine years, helping to make Seroquel one of the Veteran Affairs Department's top drug expenditures and the No. 5 best-selling drug in the nation.
Several soldiers and veterans have died while taking the pills, raising concerns among some military families that the government is not being up front about the drug's risks. They want Congress to investigate.
In White's case, the nightmares persisted. So doctors recommended progressively larger doses of Seroquel. At one point, the 23-year-old Marine corporal was prescribed more than 1,600 milligrams per day — more than double the maximum dose recommended for schizophrenia patients.
A short time later, White died in his sleep.
There are risks associated with every medication, but sleeping aids are always especially risky. By the way, I have seen the crippling effect of Seroquel when taken for a long time, the quality of life is not very good on that medication.
An anti-smoking lobby group says cigarette sales have dropped far more than expected since the Government raised the tax on tobacco.
End Smoking New Zealand says supermarket sales of both roll-your-own and tailor made cigarettes dropped 15 percent since a 10 percent price rise in April.
Chairman Dr Murray Laugesen says that's two-and-a-half times what the group predicted.
Dr Laugesen says unprecedented anti-smoking publicity has also contributed to the drop in sales.
Once you quit smoking, you want all your family members to do the same thing. But to quit smoking a person needs something to motivate them. If you smoke, I hope you find motivation to quit, you will feel better.
Adams for News
Two Albany politicians will introduce bills requiring salmonella vaccinations for hens.
Two state pols will introduce bills requiring farmers to vaccinate hens against salmonella, they announced Sunday.
The move comes as thousands of people around the country got sick from salmonella this month, leading to a recall of half a billion eggs from Iowa farms.
The federal Food and Drug Administration responded with new egg safety rules, but they didn't require hens to get salmonella shots.
"Requiring salmonella vaccination should be a no-brainer, and if the FDA is unwilling to take the lead, we should start here in New York," said state Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn), who himself had a brush with salmonella in college.
"We believe it was from an undercooked omelet," said Squadron, who was hospitalized for four days. "It is a terrible, terrible disease."
Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh (D-Manhattan) is also sponsoring a bill.
The new rules would affect 5 billion eggs sold in New York State every year and cost less than a penny for every dozen eggs, the officials said. They credited a similar effort in Britain with reducing the number of salmonella cases there by 96%.
Wouldn’t you be willing to pay an extra penny per dozen for eggs knowing they were safe from salmonella? You can’t put a price on something like that, vets unite and get this shot a requirement for all livestock that can take it.
Abel Uribe, Chicago Tribune
The number of children in the U.S. seeking emergency medical care for concussions incurred playing competitive sports more than doubled in the five years leading up to 2005, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Much of that increase came not from high school athletes who have been the mainstay of emergency-room visits for concussions, but from middle-schoolers and even elementary school students who have flocked to play on elite travel teams and in competitive youth leagues across the country. Fully 40% of the sports-related pediatric concussion patients seen in ERs were between the ages of 8 and 13, the study found.
That sounds quite young to be getting a hard knock on the head, I wonder if we could tone it down a bit for the younger kids. I remember my first baseball practice as a kid, boy was I sore.
The beef was shipped on June 11 to distribution centers in Connecticut and Maryland. They were again packed into smaller, consumer-size packages and further sold under different retail brand names.
Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. has recalled about 8,500 pounds (3,900 kg) of ground beef as three people were sickened after consuming the product. The beef, sold under various brand names, was found to be contaminated with E. coli, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Saturday.
The beef is said to be contaminated with E. coli O26, a rare strain of shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli.
Three confirmed victims The recall comes after three people, two in Maine and one in New York, fell sick in June and July after consuming the said beef. It could not be confirmed if any of them developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS.
The USDA released a statement saying, its Food Safety and Inspection Service “determined that there is an association between the ground beef products subject to recall and the cluster of illnesses in the states of Maine and New York.”
The problem was recognized by the USDA on Aug. 5.
This is a relatively small recall, they seem to have caught and corrected the problem early, but notice how early—Aug. 5. I hope no one sat on the information all this time. Cook raw meat well, that is one of my many safety tips of life.
Patients with a history of heart troubles did not benefit from omega-3 margarine and standard medicine in a Dutch study.
Wageningen University’s Daan Kromhout led the study. Researchers followed more than 4,800 patients. Each subject was between 60 and 80 years old and had at least one heart attack about four years in the past.
In addition to their standard medications, four different margarines on bread were assigned to be eaten daily. The first margarine contained no extra omega-3 as a control. The second was impregnated with 400 milligrams of additional eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The third contained 2 grams of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). The last margarine combined the DHA-EPA mixture with ALA. All of the margarine in the study was manufactured by the food and goods corporation Unilever.
This is one food I could cut out of my diet, and it would be easier than some things—such as sugar. Perhaps everyone needs a few hours with a dietician to find their perfect diet? I would try it.
Image from: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/03/22/american-legion-says-health-care-reform-won%E2%80%99t-harm-va-dod/
I had a friend — I'll call Sarah — who retired at 55. She had a good pension; her house was paid for and, although divorced for nearly 10 years, she lived fairly close to her two grown children and three grandchildren. When Sarah retired she tried to get health insurance, but due to a condition she contracted in her early 40s no insurance company would offer her a policy. She was on COBRA for a while, but that became too costly. When Sarah turned 60 she noticed a slight discomfort near her stomach. Because she had no insurance and hadn't seen a doctor in nearly five years, she went to the hospital emergency room. Sarah was diagnosed with cancer. She had surgery and used all of her savings. She had radiation and sold the art and jewelry she had collected over the years. She had six months of chemotherapy and sold her house to pay for the treatments. Sarah passed away at 63, homeless and penniless because in her early 40s she had had a condition. In 2014 the Sarahs in America will begin to get some relief. In California, we don't have to wait. The California Legislature has twice passed a single-payer health care plan that was vetoed twice by the governor. The Nevada County Democratic Central Committee passed a resolution in April 2009, “that a single-payer health care system administered by the federal government is the only prudent alternative to solve our current healthcare crisis.”
I have always felt that California leads the country in social change, which in many ways is the reason I live here. I still believe in the single payer concept, I don’t trust insurance companies, I would like to see them treated as they are in Canada.
Robotic surgery is nothing new, but after the surgeon has been eliminated from the OR, you are still left with the gasman. In one of the first efforts to make teleanesthesia a reality (apart from several telemonitoring efforts), researchers from the University of Florida demonstrate the possibility of a robotically assisted simulated nerve block placement under ultrasound guidance in this month's issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia. They used the well known da Vinci surgical robot to perform the procedure. The ultrasound head still had to be manually positioned and the subject was only a phantom, but the procedure was successful. The high price and the need to still have a physician present in case of complications mean that you are not likely to see this happen in practice anytime soon, but it is an interesting technical advancement nevertheless. That leaves us speculating what will be the next procedure to be performed remotely, how about some robotic intubation?
Press release: Surgical Robot Could Be Used for Long-Distance Regional Anesthesia...
Article: Robot-Assisted Regional Anesthesia: A Simulated Demonstration...
Flashback: McSleepy: Automated Anesthesia System
Doctors already have trouble finding a vein on me, how is this going to work? I already don’t like shots, but giving the needle to a machine is pretty scary.
Photo from: http://www.salmonellablog.com/2005/03/
Washington, D.C. - Federal investigators have found salmonella bacteria in hen feed and on two of seven Iowa egg farms linked to an outbreak that has sickened at least 1,470 people. Officials with the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that they still hadn't pinpointed the source of the contamination and were waiting for additional test results. The feed with bacteria was mixed at a DeCoster-owned mill and fed to young hens used by both DeCoster's Wright County Egg and a second company, Hillandale Farms of Iowa. The feed did not go to other farms, said FDA officials.
This answer my mystery question of where the bacteria originated. Yesterday we heard that in Britain, hens are vaccinated against salmonella, but not in the US. Still wondering why.
The number of deaths due to flu "can vary dramatically" from year to year, making any averaging of the figures misleading, the CDC says. (Los Angeles Times)
Most reports about seasonal influenza cite an average of about 36,000 deaths in a typical season, but that number is too high and grossly misleading, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
The actual average is a little more than 23,000, the agency reported in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. But even that figure is misleading, the report added, because the numbers have ranged from as low as 3,300 deaths to nearly 50,000 over the last 30 years. The period in the analysis covers up to 2007 and does not include last year's H1N1 influenza pandemic.
"There is no average flu season," lead author Dr. David Shay of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said in a news conference. The number of deaths "can vary dramatically" from year to year, he said.
I’m not very good with math, just give it your best guess, I do not in any way feel any agency is trying to pull a scam. Isn’t this always the problem with statistical reports? How did you figure that?
Nadja Benaissa, HIV-positive singer of German girl band No Angels, sits in a courtroom in Darmstadt, Germany, on Wednesday. She was convicted Thursday of causing bodily harm to her then boyfriend by having unprotected sex with him. (Boris Roessler, pool/Associated Press)
A singer in a German girl band broke down into tears Thursday after a court convicted her but gave no jail time for having unprotected sex with her then boyfriend despite knowing she was infected with HIV.
Nadja Benaissa, 28, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and 300 hours of community service after she was convicted in a Darmstadt administrative court of causing bodily harm. She faced a possible 10 years behind bars.
The court ruled Benaissa had infected her then boyfriend with the virus that causes AIDS.
Benaissa helped her case during the trial, which began Aug. 16, by acknowledging she had unprotected sex despite knowing she was HIV-positive and saying it was a big mistake.
"I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart," Benaissa said, adding she had realized how much her now ex-boyfriend was still suffering.
"I wish I could turn back time and make everything undone," she told the court. "But I know that he will never forgive me."
The man who claimed Benaissa infected him said they had a three-month relationship at the beginning of 2004 and that he got tested after Benaissa's aunt asked him in 2007 whether he was aware that the singer was HIV-positive.
I had a colleague years ago who visited a prostitute while in Asia and soon after died of AIDS, there was no treatment known at the time, and that fellow got very sick before he died. You can take this as one of my many safety tips.
According to a study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, doctors who have strong faith in religion generally don’t talk to their patients about those medications or treatments that can shorten the patients’ life, for example recommending potent pain killers.
For the study, as many as 4,000 UK doctors were interviewed and it was discovered that those doctors who had ‘stronger religious faith’ didn’t like to discuss those treatment options which could lead to death of critically ill patients.
This survey included doctors who were working in different areas of medical science, such as neurology, elderly care, palliative care, intensive care, and general practice physicians.
They were asked about their religious faiths and beliefs. They were also interviewed about the decision they took for the treatment of their last patient who died of any serious illness.
These doctors also discouraged the idea of keeping seriously ill patients under deep sedation or go in for mercy killing.
On the other hand, those medical experts who were not at all religious were found to support doctor-assisted euthanasia process and treating incurably ill patients with powerful pain medicines.
These findings indicate that the religious attitude of doctors defines the line of treatment they would opt for their patients.
I guess the answer is yes, a religious doctor can keep you alive a bit longer, but you might be in pain. To me, it depends on how much pain we’re talking about. But what do I know, I’m just a patient.
Owen Stark is the youngest in the world to receive an artificial lung.
(Courtesy St. Louis Children's Hospital)
Justin and Tonya Stark of Eldon, MO., thought their toddler Owen's fever and fussiness were just signs of a mid-June cold -- until Owen collapsed while on a family shopping trip to Toys 'R Us.
Owen was airlifted from a local hospital to St. Louis Children's Hospital, near death from heart and lung failure.
"We put Owen on a heart-lung machine, also called an ECMO," said Dr. Mark Grady, pediatric cardiologist at St. Louis Children's Hospital. "But it [was] not a long term answer."
Doctors diagnosed Owen, who was one-year-old at the time, with pulmonary arterial hypertension -- a disease where vessels from the lung to the heart are so constricted that blood flow grows more difficult. If left untreated, high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs can eventually lead to heart failure. Lung infections may be one trigger for hypertension, but for many like Owen, the cause is unknown.
Read the whole story, I’m not going to ruin the outcome for you, it’s only 3 pages.
Rice remains one of the cheapest foods you can buy, and a great item for any meal and even desserts. Brown rice has traditionally seen as the healthiest form, but a new study suggests black rice may have it beat in one area.
According to a news release by the American Chemical Society, they have been conducting tests on the antioxidant properties of black rice and foods that contain it. Their results have shown that one spoonful equals more antioxidants than a spoonful of berries, with less sugar and more vitamins, such as Vitamin E.
The food also comes in many pigments, beyond just black, spanning the spectrum from pink to deep black. This, the researchers say, make it an ideal way to color or decorate food without using unnatural food additives, such as coloring.
It can also be added to food and beverage without changing the taste, making it more healthy and providing an alternative to some health additions.
“If berries are used to boost health, why not black rice and black rice bran?” Zhimin Xu, the study co-author, asked in the release, pointing out the way it could be used to maintain the taste of the original food, while giving a real boost in nutrients.,
The study will be released fully later this evening at a meeting in Boston for the American Chemical Association, with a recommendation that black rice be incorporated on a manufacturing level.
This doesn’t look like something I can cook in the microwave, so I probably won’t be munching on any black rice soon, but feel free to comment in the forum if this stuff is good.
AP
In this image released by Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Dr. May Griffith displays a biosynthetic cornea that can be implanted into the eye to repair damage and restore sight in Ottawa, Canada, in 2005. Scientists have created a new kind of artificial cornea, inserting a sliver of collagen into the eye that coaxes its own natural corneal cells to regrow and restore vision. (AP Photo/Ottawa Hospital Research Institute)
WASHINGTON — Scientists have created a new kind of artificial cornea, inserting a sliver of collagen into the eye that coaxes its own natural corneal cells to regrow and restore vision.
It worked in a first-stage study of 10 patients in Sweden, researchers reported Wednesday. And while larger studies are needed, it's a step toward developing an alternative to standard cornea transplants that aren't available in much of the world because of a shortage of donated corneas.
"We're trying to regenerate the cornea from within," said Dr. May Griffith, senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada and a professor of regenerative medicine at Linkoping University in Sweden.
This is an amazing breakthrough which has the potential to help many people see again, I hope it becomes common throughout the world. Congratulations, what a great advancement in science.
Photo from: http://www.gossipjackal.com/music/2010/07/31/geron-gets-fda-nod-to-for-groundbreaking-stem-cell-study/
WASHINGTON — Academic researchers working with human embryonic stem cells may be in doubt about their future after a U.S. court ruling on federal funding this week, but for California-based Geron Crop the field is wide-open.
Geron is preparing to test the powerful cells in people with newly injured spinal cords for the very first time after getting a go-ahead from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at the end of July.
The California-based company is arguably the closest to demonstrating that human embryonic stem cells might regenerate damaged tissue.
"This is the next wave -- cells as therapeutics," Chief Executive Officer Dr. Thomas Okarma said in a telephone interview. "Living cells are going to be tomorrow's pills."
I like that statement, that living cells are tomorrow’s pills, and because they are not using any public funding, they are not hindered by laws and regulations now in place. Go Geron.
Eighty per cent of patients who took part in a new cancer drug trial saw their tumours reduced. Photograph: Burger / Phanie / Rex Features
Scientists held out hope today for those suffering from the most aggressive skin cancer, malignant melanoma, which has spread to other parts of the body, with news of a drug that may extend life.
Early trials at the Massachusetts General hospital cancer centre in the United States showed a remarkable effect on the small number of patients with advanced cancer who were enrolled. In 80% of the patients, tumours were reduced in size. A few saw them disappear.
The drug is targeted at the 40-60% of patients who have a specific mutation in the BRAF gene, which was discovered in 2002 at the Sanger Institute in the UK. The researchers, who report their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, accept that the cancer will return in many cases, but say that the respite buys time.
This is not a cure, but it does buy more time, something very precious at the end of life. I have to salute the brave patients who volunteer for these studies, we can all admire the strength it must require.
Insulin resistance and type two diabetes may be associated with Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study from Japan. Researchers at Kyushu University in Japan found people with abnormal blood sugar levels had an increased risk of developing plaques in the brain that are frequently found in Alzheimer's patients. Plaques were found in 72-percent of people with insulin resistance, which is a form of pre-diabetes. This compared to 62-percent of those without insulin resistance. Researchers say it may be possible to help lower the skyrocketing rate of Alzheimer's disease by better controlling and preventing the rise in diabetes cases.
The study was published in the August 25, 2010 issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
That’s a very interesting study, it suggests that by controlling my diabetes I might be warding off Alzheimer’s, however, there are already lots of reasons to control diabetes, I didn’t need another.
Kentucky doctors from Kleinert Kutz and Associates and the University of Louisville completed a rare hand plant surgery at a Jewish hospital hand care center. The surgery started around seven pm on Tuesday, and ended successfully on Wednesday afternoon. During the surgery, doctors were posting updates on twitter, the well known social networking site. The surgery took over twenty hours to complete.
At the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, two other double hand transplants had been done, one in May of 2009, and the other just last February, however the Kentucky doctors were the first to successfully perform the nations very first five single hand transplants. Two hands from the same donor were used in the surgery. A message posted on twitter a little after ten pm stated that there was one anesthesiologist, and six hand surgeons in the operating room. Doctors were taking turns during the surgery so that they all remained fresh and ready to go.
Can you imagine the skill involved in this operation, it took 20 hours. Strange to see that the doctors used Twitter to keep friends and family updated on this spectacular operation.
Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Motor vehicle accidents don't just impact the people involved, they also impact the economy, to the tune of just under $100 billion for medical care and injury-related productivity losses in the United States each year, according to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday. That includes $3.6 billion annually toward injuries to children.
On average, each licensed driver in the United States ponies up about $500 a year toward the total costs, the CDC said.
"Every 10 seconds, someone in the United States is treated in an emergency department for crash-related injuries, and nearly 40,000 people die from these injuries each year. This study highlights the magnitude of the problem of crash-related injuries from a cost perspective, and the numbers are staggering," Dr. Grant Baldwin, the director of the CDC's Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said in a press release.
Due to my eyesight problem, cataracts, now cured, I stopped driving for about a year. Now driving comes back to you very quickly, but I am still not driving very much these days, perhaps it will never seem the same as before.
Getty Images
Embryonic-stem-cell research has provoked more controversy—political, religious, and ethical—than almost any other area of scientific inquiry. This week the field suffered a legal blow with U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth’s ruling, which blocks the Obama administration’s 2009 regulations expanding embryonic-stem-cell research. Today, National Institutes of Health director Frances Collins weighed in, saying he was shocked that the court had issued an injunction against the research. “I was stunned, as was virtually everyone here at NIH,” Collins told reporters during a telephone conference call. The ruling, Collins said, has the potential to do “serious damage to one of the most promising areas of biomedical research.” Numerous NIH grants and millions of federal dollars will be immediately affected. Fifty new human embryonic-stem-cell grant applications waiting for peer review have been put on hold, Collins said.
One law blocking another, there are too many laws involved in stem cell research, and we are not going to lead scientific research in this field if we tie our scientists’ hands in a court of law.
A new study suggests that the most common form of psychotherapy — cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) — is more effective than relaxation therapy and education about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital studied the effects of these two kinds of psychosocial treatments fin 86 adults with attention deficit disorder between 2004 and 2008. All patients who entered the study were already being treated for their ADHD with medication, but still had clinically significant symptoms.
Of the original 86 patients who entered the study, 79 completed treatment. Of those 79, 70 completed follow-up assessments in the study. Study participants were randomized to one of two treatment groups — either cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or relaxation therapy with educational support.
I have never heard a number, how many adults have ADHD? Medication is just a starting point for treatment, here is information that talking to the patient does just as much as medication.
Vaccine for hens against salmonella, the bacteria that tainted eggs and caused thousands of cases of illness. Matt McInnis for The New York Times
Faced with a crisis more than a decade ago in which thousands of people were sickened from salmonella in infected eggs, farmers in Britain began vaccinating their hens against the bacteria. That simple but decisive step virtually wiped out the health threat.
But when American regulators created new egg safety rules that went into effect last month, they declared that there was not enough evidence to conclude that vaccinating hens against salmonella would prevent people from getting sick. The Food and Drug Administration decided not to mandate vaccination of hens — a precaution that would cost less than a penny per a dozen eggs.
Now, consumers have been shaken by one of the largest egg recalls ever, involving nearly 550 million eggs from two Iowa producers, after a nationwide outbreak of thousands of cases of salmonella was traced to eggs contaminated with the bacteria.
Strange we don’t use this vaccine in the US, but if there is a vaccine, why not just give it to people? Seems like it would be a good immunity to have in the future.
David Yoslov, 23, gets a flu shot from pharmacist Eric Reid at the CVS at 19th and Chestnut.
Remember the seasonal flu?
The last typical season was the winter of 2008-09. The pattern was upended by an out-of-season pandemic flu the following spring and fall, and hardly any flu at all last winter.
Now the best educated guess by public-health experts is that influenza will next appear in a more-or-less normal season that contains several strains, including the so-called swine flu.
And vaccine is starting to arrive.
Several retail drugstore chains are already offering vaccine or plan to start soon. (For locations and eligibility, go to http://go.philly.com/flu).
With all the writing I did about the flu vaccine last year, I never did get the vaccinations, and I was just at the doctor’s office. This new all-in-one shot is the one I want.
Image from: http://www.angelreyesblog.com/2010/03/articles/defective-products/depuy-orthopaedicsjohnson-johnson-asr-hip-implant-defect/
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Food and Drug Administration has hit another Johnson & Johnson unit -- medical device maker DePuy Orthopaedics -- with a warning letter for selling hip and other joint products without the agency's approval.
The FDA said in the letter that the company has been selling its TruMatch Personalized Solutions System, which makes artificial knee products, and the Corail Hip System without "market clearance" and in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
The agency said DePuy should immediately stop selling the Corail products or face further enforcement action, which could include product seizure, injunction or civil penalties.
The FDA said it will only evaluate whether these products can be legally marketed to consumers after DePuy submits information for approval.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500) has come under intense FDA scrutiny over the past year.
The company's McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit, which makes well-known cold and pain drugs such as Tylenol and Benadryl, has received negative inspection reports and warning letters tied to manufacturing lapses at its U.S. factories.
This is a company having a run of bad luck, they seem to be in the news for negative reasons, or does it just seem that way because they are into just about everything?
Globes, Israel's business newspaper, is reporting that Flight Medical has received FDA marketing approval for the Flight 60 portable ventilator. The device is intended for at-home, hospital, and mobile applications and will run on its two internal batteries for up to 12 hours.
Features from the product brochure:
Supporting Broad Range of Applications The Flight 60 supports all common ventilation modes, from infants (>10Kg) to adults. Exhalation Volume Measurement Exhalation volume measurement enable better adaptation of ventilation parameters to actual patient needs. Compact and lightweight Weighing 6.3Kg, Flight 60 is ideal for home care, long term care and transport applications. The Flight 60 portability extends critical care capabilities while on the move, or anywhere out of the hospital. Extensive Communication Interfaces The Flight 60 extensive communications interfaces make it easy to be combined to the facility IT infrastructure and enable remote monitoring of large array of ventilators. Low Cost of Ownership Substantially lower power and oxygen consumption, combined with only 15,000 hours preventive maintenance make the Flight 60 the most cost-effective ventilation solution
Exhalation Volume Measurement Exhalation volume measurement enable better adaptation of ventilation parameters to actual patient needs.
Compact and lightweight Weighing 6.3Kg, Flight 60 is ideal for home care, long term care and transport applications. The Flight 60 portability extends critical care capabilities while on the move, or anywhere out of the hospital.
Extensive Communication Interfaces The Flight 60 extensive communications interfaces make it easy to be combined to the facility IT infrastructure and enable remote monitoring of large array of ventilators.
Low Cost of Ownership Substantially lower power and oxygen consumption, combined with only 15,000 hours preventive maintenance make the Flight 60 the most cost-effective ventilation solution
Globes: FDA approves Flight Medical's portable ventilator...
Product page: Flight 60...
Flight 60 brochure...
Here’s a medical device that can now be carried and used in flight, I am sure the unit will save many lives.
Research are not sure whether the virus is causing the disease, or whether it is an innocent bystander (Source: iStockphoto)
Researchers have linked a second type of mouse virus to a baffling condition called chronic fatigue syndrome, but say their findings do not yet prove that any virus causes the symptoms.
The team, lead by Dr Harvey Alter, of the National Institutes of Health, report their findings in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They found evidence of murine leukemia virus, which causes cancer in mice, in 86% of chronic fatigue patients they tested, but in fewer than 7% of healthy blood donors.
Alter and colleagues say much more study is needed to determine how common the virus is in people and whether it might be causing disease, or whether it is an innocent bystander.
But they say their finding adds to evidence that viruses may be linked with the debilitating condition.
I am a believer that viruses can cause cancer and that a general anti-cancer vaccine will someday be designed. But until then, it is comforting to see such progress in discovering the causes of cancer.
Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times
If you've tried everything and still haven't had much success losing weight, it may be time for the latest, greatest idea from scientists who study weight loss. Drink two cups of water before meals.
That's the recommendation from researchers presenting a study Monday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Drinking water before meals to limit food intake is not a new idea. However, researchers from Virginia Tech said the study is the first randomized, controlled trial to see if the water strategy works. They asked 48 adults between the ages of 55 and 75 to follow a low-calorie diet. Half of the dieters were also told to drink two cups of water before meals, three times a day. The study found the dieters who drank water before meals ate about 75 to 90 fewer calories during the meal and, overall, lost about five pounds more than the other dieters.
This sounds like a great tip, makes sense to me, I’ll try it and report back to you, as I am always in the market for a good weight-loss tips.
J&J have announced a recall of their 1 Day Acuvue TruEye lenses manufactured in Ireland, and sold in Asia and Europe because of customer complaints.
According to the company they have been receiving a lot of complaints from consumers of an unusual stinging or pain when they put in the lenses.
In total more than 100,000 boxes of the lenses are being recalled and J&J have launched an investigation into the complaints that they have received.
They stress that there does not appear to be any risk of long term damage from wearing the lenses, which is hard to believe since they currently do not even know what the problem is with them.
The company has had its problems as of late because of numerous recalls of Tylenol, Motrin and other nonprescription drugs that they produce.
As a long time wearer of contact lenses, I put up with lots of lenses and solutions that turned my eyes bright red(thimerasol caused that), and never could wear those dang lenses for very long.
Gwyneth Paltrow has been prescribed vitamin D supplements
Stocking up on vitamin D supplements and enjoying the summer sun could cut the risk of a host of diseases.
An Oxford University study has linked the vitamin, which is made when our skin is exposed to sunlight, to the activity of more than 200 genes in the body.
Some of these genes are already known to raise the odds of multiple sclerosis, diabetes, arthritis, dementia and some cancers.
Boosting levels of the vitamin could keep illness at bay, said the researchers.
Expert Sreeram Ramagopalan recommends 50 micrograms a day - the equivalent of ten multi-vitamin pills.
Britons should also make the most of the summer sun by sunbathing-without sunscreen for 15 to 20 minutes a day.
Dr Ramagopalan, of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, spoke out after showing the vitamin affects the function of 223 genes in the body.
I am taking D in a vitamin, I will now go look at the amount, it is 400IU, is that good, not enough,?
A customer uses an electronic cigarette that contains just nicotine and water. It has been promoted as a 'healthy alternative' but now scientists have linked nicotine to breast cancer
The substance that makes cigarettes addictive may also cause the growth of cancer tumours, scientists revealed today.
It is the first time nicotine has been implicated as one of the chemicals in cigarettes that can trigger the development of breast cancer.
The findings, published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, could be a major blow to makers of nicotine-based products that help smokers to quit.
I thought it was common knowledge that nicotine is a carcinogen, bad for every part of the body. No, looks like it has to be proven body part by body part.
Home-brewed green or black tea tends to contain more antioxidants than bottled tea, scientists have found. (iStock)
Many commercial bottled tea drinks contain little or no healthful antioxidants, researchers have found.
Scientists measured the level of polyphenols - a group of natural antioxidants linked to anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties - in six brands of tea purchased from supermarkets.
Half contained "virtually no" antioxidants, study author Shiming Li told the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston on Sunday.
The others had small amounts of polyphenols, the researchers found using a laboratory technique called high performance liquid chromatography.
The teas were found to contain 81, 43, 40, 13, four and three milligrams of polyphenols per 16-ounce (473 ml) bottle.
In comparison, an average cup of home-brewed green or black tea contains 50 to 150 milligrams of polyphenols.
I am not a big fan of tea, but I consume large amounts of coffee. Nick, I know, is a tea drinker who would probably wince at the idea of bottled tea, not a very British way to drink tea.
(Reuters) - A second Iowa egg farm is recalling eggs as part of an investigation into a U.S. salmonella outbreak that is linked to almost 300 illnesses across the country, federal regulators said on Friday.
Hillandale Farms of Iowa Inc is voluntarily recalling shell eggs potentially contaminated with salmonella in an expanding national egg recall that is among the largest in recent years, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
"Through tracebacks conducted as part of its ongoing investigation into the increase of Salmonella Enteritidis illnesses nationwide, FDA and the State of Minnesota identified Hillandale Farms in Iowa as a second potential source of contaminated shell eggs," FDA said in a statement.
I ate some undercooked chicken the other day and I feel fine. I keep eggs in the refrigerator for very long periods of time, and I never get sick from them. Am I immune to salmonella, or just lucky so far?
Consumer advocates and doctors are praising reforms that force health insurers to direct more dollars to actual medical care and less to profits and executive bonuses.
“People want to know that their insurance premium dollars are buying them health care coverage, and they don’t want it spent on fat salaries for executives or outrageous marketing expenses,” said Paula Wade, assistant director of managed markets analysis for HealthLeaders Interstudy in Nashville, a health business research group.
But some in the industry are lamenting the federal health care reforms’ impact on small insurance companies, insurance brokers and consumer choice.
Starting in January, health insurers must spend at least 80 percent of their premium revenue on medical claims for individual and small group plans. For large groups, 85 percent of premium dollars must go to health care.
Insurers who don’t meet those benchmarks will have to pay rebates to consumers.
We are lucky enough to have a president who knows the dark side of health insurance, and I am sure after seeing his own mother die of cancer, fighting with the insurance company right to the day of her death, Obama will have learned where the people are getting less than a great deal.
International Red Cross workers spray disinfectant where an Ebola fever infected patient lies in 2003
PARIS — US scientists said on Sunday they had cleared a key hurdle in the quest for a drug to treat Ebola, a notorious African virus and feared future weapon of bioterrorism.
A treatment administered to rhesus monkeys within an hour of being infected by the deadliest strain of Ebola was 60 percent effective, and a companion drug was 100-percent effective in shielding cynomolgus monkeys against Ebola's cousin, the Marburg virus.
After studing the findings, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the green light for trials on a small group of human volunteers, they said.
Ebola and Marburg are part of a family of so-called filoviruses, which cause haemorrhagic fever -- a disease with mortality rates of up to 90 percent where, in some cases, the patient bleeds to death.
This is real progress against a fearful disease, I admire the courage of medical researchers who study a terrible contagious disease such as Ebola, I don’t know if I would have that kind of courage.
ROSEBURG, Ore. -- A massive milk recall leads to thousands of gallons being pulled off grocery store shelves. All this after nearly two-dozen Oregonians got salmonella from drinking Umpqua Dairy products.
The Umpqua Dairy President held a press conference Thursday morning to talk about the salmonella recall.
Since October 2009 there have been 23 reported cases of salmonella, but Umpqua Dairy didn't shut down production until Wednesday.
President Doug Feldkamp says his company relies on the state Health Department to warn it about any issues. He says he didn't find out about this one, until three weeks ago.
"Since October, we've produced over 20 million units in our plant. So it's a one in a million chance is what it is. You know, one's not good, but the odd's were unlikely to happen. It was a low-level contamination," said Feldkamp.
Feldkamp says the salmonella was found on the tracking system which carries the milk cartons. It contaminated the packaging.
When I see stories about salmonella in eggs and milk, I think about what some would call “the staples of life”, there are some simple foods that should be tested enough to know the food is safe.
Two FDA approved drugs that may fight HIV have been identified by University of Minnesota researchers. "HIV's ability to mutate makes it difficult to target and treat," said molecular virologist Louis Mansky.
"We wanted to take advantage of this behavior by stimulating HIV's mutation rate, essentially using the virus as a weapon against itself," Mansky added. The two drugs, decitabine and gemcitabine - both FDA approved and currently used in pre-cancer and cancer therapy - were found to eliminate HIV infection in the mouse model by causing the virus to mutate itself to death - an outcome researchers dubbed "lethal mutagenesis." Mansky and colleague Christine Clouser found that the drug concentrations needed to eliminate HIV infection cause no measurable cell toxicity and were effective against HIV cultures at concentrations well below the current levels used for cancer treatment. Gemcitabine and decitabine have been administered in pre-clinical trials with mice. Initial findings confirm that the drugs are an effective antiviral therapy for HIV. The researchers are now in the process of modifying the drugs to forms that can be absorbed by the human body when taken orally. The findings were recently published online in the Journal of Virology.
Should be of interest to all doctors, these two drugs might soon be added to your arsenal against HIV. Are they super-expensive drugs?
Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday signed a bill into law that will require pet stores, animal shelters and control facilities to disclose important information, including health history and name of breeder, before selling dogs or cats.
“This new law will make sure consumers have all the necessary information before buying a pet,” Quinn said. “Pet owners have a right to know where an animal was bred and if there are any past medical issues to help them make an informed decision.”
House Bill 5772 requires pet stores, animal shelters and control facilities to disclose certain consumer information on or near the animal’s cage, according to a release from the governor's office. Consumers must also receive a copy of the information prior to purchase. Pet shops, animal shelters and controls will be required to disclose the following information prior to sale: retail price, including adoption fees or other charges; breed, age, date of birth, sex and color of the dog or cat; details of vaccinations and health history; name, address and identification number of the breeder; and any known diseases or other health conditions (applies to animal shelters and controls only).
One thing I have noticed over the years adopting dogs from shelters is sometimes a gamble as to the age of the dog, and this is a good law. The pet owner needs to know all that is known about the animal.
How to conduct EMR Vendor Demos: Mark Anderson of the AC Group, Inc. offers his advice on how to get the best out of your EMR Vendor Demos. Start with Patient Check-in. Do some sample Patients. More …
7 Costly Mistakes when Purchasing EMR: Mike Uretz introduces one of the Costly Mistakes made when purchasing an EMR; not planning for the worst case scenario. More …
Which add-ons for EMR and EHR: Which add-ons do you really need for your EHR or EMR? Mark Anderson talks about the 30+ Add-ons available for EMR. Are they worth it? More …
Recommend a useful EMR & EHR resource. Email your link to Nick Harrington or Robert Gleeman.
a resource on emr | a scanner brightly | AAFP | AccuSource | acumeme canada's e-health | Aggravated Doc Surg | AHIMA | amednews | American Diabetes Association | An Ozzie in Boston | Beyond Lab | Biotech Blog | Brain Blogger | Buckeye Surgeon | California Medicine Man | Capterra EMR Software Directory | DB's Medical Rants | Digital HealthCare | DocsBoard | Doctor Anonymous | Dr. Bill Crounse | Dr. Bobbs | Dr. Wes | e-CareManagement | EfficientMD | EHR Decisions | EHR Scope Blog | EM Physician | eMedicineHealth | eMedicineHealth | EMR and HIPAA | EMR Consultant | Examiner Health | EMR Straight Talk | examiner Netional Health | Eye on FDA | Family Medicine Notes | Galen Healthcare | getting better with Dr. Val | GruntDoc | Harvard Medicine | HealBlog | Health Care Law Blog | Health Manageement RX | Health Populi | HealthBlog | Healthcare IT News | Healthcare Technology News | HealthData Management | HealthFinder.Gov | Highlight HEALTH | Hospital Information Technology (EU) | HospitalConnect | InsureBlog | Intelligent Healthcare Information Integration | Ivanhoe Medical Breakthroughs | MA Medical Law Report | MayoClinic | medGadget | Medical News Today | MedinnovationBlog | MedlinePlus | medpage Today | MSNBC Health | Newsweek Health | OhMyGov! | Physicians Practice | Prefered Health Resources | Rareshare.org | redOrbit Health | Reuters Health | Running a Hospital | Rural Doctoring | scan man's notes | ScienceDaily Health | Software Advice | Ten our of Ten | The EMR/EHR Show | The Happy Hospitalist | The Health Care Blog | The Physician Executive | WebMD | World Health Organization | ZDNet Healthcare |
We are the web's most visited place for unbiased independent EMR discussion and resources. Our members provide discussion, debate & robust analysis of electronic medical records products & strategies. Our discussions provide Doctors, industry-leaders, EMR company executives & EHR consultants with a platform to inform, educate, exchange & energize our EMR community. Join our Community! (or Sign in here).
Browse our Getting Started resources designed for Doctors researching EMR solutions. Our industry-experts Mark Anderson (AC Group) and Mike Uretz (EHR Group), provide articles about getting started, successful implementation, pricing, hosting, questions-to-ask, what to do with your paper-records.
Watch or listen to our EMR Interviews with our roving medical reporter Robert Gleeman talking with our industries' Presidents, CEOs and technology evangelists. Add your comment to issues raised in our discussions and get involved.
Checkout our Product Showcase with on-line demonstrations of EMR products. With both EMR vendor demonstrations and Doctor-led product walk-throughs — this is a great place to get a feel for the EMR products going onto your evaluation list.