The employee health department at Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine plans several campus-wide vaccination days for any employee interested in receiving the flu shot. Vaccines will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis, starting Oct. 30.
Fifty U.S. hospitals, including NYU Medical Center, have been named to the first Leapfrog Top Hospitals list, based on results from the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey, a national rating system that offers a broad assessment of a hospital?s quality and safety.
Soot particles spewing from the exhaust of diesel trucks constitute a major contributor to the alarmingly high rates of asthma symptoms among school-aged children in the South Bronx, according to the results of a five-year study by researchers at New York University?s School of Medicine and Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
A research team has identified a key enzyme responsible for triggering a chain of events that results in allergic reaction, according to new study findings published this week in Nature Immunology. The work by researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University, the Hospital for Special Surgery and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York sets the stage for development of new strategies and target therapies that control allergic disease – the sixth leading cause of chronic disease in the United States.
A consortium of American and Canadian researchers report in Science Express, a rapid online publication by the journal Science, the discovery of a new genetic link to Crohn’s disease. While most of the mutations in the gene, which codes for a receptor in a major inflammatory pathway, are strongly associated with Crohn?s, surprisingly, one type of mutation appears to confer significant protection. The finding, say the researchers, points to a crucial target for drugs that might better manage Crohn?s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Parents should listen to their instincts and pick up their newborn babies when they cry, Queensland University of Technology researcher Professor Karen Thorpe said. A joint study with QUT and the Riverton Early Parenting Centre has found many parents of infants up to 12 weeks, were uncertain about how best to settle their crying baby and whether or not it was “right” to pick them up.
The UK face transplantation team has been given permission to perform a series of full face transplant operations at the Royal Free Hospital in North London. The independent research ethics committee for the Royal Free delivered its decision to team leader, plastic and reconstruction surgeon, Mr Peter Butler, who said he was delighted with the news.
Strains of tuberculosis (TB) that are resistant to both first-line and second-line drugs could threaten the success of not only tuberculosis programs, but also HIV treatment programs worldwide, according to an article published online this week in The Lancet. The report details a study by a team of investigators from the United States and South Africa, who found that highly resistant strains of TB were more common than previously thought in a rural area of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, and were associated with high death rates in patients with HIV infection. TB accounts for approximately 1.7 million deaths worldwide, each year, and is the leading cause of death in HIV-infected patients in low-income countries.
Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPGY, TSX: SHQ) announced that its Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) patch, DAYTRANA tm (methylphenidate transdermal system), has significant efficacy in reducing the symptoms of ADHD in children aged 6 to 12 years, even when the ADHD patch is taken off earlier than the recommended nine hours. The ability to remove the patch earlier than the recommended nine-hour wear time allows physicians the opportunity to manage the potential for late-day side effects, such as lack of appetite or difficulty sleeping. These phase IIIb clinical trial results were reported today at a major scientific and educational meeting of child and adolescent psychiatrists in San Diego, Calif.
A new study investigating the effects of chemotherapy on cognitive function in mice has confirmed what many cancer patients receiving treatment have often complained about ? a decline in their memory and other cognitive functions, sometimes characterized as “chemobrain”.