A leading UK cancer expert has expressed concern about the link between hospitals carrying out low numbers of breast cancer operations and disproportionately high readmission rates.
Professor Ian Fentiman from London’s Guy’s Hospital made his comments in the January issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice, after researchers from Korea discovered that 95 per cent of breast cancer surgery readmissions were from hospitals performing less than 100 procedures a
Modern health information systems today are proprietary and often only serve one department making it impossible to easily share data across one facility, never mind across different facilities or countries. A big problem, it makes it difficult for doctors to capture a complete clinical history of a patient. But one project hopes to overcome this.
“The healthcare interoperability problem can be investigated in two categories: Interoperability of the healthcare messages exchanged
Substances produced in the body that act like those found in the cannabis plant help preserve bone density, according to researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Based on this finding, a prototype for a new drug to prevent osteoporosis (loss of bone density) without any psychoactive side effects has already been developed.
An article describing this research appears this week in the prestigious American journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of t
International engineering firm AMEC is working with ESA to improve monitoring of ground subsidence linked to mining activity. Radar satellites in orbit 800 kilometres away can reveal millimetre-scale elevation shifts across wide areas of land.
The largest man-made hole in Africa is located 360 kilometres north-east of South African capital, Pretoria. The Palabora copper mine was excavated open-cast for 38 years: the end-result is easily visible from space: a yawning pit approac
The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS and Thomson today announced the addition of two new elements to the MP3 Surround demo software: MP3 SX (MP3 Stereo eXtended) allows enhancing MP3 stereo files for multi-channel playback and Ensonido provides portable MP3 Surround sound using stereo headphones. Demo software of these two new enhancements to the MP3 Surround technology are now available and can be downloaded for free at www.all4mp3.com.
Supporting a seamless transition f
Reduced volume, or atrophy, in parts of the brain known as the amygdala and hippocampus may predict which cognitively healthy elderly people will develop dementia over a six-year period, according to a study in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
New strategies may be able to prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia among older adults, according to background information in
Young people who view more alcohol advertisements tend to drink more alcohol, according to a new study in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA Archives journals.
Young people are beginning to drink at an earlier age than ever before and their actions can have consequences ranging from poor grades to alcoholism and car accidents, according to background information in the article. Several studies have found an association between expos
Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine have shown that switching off a molecule that helps regulate dendritic cells, specialized white blood cells that activate the immune system, could help the host fight HIV infection.
Increasing evidence suggests the host’s immune system plays an important, but insufficient, role in limiting HIV infection. Most attempts to stimulate an immune response to HIV have been disappointing.
Exploiting the potential of dendr
A new UCLA imaging study shows that age-related breakdown of myelin, the fatty insulation coating the brain’s internal wiring, correlates strongly with the presence of a key genetic risk factor for Alzheimer disease.
The findings are detailed in the January edition of the peer-reviewed journal Archives of General Psychiatry and add to a growing body of evidence that myelin breakdown is a key contributor to the onset of Alzheimer disease later in life.
In addition
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have determined that there is a strong relationship between being obese and developing end-stage renal disease, or kidney failure.
The long-range study found that the obese have up to a seven times greater risk of kidney failure than normal weight people, suggesting that obesity should be considered a risk factor for the condition, and that kidney failure is yet another consequence of obesity.
“There are more a
New tracking method may help endangered pachyderms
By analyzing chemicals in tail hair from elephants that wore radio collars, researchers tracked the diet and movements of elephants in Kenya – a method aimed at reducing human-elephant conflicts and determining where to establish sanctuaries to protect the endangered creatures.
“This is a new method to understand elephant behavior and help ensure their survival,” says geochemist Thure Cerling, the study’s principal a
Researchers have developed a new tool to help them study endangered whales – autonomous hydrophones that can be deployed in the ocean to record the unique clicks, pulses and calls of different whale species.
Those efforts are leading to some surprising findings, including the discovery by a team of researchers of rare right whales swimming in the Gulf of Alaska.
“There has been only one confirmed sighting of a right whale in the Gulf of Alaska since 1980, so discovering
A study in the Jan. 3 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine shows that walking three times a week, even in an unsupervised exercise program, can significantly improve walking ability and slow progression of peripheral artery disease (PAD). PAD often causes leg pain because of impaired blood flow in the arteries.
The study of 417 men and women, conducted by researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, indicates that those who walked for exercise three or
Autonomous data-recording devices equipped with hydrophones, deployed in remote waters off Alaska, have been used to track seasonal occurrences of blue, fin, humpback, North Pacific right, bowhead, and sperm whales
Why whales emit their characteristic calls remains largely a biological mystery, but listening for the distinctive underwater sounds provides a valuable way to track the movements of endangered large whales. Autonomous data-recording devices equipped with hydrophones
Internists say most important reasons to recertify are to improve professional image and update knowledge
A survey of internists–physicians practicing internal medicine–whose board certification was up for renewal in December 2002 found that the most common reasons for participating in recertification or Maintenance of Certification (MOC) were to maintain professional image and update knowledge.
The survey findings report that 59 percent of general internists and 60 p
With an equal rate of incidence and mortality-the number of those who get it, and the number of those who die from it-Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is a brain cancer death sentence.
Of the approximately 12,000 people who are diagnosed with GBM annually in the U.S., half will die within a year, and the rest within 3 years. Currently, the only treatments that stretch survival limits are exceptionally invasive surgeries to remove the tumor and radiation treatment with the maximum tol
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