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IBM helps chronic foot pain sufferers

HEEL that PAIN is a joint venture between GID Development Corp. and Dr. Art Smuckler, a certified podiatrist. After developing a few customized foot-pads for patients complaining of persistent heel pain, Smuckler wanted to share the benefits of these foot pads with the mass market.

10 May 2004

Faster technique for extracting DNA

A computer scientist at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a novel technique to extract more DNA from a single sequence reaction than is normally possible, reducing both cost and time of the sequencing process.

10 May 2004

Australia's aged population is increasing faster than the government realises

Forecasting expert Professor Rob Hyndman, from the Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics, said the number of elderly people was increasing faster than official estimates and warned that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) was underestimating the future number of people aged over 85.

10 May 2004

Survey reveals surprising attitudes about joint replacement

DePuy, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, today released the results of a Harris Interactive® survey showing that, when asked about joint replacement, nearly half of surgery candidates said they were holding off on surgery because they were waiting for more advanced surgical techniques.

3 May 2004

Changes in the names of medicines, healthcare professionals to be vigilant against medication errors

Healthcare professionals should be aware that alphabetised lists of medicines may have changed and should be careful when selecting medicines to avoid medication errors.

30 Apr 2004

How flexing of blood vessels during a heartbeat might contribute to heart disease

Duke biomedical engineers have received more than $2.2 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue their explorations of how the complex moving and flexing of blood vessels during a heartbeat might contribute to heart disease.

28 Apr 2004

The world's smallest computer made entirely of biological molecules

The world's smallest computer (around a trillion can fit in a drop of water) might one day go on record again as the tiniest medical kit.

28 Apr 2004

Anesthesiologists battle post-op pain

Post-operative pain is the No. 1 issue for people who've had surgery-and University of Utah anesthesiologists are helping these patients fight that battle on several fronts.

27 Apr 2004

Pentagon tests breakthrough system to detect airborne toxins

"Knowing how to properly respond to an attack or a toxic industrial incident requires the best modeling tools and sensors available today, and these must all work in a coordinated fashion in real time," says NCAR project leader Scott Swerdlin.

26 Apr 2004

Researchers use MRI to capture the intricacies of speech

A team of University of Southern California researchers has brought cutting-edge imaging tools to the study of human speech, capturing the clearest moving images of the rapid vocal movements that turn sound to language.

20 Apr 2004

Free software helps capture the molecular signatures of cells

A new, free software package developed by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard makes it easier and faster for scientists to capture the molecular signatures of cells in a particular state--information that's crucial to disease diagnosis and prognosis.

14 Apr 2004

Protein identification gets a speed boost

But the labor intensity of the procedure is now a thing of the past for researchers in the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine. The Proteomics Shared Resource, an unassuming but state-of-the-art lab on the fifth floor of OHSU's Medical Research Building, can process more than three times as many protein samples in half a day, and much of it can be done by one person.

14 Apr 2004

Differing views on virtual colonoscopy accuracy

Demonstrating clearly that not all virtual colonoscopies are equal, the study, published in the December 2003 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine and the American Journal of Roentgenology, found the results found using the Viatronix V3D-Colon system for primary 3D reading to be equal to or better than optical colonoscopy results.

14 Apr 2004

NASA develops "Black Box" to monitor vital signs

When planes have a problem, analysts can usually figure out what went wrong. They simply check the plane's "black box," which records exactly what was happening to the plane at the time. Now, there's something similar for people. Under the leadership of NASA/Ames design engineer Carsten Mundt, researchers have developed a device that, Stanford electrical engineer and team member Greg Kovacs says, is a black box for human beings.

13 Apr 2004

Pharmacopeia announces that proposed spin-off of Pharmacopeia Drug Discovery, Inc. unit is expected to occur by the end of April 2004

Pharmacopeia, Inc. today announced that the proposed spin-off of its Pharmacopeia Drug Discovery, Inc. (PDD) unit is expected to occur by the end of April 2004. The Pharmacopeia Board of Directors intends to meet next week to consider final approval of the pro rata distribution to stockholders of 100% of the common stock of PDD.

7 Apr 2004

University of Kansas officials have reported to the FBI a computer hack into electronic pharmacy records

University of Kansas officials have reported to the FBI a computer hacking on Friday, April 2, into electronic pharmacy records in the Student Health Services at Watkins Memorial Health Center. Marilu Goodyear, KU vice provost for information services, said surveillance software alerted KU officials to the intrusion, and technicians immediately disabled the affected computer server.

6 Apr 2004

The National Cancer Institute has awarded USC scientists $3.5 million for a study of the enzyme that faithfully copies our genetic information

The National Cancer Institute has awarded USC scientists $3.5 million for a study of the enzyme that faithfully copies our genetic information, enabling it to pass from one generation to the next. The grant will fund structural, biochemical and computer studies designed to reveal how the enzyme, DNA polymerase, makes so few mistakes.

5 Apr 2004

New software promises to speed drug development

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute today announced the release of a software program capable of quickly identifying molecules that show promise for future medicines. The software program enables drug makers to comb through enormous databases of potential molecules and identify the ones that have sound medicinal properties.

3 Apr 2004

How rat's genetic blueprint stacks up against those of mice and humans

An international research team, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced it has completed a high-quality, draft sequence of the genome of the laboratory rat, and has used that data to explore how the rat's genetic blueprint stacks up against those of mice and humans.

31 Mar 2004

New computerized tool to assist surgeons in planning cryosurgery

Carnegie Mellon University's Yoed Rabin is leading an interdisciplinary research team in developing a new computerized tool to assist surgeons in planning cryosurgery, now being used to freeze undesired tissues in prostate cancer patients.

26 Mar 2004