Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Impact of prevention strategies and improvements in stroke healthcare

Coinciding with National Stroke Week in Australia (19 - 25 September 2005) is the release of results from two recent stroke studies from the George Institute for International Health that investigate both the causative factors as well as a little studied outcome of stroke, that of depression.

19 Sep 2005

Healthcare workers may be unable or unwilling to report to work during certain disasters

In a first study of its kind, researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health assessed the ability and willingness of healthcare workers to report to work in the event of disasters involving weapons of mass destruction or virulent infectious disease outbreaks.

12 Sep 2005

Women who suffer heart attacks wait longer to be assessed

Women who suffer heart attacks wait longer to be assessed, admitted and receive treatment than men with the same condition, according to a paper in the latest Journal of Advanced Nursing.

12 Sep 2005

Concerns over the privacy of patients could be hampering efforts to spot disease clusters

...and monitor the health effects of environmental pollution, according to researchers in the latest edition of the Journal of Biomedical Informatics.

12 Sep 2005

Number of women getting routine screening mammography may be less than previously reported

The study, published in the October 15, 2005 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, finds as many as one in three women have never had a mammogram or have not had one in more than two years, and that many women have one or two mammograms then fail to return for regular screenings.

12 Sep 2005

Booking ahead to see the doctor not that easy

According to a health service watchdog in the UK, getting in to see the doctor is not as easy as it should be.

10 Sep 2005

Government ignoring underlying capacity problems says

Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA's General Practitioners Committee (GPC), commenting on the Government's access announcement, said the Government was failing to tackle the underlying capacity problem behind the current difficulties in booking GP appointments.

7 Sep 2005

Parents advised to turn off the TV, encourage outdoor play

If mothers of preschoolers perceive their neighborhood as unsafe, their children tend to watch more television, but differ little in amounts of outdoor play or overweight, compared to peers in safer neighborhoods. Drawing from a study of three-year-olds in 20 U.S. cities, researchers reported these findings in the September issue of Pediatrics.

7 Sep 2005

Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain warns of internet medicines risk

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain has welcomed the Centre for Reform's report, Online pharmacy: patient choice or patient peril, and warns that people are dicing with danger if they use rogue internet websites to bypass safety rules and obtain medicines without a doctor’s prescription.

7 Sep 2005

Ambulances - weak link in the fight against MRSA

Targets, time and money pressures create a lethal cocktail that could allow superbugs to thrive in our ambulances said UNISON, the UK's largest health union, this week.

6 Sep 2005

Most teenage boys who don't plan to cause pregnancy still believe it is likely they will get someone pregnant within six months

The likelihood is linked to beliefs about pregnancy and condoms, as well as socioeconomic status. These findings are reported in the electronic edition of the September issue of Pediatrics.

6 Sep 2005

Children who use community health centers may be at a particularly high risk of being obese

Children who use community health centers may be at a particularly high risk of being obese, according to a new study. This association between obesity and the type of health delivery system used was present regardless of race, ethnicity or geographic characteristics.

6 Sep 2005

Phase II clinical study of ularitide

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) today highlighted results of a Phase II clinical study of ularitide, a synthetic form of a natriuretic peptide synthesized in the kidney for patients with acute decompensated congestive heart failure (ADHF).

5 Sep 2005

New recommendations for screening for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations

The United States Preventive Services Task Force issues new recommendations for screening for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations in the Sept. 6, 2005, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

5 Sep 2005

Chicken pox vaccine associated with shingles epidemic

New research published in the International Journal of Toxicology (IJT) by Gary S. Goldman, Ph.D., reveals high rates of shingles (herpes zoster) in Americans since the government's 1995 recommendation that all children receive chicken pox vaccine.

1 Sep 2005

Domantis successful in patent opposition

Domantis Limited, the human Domain Antibody Therapeutics company, has successfully opposed European patent number EP0656946, leading to a major amendment of the main claim in the patent and a significant narrowing of the scope of 34 of the 41 other claims.

1 Sep 2005

Hospitals out of action because of Katrina

Hurricane Katrina has left a trail of devastation in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area, including such serious damage to hospitals that three in the area have had to be evacuated.

31 Aug 2005

International SHAPE project reveals massive public lack of awareness on heart failure

An international survey of the public's awareness of heart failure has revealed a woeful and worrying level of ignorance, according to the lead author of the research, which is published (Wednesday 31 August) in Europe's leading cardiology journal European Heart Journal.

31 Aug 2005

Statins reduce heart attack deaths by 50%

According to a U.S. study, giving a heart attack patient a statin drug as soon as possible reduces the chance he or she will die by 50 percent.

30 Aug 2005

Prince Charles champions alternative healthcare

According to media in the UK, Prince Charles has commissioned a report into how the government could save money by using alternative medicine in the public healthcare system.

24 Aug 2005