August 21, 2017
(USA Today) – The southern Oregon case underscores the complexity surrounding the use of advance directives for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Advance directives are legal documents that spell out a person’s end-of-life wishes if they are unable … Read More
August 21, 2017
(Med Page Today) – For the first time, Medicare officials Wednesday posted quality scores for some 3,800 hospice providers on its new website, Hospice Compare, aimed at helping people select hospice facilities for themselves or others. In a press briefing … Read More
August 21, 2017
(Undark Magazine) – The American Medical Association’s Code of Ethics prohibits advertising that is “misleading” or creates “unjustified medical expectations,” and it requires claims to be “factually supportable.” The Brain Health Quiz, as I discovered, is almost guaranteed to generate … Read More
August 21, 2017
(STAT News) – The only existing tuberculosis vaccine — known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) — contains a weakened bacterium that is a different cousin of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. And while the vaccine is 60 to 80 percent effective in children, it … Read More
August 18, 2017
(MIT Technology Review) – Using mini-genes inspired by the man’s genetic defect, three U.S. teams say they are ready to try to treat Duchenne with gene therapy. The first study could begin as soon as next month at Nationwide Children’s … Read More
August 17, 2017
(The Economist) – BETWEEN 2000 and 2015 half a million people in America alone died of drug overdoses—mostly of opioids, a class of addictive, generally synthetic painkillers related to morphine. On August 8th Tom Price, the secretary for health and … Read More
August 16, 2017
(The Atlantic) – Since 2008, Panigrahi’s team has been running a large clinical trial in rural India, where they gave a probiotic of their own devising to thousands of randomly selected newborn babies. Their product contained a strain of Lactobacillus … Read More
August 16, 2017
(New Scientist) – IT IS only half a cup of blood, but it could change your life. Blood taken from a newborn baby’s umbilical cord is a rich source of uniquely potent stem cells. Parents are often encouraged to donate … Read More
August 16, 2017
(UPI) – A new genetic blood test might pave the way for detecting early stage cancers that often prove fatal when caught too late, a new study suggests. The test scans blood for DNA fragments released by cancerous tumors, explained … Read More
August 16, 2017
(STAT News) – The nation’s largest pharmacy benefit manager will soon limit the number and strength of opioid drugs prescribed to first-time users as part of a wide-ranging effort to curb an epidemic affecting millions of Americans. But the new … Read More
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