In the News

Space travel is fraught with risk, including the risk of traumatic death, severe bone and muscle loss, and exposure to ionizing radiation. But the risk of radiation exposure may be manageable with dietary supplements and an artificial magnetosphere.

File thes under the category of things I hope not to experience: teeth eroded by soda, ground down by porcelain caps, and turned blue by toothpaste.

The FDA approved dalfampridine, to be known by the trade name Ampyra, as the first oral medication for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis. Overtreatment with the medication can lead to seizures.

Vivus Inc, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of treatments for diabetes, obesity, and sexual health, annouced today that a mid-stage trial of its obesity medication Qnexa showed promise for the management of an obesity-related problem called sleep apnea.

Data released yesterday by Thoratec and published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicate that the HeartMate II implantable left ventricular assist device (LVAD) doubles two year survival in end-stage heart failure patients compared to those treated with an older model device.

Two ultrasound techniques can be used to detect Down's syndrome in utero. But researchers have found cases in which the tests failed to detect trisomy 21.

Adverse drug reactions, like the kind suffered by Michael Jackson, are not always due to medical error, and do not always result from the interactions of multiple medications. But when they happen, it is worth taking a step back and asking 'could this harm have been prevented?'

Epocrates makes an application for smartphones that can make identifying the risk of adverse drug reactions easier.

Checking into a hospital may never approach checking into a four-star hotel but GetWellNetwork Inc. is adding interactive goodies to its PatientLife System software that will increase patient comfort levels and decrease patient isolation. Earlier this week, the company rolled out a patient disharge planning module that the company hopes will streamline the patient discharge process. That means when you're ready to leave the hospital, you won't feel like you've checked into The Hotel California.

Your throat starts to ache after you get back from lunch and you wonder if maybe you've picked up strep from your toddler. But there's no way to make time for a trip to the doctor to check it out. A new initiative from Cisco Systems, currently in trial at United Healthcare corporate clients, lets sick employees access physician contact via an advanced high definition (HD) videoconferencing system.

Agilent, UCLA and Los Alamos Labs have teamed up to create the BioCel Automation System: a technology advance that makes phenotyping various flu viruses faster and more adaptable, thus making health panics less likely.

Everyone agrees that family history plays a significant role in determining our overall health, but nobody is exactly sure just how big a role. March of Dimes,the National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics and Newton Wellesley Hospital have embarked on a project to correlate womens' family histories with potential health issues during their pregnancies.

A new company called Healthagen is introducing a smart phone applet called iTriage for the iPhone.

The applet lets consumers consult a database of symptoms with information on which ones might necessitate a visit to the ER. The database also lists emergency care facilities, urgent care centers, storefront clinics, pharmacies and physicians.

While the phone app may not replace an in-person evaluation by a health care professional, it could help people seek the right kind of care.

IBM has been working on developing global name recognition software for years, and is now preparing to introduce that technology into the healthcare sector. The basic idea, according to Len Shaefer, chief scientist for IBM Global Name Recognition, is that global name recognition software would be embedded into a variety of healthcare applications. This software would not automatically change any names, but it would advise hospital personnel, for example, that there are multiple drugs with similar sounding names before they gave any particular dose of a drug to a patient.

If information technology can improve healthcare processes enough to reduce the estimated $1 trillion in waste that exists by 20% per year, those savings alone would pay for Obama's health care plan. Then there would be money left over to put towards patient care.