Gale Scott

The US Food and Drug Administration today approved combining ambrisentan (Letairis/Gilead) with tadalafil to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension.

The FDA approved a new bioabsorbable polymer drug-eluting stent system for coronary artery disease.

PathwayGenomics, a California company that sells direct-to-consumer blood tests for cancer is in hot water with the FDA.

Live cell therapy--an unproven treatment involving injections of live fetal cells from sheep--is legal in Germany. A group of New Yorkers who went there to make them younger and healthier got Q fever instead, the CDC reports.

The World Health Organization joined the US Centers for Disease Control in issuing HIV treatment guidelines that call for immediate anti-retroviral therapy when a patient's HIV test is positive. WHO also endorses widespread pre-exposure prophylaxis with the drugs, but notes there are controversies involved.

The MacArthur Foundation's secretive "genius grant" awards this year are for $625,000 each. This year's grantees include a stem cell reearcher, a geneticist, a neuroscientist, and a social activist who got hospitals to stop using mercury thermometers.

A device manufacturer's decision to halt a trial of a pump-and-filter system that removes excess salt and fluid from heart failure patients left researchers with promising but statistically insignificant data. It also raised questions about whether that manufacturer acted ethically.

As new drugs for lowering heart rate become available, physicians treat heart failure patients may chose these agents instead of increasing doses of beta blockers. A multi-center study finds that could be the wrong choice.

The FDA today approved two new diabetes drugs. The agency gave the nod to insulin degludec injection (Tresiba/Novo Nordisk) and insulin degludec/insulin aspart (Ryzodeg/Novo Nordisk)

A social media poll found that US doctors who responded tended not to want states to pass laws on physician-assisted suicide.

Expensive and worth it. That's the verdict from Medicaid programs across the US when it comes to the new hepatitis C antivirals. State spending figures are available in a study published as a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Alzheimer's Disease is generally an ailment associated with aging.But Mark Mehler, MD, a neurologist and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY, believes it starts in utero.

Physicians often fail to counsel recovering heart attack patients on whether they are at risk of having another myocardial infarction triggered by sexual activity. In a letter to the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Dietrich Rothenbacher, MD, MPH and colleagues have reassuring data.

Injecting pediatric diabetes type 1 patients with glucagon can be difficult for non-medical caregivers. Such treatment is needed for severe hypoglycemia. A new study shows that an inhaled glucagon powder is effective and easier on these rescuers.

With an aging population many families are either choosing to not have the older generations go into advanced care facilities or cannot afford this expensive option. As a result they are taking on a burden unlike those seen before.

Patients discharged from the hospital often rely on a family member to perform complex nursing tasks at home. These caregivers are critical, but too often physicians do not acknowledge these family members' role or help them with care instructions, says Carol Levine of the United Hospital Fund.

The landscape of medicine continues to change which means doctors also have to change how they approach their practice. The United Hospital Fund is one organization looking at how to best make those changes.

The key to making the "medical home" the practice paradigm for primary care is getting insurers to make the early-stage investment-usually in the form of an additional payment per patient per month-- that will pay off in better health outcomes in a few years, says Gregory Burke, of Manhattan's United Hospital Fund. That's happening in New York State, and physicians who are in such practices are much happier, he says.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released figures showing that deaths from Parkinson's Disease have risen steadily since 2000. In 2013, 2013 that death rate in men was 11 deaths per 100,000 population, up from 8.8 per 100,000 in 2000.

The FDA approved cariprazine (Vraylar/Forest Labs) for treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults.

California's "End of Life Option Act" faces stiff opposition from the American College of Physicians. The bill will become state law unless California's Gov. Jerry Brown vetoes it.

Diabetes itself, not any specific glucose-lowering drug, is likely to blame for an increased risk of pancreatic disease, Danish researchers report.

A Canadian company announced it would invest $100 million (US dollars) in Jamaican marijuana research and development. A Colorado company also plans to invest there. Though marijuana has long been grown in Jamaica and exported illegally, the island's government decriminalized medical use in February.

The nation's 14th largest health system, North Shore-LIJ, is rebranding as Northwell Health, effective in 2016. Headquartered in Great Neck, NY, the system has facilities throughout Long Island, in New York City and in Westchester County.

The use of peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) has been rising steadily. But they can cause complications. In an article in Annals of Internal Medicine a multispecialty panel reports on the Michigan Appropriateness Guide for Intravenous Catheters (MAGIC). The panel came up with new PICC criteria.

Firefighters aren't the only heroes coping with wildfires in the Western US. The record-setting blazes are sending droves of patients with breathing problems to hospitals and clinics seeking help from pulmonologists.

The cost critics at the non-profit Institute for Clincial and Economic Review today charged that a heart monitoring device is too expensive by 60% and a new cardiac drug costs 17% more than it should. It's the same group that attacked the cost of PCSK9 inhibitors and predicted hepatitis C antivirals would be pricey.

Adalimumab gets new indication for hidradenitis suppurativa.

California researchers report good results in a phase II study of a gene therapy for congestive heart failure. The news comes five months after Celladon's Mydicar gene therapy for CHF failed to meet its trial's endpoints.

The pending mergers of Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna will leave the US with only three large health insurers. The American Medical Association identifies 17 states where those acquisitions raise anti-trust questions.