News

An Ameritox study found that of 938,586 urine toxicology tests administered to chronic pain patients over a three-year period, 11% detected major illicit drugs and 29% had a medication in their system that the patient's doctor was likely unaware of.

As you may know, in about 10% of people, the natural history of GERD is progression to Barrett's esophagus, where the normal squamous epithelial lining of the esophagus is displaced by columnar epithelium from the intestine (intestinal metaplasia).

Scientists from the University of Heidelberg Hospital have discovered why thicker blood may simultaneously increase and decrease an individual’s risk for heart attack and stroke.

A few months ago, the NHS in the United Kingdom announced the plan to make it a requirement for pharmacists to prescribe generic drugs if they are available. This can be a hazardous decision because there are classes of drugs that physicians prefer not prescribe generics such as AEDs.

Macrophages taken from vitamin-D-deficient diabetics were more likely to become foam cells, one of the earliest markers of atherosclerosis.

The Institute of Food Research have used a genetically engineered bacterium to effectively deliver a therapy for the treatment of irritable bowel disease.

The decreasing age of onset of hypertension in the general population paired with increasing life expectancy has resulted in an increased incidence of this disorder, which will likely culminate in higher rates of morbidity and mortality in the future.

According to research presented at the 13th World Conference on Lung Cancer, volatile organic compounds found in exhaled breath may be the key to diagnosing lung and other cancers early.

Healthcare is already being rationed. Major healthcare decisions are already being made every day by insurance companies, not doctors.

Names of 2,059 nurses in California disciplinary database are now publicly available.

According to data from the Sequential Tarceva in Unresectable NSCLC trial maintenance therapy with erlotinib improved overall survival in patients with advanced NSCLC after initially successful chemotherapy.

The FDA is now requiring that stronger product warnings be included in the prescribing information of tumor necrosis factor-alpha blockers because of an increased risk of cancer in the children and adolescents who take them.

Georgia Tech has been working on an interactive surgical planner that analyzes MRI scans to simulate potential surgical options in pediatric cardiac patients.

Check out these three angina-focused CME.

A team of researchers from the Cardiovascular Research Center in Paria and CIC bioGUNE, an international center for biomedical research discovered that the activation of a cellular protein may be the key to a new treatment for ischemic pathologies.

Researchers from the Jefferson Headache Center have completed a multi-center, phase 3 clinical trial demonstrating that Levadex, an orally-inhaled migraine therapy, provides “significant relief” from migraine symptoms.

A new study by IBM shows that a large portion of Americans find filling out “repetitive paperwork” at the doctor’s office to be a waste of time; the study also reveals that a large majority of Americans feel the need for more access to their physicians.

A recent study shows that “men with angina are twice as likely to have a heart attack and almost three times as likely to suffer a heart disease-related death than women with the same condition.”

A few months ago the FDA issued a formal statement about the issue of sharing insulin pens and cartridges. In short, they gave it a big NO all around.

Epilepsy is often a difficult disorder with which to live, as seizures are unpredictable and the consequences are potentially severe. The pharmacotherapy of epilepsy frequently entails a careful balance of drug dosing and timing, and anything upsetting this can lead to seizures or toxicity.

Oncologists who do not have the time to search the Internet for opioid-induced constipation CME or want to read an abstract on the topic will find helpful resources in this Web exclusive.

Physicians at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, have used the pacemaker, typically used to help adult patients with heart problems, to alleviate symptoms in children with severe stomach problems.

Due to results that could mask significant hypoglycemia or prompt excessive insulin use, diabetics should never use GDH-PQQ glucose meters or test strips while using drug products or therapies that contain certain sugars other than glucose.

Communication is a critical element in the physician-patient relationship, especially between a patient with cancer and their oncologist.

British researchers in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford have demonstrated an association between schizophrenia and violence, and more importantly, that the association is greatly increased with drug and alcohol abuse.

Extensive clinical testing is not an effective way to determine the risk of future asthma attacks in patients who are receiving treatment based on current guidelines and who adhere to the guidelines, a new study has found.

Sprint has launched its mobile WiMax services in Atlanta, Baltimore, Las Vegas and Portland, Ore. What is WiMax, and why is it important to you?

President Obama continued to talk about his goal of overhauling the US healthcare system as a town hall meeting held this past Tuesday in Portsmouth, NH, a discussion that included the topic of the nation’s “severe shortage” of primary care physicians.

New research has found that patients with rheumatoid arthritis are likely to suffer from depression, which can, in turn, increase levels of pain associated with the disease.

Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is “relatively common” among patients who have recently been discharged from the hospital and who go into home-based health care, the results of a new study show, and these patients may pose the risk of transmitting the illness to others in the household.