Pay for performance has substantially improved blood pressure monitoring and control in England, and the difference in monitoring levels between the most and least deprived areas has all but disappeared.
This study adds to the evidence that the Quality of Outcomes Framework (QOF) is a "truly equitable public health intervention", says the author of an accompanying editorial.
GENEVA, 29 October 2008 – 3.4 million deaths will be averted in the world's poorest countries through immunisation funded by the GAVI Alliance between 2000 and 2008, according to new data released by the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO monitors the projected impact of GAVI programmes in 76 developing countries. The new projections show an increase of 600,000 deaths averted compared to the period 2000-2007. The data will be presented to the GAVI Alliance Board on Wednesday in Geneva.
Halting a medication that treats one ailment because it may worsen another is a treatment trade-off decision that elderly patients with multiple medical conditions would rather take part in, researchers at Yale School of Medicine report in a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Frogs and salamanders, those amphibious bellwethers of environmental danger, are being killed in Yellowstone National Park. The predator, Stanford researchers say, is global warming.
Biology graduate student Sarah McMenamin spent three summers in a remote area of the park searching for frogs and salamanders in ponds that had been surveyed 15 years ago. Almost everywhere she looked, she found a catastrophic decrease in the population.
A study surveying patients in more than 1,500 physician practices has found racial and ethnic disparities in patient health-care experiences, with minority patients having worse experiences than white patients. The findings suggest that while all doctors should be attentive to differences in patient experiences, Hispanic, Native American, and black patients are often visiting physician practices that are less patient-centered.
Scientists believe that complex diseases such as schizophrenia, major depression and cancer are not caused by one, but a multitude of dysfunctional genes. A novel computational biology method developed by a research team led by Ali Abdi, PhD, http://www.njit.edu/news/2008/2008-367.php, associate professor in NJIT's department of electrical and computer engineering, has found a way to uncover the critical genes responsible for disease development.
Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), disrupt the quality of life for patients, put a tremendous burden on family caregivers, and cost society billions of dollars annually. The most consistent risk factor for developing neurodegenerative disease is aging. Because of the dramatic increase in life expectancy, the incidence of individuals afflicted with the aging-associated disorders is on the rise representing a major health problem.
NASA satellite data can improve forecasts of dust storms in the American Southwest in ways that can benefit public health managers. Scientists announced the finding as a five-year NASA-funded project nears its conclusion.
Led by investigators Stanley Morain of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and William Sprigg of the University of Arizona in Tucson, scientists evaluated the influence of space-based observations on predictions of dust storms. Using NASA satellite data, forecasters could more accurately predict the timing of two out of three dust events.
Better design of rodent trials could reduce the cost and time required for cancer drug development, according to a commentary in the October 28 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Cancer drug development is a multistep process that involves in vitro tests, animal studies—often with rodent models of disease—and human clinical trials. Inadequately designed rodent studies have led to missteps and delays in previous drug development programs.
A new predictive model shows that vaccinating infants with 7 valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7)--the current recommendation--not only saves lives and money during a normal flu season by preventing related bacterial infections; it also would prevent more than 357,000 deaths during an influenza pandemic, while saving $7 billion in costs.
Use of cholesterol-lowering statins is associated with a statistically significant decline in prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels, according to a report in the October 28 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Previous studies examined whether statin use was associated with a reduction in prostate cancer risk. The results, however, have been inconsistent. Few studies have examined the association between statins and PSA level.
Biologists have long suspected that amphibians, whose moist permeable skins make them susceptible to slight changes in the environment, might be good bellwethers for impending alterations in biodiversity during rapid climate change.
Now two University of California biologists have verified the predictive power of this sensitive group of animals in a global study of species turnover among amphibians and birds. The study appears this week in the advance online version of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Although research has linked inbreeding with elevated rates of deformity in a wide variety of animals, a new study finds it plays no part in the high incidence of malformation among salamanders.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 27, 2008) — A novel topical therapy for nail fungus, NB-002, has demonstrated a new topical approach to healing nail fungus by penetrating skin pores and diffusing through the skin that surrounds the entire nail plate, according to a study conducted by NanoBio Corporation.
NEW YORK, NY (October 28, 2008) – The first stage of the U.S. Department of Defense-funded clinical trials exploring the role of hospital touch surfaces in the transmission of infectious pathogens has been completed and the researchers reported their findings in a poster session at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, October 28. The data presented describe the first results of a three phase study where the bioload found on stainless steel, plastic and aluminum objects in intensive care unit rooms were measured.