OTTAWA, ON – December 8, 2011 – De-identification of health data has been crucial for all types of health research, but recent articles in medical and scientific literature have suggested that de-identification methods do not sufficiently protect the identities of individuals and can be easily reversed. A recent review conducted by researchers at CHEO entitled "A Systematic Review of Re-identification Attacks on Health Data" and published in PLoS ONE, did not uncover evidence to support this.
Culture
A study sponsored by the National Science Foundation found that most respondents felt the evacuation of New Orleans residents to the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina was a "failure" and this opinion has shaped their willingness to accept shelter if offered in an emergency evacuation.
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Who gets the blame when a member of a group does something wrong—the individual or the group? The answer may depend on how cohesive the group is perceived to be.
Nurses working in hospitals around the world are reporting they are burned out and dissatisfied with their jobs, reported researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research in a study of 100,000 nurses in nine countries.
Between 20 to 60 percent of nurses reported symptoms of burnout according to the study, published in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care, which collected data from nurses in more than 1,400 hospitals to determine the effect of hospital work environments on hospital outcomes.
INDIANAPOLIS -- The health care system in the United States faces numerous challenges: how to bring innovation from the laboratory to the bedside, how to ensure more equitable use of medical services and, in a time of increasing financial strain, how to pay for that care.
Spam advertising of pharmaceutical products is leading patients to seek out information about prescription drugs online, according to a report to be published in the International Journal Business and Systems Research. If those drugs are not available to the internet user through their physician there is a risk that they may obtain such products via illicit means.
Using a new mathematical methodology, researchers at MIT have created a scientifically rigorous analogy that shows the similarities between the physical structure of spider silk and the sonic structure of a melody, proving that the structure of each relates to its function in an equivalent way.
SAN ANTONIO — A large, multicenter, randomized study has shown that obese patients with HER2-positive breast cancer have larger tumors, increased lymph node involvement and, when not treated with trastuzumab, poorer long-term outcomes than normal-weight patients.
This is the first time the relationship between obesity and HER2-positive breast cancer has been studied, according to Jennifer A. Crozier, M.D., a medical resident at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, who presented the results at the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 6-10, 2011.
SAN ANTONIO — Obesity is associated with worse outcomes overall in early-stage breast cancer, researchers reported at the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 6-10, 2011.
Obesity was linked to shorter time to recurrence (TTR), disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). The exception was treatment with endocrine therapy (mainly tamoxifen), in which obesity was associated with a protective effect.
In the fierce national debate over a new federal law that requires all Americans to have health insurance, it's widely assumed that private health insurance can do a better job than the public insurance funded by the U.S. government.
But a first-of-its-kind analysis of newly available government data found just the opposite when it comes to infants covered by insurance.
A new method for measuring narrowing in the arteries of the heart may allow patients to be assessed for a stent without having to take a drug with unpleasant side effects.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Sometimes getting something is better than nothing. That's the aim of a pilot program that allows parents with large child support debts to reduce their overall debt if they pay back at least some of what they owe in child support.
Families and states are burdened with millions of dollars in unpaid child support, and the program may help ease some of the financial strain on both parents and the government.
Behavior of people faced with health-care choices is not influenced by 'framing effect,' study finds
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The behavior of consumers who are faced with making decisions about their health is not significantly influenced by the way health messages are worded or framed, according to a large, new study by researchers at the University at Buffalo and other institutions.
Serious traumatic injuries, including major burns, set off a "genomic storm" in human immune cells, altering around 80 percent of the cells' normal gene expression patterns. In a report to appear in the December Journal of Experimental Medicine, members of a nationwide research collaborative describe the initial results of their investigation into the immune system response to serious injury, findings which have overturned some longstanding assumptions.
CHICAGO – According to the results of a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, African-Americans, Hispanics and uninsured patients use fewer post-hospitalization services after traumatic injury, including home health care, skilled nursing care, and rehabilitation.