Insurance can help farmers to survive dry periods but it can also result in the long term in overgrazing and therefore threaten their existence if insurance companies pay out in periods of moderate drought and farmers change their management strategies as a result, according to the world's first study on the ecological effects of rain-index insurance.
Culture
CHICAGO – A survey of patients receiving treatment in a teaching facility found that patients prefer to be informed of trainee participation in their care, and consent rates appear to vary based on scenarios describing increased levels of resident participation, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
CHICAGO – Endovenous laser treatment (EVLT) and high ligation and stripping (HLS) are both associated with effectiveness and safety in treatment of insufficiency of the great saphenous vein (GSV), but EVLT is more frequently associated with recurrences, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Despite improvements in treating heart attack patients needing emergency artery-opening procedures, delays still occur, particularly in transferring patients to hospitals that can perform the procedure, according to a study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Fast response is critical for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. This severe heart attack is caused by a complete blockage of blood supply to the heart. More than 250,000 people suffer a STEMI each year.
The biotech industry boosted farming across the globe to the tune of almost $65 billion during the period 1996 to 2009, according to the latest analysis published in the International Journal of Biotechnology. $65 billion is the increase in net farm income, the farm level benefit after paying for the seed and its biotech traits. The study's authors estimate that almost half of that was derived by farmers in the developing world.
Routine screening for depression in primary care patients has not been shown to be beneficial or an effective use of scarce health care resources, which would be better focused on providing more consistent treatment of people with depression, concludes an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/site/embargo/cmaj111035.pdf.
Despite the implementation of the Massachusetts health care reform designed to bolster employer-based insurance and to provide no-cost or low-cost insurance to those unable to afford it, the uninsured in Massachusetts remain predominantly the working poor, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School just published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
More species could be saved from extinction under climate change thanks to a new model scientists have developed to guide allocation of conservation funding.
An international team led by Dr Brendan Wintle of the University of Melbourne and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions is the first to develop a decision-support model that incorporates both ecological and economic information to guide conservation investment in the face of climate change.
In more than 70 per cent of legal disputes over informed consent, patients allege the doctor failed to properly explain the risks of complications, a University of Melbourne study published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia has found.
Professor David Studdert from the Melbourne School of Population Health and Melbourne Law School and co-authors reviewed nearly 2000 negligence claims against doctors insured by Avant Mutual Group Limited and complaints lodged with the Health Services Commissioner of Victoria between January 2002 and December 2008.
Research by the University of Liverpool has found that intervention policies that promote healthy eating could cut the death rate for cardiovascular disease (CVD) by up to 50%.
Professor Simon Capewell from the Institute of Psychology, Health and Well-being found that intervention policies which reduce unhealthy eating habits can have a significant effect on levels of CVD at both an individual and population level.
Bethesda, Md. (Sept. 19, 2011) – Roughly 5 million people in the United States live with heart failure, a condition in which the heart is unable to pump blood around the body effectively. The causes and types of heart failure vary greatly, and treatment must be tailored to each patient. In some cases, doctors will prescribe a class of diuretic drugs called aldosterone antagonists. However, these diuretics may cause dangerously high levels of potassium in the blood (hyperkalemia) of certain patients, putting them at risk for sudden cardiac death.
Researchers from Taiwan have confirmed a bidirectional relation between schizophrenia and epilepsy. The study published today in Epilepsia, a journal of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), reports that patients with epilepsy were nearly 8 times more likely to develop schizophrenia and those with schizophrenia were close to 6 times more likely to develop epilepsy.
SAN DIEGO, CA and PHILADELPHIA, PA – September 18, 2011 —Tarsa Therapeutics today presented positive safety and efficacy data from its Phase III ORACAL trial of OSTORA™, the company's oral recombinant salmon calcitonin tablet in development for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. These data were presented at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research 2011 Annual Meeting by ORACAL investigator Neil Binkley, MD, who is an Associate Professor of Endocrinology and Geriatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, Wisconsin.
Washington, DC (September 15, 2011) — Equations that estimate a patient's kidney function work as well as direct, invasive measurements, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). This means that many patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) do not need to undergo the painful and cumbersome procedures that are performed to monitor kidneys' health.