Culture

INDIANAPOLIS -- Might it be possible to identify and then reach out to help medical students whose actions may put them at risk of lapses in professionalism in medical school and beyond? Professionalism lapses are the most common cause for disciplinary action against practicing physicians.

A new study from the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute is one of the first to provide quantitative evidence to support anecdotal claims linking reflective ability of medical students and professional behaviors of future physicians.

LOS ANGELES - The supplement Aged Garlic Extract can reverse the buildup of deadly plaque in arteries and help prevent the progression of heart disease, according to a new study scheduled for publication in the Journal of Nutrition.

The research, conducted at LA BioMed, found a reduction in the amount of low-attenuation plaque, or "soft plaque," in the arteries of patients with metabolic syndrome who took Aged Garlic Extract. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by obesity, hypertension and other cardiac risk factors.

Amsterdam, Jan. 21, 2016 - A study reported in the journal Energy used a new method, never before applied to the energy sector, to assess the "sustainability index" of various sources of energy, both conventional and renewable.

The study, led by a research team at the University of Coruña, Spain, has been selected as the winning entry for Elsevier's montly Atlas Award.

It may be possible to assess the risk of developing dementia by analyzing information gathered during routine visits to the family doctor, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Medicine.

Reduced meat consumption might not lower greenhouse gas emissions from one of the world’s biggest beef producing regions, new research has found.

The finding may seem incongruous, as intensive agriculture is responsible for such a large proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The time is right for a broad range of stakeholders to push for a health care information economy founded on the basic principle that patients should have control over their data, Boston Children's Hospital informatics researchers say in a Perspective article in The New England Journal of Medicine. The technologies, demand and benefits are there, they note; what remains are the incentives and will to make it happen.

MINNEAPOLIS - Even though young African-Americans are at three times greater risk of a first stroke than their white counterparts, they may not be at a higher risk for a second stroke, according to a study published in the January 20, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study is one of the first of its kind to look at race and second stroke risk.

Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) in Yokohama, Japan, in collaboration with researchers from a number of hospitals around Japan, have found two variations in a gene called ORAI1, one of which may help explain why people of Asian descent are more susceptible to Kawasaki disease, a poorly understand ailment that mostly afflicts young children.

TORONTO, ON - Close to 40% (38%) of formerly suicidal Canadians have reached a state of complete mental health, not only being free of symptoms of mental illness, suicidal thoughts or substance abuse in the preceding year, but also reporting almost daily happiness or life satisfaction, and social and psychological wellbeing according to a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto. The study will appear online this month in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.

More than two years after the American Medical Association declared obesity a disease, a strong majority of Americans believe Congress should approve legislation to require Medicare to cover FDA-approved medicines to treat obesity.

Sixty-eight percent of Americans believe Medicare should invest in programs to reduce the rate of obesity, according to a national Ipsos poll commissioned by The Gerontological Society of America. The poll also found:

A Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health analysis of registered medical marijuana users found that a hodgepodge of law and policy changes since 2001 had varying effects on the number of people consuming what in many states remains an otherwise illegal drug for its purported health benefits.

A large-scale survey of U.S. adults provides no evidence that levels of depressive symptoms vary from season to season, according to new research published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings are inconsistent with the notion of seasonal depression as a commonly occurring disorder.

Hematology researchers have used a single injection of gene therapy to correct a rare bleeding disorder, factor VII deficiency, in dogs. This success in large animals holds considerable potential for a safe, effective and long-lasting new treatment in humans with the same bleeding disorder.

UCLA research finds wide variations in whether hospitals refer patients to inpatient facilities or home health care following surgery

To ensure that they receive proper care after surgery, patients are frequently referred by hospitals to inpatient facilities such as skilled nursing homes or inpatient rehabilitation centers or to receive home health care and other outpatient services. This type of care, called post-acute care, now accounts for some $62 billion in annual Medicare spending.

A new study by Matthew McCarter, associate professor of management at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), looks into the bane of managers in nearly every industry: employees slacking off by excessively surfing the Internet, an activity known as cyberloafing.

"Leisure surfing can be helpful," McCarter said. "It relieves stress and can help people recoup their thoughts, but cyberloafing is different. That's when people are supposed to be working and are instead surfing."