Culture

The processes to allow people to self-manage their own illness are not being used appropriately by health professionals to the benefit of their patients, new research suggests.

• The alcohol industry has developed and regulates its own guidelines regarding advertising.
• A new study has investigated the ability of panels to find consensus around code violations.
• Results indicate that a modified Delphi Technique may enhance the ability of regulatory agencies to monitor the content of alcohol-beverage advertising.

ATLANTA - Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a procedure traditionally used during cardiac surgeries and in the ICU that functions as an artificial replacement for a patient's heart and lungs, has also been used to resuscitate cardiac arrest victims in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Now, a novel study of this technique in the U.S. has been completed by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, indicating a potential role for this intervention to save patients who are unable to be resuscitated through conventional measures.

• Among patients with chronic kidney disease, those with very low kidney function had a higher risk of having a heart attack than those with higher kidney function over a four-year period.
• The link between higher LDL cholesterol and heart attack risk was weaker for patients with very low kidney function than for patients with higher kidney function.
• 60 million people globally have chronic kidney disease.

Massachusetts' healthcare reform didn't result in substantially more hospital use or higher costs, according to data presented at the American Heart Association's Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2013.

The findings were true even among safety-net hospitals, which often have an open-door policy to accept patients regardless of the ability to pay. These hospitals are most likely to care for people who need free services, use Medicaid or must pay their own hospital bills.

HOUSTON ­­– African-American adults living closer to a fast food restaurant had a higher body mass index (BMI) than those who lived further away from fast food, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and this association was particularly strong among those with a lower income.

In today's virtual world, it's easy to downplay the significance of place. Yet when it comes to regional prosperity, geography matters. Income and job growth is not random but rather spill over from one region to another, meaning that merely being next to a prosperous region will make your own economy more vibrant.

Whether we're listening to Bach or the blues, our brains are wired to make music-color connections depending on how the melodies make us feel, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley. For instance, Mozart's jaunty Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major is most often associated with bright yellow and orange, whereas his dour Requiem in D minor is more likely to be linked to dark, bluish gray.

Philadelphia, Pa. (May 16, 2013) – Like the general public, health care professionals may hold certain stereotypes regarding sexual activity and childbearing among women with disabilities. But a new study finds that women with chronic physical disabilities are about as likely as nondisabled women to say they are currently pregnant, after age and other sociodemographic factors are taken into account.

Do most climate scientists agree that human activity is causing global climate change? Yes, they do, according to an analysis of the abstracts or summaries of scientific papers published over the past 20 years rated by participants and the study authors on a site run by the lead author that is devoted to debunking climate skepticism. Public perception tends to be that climate scientists disagree over the fundamental cause of climate change but the results show that they do not.

People with strokes caused by blood clots fared better in hospitals participating in the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke program according to a study presented at the American Heart Association's Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2013.

Heart attack or heart failure patients may have a high risk of death or re-admission for a month or longer after leaving the hospital, researchers said at the American Heart Association's Quality of Care and Outcomes Scientific Sessions 2013.

Pioneering X-ray technology is making it possible to read fragile rolled-up historical documents for the first time in centuries.

Old parchment is often extremely dry and liable to crack and crumble if any attempt is made to physically unroll or unfold it. The new technology, however, eliminates the need to do so by enabling parchment to be unrolled or unfolded 'virtually' and the contents displayed on a computer screen.

Inspired by the structure of moth eyes, researchers at North Carolina State University have developed nanostructures that limit reflection at the interfaces where two thin films meet, suppressing the "thin-film interference" phenomenon commonly observed in nature. This can potentially improve the efficiency of thin-film solar cells and other optoelectronic devices.

PHILADELPHIA – The majority of cancer doctors, patients, and members of the general public support cutting health care costs by refusing to pay for drugs that don't improve survival or quality of life, according to results of a new study that will be presented by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania during the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago in early June (Abstract #6518).