After surveying the views expressed by 41 advocacy, medical, and transplant-focused organizations on the Uniform Determination of Death Act, a brain injury expert is calling for much-needed reforms to the legal definition of death in the United States. The recently announced pause by the Uniform Law Commission, which is spearheading revisions, is disappointing, the expert notes, but should not permanently stall practical fixes to longstanding problems with the Death Act. “This study shows that most medical ...

Older Black Americans are more likely to receive low value acute diagnostic tests than older White Americans, while older White Americans were more likely to receive low value screening tests and treatments, finds a study published by The BMJ today. Low value care refers to services that provide little to no benefit yet have potential for harm, which can include laboratory tests, scans, and medication. These differences were generally modest and were largely driven by differential treatment within health systems. But the researchers say the results “highlight ...

Patients with cancer whose oncologist receives payments from industry appear more likely to receive some non-recommended and low value treatments, finds a US study published by The BMJ today. This finding raises potential concerns about quality of care, and the researchers say it may be appropriate to re-examine the current status of personal payments from the drug industry to physicians. Research shows a consistent link between industry payments and prescribing behaviour, but whether payments to physicians have positive or negative consequences for patient care has not been evaluated empirically, say the ...

English hospital trusts have been accused of using foreign doctors as “cheap labour” as part of fellowship schemes in which they can be paid less than trust-employed doctors and sent home if they become pregnant, an investigation by The BMJ has found. Foreign doctors come to English hospital trusts as “fellows” as part of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges’ Medical Training Initiative (MTI) scheme, explains investigations editor, Madlen Davies. They work for two years in the NHS to gain experience that they will take back to their home countries afterwards. A proportion of fellows are sponsored, for example by their ...

Over 200 health journals across the world have come together to simultaneously publish an editorial calling on world leaders and health professionals to recognise that climate change and biodiversity loss are one indivisible crisis and must be tackled together to preserve health and avoid catastrophe.  The authors say it’s a “dangerous mistake” to respond to the climate crisis and the nature crisis as if they were separate challenges, and urge the World Health Organization to declare this indivisible crisis as a global health emergency.  The editorial is published in leading titles from around ...

ustralian researchers have developed cutting-edge technology known as “acoustic touch” that helps people ‘see’ using sound. The technology has the potential to transform the lives of those who are blind or have low vision. Around 39 million people worldwide are blind, according to the World Health Organisation, and an additional 246 million people live with low vision, impacting their ability to participate in everyday life activities. The next generation smart glasses, which translate visual information into distinct sound icons, were developed by researchers from the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Sydney, ...

SAN FRANCISCO – A new study presented today at TCT 2023 sought to evaluate the presence of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequities in access to mechanical circulatory support in the United States among patients with cardiogenic shock (CS). The findings, published in the Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (JSCAI), revealed stark disparities, particularly among Black patients, that further highlight systemic inequities in access to lifesaving therapies. CS is a life-threatening condition in which your heart suddenly cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. As a result, your ...

A form of computerised attention and memory training can improve impaired attention and memory issues in women treated for breast cancer, University of Reading researchers have found. ‘Chemo-brain’ refers to cognitive problems like forgetfulness, difficulty concentrating, and lapses in everyday attention, which are common side effects of breast cancer treatments including chemotherapy. The findings, published in the journal Psycho-Oncology, suggest that an adaptive “dual memory tracking” training program may help breast cancer survivors cope ...

Large chunks of the Navajo Nation in the Southwest lack access to clean drinkable water, a trend that has been rising in many parts of the U.S. in recent years. A research team led by engineers with The University of Texas at Austin aims to change that. The team has developed a new water filtration solution for members of the Navajo Nation, lining clay pots with pine tree resin collected from the Navajo Nation and incorporating tiny, silver-based particles that can be used to purify water to make it drinkable. “Making water filtration technology cheap doesn’t solve ...

NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, mission is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in November 2023, where it will make use of a natural, ethereal glow in Earth's sky to study waves in our planet's atmosphere. Built by Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory in North Logan, Utah, AWE will be mounted on the exterior of the space station. From this perch, AWE will stare down toward Earth, tracking undulations in the air known as atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs). Primarily ...

Scientists may be on the verge of taking a big step closer to the net-zero carbon emissions goal, thanks to University of Houston research into algae. Hidden potential is being revealed in the major algae studies at the microbial products lab, located at UH at Sugar Land. The research project is detailed in a newly published article in Green Chemistry, a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Venkatesh Balan, associate professor of engineering technology in UH’s Cullen College of Engineering’s Division of Technology, is ...

JMIR Infodemiology Editor-in-Chief: Tim Ken Mackey, MAS, PhD welcomes submissions to a special theme issue “Exploring the Intersection Between Health Information, Disinformation, and Generative AI Technologies.” JMIR Infodemiology, currently indexed in PubMed Central, PubMed, Scopus, DOAJ, and CABI, is a peer-reviewed premier journal in the field of infodemiology, health information, data science, and misinformation and is inviting submissions from different disciplines of health communication, public health, informatics, data science, social ...

Yale School of Nursing (YSN) has received a landmark gift — the largest single donation in the school’s history. The $11.1 million gift from a generous anonymous donor was announced on Sept. 21 by Azita Emami, dean of the Yale School of Nursing, at an event kicking off the school’s yearlong centennial celebration (September 2023–May 2024). This endowed gift will support the YSN Community Scholars program, providing full-tuition scholarships to six students each year in the Master of Science in Nursing ...

A Principals’ meeting of the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) has confirmed that HyProMag Ltd, which uses a technology developed by the University of Birmingham’s Magnetic Materials Group has been selected as one of the projects that will help to develop responsible critical mineral supply chains. Formed in 2022 by 14 governments, the Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) aims to ensure adequate supplies of minerals such as rare earths to meet net zero-carbon goals. It aims to support public and private sector investments building diverse, secure, and responsible global critical minerals supply chains. HyProMag was one ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have identified a small molecule named 5D4 that can suppress the growth of breast and ovarian cancers in animal models. 5D4 works by binding to TopBP1 protein in cancer cells, disrupting its interactions with several pathways that promote cancer growth. Combining 5D4 with another cancer inhibitor, talazoparib, enhances the effectiveness of the anti-cancer activity. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, strongly supports continuing the investigation toward further developing this strategy for clinical use. “Cancer development involves many steps of genetic alterations and signaling ...

When targeting problem proteins involved in causing or spreading disease, a drug will often clog up a protein’s active site so it can’t function and wreak havoc. New strategies for dealing with these proteins can send these proteins to different types of cellular protein degradation machinery such as a cell’s lysosomes, which act like a protein wood chipper. In a new study published in Science on Oct. 20, Stanford chemists have uncovered how one of the pathways leading to this protein “wood chipper” works. In doing so, they have opened the ...

Acoustic resonators are everywhere. In fact, there is a good chance you’re holding one in your hand right now. Most smart phones today use bulk acoustic resonators as radio frequency filters to filter out noise that could degrade a signal. These filters are also used in most Wi-Fi and GPS systems.  Acoustic resonators are more stable than their electrical counterparts, but they can degrade over time. There is currently no easy way to actively monitor and analyze the degradation of the material quality of these widely used devices. Now, researchers at the Harvard John ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A study spearheaded by Oregon State University has shown why certain polyunsaturated fatty acids work to combat a dangerous liver condition, opening a new avenue of drug research for a disease that currently has no FDA-approved medications. Scientists led by Oregon State’s Natalia Shulzhenko, Andrey Morgun and Donald Jump used a technique known as multi-omic network analysis to identify the mechanism through which dietary omega 3 supplements alleviated nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, usually abbreviated to NASH. The mechanism involves ...

A perspective recently published in Frontiers in Nutrition underscores the unique role starchy vegetables play as a vital vehicle for essential nutrients. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans currently recommend that most adults consume five to six cups (or cup equivalents) of starchy vegetables each week to help meet their total vegetable goals.1 Yet, as confusion around “good versus bad carbs” persists among consumers, there is a risk of starchy vegetable avoidance in favor of other carbohydrate foods perceived as ...

When it comes to the architecture of the human genome, it’s only a matter of time before harmful genes — genes that could compromise future generations — arise in a population. These mutations accumulate in the gene pool, primarily affected by a population’s size and practices like marrying within a small community, according to researchers. But much of the information about the effects of a population’s mutation load is based on genetic theory, with limited direct evidence concerning the effects on evolutionary fitness, or fertility. New research from University ...

New Haven, Conn. — When Yale neuroscientist Joy Hirsch used sophisticated imaging tools to track in real time the brain activity of two people engaged in conversation, she discovered an intricate choreography of neural activity in areas of the brain that govern social interactions. When she performed similar experiments with two people talking on Zoom, the ubiquitous video conferencing platform, she observed a much different neurological landscape. Neural signaling during online exchanges was substantially suppressed compared to activity observed ...

In the 2009 film "Gifted Hands," based on a true story, the audience follows Black neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson as he successfully performs three risky surgeries, earning praise from the media and medical community. This movie was not only a hit with critics and audiences, but it also inspired Bismarck Christian Odei, MD, an assistant professor in radiation oncology at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, to follow his passion.  “Seeing a physician who looked like me, ...

Law enforcement officers in the United States own firearms at high rates and rarely engage in secure firearm storage, which could increase their risk for suicide, according to a Rutgers study. The researchers, whose study appears in the journal Injury Prevention, examined data from 369 law enforcement officers in the U.S. Information about firearm ownership, storage, suicide risk and demographics were included in the present study. Overall, 70.5 percent of law enforcement officers report owning a firearm. The most common type of firearms owned were handguns (79.7 percent) followed by shotguns (61.1 percent) and rifles (57.5 percent). A sharp majority, 78.9 percent, ...

New research from Japan published in the Ecological Society of America’s journal Ecology suggests that increasingly severe weather driven by climate change may push oceangoing seabirds to their limits.   In August 2019, Kozue Shiomi, a seabird biologist at Tohoku University, attached GPS bio-loggers to 14 adult streaked shearwaters (Calonectris leucomelas) from a nesting colony on Mikurajima, a small island near Tokyo, as part of a study on the species homing behavior.   In September of that same year, an exceptionally powerful storm, Typhoon Faxai, barreled into southeastern Japan, causing considerable physical damage to the mainland. But the typhoon, ...

DENVER/Oct. 25, 2023 – A recently published paper in Animal Conservation provides crucial insights into the health of sihek, a species eradicated from its native habitat and that may now face threats in captivity. The latest data underscores a stark gender disparity, revealing that female sihek are at greater risk for death and disease than their male counterparts.  As part of an ongoing Morris Animal Foundation-funded study, researchers at The Zoological Society ...