Sound Physicians, a leading hospitalist organization focused on driving improvements in quality, satisfaction and financial performance of inpatient healthcare delivery, recorded a strong year of recruiting success, hiring 212 physician colleagues in 2012. The average recruitment time was 102 days from the start of the search to hire, well ahead of the industry benchmark of 180 days for internal medicine physicians. Today, with more than 600 hospitalist colleagues, Sound Physicians employs approximately one out of every 50 hospitalists practicing in U.S. hospitals. "Our ...

A new study has found a link between the activity levels of elderly people who have just been released from the hospital and the risk that they will require readmission within 30 days. The investigation draws on data collected from 111 patients aged 65 and older, each of whom was fitted with a "step activity monitor" during his or her hospital stay. Worn on the patient's ankle, the pager-sized device counted every step the person took during hospitalization and for a week after discharge. "We're using activity here as a biomarker, similar to the way you might use blood ...

Early HIV treatment can save lives as well as have profound prevention benefits. But those infected with the virus first must be identified before they can be helped. In a new study, two Northwestern University researchers report that current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) HIV screening guidelines are too conservative and that more frequent testing would be cost-effective in the long run for both high- and low-risk groups. The Northwestern team performed a mathematical modeling study to assess "optimal testing frequencies" for HIV screening in different ...

Engineers at Stanford have demonstrated a high-resolution endoscope that is as thin as a human hair with a resolution four times better than previous devices of similar design. The so-called micro-endoscope is a significant step forward in high-resolution, minimally invasive bio-imaging with potential applications in research and clinical practice. Micro-endoscopy could enable new methods in diverse fields ranging from study of the brain to early cancer detection. The new endoscope was developed by a team under the direction of Joseph Kahn, professor of electrical engineering ...

Religious affiliation in the United States is at its lowest point since it began to be tracked in the 1930s, according to analysis of newly released survey data by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Duke University. Last year, one in five Americans claimed they had no religious preference, more than double the number reported in 1990. UC Berkeley sociologists Mike Hout and Claude Fischer , along with Mark Chaves of Duke University, analyzed data on religious attitudes as part of the General Social Survey, a highly cited biannual poll conducted ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Millions of Americans take aspirin or other drugs every day to reduce their risk of heart attacks or other problems caused by blood clots. But when one of them suffers a stroke caused by a clot in their brain, some emergency teams might hesitate to give a powerful clot-busting medication called tPA -- for fear that the combination of drugs might cause dangerous brain bleeding. Now, a University of Michigan Stroke Program study suggests this fear may be unfounded, at least for most patients taking common clot-preventing therapies. The study is ...

Female doctors' patients do not use health-care services more or die less frequently than patients treated by male doctors, a prospective, observational study by researchers at UC Davis Health System has found. The study, published in the March-April issue of The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, is the first large, nationwide evaluation of the association between provider gender and patients' use of health-care services and mortality. "Our findings suggest that if the goal is to contain costs and the risk of death, there is no reason to differentially ...

March 13, 2013, Shenzhen, China - In a collaborative study published online today in Nature Communications, researchers from Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, BGI-Shenzhen, and University of Arizona have completed the genome sequencing of wild rice Oryza brachyantha. This work provides new insights for researchers to understand the function and evolution of Oryza genomes. The genus Oryza is an idea model system for studying plant comparative genomics, evolutionary biology and functional biology. There are two cultivated rice ...

VIDEO: Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology and Cardiff University in Wales (UK) have discovered a previously unknown cellular mechanism that could prove critical in creating a... Click here for more information. SAN DIEGO – (March 13, 2013) A virus most people probably have never heard of, but that the majority of us carry, is the No. 1 infectious cause of congenital birth defects in the U.S. today. Because of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection during ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for creating stronger, lightweight magnesium alloys that have potential structural applications in the automobile and aerospace industries. Engineers constantly seek strong, lightweight materials for use in cars and planes to improve fuel efficiency. Their goal is to develop structural materials with a high "specific strength," which is defined as a material's strength divided by its density. In other words, specific strength measures how much load it can carry per unit of weight. Researchers ...

Polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition affecting about 10 percent of women and characterized by excess male hormone and increased risk of diabetes and heart disease, appears to cause a sort of double jeopardy for those struggling the hardest to control blood sugar levels, researchers report. Humans use insulin and other non-insulin mechanisms to convert blood sugar, or glucose, into energy and control levels in the blood, where it becomes a destructive force. A new study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism comparing 28 healthy women to 28 women with ...

The widespread introduction of a chicken pox vaccine in Australia in 2006 has prevented thousands of children from being hospitalized with severe chicken pox and saved lives, according to new research. In a national study of chicken pox admissions at four participating Australian children's hospitals, researchers found the number of children hospitalized with chicken pox or shingles had dropped by 68% since 2006. The research was led by Associate Professor Helen Marshall from the University of Adelaide and Women's and Children's Hospital, and researchers of the Paediatric ...

Philadelphia, PA, March 13, 2013 – Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) deficits have been implicated in schizophrenia and depression. In schizophrenia, deficits have been particularly well-described for a subtype of GABA neuron, the parvalbumin fast-spiking interneurons. The activity of these neurons is critical for proper cognitive and emotional functioning. It now appears that parvalbumin neurons are particularly vulnerable to oxidative stress, a factor that may emerge commonly in development, particularly in the context of psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia or bipolar ...

TORONTO -- What can sports teams learn from the manufacturing industry? Plenty, according to Timothy Chan of the University of Toronto (U of T) and Douglas Fearing of the Harvard Business School. Using statistics from the 2012 Major League Baseball season, Chan and Fearing found that positional flexibility – the ability of a player to play multiple positions – is valuable, responsible for up to 15 per cent of the team's runs, as was the case with the Chicago Cubs. Other teams like the Washington Nationals and the Tampa Bay Rays were less robust to injuries. "Flexibility ...

New research on household pesticide contamination emphasizes the need for less reliance on pesticides and more emphasis on neatness, blocking cracks where insects can enter and other so-called "integrated pest management" (IPM) measures, scientists have concluded. Their study appears in the ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology. Chensheng Lu and colleagues cite previous studies showing that urban, low-income, multifamily, public housing dwellings are prone to severe pest infestation problems. Families in Boston public housing developments, for instance, rank ...

Scientists are reporting an advance toward overcoming a major barrier to tapping the potential of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and India's Ayurvedic medicine in developing new and more effective modern drugs. Their report appears in ACS' Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling. Andreas Bender and colleagues explain that TCM has made key contributions to modern medicine. In the world's largest international clinical trial, for instance, scientists concluded that Artesunate, a derivative of the Chinese herb qinghao, should replace quinine as a treatment for ...

Scientists at Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics and The Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital Los Angeles have discovered a critical weakness in leukaemic cells, which may pave the way to new treatments. The research team has demonstrated that leukaemic cells can be eradicated by removing a carbohydrate modification displayed on the cell's surface. Director of Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics, Professor Mark von Itzstein is the Australian team leader. He said the discovery is an important advance against leukaemia, a cancer of malignant ...

When, how and why modern humans first stood up and walked on two legs is considered to be one of the greatest missing links in our evolutionary history. Scientists have gone to the far ends of the earth – and the wonderful creatures in it - to look for answers to why we walk the way we walk. In the latest such search, researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (South Africa) have taken a closer look at bipedal kangaroos and wallabies and how they move compared to their cousin-marsupials, such as the quadrupedal Tasmanian wolf. In an article ...

The search for sustainable new materials to store heat captured from the sun for release during the night has led scientists to a high-tech combination of paraffin wax and sand. Their report on the heat-storing capability of this microencapsulated sand appears in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. Benxia Li and colleagues explain the need for better materials that can store and release heat. These so-called "phase-change" materials" (PCMs) are essential, for instance, for storing heat from the sun for use in providing energy at night or during cloudy periods. PCMs ...

This press release is available in German. VIDEO: Muffin and 13 other cockatoos showed the skills to wait and trade 'normal' for 'better' or 'more' nuts. Click here for more information. Waiting: a clever move! In the 70ties, self-control of human infants was investigated using the prominent 'Stanford Marshmallow Experiment': the children were presented with a marshmallow and ...

Younger doctors are more likely than older generations to train and work in the same region as their home before entering medical school. New research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine investigating the geographical mobility of UK-trained doctors, reveals that 36% attended a medical school in their home region. 34% of hospital consultants and GP partners settled in the same region as their home before entering medical school. The geographical distribution of doctors is an important factor in the equitable distribution of health services. Trevor ...

Earth is the only known planet that holds water in massive quantities and in all three phase states. But the earthly, omnipresent compound water has very unusual properties that become particularly evident when subjected to high pressure and high temperatures. In the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a German-Finnish-French team published what happens when water is subjected to pressure and temperature conditions such as those found in the deep Earth. At pressures above 22 MPa and temperatures above 374°C, beyond the critical ...

Plain-looking but inherently strange crystalline materials called 3D topological insulators (TIs) are all the rage in materials science. Even at room temperature, a single chunk of TI is a good insulator in the bulk, yet behaves like a metal on its surface. Researchers find TIs exciting partly because the electrons that flow swiftly across their surfaces are "spin polarized": the electron's spin is locked to its momentum, perpendicular to the direction of travel. These interesting electronic states promise many uses – some exotic, like observing never-before-seen fundamental ...

Following several years of study, investigators have found more evidence that viral therapy to treat solid tumors can be enhanced by blocking the body's natural immune response. Oncolytic viruses have shown promise as anticancer agents, with variations of the herpes simplex virus (HSV) among the most commonly used. However, many studies have shown that the effectiveness of viral therapy to eradicate tumors has not been as successful with patients as it has been in the lab. These results have led researchers to examine the body's immune system response to determine what ...

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Newly released findings from Bradley Hospital published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry have found that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) affect the brain activity of children and adults differently. In the study, titled "Developmental Meta-Analysis of the Functional Neural Correlates of Autism Spectrum Disorders," Daniel Dickstein, M.D., FAAP, director of the Pediatric Mood, Imaging and Neurodevelopment Program at Bradley Hospital, found that autism-related changes in brain activity continue into adulthood. ...