Progress on vaccine for 'Ich,' bane of fish farms and home aquarium hobbyists
2010-09-15
Tests of a potential vaccine against "Ich" — the dreaded "white-spot" disease that plagues fish in commercial fish farms, public aquariums, pet fish retail outlets, and home aquariums — are raising hopes for finally controlling the disease, scientists reported at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.
"Outbreaks of the parasitic disease caused by Ichthyophthirius (Ich) can result in losses of 50-100 percent of fish," Dehai Xu, Ph.D., said. "The disease is very common, and almost every home fish hobbyist has encountered it. Once the parasite infects ...
Secret funding fosters hope for new drugs for autism
2010-09-15
Funding from an anonymous wealthy family has been the secret to progress, at long last, in developing drugs that show promise for helping millions of people worldwide with Fragile X syndrome, the most common genetic cause of autism. That's the topic of a fascinating article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine.
C&EN Senior Editor Lisa Jarvis notes that until recent interest from big pharmaceutical companies, a small drug company in Cambridge, Mass. named Seaside Therapeutics was virtually the only company trying to develop ...
Facial recognition technology aimed at spotting terrorists
2010-09-15
Rapid improvements in facial-recognition software mean airport security workers might one day know with near certainty whether they're looking at a stressed-out tourist or staring a terrorist in the eye.
A research team led by Dr. Alice O'Toole, a professor in The University of Texas at Dallas' School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, is evaluating how well these rapidly evolving recognition programs work. The researchers are comparing the rates of success for the software to the rates for non-technological, but presumably "expert" human evaluation.
"The government ...
New investigational compound targets pancreatic cancer cells
2010-09-15
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (Sept. 14, 2010) – A new investigational drug designed to penetrate and attack pancreatic cancer cells has been administered to a patient for the first time ever at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare.
ASG-5ME is a potent, targeted compound designed to selectively kill cancer cells, says Daniel Von Hoff, MD, a principal investigator in the Phase I clinical trial. Pancreatic cancer is a fast-growing and difficult to treat form of cancer, and is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
"ASG-5ME is intended ...
Higher altitudes hide deadly problem: Increased suicide risk
2010-09-15
SALT LAKE CITY—The Intermountain West is renowned for the beauty of its towering mountains and high deserts, but according to new research from an investigator with the University of Utah Brain Institute the region's lofty altitudes significantly influence a deadly problem: the high prevalence of suicides in this part of the country.
In the Sept. 15, 2010, online edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Perry F. Renshaw, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, professor of psychiatry at the U School of Medicine and an investigator with Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) initiative, ...
Present imperfect: Doctors in training work even when ill
2010-09-15
A new study demonstrates that young doctors often fail to heed the Biblical injunction, "physician, heal thyself." In a research letter published in the September 15, 2010, issue of JAMA, researchers report that three out of five residents surveyed came to work in the previous year while sick, possibly exposing their patients and colleagues to suboptimal performance and, in many cases, communicable disease.
The survey, which involved multiple hospitals, found that 60 percent of residents—physicians who have completed medical school and are getting on-the-job advanced ...
Researchers find selfishness can sometimes help the common good
2010-09-15
Scientists have overturned the conventional wisdom that cooperation is essential for the well-being of the whole population, finding evidence that slackers can sometimes help the common good. Researchers, from Imperial College London, the Universities of Bath and Oxford, University College London and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology studied populations of yeast and found that a mixture of 'co-operators' and 'cheats' grew faster than a more utopian one of only "co-operators." The study, publishing next week in the online, open access journal PLoS Biology, ...
Combined impact of lifestyle factors on mortality among Chinese women
2010-09-15
In research published this week in PLoS Medicine, results from the Shanghai Women's Health Study reveal the impact of lifestyle-related factors on mortality in a cohort of Chinese women – confirming the results from other Western research studies.
The large prospective cohort study by Wei Zheng and colleagues (from Vanderbilt University & Shanghai Cancer Institute) showed that lifestyle factors other than active smoking and alcohol consumption, have a major combined impact on total mortality on a scale comparable to the effect of smoking. For example healthier lifestyle-related ...
Specialist health journalists write better news stories
2010-09-15
David Henry from the University of Toronto and colleagues analysed Australian news stories over a five-year period, and examined whether experienced specialist health reporters write better stories than other categories of journalists. They found that it does matter who writes news stories that cover the benefits and harms of health care interventions: stories written by specialist health journalists working for a single media outlet were of higher quality than those written by less experienced writers. The authors say their findings are important because "this source of ...
The 'urban advantage' in health care is more complex than it seems
2010-09-15
Amos Channon from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom and colleagues outline the complexities of urban advantage in maternal health where the urban poor often have worse access to health care than women in rural areas. They used improved methods to measure urban poverty in 30 countries, and found substantial inequalities in maternal and newborn health, and in access to health care. The authors outline two main patterns of urban inequality in developing countries, and offer recommendations for improving access to care.
INFORMATION:
Funding: No funding was received ...
Burnout associated with self-reported unprofessional conduct among medical students
2010-09-15
Medical students with higher levels of distress (burnout) were more likely to self-report unprofessional conduct related to patient care and less altruistic professional values, according to a study in the September 15 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on medical education.
"Professionalism is a core competency for all physicians. Professionalism includes being honest, acting with integrity, advocating for the needs of patients, reducing barriers to equitable health care, and adhering to an ethical code of conduct," the authors write. "Despite the widely acknowledged importance ...
Depressed medical students more likely to associate stigma with depression
2010-09-15
Medical students with moderate to severe depression more frequently endorsed several depression stigma attitudes than nondepressed students and had a higher rate of suicidal thoughts, according to a study in the September 15 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on medical education.
"Medical students experience depression, burnout, and mental illness at a higher rate than the general population, with mental health deteriorating over the course of medical training. Medical students have a higher risk of suicidal ideation and suicide, higher rates of burnout, and a lower quality ...
Educational intervention may help medical students adapt care for patients needing nonstandard care
2010-09-15
Fourth-year medical students who participated in an educational intervention were more likely to seek, identify and incorporate into care patient circumstances that may require variation from standard care, compared to students in a control group, according to a study in the September 15 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on medical education.
"Clinical decision making requires 2 distinct skills: classifying patients' conditions into diagnostic and management categories that permit the application of best-evidence guidelines, and individualizing or contextualizing care for ...
Personal sacrifices, rationalization may play role for physicians who accept gifts from industry
2010-09-15
Sunita Sah, M.B.Ch.B., B.Sc., M.B.A., M.S., and George Loewenstein, Ph.D., of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, conducted a study to determine whether reminding resident physicians of the sacrifices made to obtain training, as well as suggesting this as a potential rationalization, increases self-stated willingness to accept gifts from industry.
In a study that included a survey of 301 U.S. resident physicians, the researchers found that "reminding physicians of sacrifices made in obtaining their education resulted in gifts being evaluated as more acceptable: 21.7 ...
Structured re-analysis of case findings may help improve diagnostic accuracy
2010-09-15
Silvia Mamede, M.D., Ph.D., of Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands and colleagues investigated whether recent experience with clinical problems provokes availability bias (overestimation of the likelihood of a diagnosis based on the ease with which it comes to mind) resulting in diagnostic errors and whether reflection (structured reanalysis of the case findings) counteracts this bias.
The researchers conducted a study in 2009 with 18 first-year and 18 second-year internal medicine residents and found that "the availability bias may occur in medical diagnosis ...
Lower admission scores, non-white race/ethnicity may increase chance of withdrawal from medical school
2010-09-15
Dorothy A. Andriole, M.D., and Donna B. Jeffe, Ph.D., of Washington University, St. Louis, conducted a study to identify demographic variables prior to medical school acceptance associated with outcomes for medical school students. The study used data from a 1994-1999 national cohort of 97,445 students accepted to medical school who were followed up through March 2009 and had graduated, withdrawn, or were dismissed.
The authors found that "lower scores on the Medical College Admission Test, nonwhite race/ethnicity, and premedical debt of at least $50,000 were independently ...
Clerkship order linked with outcomes on clerkship subject exams, grades, not clinical performance
2010-09-15
Susan M. Kies, Ed.D., of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Urbana, and colleagues conducted a study to assess whether the order in which third-year core clerkships are completed affects student performance. Anecdotal experience has suggested that third-year medical students whose first clerkship is internal medicine may have superior performance throughout the academic year. The researchers reviewed the clerkship performance records of medical students at all four campuses of the University of Illinois College of Medicine who completed their third-year core ...
Type D personality associated with higher future heart risk
2010-09-15
Heart patients with the "distressed" (Type D) personality profile may face a higher risk of future cardiovascular problems, according to a summary article published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
An analysis of previous reports involving more than 6,000 patients found an association between the Type D personality and future cardiovascular issues among heart patients.
The personality classification system that identified "Type A" decades ago more recently defined Type D as a personality marked by chronic negative ...
Mayo Clinic study: Med school burnout linked to unprofessional behavior
2010-09-15
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A Mayo Clinic study involving seven major medical schools shows a majority of medical students surveyed suffer from burnout and that those students were more likely to cheat or be dishonest in relation to patient care. The findings appear in this week's issue of JAMA.
The study was based on anonymous responses from 4,400 students. Just over half (53 percent) the students responding were found to have burnout. Academic cheating was relatively rare, but roughly 40 percent of third- and fourth-year students admitted to some form of unprofessional conduct ...
Teaching doctors to treat the individual
2010-09-15
Doctors can be taught to listen better to individual circumstances that may affect patient care, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. The findings are reported in the Sept. 15 issue of JAMA.
In a previous study the investigators had shown that doctors are not good at picking up clues to details in their patients' personal lives that may affect their treatment -- what the researchers call "context." The current study was designed to see if doctors could be taught to think about context when examining patients.
Fourth-year ...
Mount Sinai researchers find mechanism behind cleft palate development
2010-09-15
Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found a new mechanism that explains why a certain gene mutation causes craniofrontonasal syndrome (CFNS), a disorder that causes cleft palate and other malformations in the face, brain, and skeleton. Cleft palate affects one of every 1,000 newborns. The research is published in the September 15 issue of Genes & Development.
Previous research has shown that a mutation in a gene called ephrin-B1 caused abnormalities in facial development, but researchers were uncertain of how. Philipe M. Soriano, PhD, Professor, Developmental ...
Making bees less busy: Social environment changes internal clocks
2010-09-15
Washington, DC — Honey bees removed from their usual roles in the hive quickly and drastically changed their biological rhythms, according to a study in the Sept. 15 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The changes were evident in both the bees' behavior and in their internal clocks. These findings indicate that social environment has a significant effect on the physiology and behavior of animals. In people, disturbances to the biological clock are known to cause problems for shift workers and new parents and for contributing to mood disorders.
Circadian rhythm, the ...
Carnegie Mellon research: How doctors rationalize acceptance of industry gifts
2010-09-15
PITTSBURGH— Despite heightened awareness about the undue influence that gifts from pharmaceutical companies can have on doctors' prescribing practices, and despite expanding institutional conflict-of-interest policies and state laws targeted at preventing such practices, companies continue to reward doctors for prescribing their drugs with gifts ranging from pens and paper, to free dinners and trips. A new study by two researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, helps to explain how doctors rationalize acceptance ...
Medical students report critical attitudes about depression among peers, U-M study shows
2010-09-15
Ann Arbor, Mich. --- Medical students experience depression at a higher rate than the general population and attach high levels of stigma to the mental illness, according to U-M research to be published Sept. 15 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study showed that 53.3 percent of medical students who reported high levels of depressive symptoms were worried that revealing their illness would be risky. Almost 62 percent of the same students said asking for help would mean the student's coping skills were inadequate.
Those with moderate to severe ...
Diversity or deprivation -- what makes a 'bad' neighborhood
2010-09-15
"People's views of their neighbourhood can influence major decisions such as moving house and choice of school. A neighbourhood can also acquire a reputation as a 'good' or 'bad' area. It is therefore important to understand what these views are based on," says Dr Liz Twigg, University of Portsmouth, who led the research.
"Previous research has suggested that diverse communities are less cohesive and suffer from problems associated with anti-social behaviour, crime and lack of trust," she explains. "Our research suggests that this is not true. In general, what people ...
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