Researchers from Johns Hopkins University determined that immune responses to the tetanus vaccine were not changed when rituximab in combination with methotrexate (MTX) was compared with MTX alone in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Responses to a pneumococcal vaccination (Pneumovax® pneumonia vaccine), however, were reduced in RA patients with rituximab. Complete findings of this study are published in the January 2010 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), RA affects 1.3 million adults in the U.S. (2005). RA patients may be at an increased risk of infection because of impaired immune function due to the disease as well as from the use of immunsuppressive medications. As a result, vaccinations against infections are an essential part of rheumatic disease management. How immunosuppressive agents alter the effectiveness of vaccines in RA patients was the focus of the clinical trial led by Clifton O. Bingham III, M.D.
The controlled study enrolled 103 RA patients from 26 centers in the U.S. between January 2006 and December 2007. Patients treated with a stable dose (10-25 mg/week) of MTX were randomly allocated to two groups: placebo and treatment with rituximab (2 x 1000 mg given two weeks apart). Both groups were immunized with the tetanus and pneumococcal vaccines along with keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) to evaluate humoral immunity and skin tested with Candida albicans to evaluate the cellular immune response.
Results indicate that 39.1% of patients in the rituximab+MTX group and 42.3% of MTX-only patients demonstrated a 4-fold rise in the anti-tetanus IgG titer. A 2-fold rise was confirmed in 54.7% of rituximab-treated patients and 61.5% of subjects on MTX alone. The research demonstrates that RA patients given a tetanus vaccine responded the same to tetanus vaccination regardless of whether they received MTX alone or rituximab in combination with MTX.
Patients treated only with MTX had a greater response to the pneumonia vaccine compared with those also receiving rituximab. Researchers found that only 57% of patients treated with rituximab had a response to one type of pneumococcal vaccine (Pneumovax®) compared with 82% of MTX-only patients.
The ability to maintain a positive delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response to the Candida albicans skin test was comparable in both groups with 77.4% of rituximab-treated patients and 70% of MTX-only patients responding. "Our study, the first to examine DTH responses, confirmed that rituximab had no incremental effect on the patient's ability to mount a DTH response," said Dr. Bingham.
Treatment with rituximab produces a rapid depletion of B cells from the circulation, impacting the body's immune function. This depleted B cell pool begins to recover approximately 6-9 months after the initial treatment with rituximab. In his editorial also published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, E. William St. Clair, M.D. from Duke University Medical Center highlighted the need for further research into the effects of rituximab treatment.
"Further studies similar to Bingham et al are necessary to understand the complex effects of rituximab therapy on immune responses," noted Dr. St. Clair. "This study only evaluated immunization responses approximately 6 months after rituximab was administered; the responses at earlier time points, based on animal studies and its mechanism of action, may have been further attenuated," St. Clair added.
Source: Wiley - Blackwell
Buy Kenalog Without Prescription
суббота, 10 сентября 2011 г.
Uncovering The Secrets Of Getting California Health Insurance To Pay For Autism Treatments
Autism is a neurobiological condition which is often responsive to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, yet most health insurance companies fail to provide this medically necessary service to their members. For the past 7 years, AB 88, known as the Mental Health Parity Act, has been on the books in California. This piece of legislation obliges private health insurance companies to offer treatment services for enrolled members who are diagnosed with autism; but actually getting health insurance to pay for these interventions is a challenge. Up to this point, the advocacy movement to enforce this law has been relatively quiet. Most parents find that insurance companies are not willing to cooperate or give coverage for autism without a fight. To date, there are at least 15 cases in the state that have gone through the full process of request, denial, appeal, and independent medical review (IMR) resulting in families with autistic children receiving insurance funding for intensive ABA services.
Wellspring is eager to assist families through this process, which if successful will provide families with options for treatment as well as alleviating the Regional Center of some of the burden of responsibility for funding of such services.
Wellspring is excited to announce a free seminar for parents that want to use their health insurance to pay for autism treatments. The featured speakers are Dr. Karen Fessel and Feda Almaliti, who have successfully secured private insurance for the funding of autism treatment for their children.
Karen Fessel, Dr PH
Autism Parent and Advocate
Karen Fessel is the proud parent of a 14 year old son with Asperger's, and a 10 year old typical daughter. Karen has a Doctorate in Public Health from UC Berkeley. She has served as a parent advocate on the Autism Advisory Workgroup. She fields questions on an insurance help website, and serves on the Special Ed Advisory Committee of the Lafayette School District. Karen has filed and won several complaints and IMRs against three different insurance companies. Many families have benefited from Karen's personal guidance and have secured insurance coverage for their child's treatment.
Feda Almaliti
Autism Parent and Advocate
Feda Almaliti is the proud parent of 3 boys ages 4 through 10. Her youngest son was diagnosed with autism at 18 months, and since then she has fought tirelessly to get him the help he needs. Recently she fought and won an IMR that resulted in Kaiser paying for 26 hours of ABA, 2 hours of speech therapy, and 2 hours of occupational therapy, weekly. Feda's battle with Kaiser has been featured on local ABC and CBS news stations. Feda is dedicated to helping other parents because "It is the parents who have helped and supported me in my journey through autism."
Their presentation will be invaluable to families who have private insurance and who would like to pursue their insurance carrier for the vital health care supports that their autistic children need. This team has lead parents in some of the biggest wins in the state of California related to autism: securing 40 hours a week of ABA paid by insurance!
Source: Wellspring
Buy Gentamicin Eye Drops Without Prescription
Wellspring is eager to assist families through this process, which if successful will provide families with options for treatment as well as alleviating the Regional Center of some of the burden of responsibility for funding of such services.
Wellspring is excited to announce a free seminar for parents that want to use their health insurance to pay for autism treatments. The featured speakers are Dr. Karen Fessel and Feda Almaliti, who have successfully secured private insurance for the funding of autism treatment for their children.
Karen Fessel, Dr PH
Autism Parent and Advocate
Karen Fessel is the proud parent of a 14 year old son with Asperger's, and a 10 year old typical daughter. Karen has a Doctorate in Public Health from UC Berkeley. She has served as a parent advocate on the Autism Advisory Workgroup. She fields questions on an insurance help website, and serves on the Special Ed Advisory Committee of the Lafayette School District. Karen has filed and won several complaints and IMRs against three different insurance companies. Many families have benefited from Karen's personal guidance and have secured insurance coverage for their child's treatment.
Feda Almaliti
Autism Parent and Advocate
Feda Almaliti is the proud parent of 3 boys ages 4 through 10. Her youngest son was diagnosed with autism at 18 months, and since then she has fought tirelessly to get him the help he needs. Recently she fought and won an IMR that resulted in Kaiser paying for 26 hours of ABA, 2 hours of speech therapy, and 2 hours of occupational therapy, weekly. Feda's battle with Kaiser has been featured on local ABC and CBS news stations. Feda is dedicated to helping other parents because "It is the parents who have helped and supported me in my journey through autism."
Their presentation will be invaluable to families who have private insurance and who would like to pursue their insurance carrier for the vital health care supports that their autistic children need. This team has lead parents in some of the biggest wins in the state of California related to autism: securing 40 hours a week of ABA paid by insurance!
Source: Wellspring
Buy Gentamicin Eye Drops Without Prescription
Small Eye Syndrome Associated With Congenital Heart Disease
Patients with microphthalmia (MAC) have an increased risk of congenital heart disease (CHD) and other malformations, according to a new study. The disease, also known as Small Eye Syndrome, causes eye defects and is only seen in about two of every 10,000 births. Researchers from Albert Einstein Medical Center examined 225 cases and collected data about malformations associated with MAC. A subanalysis was performed to determine if a correlation between CHD and malformations was predictable. Researchers found that the incidence of CHD was significantly higher in patients with MAC, than it was in the general population. Furthermore, if CHD was present in patients with MAC, the incidence of malformations was significantly increased.
CHEST 2006 abstract briefs
Contact: Jennifer Stawarz
American College of Chest Physicians
Buy Cefotaxime Without Prescription
CHEST 2006 abstract briefs
Contact: Jennifer Stawarz
American College of Chest Physicians
Buy Cefotaxime Without Prescription
Caltech Scientists Help Launch The First Standard Graphical Notation For Biology
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and their colleagues in 30 laboratories worldwide have released a new set of standards for graphically representing biological information - the biology equivalent of the circuit diagram in electronics. This visual language should make it easier to exchange complex information, so that biological models are depicted more accurately, consistently, and in a more readily understandable way.
The new standard, called the Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN), was published in the August 8 issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Researchers use standardized visual languages to communicate complex information in many scientific and engineering fields. A well-known example is the circuit diagram in electrical engineering. However, until now, biology lacked a standardized notation for describing biological interactions, pathways, and networks, even though the discipline is dominated by graphical information.
The SBGN project was launched in 2005 as a united effort to specifically develop a new graphical standard for molecular and systems-biology applications. The project, which was initiated by Hiroaki Kitano of the Systems Biology Institute in Tokyo, Japan, is coordinated by Nicolas Le NovГЁre of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge, England, and senior research fellow Michael Hucka, codirector of the Biological Network Modeling Center at Caltech's Beckman Institute. The international team of researchers that created SBGN is composed of biochemists, modelers, and computer scientists, who developed the notation in collaboration with a broader community of researchers constituting the target user community.
"Engineers, architects, physicists, and software developers all have standard graphical notations for depicting the things they work on, which makes it possible for everyone in those fields to be on the same page, as it were," says Hucka. "I think SBGN represents the first truly broad-based attempt at establishing the same kind of standardization in biology."
SBGN will make it easier for biologists to understand each other's models and share network diagrams more easily, which, Hucka says, has never been more important than in today's era of high-throughput technologies and large-scale network reconstruction efforts. A standard graphical notation will help researchers share this mass of data more efficiently and accurately, which will benefit systems biologists working on a variety of biochemical processes, including gene regulation, metabolism, and cellular signaling.
"Finally, and perhaps most excitingly," adds Hucka, "I believe that, just as happened with the engineering fields, SBGN will act as an enabler for the emergence of new industries devoted to the creation of software tools for working with SBGN, as well as its teaching and publication."
Previous graphical notations in biology have tended to be ambiguous, used in different ways by different researchers, and only suited to specific needs - for example, to represent metabolic networks or signaling pathways. Past efforts to create a more rigid notation failed to become accepted as a standard by the community. Hucka and his collaborators believe that SBGN should be more successful because it represents a more concerted effort to establish a standard by engaging many biologists, modelers, and software-tool developers. In fact, many of those involved in the SBGN effort are the same pioneers who proposed previous notations, demonstrating the degree to which they endorse SBGN as a new standard.
To ensure that this new visual language does not become too vast and complicated, the researchers decided to define three separate types of diagram, which describe molecular process, relationships between entities, and links among biochemical activities. These different types of diagrams complement each other by representing different "views" of the same information, presented in different ways for different purposes, but reusing most of the same graphical symbols. This approach reduces the complexity of any one type of diagram while broadening the range of what can be expressed about a given biological system.
"As biology focuses more on managing complexity with quantitative and systematic methods, standards such as SBGN play an essential role. SBGN combines an intuitive notation with the rigorous style of engineering and math," says John Doyle, the John G. Braun Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems, Bioengineering, and Electrical Engineering at Caltech.
"As with SBML (the Systems Biology Markup Language), Mike and his collaborators have provided the kind of solid foundation that the whole community can build on. SBML has been a highly successful standardization effort for software interoperability, and SBGN is sure to have the same kind of impact on human communication in biology," Doyle adds.
The work at Caltech in the paper, "The Systems Biology Graphical Notation," was supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization and a Beckman Institute grant funding the Biological Network Modeling Center.
Source:
Kathy Svitil
California Institute of Technology
Buy Bayer ASA Aspirin Without Prescription
The new standard, called the Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN), was published in the August 8 issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Researchers use standardized visual languages to communicate complex information in many scientific and engineering fields. A well-known example is the circuit diagram in electrical engineering. However, until now, biology lacked a standardized notation for describing biological interactions, pathways, and networks, even though the discipline is dominated by graphical information.
The SBGN project was launched in 2005 as a united effort to specifically develop a new graphical standard for molecular and systems-biology applications. The project, which was initiated by Hiroaki Kitano of the Systems Biology Institute in Tokyo, Japan, is coordinated by Nicolas Le NovГЁre of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge, England, and senior research fellow Michael Hucka, codirector of the Biological Network Modeling Center at Caltech's Beckman Institute. The international team of researchers that created SBGN is composed of biochemists, modelers, and computer scientists, who developed the notation in collaboration with a broader community of researchers constituting the target user community.
"Engineers, architects, physicists, and software developers all have standard graphical notations for depicting the things they work on, which makes it possible for everyone in those fields to be on the same page, as it were," says Hucka. "I think SBGN represents the first truly broad-based attempt at establishing the same kind of standardization in biology."
SBGN will make it easier for biologists to understand each other's models and share network diagrams more easily, which, Hucka says, has never been more important than in today's era of high-throughput technologies and large-scale network reconstruction efforts. A standard graphical notation will help researchers share this mass of data more efficiently and accurately, which will benefit systems biologists working on a variety of biochemical processes, including gene regulation, metabolism, and cellular signaling.
"Finally, and perhaps most excitingly," adds Hucka, "I believe that, just as happened with the engineering fields, SBGN will act as an enabler for the emergence of new industries devoted to the creation of software tools for working with SBGN, as well as its teaching and publication."
Previous graphical notations in biology have tended to be ambiguous, used in different ways by different researchers, and only suited to specific needs - for example, to represent metabolic networks or signaling pathways. Past efforts to create a more rigid notation failed to become accepted as a standard by the community. Hucka and his collaborators believe that SBGN should be more successful because it represents a more concerted effort to establish a standard by engaging many biologists, modelers, and software-tool developers. In fact, many of those involved in the SBGN effort are the same pioneers who proposed previous notations, demonstrating the degree to which they endorse SBGN as a new standard.
To ensure that this new visual language does not become too vast and complicated, the researchers decided to define three separate types of diagram, which describe molecular process, relationships between entities, and links among biochemical activities. These different types of diagrams complement each other by representing different "views" of the same information, presented in different ways for different purposes, but reusing most of the same graphical symbols. This approach reduces the complexity of any one type of diagram while broadening the range of what can be expressed about a given biological system.
"As biology focuses more on managing complexity with quantitative and systematic methods, standards such as SBGN play an essential role. SBGN combines an intuitive notation with the rigorous style of engineering and math," says John Doyle, the John G. Braun Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems, Bioengineering, and Electrical Engineering at Caltech.
"As with SBML (the Systems Biology Markup Language), Mike and his collaborators have provided the kind of solid foundation that the whole community can build on. SBML has been a highly successful standardization effort for software interoperability, and SBGN is sure to have the same kind of impact on human communication in biology," Doyle adds.
The work at Caltech in the paper, "The Systems Biology Graphical Notation," was supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization and a Beckman Institute grant funding the Biological Network Modeling Center.
Source:
Kathy Svitil
California Institute of Technology
Buy Bayer ASA Aspirin Without Prescription
New AARP Research Analyzes Three Issues Key To Comprehensive Health Reform, USA
As the health care reform debate intensifies
across the country, AARP today released three new
reports on major issues to health care reform. The
AARP reports analyze health plan designs, cost shifting
for expensive "specialty" drugs, and the access to
coverage for Americans age 50-64.
"The President and Congressional leaders have made it clear
that health reform must happen this year, and we're working
with them to make sure it improves options for older
Americans who currently face enormous obstacles in the
private market, as well as strengthens lifeline programs
like Medicare," said AARP Policy Director John Rother.
"This important research can inform the debate to help our
elected officials make smart decisions that ensure every
American has access to quality, affordable health care."
The three reports released today are:
"Health Care Reform: What's at Stake for 50- to 64-year-
olds?" - This report by AARP's Public Policy Institute
analyzes recent data on the fastest growing segment of the
uninsured population. Key findings include that more than
a quarter (28%) of Americans age 50-64 spend more than 10%
of their income on health care-more than one-and-a-half times
as many as younger Americans. The complete report is available
here.
"How Consumer Choice Affects Health Coverage Plan Design" -
A key challenge of health care reform will be designing new
coverage programs for people who are currently without access.
This AARP Public Policy Institute report uses employer
experience with health coverage to illustrate the trade-offs
and issues in designing benefit packages. The complete report
is available here.
"The Tier 4 Phenomenon: Shifting the High Cost of Drugs to
Consumers" - Study of the practice of shifting massive costs
to patients in the form of percentage co-insurance-as opposed
to fixed-dollar co-pays-for super expensive "miracle" drugs.
This report is especially timely given anticipated
developments of legislation to create a pathway to create
generic biologics. The complete report is available
here.
For more information, please visit aarp.
AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that
helps people 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways
that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a
whole. AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or
make contributions to either political campaigns or candidates.
We produce AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for 50+
Americans and the world's largest-circulation magazine with
over 34.5 million readers; AARP Bulletin, the go-to news source
for AARP's 40 million members and Americans 50+; AARP Segunda
Juventud, the only bilingual U.S. publication dedicated
exclusively to the 50+ Hispanic community; and our website,
AARP. AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that
provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons
in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and
sponsors. We have staffed offices in all 50 states, the
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
AARP
Buy HIV Test Without Prescription
across the country, AARP today released three new
reports on major issues to health care reform. The
AARP reports analyze health plan designs, cost shifting
for expensive "specialty" drugs, and the access to
coverage for Americans age 50-64.
"The President and Congressional leaders have made it clear
that health reform must happen this year, and we're working
with them to make sure it improves options for older
Americans who currently face enormous obstacles in the
private market, as well as strengthens lifeline programs
like Medicare," said AARP Policy Director John Rother.
"This important research can inform the debate to help our
elected officials make smart decisions that ensure every
American has access to quality, affordable health care."
The three reports released today are:
"Health Care Reform: What's at Stake for 50- to 64-year-
olds?" - This report by AARP's Public Policy Institute
analyzes recent data on the fastest growing segment of the
uninsured population. Key findings include that more than
a quarter (28%) of Americans age 50-64 spend more than 10%
of their income on health care-more than one-and-a-half times
as many as younger Americans. The complete report is available
here.
"How Consumer Choice Affects Health Coverage Plan Design" -
A key challenge of health care reform will be designing new
coverage programs for people who are currently without access.
This AARP Public Policy Institute report uses employer
experience with health coverage to illustrate the trade-offs
and issues in designing benefit packages. The complete report
is available here.
"The Tier 4 Phenomenon: Shifting the High Cost of Drugs to
Consumers" - Study of the practice of shifting massive costs
to patients in the form of percentage co-insurance-as opposed
to fixed-dollar co-pays-for super expensive "miracle" drugs.
This report is especially timely given anticipated
developments of legislation to create a pathway to create
generic biologics. The complete report is available
here.
For more information, please visit aarp.
AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that
helps people 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways
that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a
whole. AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or
make contributions to either political campaigns or candidates.
We produce AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for 50+
Americans and the world's largest-circulation magazine with
over 34.5 million readers; AARP Bulletin, the go-to news source
for AARP's 40 million members and Americans 50+; AARP Segunda
Juventud, the only bilingual U.S. publication dedicated
exclusively to the 50+ Hispanic community; and our website,
AARP. AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that
provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons
in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and
sponsors. We have staffed offices in all 50 states, the
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
AARP
Buy HIV Test Without Prescription
Drug Side Effect Labeling Has Reached Information Overload
The lists of potential side effects that accompany prescription drugs have ballooned in size, averaging 70 reactions per drug, a number that can overwhelm physicians trying to select suitable treatments for their patients, according to a new study of drug labels.
Long lists of drug side effects - whether found in magazine advertisements or in package inserts - are a familiar sight to patients and doctors. Now researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine have quantified just how complex drug labels have become.
In the study, appearing in the May 23, 2011 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, the researchers found that the average label contains 70 different side effects, with more commonly prescribed drugs averaging around 100 side effects. The upper range was remarkably high, with a single label containing as many as 525 reactions. The study involved analysis of more than 5,600 drug labels and more than half a million labeled effects.
"Having a high number of side effects on a drug's label should not suggest that the drug is unsafe. In fact, much of this labeling has less to do with true toxicity than with protecting manufacturers from potential lawsuits," said lead author Jon Duke, M.D., Regenstrief Institute investigator and assistant professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine.
"But having all these labeled side effects can overwhelm doctors who must weigh the risks and benefits when prescribing a medication. The Food and Drug Administration has taken steps to discourage such 'overwarning,' but at present information overload is the rule rather than the exception," Dr. Duke said.
The authors looked at different classes of medications to determine if certain types of drugs were more likely to have a high number of labeled effects. The greatest number of side effects was found in antidepressants, antiviral medications, and newer treatments for Restless Legs Syndrome and Parkinson's disease. In general, medications typically used by psychiatrists and neurologists had the most complex labels, while drugs used by dermatologists and ophthalmologists had the least.
To conduct this research, the investigators developed computer software capable of identifying side effects in drug labels with 95 percent accuracy. This software, known as SPLICER, can be used to monitor labeling patterns on an ongoing basis and detect changing trends.
"It would take many months of work to read through the 5,600 drug labels and identify all of the side effects. SPLICER can read and process this many labels in about a day on a supercomputer and with nearly the same accuracy as a human. This is especially important since new labels are constantly being created and old ones revised," said co-author Regenstrief Investigator Jeff Friedlin, D.O., assistant professor of family medicine at the IU School of Medicine.
Despite the overwhelming amount of information found in current drug labeling, Dr. Duke remains optimistic.
"With current technology, drug labels could be transformed from lengthy static documents to dynamic resources, capable of delivering personalized patient information. Such labels could take into account the individual patient's medical conditions and highlight those side effects that could be especially dangerous.
"We can't stop the growing wave of drug information," said Dr. Duke, "but we can do a better job of presenting it efficiently to health care providers."
The study, "A Quantitative Analysis of Adverse Events and 'Overwarning' in Drug Labeling" was co-authored by Dr. Duke, Dr. Friedlin and Patrick Ryan, M.Eng. of the University of North Carolina. The work was conducted with support from the Regenstrief Institute and the National Library of Medicine.
Source:
Cindy Fox Aisen
Indiana University School of Medicine
Buy Nevirapine Without Prescription
Long lists of drug side effects - whether found in magazine advertisements or in package inserts - are a familiar sight to patients and doctors. Now researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine have quantified just how complex drug labels have become.
In the study, appearing in the May 23, 2011 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, the researchers found that the average label contains 70 different side effects, with more commonly prescribed drugs averaging around 100 side effects. The upper range was remarkably high, with a single label containing as many as 525 reactions. The study involved analysis of more than 5,600 drug labels and more than half a million labeled effects.
"Having a high number of side effects on a drug's label should not suggest that the drug is unsafe. In fact, much of this labeling has less to do with true toxicity than with protecting manufacturers from potential lawsuits," said lead author Jon Duke, M.D., Regenstrief Institute investigator and assistant professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine.
"But having all these labeled side effects can overwhelm doctors who must weigh the risks and benefits when prescribing a medication. The Food and Drug Administration has taken steps to discourage such 'overwarning,' but at present information overload is the rule rather than the exception," Dr. Duke said.
The authors looked at different classes of medications to determine if certain types of drugs were more likely to have a high number of labeled effects. The greatest number of side effects was found in antidepressants, antiviral medications, and newer treatments for Restless Legs Syndrome and Parkinson's disease. In general, medications typically used by psychiatrists and neurologists had the most complex labels, while drugs used by dermatologists and ophthalmologists had the least.
To conduct this research, the investigators developed computer software capable of identifying side effects in drug labels with 95 percent accuracy. This software, known as SPLICER, can be used to monitor labeling patterns on an ongoing basis and detect changing trends.
"It would take many months of work to read through the 5,600 drug labels and identify all of the side effects. SPLICER can read and process this many labels in about a day on a supercomputer and with nearly the same accuracy as a human. This is especially important since new labels are constantly being created and old ones revised," said co-author Regenstrief Investigator Jeff Friedlin, D.O., assistant professor of family medicine at the IU School of Medicine.
Despite the overwhelming amount of information found in current drug labeling, Dr. Duke remains optimistic.
"With current technology, drug labels could be transformed from lengthy static documents to dynamic resources, capable of delivering personalized patient information. Such labels could take into account the individual patient's medical conditions and highlight those side effects that could be especially dangerous.
"We can't stop the growing wave of drug information," said Dr. Duke, "but we can do a better job of presenting it efficiently to health care providers."
The study, "A Quantitative Analysis of Adverse Events and 'Overwarning' in Drug Labeling" was co-authored by Dr. Duke, Dr. Friedlin and Patrick Ryan, M.Eng. of the University of North Carolina. The work was conducted with support from the Regenstrief Institute and the National Library of Medicine.
Source:
Cindy Fox Aisen
Indiana University School of Medicine
Buy Nevirapine Without Prescription
Preclinical Data Show Alfacell's ONCONASE(R) Inhibits Tumor Growth Of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Breast Cancer Cells
Alfacell
Corporation (Nasdaq: ACEL) today announced that in vivo and in vitro
preclinical data presented in a poster at the American Association for
Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting show that ONCONASE (ranpirnase)
significantly inhibits tumor growth of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
and breast cancer cells.
In the poster titled "Increased apoptosis and reduced lactate levels by
ranpirnase in human lung and breast cancer", Intae Lee, Ph.D. and
collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrated that ONCONASE
significantly inhibited tumor growth by inducing apoptosis (cell death) in
A549 and NCI-H1975 human NSCLC cells and MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 human breast
cancer cells without damaging non-cancerous cells such as HLF-1 human lung
fibroblast and NCI/3T3 fibroblast. Additionally, the data indicated that
twice weekly injections of ONCONASE were more effective than an equivalent
single dose injection in these tumor types.
"The findings of our investigation suggest important potential clinical
uses of ONCONASE for the treatment of NSCLC and breast cancer," said Dr.
Lee.
Kuslima Shogen, Alfacell's chairman and chief executive officer, added:
"This research adds to the extensive published data that supports our
continued development of ONCONASE for multiple cancer indications. The
ONCONASE franchise includes the gateway indication of malignant
mesothelioma and several other tumor types for which we are continuing
preclinical and clinical studies."
About ONCONASE(R)
ONCONASE is a first-in-class therapeutic product candidate based on
Alfacell's proprietary ribonuclease (RNase) technology. A natural protein
isolated from the leopard frog, ONCONASE has been shown in the laboratory
and clinic to target cancer cells while sparing normal cells. ONCONASE
triggers apoptosis, the natural death of cells, via multiple molecular
mechanisms of action.
About Alfacell Corporation
Alfacell Corporation is the first company to advance a
biopharmaceutical product candidate that works in a manner similar to RNA
interference (RNAi) through late-stage clinical trials. The product
candidate, ONCONASE, is an RNase that overcomes the challenges of targeting
RNA for therapeutic purposes while enabling the development of a new class
of targeted therapies for cancer and other life-threatening diseases. In
addition to an ongoing Phase IIIb study in malignant mesothelioma, Alfacell
is conducting a Phase I/II trial of ONCONASE in non-small cell lung cancer
(NSCLC) and other solid tumors. For more information, visit
alfacell.
Safe Harbor
This press release includes statements that may constitute "forward-
looking" statements, usually containing the words "believe," "estimate,"
"project," "expect" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements
involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that would cause or
contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to,
uncertainties involved in transitioning from concept to product,
uncertainties involving the ability of the company to finance research and
development activities, potential challenges to or violations of patents,
uncertainties regarding the outcome of clinical trials, the company's
ability to secure necessary approvals from regulatory agencies, dependence
upon third-party vendors, and other risks discussed in the company's
periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By making
these forward-looking statements, the company undertakes no obligation to
update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this
release.
Alfacell Corporation
alfacell
Buy Anti-Bacterial Face Mask Without Prescription
Corporation (Nasdaq: ACEL) today announced that in vivo and in vitro
preclinical data presented in a poster at the American Association for
Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting show that ONCONASE (ranpirnase)
significantly inhibits tumor growth of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
and breast cancer cells.
In the poster titled "Increased apoptosis and reduced lactate levels by
ranpirnase in human lung and breast cancer", Intae Lee, Ph.D. and
collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrated that ONCONASE
significantly inhibited tumor growth by inducing apoptosis (cell death) in
A549 and NCI-H1975 human NSCLC cells and MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 human breast
cancer cells without damaging non-cancerous cells such as HLF-1 human lung
fibroblast and NCI/3T3 fibroblast. Additionally, the data indicated that
twice weekly injections of ONCONASE were more effective than an equivalent
single dose injection in these tumor types.
"The findings of our investigation suggest important potential clinical
uses of ONCONASE for the treatment of NSCLC and breast cancer," said Dr.
Lee.
Kuslima Shogen, Alfacell's chairman and chief executive officer, added:
"This research adds to the extensive published data that supports our
continued development of ONCONASE for multiple cancer indications. The
ONCONASE franchise includes the gateway indication of malignant
mesothelioma and several other tumor types for which we are continuing
preclinical and clinical studies."
About ONCONASE(R)
ONCONASE is a first-in-class therapeutic product candidate based on
Alfacell's proprietary ribonuclease (RNase) technology. A natural protein
isolated from the leopard frog, ONCONASE has been shown in the laboratory
and clinic to target cancer cells while sparing normal cells. ONCONASE
triggers apoptosis, the natural death of cells, via multiple molecular
mechanisms of action.
About Alfacell Corporation
Alfacell Corporation is the first company to advance a
biopharmaceutical product candidate that works in a manner similar to RNA
interference (RNAi) through late-stage clinical trials. The product
candidate, ONCONASE, is an RNase that overcomes the challenges of targeting
RNA for therapeutic purposes while enabling the development of a new class
of targeted therapies for cancer and other life-threatening diseases. In
addition to an ongoing Phase IIIb study in malignant mesothelioma, Alfacell
is conducting a Phase I/II trial of ONCONASE in non-small cell lung cancer
(NSCLC) and other solid tumors. For more information, visit
alfacell.
Safe Harbor
This press release includes statements that may constitute "forward-
looking" statements, usually containing the words "believe," "estimate,"
"project," "expect" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements
involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that would cause or
contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to,
uncertainties involved in transitioning from concept to product,
uncertainties involving the ability of the company to finance research and
development activities, potential challenges to or violations of patents,
uncertainties regarding the outcome of clinical trials, the company's
ability to secure necessary approvals from regulatory agencies, dependence
upon third-party vendors, and other risks discussed in the company's
periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By making
these forward-looking statements, the company undertakes no obligation to
update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this
release.
Alfacell Corporation
alfacell
Buy Anti-Bacterial Face Mask Without Prescription
People With Lupus Denied Health Insurance Due To Pre-Existing Condition May Be Able To Obtain Coverage Through Health Care Reform Law Plan
President Obama signed the Health Care Reform package in to law in March 2010, which will extend insurance coverage to as many as 32 million Americans who currently do not have health insurance, as well as provide much-needed protections for people with lupus and other chronic conditions.
Americans who have been denied health insurance coverage because of a pre-existing condition can now apply for the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP). This temporary program provides insurance to people who have been unable to obtain coverage because of a preexisting condition. The PCIP coverage could start as early as August and will serve as a bridge for people until 2014 when the reform law bans health insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
In order to enroll in the PCIP a person must have been without medical insurance for six continuous months and have been denied coverage due to their pre-existing condition; documentation of denial is required.
For more information on the PCIP and to learn about what health care coverage is available in your state, visit the new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) website.
Source:
Lupus Foundation of America, Inc.
Buy Armour Without Prescription
Americans who have been denied health insurance coverage because of a pre-existing condition can now apply for the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP). This temporary program provides insurance to people who have been unable to obtain coverage because of a preexisting condition. The PCIP coverage could start as early as August and will serve as a bridge for people until 2014 when the reform law bans health insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
In order to enroll in the PCIP a person must have been without medical insurance for six continuous months and have been denied coverage due to their pre-existing condition; documentation of denial is required.
For more information on the PCIP and to learn about what health care coverage is available in your state, visit the new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) website.
Source:
Lupus Foundation of America, Inc.
Buy Armour Without Prescription
NHS Patients To Benefit From New Ipad Technology, UK
Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, and leading figures from health charities today launch the UK's first online health tracker that lets patients track their recovery live and provides essential data to help shape clinical decisions in the NHS.
Health secretary, Andrew Lansley, shows his support for the latest touch-screen technology, putting patients at the centre of care, by attending the launch of this innovation in mobile health.
HealthUnlocked Tracker is being trialled at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH). The on-going pilot will measure the effectiveness of spinal surgery over a prolonged period, gathering essential data in an efficient and user-friendly way.
HealthUnlocked Tracker is the UK's first online patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) system lets patients record their progress in real time in-clinic using an iPad. The patients use the same system at home to track their progress over the internet.
Benefits of HealthUnlocked Tracker include:
- Doctors and nurses access the live system instantly to assess a patient's progress
- Surgeons track the value of the operations they carry out
- Hospitals and commissioners can quantify the benefits of different types of operations
- An estimated 300 new outpatient appointment slots per consultant surgeon per year could be created in the RNOH
- 95% of patients prefer the new online process to the traditional pen and paper method.
- Traditional methods of reporting on PROMs have rarely been accessible in a clinic - this system allows best use to be made of the information.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said:
"This is a great example of how healthcare innovation can make a real difference to patients' lives.
"We want to modernise the NHS because we believe that patients deserve the best and most innovative treatments available. We are committed to creating an environment in the NHS where new medical technologies like this can flourish."
Mr Matthew Shaw, Consultant Spinal Surgeon at the RNOH and the lead surgeon in the trial, explains:
"Having accurate information at my fingertips about my patients' recovery is groundbreaking. It ensures that I can quickly get to grips with their perspective and provide them with first-rate healthcare. As well as saving me time it will also create new insights about spinal surgery for the NHS as a whole."
Using these online instruments for reference RNOH consultants also plan to integrate them into follow-up. Matthew Shaw says:
"Some patients with very rapid recoveries require less intensive follow-up than those with slower or more problematic recoveries. This gives me more flexibility to assess this in advance, and better tailor my time to my patients' needs."
Dr Matt Jameson Evans, co-founder of HealthUnlocked says:
"All my experience as a surgeon in the NHS made me want to shake up the system and put patients at the heart of it and that's what this online tracking does. We've started with spinal patients but the potential is huge as the new tracking works with all types of disease. Our goal is that 50% of all UK patients with chronic disease have access to the new online health tracker and manage their progress online by 2016."
Speaking at the launch Simon Davies, Chair of Cancer52, comments on the future potential for the online health tracker for cancer patients:
"We welcome any initiative which could improve outcomes for patients with less common cancers and believe that this new tracker will do just that. Understanding how current patients are being treated and getting their feedback will help build better services in the future. Cancer52 will be encouraging its patient support group member charities to get involved."
Notes
1. About the Pilot
The assessment combines the EQ5D, a standardised instrument to measure health outcomes, and the Oswestry Disability Index, a tool used to quantify spinal pain. Over one hundred patients are using HealthUnlocked in RNOH to date, and it is anticipated that 3,000-4,000 patients at RNOH will benefit from it each year.
2. About the Technology
The technology has been developed by HealthUnlocked, a UK company founded by NHS doctors to develop web-technology to aid patient tracking and improve surgery outcome measures. Initial development of the system was supported by grants from Spire Healthcare, Baxter Healthcare, K2M, Synthes, and kspine.
Source:
HealthUnlocked
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital
Cancer52
Department of Health, UK
Buy Cyklokapron Without Prescription
Health secretary, Andrew Lansley, shows his support for the latest touch-screen technology, putting patients at the centre of care, by attending the launch of this innovation in mobile health.
HealthUnlocked Tracker is being trialled at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH). The on-going pilot will measure the effectiveness of spinal surgery over a prolonged period, gathering essential data in an efficient and user-friendly way.
HealthUnlocked Tracker is the UK's first online patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) system lets patients record their progress in real time in-clinic using an iPad. The patients use the same system at home to track their progress over the internet.
Benefits of HealthUnlocked Tracker include:
- Doctors and nurses access the live system instantly to assess a patient's progress
- Surgeons track the value of the operations they carry out
- Hospitals and commissioners can quantify the benefits of different types of operations
- An estimated 300 new outpatient appointment slots per consultant surgeon per year could be created in the RNOH
- 95% of patients prefer the new online process to the traditional pen and paper method.
- Traditional methods of reporting on PROMs have rarely been accessible in a clinic - this system allows best use to be made of the information.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said:
"This is a great example of how healthcare innovation can make a real difference to patients' lives.
"We want to modernise the NHS because we believe that patients deserve the best and most innovative treatments available. We are committed to creating an environment in the NHS where new medical technologies like this can flourish."
Mr Matthew Shaw, Consultant Spinal Surgeon at the RNOH and the lead surgeon in the trial, explains:
"Having accurate information at my fingertips about my patients' recovery is groundbreaking. It ensures that I can quickly get to grips with their perspective and provide them with first-rate healthcare. As well as saving me time it will also create new insights about spinal surgery for the NHS as a whole."
Using these online instruments for reference RNOH consultants also plan to integrate them into follow-up. Matthew Shaw says:
"Some patients with very rapid recoveries require less intensive follow-up than those with slower or more problematic recoveries. This gives me more flexibility to assess this in advance, and better tailor my time to my patients' needs."
Dr Matt Jameson Evans, co-founder of HealthUnlocked says:
"All my experience as a surgeon in the NHS made me want to shake up the system and put patients at the heart of it and that's what this online tracking does. We've started with spinal patients but the potential is huge as the new tracking works with all types of disease. Our goal is that 50% of all UK patients with chronic disease have access to the new online health tracker and manage their progress online by 2016."
Speaking at the launch Simon Davies, Chair of Cancer52, comments on the future potential for the online health tracker for cancer patients:
"We welcome any initiative which could improve outcomes for patients with less common cancers and believe that this new tracker will do just that. Understanding how current patients are being treated and getting their feedback will help build better services in the future. Cancer52 will be encouraging its patient support group member charities to get involved."
Notes
1. About the Pilot
The assessment combines the EQ5D, a standardised instrument to measure health outcomes, and the Oswestry Disability Index, a tool used to quantify spinal pain. Over one hundred patients are using HealthUnlocked in RNOH to date, and it is anticipated that 3,000-4,000 patients at RNOH will benefit from it each year.
2. About the Technology
The technology has been developed by HealthUnlocked, a UK company founded by NHS doctors to develop web-technology to aid patient tracking and improve surgery outcome measures. Initial development of the system was supported by grants from Spire Healthcare, Baxter Healthcare, K2M, Synthes, and kspine.
Source:
HealthUnlocked
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital
Cancer52
Department of Health, UK
Buy Cyklokapron Without Prescription
Searching For Better Tests To Spot Heart Disease
For far too many people, the first sign of heart disease is frightening chest pain, a rip-roaring heart attack, or a
stroke. Why don't doctors have the equivalent of that old trick seen in countless Westerns - putting an ear to the train
tracks to listen for the approach of the distant train? That question was raised recently when a prominent American not
previously diagnosed with heart disease -President Clinton-had bypass surgery. The December issue of the Harvard Heart Letter
looks at the trusted standby of heart disease risk assessment- the Framingham score - and newer tests that may (or may not)
improve or supplant it.
The Framingham risk score comes from the legendary, long-running Framingham Heart Study. It uses information such as
cholesterol levels, blood pressure, smoking, age, and diabetes to gauge an individual's chance of having a heart attack in
the next 10 years. (For an online Framingham risk calculator, go to hin.nhlbi.nih/atpiii/calculator.asp.)
Researchers around the country and around the world are working to refine or replace the Framingham risk score. The December
Harvard Heart Letter explores some of these possibilities, including"
-- C-reactive protein (CRP). This marker of inflammation - the same process that triggers a fever or causes swelling - could
be involved in the artery-clogging process of atherosclerosis. A simple blood test for CRP may help spot people at high risk
for a heart attack or stroke.
-- Cholesterol "fingerprint". Once there was just total cholesterol to worry about. Then we learned about bad cholesterol
(LDL) and good cholesterol (HDL). Now it turns out that there are other types, and measuring them might offer more accurate
predictions about heart disease risk.
-- Blood sugar. The average amount of sugar in the bloodstream, measured by a simple blood test for sugar-coated hemoglobin
could help identify people at high or low risk for heart disease.
-- Heart scans, stretchy arteries, and beyond. A host of other tests that look directly at the heart and arteries could
someday offer an even clearer window into heart health.
The Harvard Heart Letter is available from Harvard Health Publications, the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.
You can subscribe for $28 per year at health.harvard.edu/heart or by calling 1-877-649-9457.
Harvard Health Publications
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
Phone 617-432-4717
Buy Fusidic Acid Without Prescription
stroke. Why don't doctors have the equivalent of that old trick seen in countless Westerns - putting an ear to the train
tracks to listen for the approach of the distant train? That question was raised recently when a prominent American not
previously diagnosed with heart disease -President Clinton-had bypass surgery. The December issue of the Harvard Heart Letter
looks at the trusted standby of heart disease risk assessment- the Framingham score - and newer tests that may (or may not)
improve or supplant it.
The Framingham risk score comes from the legendary, long-running Framingham Heart Study. It uses information such as
cholesterol levels, blood pressure, smoking, age, and diabetes to gauge an individual's chance of having a heart attack in
the next 10 years. (For an online Framingham risk calculator, go to hin.nhlbi.nih/atpiii/calculator.asp.)
Researchers around the country and around the world are working to refine or replace the Framingham risk score. The December
Harvard Heart Letter explores some of these possibilities, including"
-- C-reactive protein (CRP). This marker of inflammation - the same process that triggers a fever or causes swelling - could
be involved in the artery-clogging process of atherosclerosis. A simple blood test for CRP may help spot people at high risk
for a heart attack or stroke.
-- Cholesterol "fingerprint". Once there was just total cholesterol to worry about. Then we learned about bad cholesterol
(LDL) and good cholesterol (HDL). Now it turns out that there are other types, and measuring them might offer more accurate
predictions about heart disease risk.
-- Blood sugar. The average amount of sugar in the bloodstream, measured by a simple blood test for sugar-coated hemoglobin
could help identify people at high or low risk for heart disease.
-- Heart scans, stretchy arteries, and beyond. A host of other tests that look directly at the heart and arteries could
someday offer an even clearer window into heart health.
The Harvard Heart Letter is available from Harvard Health Publications, the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.
You can subscribe for $28 per year at health.harvard.edu/heart or by calling 1-877-649-9457.
Harvard Health Publications
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
Phone 617-432-4717
Buy Fusidic Acid Without Prescription
Microfluidic Integrated Circuit Could Help Enable Home Diagnostic Tests
As a way to simplify lab-on-a-chip devices that could offer quicker, cheaper and more portable medical tests, University of Michigan researchers have created microfluidic integrated circuits.
Just as electronic circuits intelligently route the flow of electricity on computer chips without external controls, these microfluidic circuits regulate the flow of fluid through their devices without instructions from outside systems.
A paper on the technology is newly published online in Nature Physics.
A microfluidic device, or lab-on-a-chip, integrates multiple laboratory functions onto one chip just centimeters in size. The devices allow researchers to experiment on tiny sample sizes, and also to simultaneously perform multiple experiments on the same material. They can be engineered to mimic the human body more closely than the Petri dish does. They could lead to instant home tests for illnesses, food contaminants and toxic gases, among other advances.
"In most microfluidic devices today, there are essentially little fingers or pressure forces that open and close each individual valve to route fluid through the device during experiments. That is, there is an extra layer of control machinery that is required to manipulate the current in the fluidic circuit," said Shu Takayama, the principal investigator on the project. Takayama is an associate professor in the U-M Department of Biomedical Engineering.
That's similar to how electronic circuits were manipulated a century ago. Then, with the development of the integrated circuit, the "thinking" became embedded in the chip itself - a technological breakthrough that enabled personal computers, Takayama said.
"We have literally made a microfluidic integrated circuit," said Bobak Mosadegh, a doctoral student in Takayama's lab who is first author of the paper.
The external controls that power today's microfluidic devices can be cumbersome. Each valve on a chip (and there could be dozens of them) requires its own electromechanical push from an off-chip actuator or pump. This has made it difficult to shrink microfluidic systems to palm- or fingertip-sized diagnostic devices.
The Takayama lab's innovation is a step in this direction. His research group has devised a strategy to produce the fluidic counterparts of key electrical components including transistors, diodes, resistors and capacitors, and to efficiently network these components to automatically regulate fluid flow within the device.
These components are made using conventional techniques, so they are compatible with all other microfluidic components such as mixers, filters and cell culture chambers, the researchers say.
"We've made a versatile control system," Mosadegh said. "We envision that this technology will become a platform for researchers and companies in the microfluidics field to develop sophisticated self-controlled microfluidic devices that automatically process biofluids such as blood and pharmaceuticals for diagnostics or other applications.
"Just as the integrated circuit brought the digital information processing power of computers to the people, we envision our microfluidic analog will be able to do the same for cellular and biochemical information."
The paper is titled "Integrated Elastomeric Components for Autonomous Regulation of Sequential and Oscillatory Flow Switching in Microfluidic Devices." This research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research. Also contributing were researchers from the U-M departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering as well as the Macromolecular Science and Engineering Center.
The university is pursuing patent protection for the intellectual property, and is seeking commercialization partners to help bring the technology to market.
Source:
Nicole Casal Moore
University of Michigan
Buy Keflex Without Prescription
Just as electronic circuits intelligently route the flow of electricity on computer chips without external controls, these microfluidic circuits regulate the flow of fluid through their devices without instructions from outside systems.
A paper on the technology is newly published online in Nature Physics.
A microfluidic device, or lab-on-a-chip, integrates multiple laboratory functions onto one chip just centimeters in size. The devices allow researchers to experiment on tiny sample sizes, and also to simultaneously perform multiple experiments on the same material. They can be engineered to mimic the human body more closely than the Petri dish does. They could lead to instant home tests for illnesses, food contaminants and toxic gases, among other advances.
"In most microfluidic devices today, there are essentially little fingers or pressure forces that open and close each individual valve to route fluid through the device during experiments. That is, there is an extra layer of control machinery that is required to manipulate the current in the fluidic circuit," said Shu Takayama, the principal investigator on the project. Takayama is an associate professor in the U-M Department of Biomedical Engineering.
That's similar to how electronic circuits were manipulated a century ago. Then, with the development of the integrated circuit, the "thinking" became embedded in the chip itself - a technological breakthrough that enabled personal computers, Takayama said.
"We have literally made a microfluidic integrated circuit," said Bobak Mosadegh, a doctoral student in Takayama's lab who is first author of the paper.
The external controls that power today's microfluidic devices can be cumbersome. Each valve on a chip (and there could be dozens of them) requires its own electromechanical push from an off-chip actuator or pump. This has made it difficult to shrink microfluidic systems to palm- or fingertip-sized diagnostic devices.
The Takayama lab's innovation is a step in this direction. His research group has devised a strategy to produce the fluidic counterparts of key electrical components including transistors, diodes, resistors and capacitors, and to efficiently network these components to automatically regulate fluid flow within the device.
These components are made using conventional techniques, so they are compatible with all other microfluidic components such as mixers, filters and cell culture chambers, the researchers say.
"We've made a versatile control system," Mosadegh said. "We envision that this technology will become a platform for researchers and companies in the microfluidics field to develop sophisticated self-controlled microfluidic devices that automatically process biofluids such as blood and pharmaceuticals for diagnostics or other applications.
"Just as the integrated circuit brought the digital information processing power of computers to the people, we envision our microfluidic analog will be able to do the same for cellular and biochemical information."
The paper is titled "Integrated Elastomeric Components for Autonomous Regulation of Sequential and Oscillatory Flow Switching in Microfluidic Devices." This research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research. Also contributing were researchers from the U-M departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering as well as the Macromolecular Science and Engineering Center.
The university is pursuing patent protection for the intellectual property, and is seeking commercialization partners to help bring the technology to market.
Source:
Nicole Casal Moore
University of Michigan
Buy Keflex Without Prescription
Revaccination Could Benefit HIV-Infected Children
HIV-infected children receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) may require revaccination to maintain immunity against preventable diseases. There remains no standard or official recommendation on revaccination of children receiving HAART, an effective intervention in reducing morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected children. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reviewed published data to assess these children's immune responses to vaccines and found that most children treated with HAART remained susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases, but responded well to revaccination. Their review was published in the September issue of the Lancet Infectious Diseases.
"Most children on HAART responded to revaccination, although immune reconstitution was not sufficient to ensure long-term immunity for some children," said William Moss, MD, MPH, senior author of the review and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Epidemiology. "Because of the progressive effects of HIV infection on the ability of the immune system to mount an effective response, many infected children have poorer responses to vaccines than do uninfected children. In addition, fewer children infected with HIV achieve protective immunity, and those who do might experience greater and more rapid waning of immunity. These results suggest that children on HAART would benefit from revaccination, but levels of protective immunity might need to be monitored and some children may need additional vaccine doses to maintain protective immunity."
Researchers reviewed 38 published studies to establish whether children infected with HIV on HAART have protective immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases and to assess short-term and long-term immune responses to vaccination of children given HAART. Short-term was defined as less than or equal to 3 months, and long-term was defined as greater than 3 months. They found that starting HAART in infancy, before receipt of routine childhood vaccines, might preserve immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends giving most routine childhood vaccines to children infected with HIV, but does not make recommendations on revaccination.
"Continued efforts are needed to identify and treat HIV-infected children at younger ages and at earlier stages of disease," said Catherine Sutcliffe, PhD, lead author of the review and a research associate with the Bloomberg School's Department of Epidemiology. "Vaccination policies and strategies for children infected with HIV on HAART should be developed in regions of high HIV prevalence to ensure adequate individual and population immunity. Without such recommendations, as treatment programs scale up and more children receive HAART and live into adolescence and adulthood, a larger proportion of these children could be susceptible to childhood diseases."
"Do children infected with HIV receiving HAART need to be revaccinated?" was Catherine Sutcliffe and William Moss.
This review was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Source:
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Buy Pyridium Without Prescription
"Most children on HAART responded to revaccination, although immune reconstitution was not sufficient to ensure long-term immunity for some children," said William Moss, MD, MPH, senior author of the review and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Epidemiology. "Because of the progressive effects of HIV infection on the ability of the immune system to mount an effective response, many infected children have poorer responses to vaccines than do uninfected children. In addition, fewer children infected with HIV achieve protective immunity, and those who do might experience greater and more rapid waning of immunity. These results suggest that children on HAART would benefit from revaccination, but levels of protective immunity might need to be monitored and some children may need additional vaccine doses to maintain protective immunity."
Researchers reviewed 38 published studies to establish whether children infected with HIV on HAART have protective immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases and to assess short-term and long-term immune responses to vaccination of children given HAART. Short-term was defined as less than or equal to 3 months, and long-term was defined as greater than 3 months. They found that starting HAART in infancy, before receipt of routine childhood vaccines, might preserve immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends giving most routine childhood vaccines to children infected with HIV, but does not make recommendations on revaccination.
"Continued efforts are needed to identify and treat HIV-infected children at younger ages and at earlier stages of disease," said Catherine Sutcliffe, PhD, lead author of the review and a research associate with the Bloomberg School's Department of Epidemiology. "Vaccination policies and strategies for children infected with HIV on HAART should be developed in regions of high HIV prevalence to ensure adequate individual and population immunity. Without such recommendations, as treatment programs scale up and more children receive HAART and live into adolescence and adulthood, a larger proportion of these children could be susceptible to childhood diseases."
"Do children infected with HIV receiving HAART need to be revaccinated?" was Catherine Sutcliffe and William Moss.
This review was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Source:
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Buy Pyridium Without Prescription
Vaccine First To Show Improved Survival Rates For Metastatic Melanoma
For patients with advanced melanoma, which is the most lethal type of skin cancer, the results of a large clinical trial show that a vaccine combined with the immune-boosting drug Interleukin-2 can improve response rate and progression-free survival.
The findings of the study were published in the June 2 issue of New England Journal of Medicine. This marks the first vaccine study in the disease and one of the first in all cancers to show clinical benefit in a randomized Phase III clinical trial.
"This is the first time that a vaccine has shown benefit in the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. The trial is an early example of success with a cancer vaccine," said Dr. Howard Kaufman, director for the Rush University Cancer Center and study co-investigator.
"If we can use the body's own defense system to attack tumor cells, we provide a mechanism for ridding the body of cancer without destroying healthy tissue," said Kaufman, who is also an associate dean of Rush Medical College and a professor in the departments of general surgery, internal medicine and immunology and microbiology at Rush University.
Therapeutic cancer vaccines, unlike typical vaccines that prevent infections, are meant to jump-start the immune system to help it battle existing tumors.
Rush was one of 21 centers in the U.S. participating in the trial. Researchers randomly assigned 185 patients with metastatic melanoma to either a combination of the peptide vaccine, which is a small portion of protein that is present on the surface of the melanoma cancer cells, and Interleukin-2, a drug that activates the immune system, or a high dose of Interleukin-2 alone.
The peptide vaccine, known as gp100:209-217 (200M), works by stimulating the patient's T-cells, which is known for controlling immune responses. The injection primes the immune system to recognize the protein and activates the body's cytotoxic T-cells to recognize the antigens on the surface of the cancerous tumor. The T-cells then secrete enzymes to seek out and destroy the tumor cell's membrane.
The immune-boosting drug, Interleukin-2, enhances the vaccine's effectiveness by stimulating the production of lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell that circulates throughout the body. More circulating lymphocytes means there are more cells available to do the job the vaccine has educated them to do.
Ninety-four patients in the Interleukin-2 arm of the study were enrolled and 93 were treated and evaluated for response. In the Interleukin-2 and peptide vaccine combination arm of the study, 91 were enrolled, 86 were treated and 85 were evaluated for response.
About 16 percent of study participants given the vaccine and Interleukin-2 combination saw tumors shrink by 50 percent or more, compared to 6 percent given Interleukin-2 alone.
Those in the vaccine and drug combination group also had slightly longer progression-free survival rates of 2.2 months compared to 1.6 months, which means those participants had more time in which the tumor did not grow.
Patients given the combination also lived an average of nearly seven months longer than those only give Interleukin-2 -- 17.8 months longer compared to 11.1 months.
In order for this vaccine to work, patients had to have a particular tissue type, called HLA-A2, which is present in about half of whites.
According to the American Cancer Society, melanoma has one of the fastest growing incident rates of all cancers. The five-year survival rate for melanoma patients is less than 10 percent.
Interleukin-2 is already FDA-approved to treat metastatic melanoma and kidney cancer.
The next step is to improve the vaccine's efficacy. Researchers hope to improve upon the study's findings by combining the vaccine with other immune-stimulatory agents such as adjuvants, other cytokines and antibodies that further activate the immune cells.
"This is one of the first positive, randomized vaccine trials in cancer and the findings represent a significant step forward for treatment of advanced melanoma," said Kaufman.
The vaccine, if eventually approved by the FDA, would be relatively inexpensive because it is based on a protein that's present in most melanoma cancers, whereas other vaccines have had to be created for each individual patient.
The study was partially funded by the National Cancer Institute.
Source: Rush University Medical Center
Buy Antabuse Without Prescription
The findings of the study were published in the June 2 issue of New England Journal of Medicine. This marks the first vaccine study in the disease and one of the first in all cancers to show clinical benefit in a randomized Phase III clinical trial.
"This is the first time that a vaccine has shown benefit in the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. The trial is an early example of success with a cancer vaccine," said Dr. Howard Kaufman, director for the Rush University Cancer Center and study co-investigator.
"If we can use the body's own defense system to attack tumor cells, we provide a mechanism for ridding the body of cancer without destroying healthy tissue," said Kaufman, who is also an associate dean of Rush Medical College and a professor in the departments of general surgery, internal medicine and immunology and microbiology at Rush University.
Therapeutic cancer vaccines, unlike typical vaccines that prevent infections, are meant to jump-start the immune system to help it battle existing tumors.
Rush was one of 21 centers in the U.S. participating in the trial. Researchers randomly assigned 185 patients with metastatic melanoma to either a combination of the peptide vaccine, which is a small portion of protein that is present on the surface of the melanoma cancer cells, and Interleukin-2, a drug that activates the immune system, or a high dose of Interleukin-2 alone.
The peptide vaccine, known as gp100:209-217 (200M), works by stimulating the patient's T-cells, which is known for controlling immune responses. The injection primes the immune system to recognize the protein and activates the body's cytotoxic T-cells to recognize the antigens on the surface of the cancerous tumor. The T-cells then secrete enzymes to seek out and destroy the tumor cell's membrane.
The immune-boosting drug, Interleukin-2, enhances the vaccine's effectiveness by stimulating the production of lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell that circulates throughout the body. More circulating lymphocytes means there are more cells available to do the job the vaccine has educated them to do.
Ninety-four patients in the Interleukin-2 arm of the study were enrolled and 93 were treated and evaluated for response. In the Interleukin-2 and peptide vaccine combination arm of the study, 91 were enrolled, 86 were treated and 85 were evaluated for response.
About 16 percent of study participants given the vaccine and Interleukin-2 combination saw tumors shrink by 50 percent or more, compared to 6 percent given Interleukin-2 alone.
Those in the vaccine and drug combination group also had slightly longer progression-free survival rates of 2.2 months compared to 1.6 months, which means those participants had more time in which the tumor did not grow.
Patients given the combination also lived an average of nearly seven months longer than those only give Interleukin-2 -- 17.8 months longer compared to 11.1 months.
In order for this vaccine to work, patients had to have a particular tissue type, called HLA-A2, which is present in about half of whites.
According to the American Cancer Society, melanoma has one of the fastest growing incident rates of all cancers. The five-year survival rate for melanoma patients is less than 10 percent.
Interleukin-2 is already FDA-approved to treat metastatic melanoma and kidney cancer.
The next step is to improve the vaccine's efficacy. Researchers hope to improve upon the study's findings by combining the vaccine with other immune-stimulatory agents such as adjuvants, other cytokines and antibodies that further activate the immune cells.
"This is one of the first positive, randomized vaccine trials in cancer and the findings represent a significant step forward for treatment of advanced melanoma," said Kaufman.
The vaccine, if eventually approved by the FDA, would be relatively inexpensive because it is based on a protein that's present in most melanoma cancers, whereas other vaccines have had to be created for each individual patient.
The study was partially funded by the National Cancer Institute.
Source: Rush University Medical Center
Buy Antabuse Without Prescription
HIV/AIDS Advocacy Groups Protest Ruling In Case Regarding HIV-Positive Man, Saliva
Several HIV/AIDS advocacy groups are saying that a recent ruling in a Dallas County, Texas, case that an HIV-positive man who spit into the mouth and eye of a Dallas police officer was using saliva as a deadly weapon was excessive, the Dallas Morning News reports. CDC and "countless doctors say no one has ever contracted the virus from" saliva, the Morning News reports. According to Bebe Anderson, HIV project director for Lambda Legal, the group is criticizing the ruling, saying it could lead to a misunderstanding of how HIV is transmitted (Ellis, Dallas Morning News, 5/17).
Dallas police officer Dan Waller during the case testified that Willie Campbell, who is HIV-positive, spit into his eye and open mouth when he arrested Campbell for public intoxication in 2006, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. In addition, while in prison awaiting trial, Campbell allegedly bit two inmates and attacked other officers. Because Campbell had been in prison twice before, he was classified as a habitual offender subject to a sentence of at least 25 years, according to the AP/Chronicle (AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/17). Campbell on Wednesday received a 35-year prison sentence in the case. Waller has not tested HIV-positive, according to the Morning News.
Dallas County Health and Human Services on Friday in response to the ruling issued a statement that said, "U.S. Public Health Service guidelines determine the risk of HIV transmission from such fluids as saliva and tears to be extremely low." R. Doug Hardy, infectious disease specialist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children's Medical Center Dallas, added that there is a higher risk of transmitting hepatitis B and C, and syphilis through saliva.
Dallas County prosecutor Jenni Morse said that any risk level is sufficient for saliva to be considered a deadly weapon. "No matter how minuscule, there is some risk," Morse said, adding, "That means there is the possibility of causing serious bodily injury or death," the legal definition of a deadly weapon. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins added that "it was clear [Campbell] intended to cause serious bodily injury" to Waller. Anderson said, "It's been 25 years since the virus was identified, but there are still lots of fears." She added, "We are still facing people losing their jobs and fighting for their children because of fears that are unfounded" (Dallas Morning News, 5/17).
Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
© 2008 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Buy Ketoconazole Cream Without Prescription
Dallas police officer Dan Waller during the case testified that Willie Campbell, who is HIV-positive, spit into his eye and open mouth when he arrested Campbell for public intoxication in 2006, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. In addition, while in prison awaiting trial, Campbell allegedly bit two inmates and attacked other officers. Because Campbell had been in prison twice before, he was classified as a habitual offender subject to a sentence of at least 25 years, according to the AP/Chronicle (AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/17). Campbell on Wednesday received a 35-year prison sentence in the case. Waller has not tested HIV-positive, according to the Morning News.
Dallas County Health and Human Services on Friday in response to the ruling issued a statement that said, "U.S. Public Health Service guidelines determine the risk of HIV transmission from such fluids as saliva and tears to be extremely low." R. Doug Hardy, infectious disease specialist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children's Medical Center Dallas, added that there is a higher risk of transmitting hepatitis B and C, and syphilis through saliva.
Dallas County prosecutor Jenni Morse said that any risk level is sufficient for saliva to be considered a deadly weapon. "No matter how minuscule, there is some risk," Morse said, adding, "That means there is the possibility of causing serious bodily injury or death," the legal definition of a deadly weapon. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins added that "it was clear [Campbell] intended to cause serious bodily injury" to Waller. Anderson said, "It's been 25 years since the virus was identified, but there are still lots of fears." She added, "We are still facing people losing their jobs and fighting for their children because of fears that are unfounded" (Dallas Morning News, 5/17).
Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
© 2008 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Buy Ketoconazole Cream Without Prescription
Inovio Pharmaceuticals' Novel DNA Vaccine For Clade C HIV Achieves Immune Responses And Protection In Non-Human Primates
Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex: INO), a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced the publication of a scientific paper highlighting positive preclinical results from Inovio's novel DNA vaccine targeting HIV Clade C viruses in the journal Vaccine. Clade C is the predominant HIV-1 strain infecting people in sub-Saharan Africa, India, and China, and there is a critical need for a vaccine targeted to these areas.
The study, conducted by Inovio scientists and their collaborators, is described in the published paper, entitled "High antibody and cellular responses induced to HIV-1 clade C envelope following DNA vaccines delivered by electroporation." In this study, the vaccine induced strong antibody and T-cell immune responses in rhesus monkeys. Furthermore, the vaccinated monkeys displayed protective effects against a subsequent challenge with an infectious dose of SHIV virus (chimeric HIV/SIV virus) compared to the placebo control animals. These results further support the proof of concept for Inovio's global DNA vaccine candidates, PENNVAX™-G (vaccine against HIV Clades A, C, and D) and PENNVAX™-GP (vaccine against HIV Clades A, B, and C) in a relevant preclinical model. PENNVAX™-G is currently being tested in a 92-patient global Phase I clinical study (RV-262) conducted by the U.S. Military HIV Vaccine Research Program (MHRP). PENNVAX-GP is being developed using a multi-year $23.5 million NIAID HIV vaccine development contract awarded to Inovio.
Inovio recently announced interim immunogenicity and safety data from its Phase I clinical study of PENNVAX™-B, a DNA vaccine for the prevention of HIV Clade B infection. PENNVAX-B achieved high vaccine-induced response rates and strong magnitude of T-cell immune responses in vaccinated subjects. Similar to reported results from a Phase I clinical study of Inovio's therapeutic DNA vaccine for cervical cancer, the response rates and magnitude of responses achieved in this study were significantly higher than those seen previously with other DNA vaccine trials. Complete immunogenicity data as well as end-of-study safety data from the PENNVAX-B study are expected in 2Q 2011.
Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio's president and CEO, said: "In the past year, we were able to demonstrate best-in-class clinical immunogenicity data from our DNA vaccines for cervical cancer and HIV. We look forward to advancing our cervical cancer candidate into Phase II studies this quarter and completing the preventive HIV study in the next quarter. The data from this study is supportive of the ongoing Phase I clinical program, under the RV-262 protocol, and we are excited about the significant preclinical progress of our PENNVAX-GP global HIV vaccine program. These results further support the prospect that Inovio's DNA vaccine and delivery platform could play an important role in developing new vaccines and therapies for major diseases like HIV."
Inovio's PENNVAX-G vaccine is currently being tested in 12 HIV-uninfected participants in the U.S. Once the vaccine has been assessed as safe and acceptable, the study will expand to three additional global MHRP sites: Kericho, Kenya; Kampala, Uganda; Mbeya, Tanzania. Healthy, HIV-uninfected participants will be enrolled at each of these sites for a total of 80 international participants.
IND-enabling preclinical work for PENNVAX-GP will be conducted in 2011 and the Phase I study is planned to be initiated in 2012.
Source:
Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription
The study, conducted by Inovio scientists and their collaborators, is described in the published paper, entitled "High antibody and cellular responses induced to HIV-1 clade C envelope following DNA vaccines delivered by electroporation." In this study, the vaccine induced strong antibody and T-cell immune responses in rhesus monkeys. Furthermore, the vaccinated monkeys displayed protective effects against a subsequent challenge with an infectious dose of SHIV virus (chimeric HIV/SIV virus) compared to the placebo control animals. These results further support the proof of concept for Inovio's global DNA vaccine candidates, PENNVAX™-G (vaccine against HIV Clades A, C, and D) and PENNVAX™-GP (vaccine against HIV Clades A, B, and C) in a relevant preclinical model. PENNVAX™-G is currently being tested in a 92-patient global Phase I clinical study (RV-262) conducted by the U.S. Military HIV Vaccine Research Program (MHRP). PENNVAX-GP is being developed using a multi-year $23.5 million NIAID HIV vaccine development contract awarded to Inovio.
Inovio recently announced interim immunogenicity and safety data from its Phase I clinical study of PENNVAX™-B, a DNA vaccine for the prevention of HIV Clade B infection. PENNVAX-B achieved high vaccine-induced response rates and strong magnitude of T-cell immune responses in vaccinated subjects. Similar to reported results from a Phase I clinical study of Inovio's therapeutic DNA vaccine for cervical cancer, the response rates and magnitude of responses achieved in this study were significantly higher than those seen previously with other DNA vaccine trials. Complete immunogenicity data as well as end-of-study safety data from the PENNVAX-B study are expected in 2Q 2011.
Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio's president and CEO, said: "In the past year, we were able to demonstrate best-in-class clinical immunogenicity data from our DNA vaccines for cervical cancer and HIV. We look forward to advancing our cervical cancer candidate into Phase II studies this quarter and completing the preventive HIV study in the next quarter. The data from this study is supportive of the ongoing Phase I clinical program, under the RV-262 protocol, and we are excited about the significant preclinical progress of our PENNVAX-GP global HIV vaccine program. These results further support the prospect that Inovio's DNA vaccine and delivery platform could play an important role in developing new vaccines and therapies for major diseases like HIV."
Inovio's PENNVAX-G vaccine is currently being tested in 12 HIV-uninfected participants in the U.S. Once the vaccine has been assessed as safe and acceptable, the study will expand to three additional global MHRP sites: Kericho, Kenya; Kampala, Uganda; Mbeya, Tanzania. Healthy, HIV-uninfected participants will be enrolled at each of these sites for a total of 80 international participants.
IND-enabling preclinical work for PENNVAX-GP will be conducted in 2011 and the Phase I study is planned to be initiated in 2012.
Source:
Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Buy Erythromycin Without Prescription
Production Facilities In Kit Form
Things that work on a small scale are not necessarily as successful on a large one. It takes a lot of patience and money to scale up analytical or therapeutic processes from the laboratory to industrial manufacture. A new platform made of building blocks minimizes the cost.
Laboratory equipment for medical issues - such as blood tests - and production equipment for medical accessories have one thing in common: They are difficult to plan, as so many different components are involved. Where should which pumps and which dosing systems be located in order to produce and analyze a biochip, for example, in the best way possible? So far, manufacturers of complex laboratory equipment have first drawn up various concepts and created engineering drawings before building the actual devices. Nevertheless, when it comes to the test, the machines often do not function as expected. The planning process starts over again - a costly business. And this is not the only problem: The designers tend to use components and technologies of which they already have some experience. However, these are not always the ones that would be best for the system.
The new 'Modular Process Automation Laboratory m:Pal' platform makes it possible to plan complex laboratory equipment faster and more efficiently. It comes as a construction kit in which pumps, incubators, dosing devices and camera modules can be slotted together in any way desired and tried out immediately - in much the same way as Lego bricks. The 'm:Pal' system was developed by research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart. "We have developed a kind of playground in which we can straightforwardly test all the techniques and choose the ones that are most suitable for the problem in hand. Each module is completely autonomous and can therefore be operated on its own," explains IPA team leader Andreas Traube. "The crucial issue was the software architecture, as the required modules have to work immediately at the push of a button when you fit them together."
The platform is intended to give manufacturers of small batches a high degree of flexibility in future. "Producers of hearing aids or other medical products that come in different versions or are constantly coming out as new models can use 'm:Pal' as a production tool. Up to now the whole production line had to be replaced for every new model - but with 'm:Pal', it is sufficient to adapt one or two modules. This makes it possible to save up to 50 percent of the costs," says Traube. Manufacturers can also automate a smaller production line step by step, gradually acquiring new modules as the throughput increases. The researchers are presenting 'm:Pal' at the MEDTEC trade fair in Stuttgart on March 11 through 13 (hall 4, stand 1509).
This release is available in German.
Source: Andreas Traube
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Buy Motilium Without Prescription
Laboratory equipment for medical issues - such as blood tests - and production equipment for medical accessories have one thing in common: They are difficult to plan, as so many different components are involved. Where should which pumps and which dosing systems be located in order to produce and analyze a biochip, for example, in the best way possible? So far, manufacturers of complex laboratory equipment have first drawn up various concepts and created engineering drawings before building the actual devices. Nevertheless, when it comes to the test, the machines often do not function as expected. The planning process starts over again - a costly business. And this is not the only problem: The designers tend to use components and technologies of which they already have some experience. However, these are not always the ones that would be best for the system.
The new 'Modular Process Automation Laboratory m:Pal' platform makes it possible to plan complex laboratory equipment faster and more efficiently. It comes as a construction kit in which pumps, incubators, dosing devices and camera modules can be slotted together in any way desired and tried out immediately - in much the same way as Lego bricks. The 'm:Pal' system was developed by research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart. "We have developed a kind of playground in which we can straightforwardly test all the techniques and choose the ones that are most suitable for the problem in hand. Each module is completely autonomous and can therefore be operated on its own," explains IPA team leader Andreas Traube. "The crucial issue was the software architecture, as the required modules have to work immediately at the push of a button when you fit them together."
The platform is intended to give manufacturers of small batches a high degree of flexibility in future. "Producers of hearing aids or other medical products that come in different versions or are constantly coming out as new models can use 'm:Pal' as a production tool. Up to now the whole production line had to be replaced for every new model - but with 'm:Pal', it is sufficient to adapt one or two modules. This makes it possible to save up to 50 percent of the costs," says Traube. Manufacturers can also automate a smaller production line step by step, gradually acquiring new modules as the throughput increases. The researchers are presenting 'm:Pal' at the MEDTEC trade fair in Stuttgart on March 11 through 13 (hall 4, stand 1509).
This release is available in German.
Source: Andreas Traube
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Buy Motilium Without Prescription
Earth Observation Used For Flood Response And Mitigation As Floods And Fires Across Europe Captured From Space
Highlighting the extreme weather conditions hitting Europe, space sensors aboard ESA's Envisat satellite have detected the worst floodwaters to hit Britain for 60 years and deadly fires raging through southern Europe.
Heavy rains caused the River Thames to burst its banks, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes in Britain's university city of Oxford. The flooding across England and Wales has left tens of thousands without electricity and water. The Environment Agency still has three severe flood warnings in place -- two on the Thames around Oxford and one on the Ock River near Oxfordshire. In areas where flooding is beginning to recede, sanitation officials are warning of health risks posed by stagnant waters.
Flooding is estimated to be the world's most costly kind of natural disaster. The flooding of June and July in the UK is expected to cost the insurance industry at least ВЈ2 billion, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). Floods Minister John Healey said recovery and clean-up efforts could take a number of months.
One of the biggest problems during flooding emergencies is obtaining an overall view of the phenomenon, with a clear idea of the extent of the flooded area. Aerial observation is often very difficult due to prohibitive weather conditions and, if the phenomenon is widespread, would be very time-consuming and expensive.
With inundated areas typically visible from space, Earth Observation (EO) is increasingly being used for flood response and mitigation. In October 2000, ESA and the French space agency (CNES) initiated the International Charter on 'Space and Major Disasters', a joint initiative for providing emergency response satellite data free of charge to those affected by disasters anywhere in the world. On 24 July, the UK Environment Agency requested the aid of the Charter.
Heat and fire
While Britain fights floods, southern European countries are battling blazes and searing temperatures that have surpassed 40 degrees Celsius, spawning fires in Greece, Italy and Macedonia.
Fire fighters have battled some 1500 blazes within a 24-hour period in parts of central and southern Italy. In Italy's southern region of Puglia, thousands of tourists fled to beaches to escape a fast-burning fire and had to be rescued via boats and helicopters. Local media reports two elderly locals were killed trying to escape the flames.
Fires continued to rage across Calabria and Abruzzo as strong winds thwarted fire-fighting efforts. According to the environmental group WWF, at least 4500 hectares of protected areas have burned in the past three weeks in Italy, with the hardest hit areas being Campania, Abruzzo, Calabria, Sicily and Puglia.
Although searing temperatures and tinder dry conditions are to blame for some of the fires, Italian politicians and forestry officials blamed some on arsonists.
Some 200 fires were reported burning across Greece, where temperatures have been as high as 45 C, with more than a dozen burning out of control. Peloponnese and the island of Cephalonia in the Adriatic off the peninsula's northwest coast are among the worst hit areas.
Major fires are visible from space -- satellites detect not only the smoke billowing from major conflagrations but also the burn scars left in their wake and even the fires themselves -- appearing as 'hotspots' when scanning the Earth's surface in infrared wavelengths.
For a decade now, ESA satellites have been continuously surveying fires burning across the Earth's surface. Worldwide fire maps based on this data are now available to users online in near-real time through ESA's ATSR World Fire Atlas (WFA).
The WFA data are based on results from the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) instrument onboard ESA's ERS-2 satellite and the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) onboard Envisat. These twin radiometer sensors work like thermometers in the sky, measuring thermal infrared radiation to take the temperature of Earth's land surfaces.
Source: Mariangela D'Acunto
European Space Agency
Buy Bactroban Without Prescription
Heavy rains caused the River Thames to burst its banks, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes in Britain's university city of Oxford. The flooding across England and Wales has left tens of thousands without electricity and water. The Environment Agency still has three severe flood warnings in place -- two on the Thames around Oxford and one on the Ock River near Oxfordshire. In areas where flooding is beginning to recede, sanitation officials are warning of health risks posed by stagnant waters.
Flooding is estimated to be the world's most costly kind of natural disaster. The flooding of June and July in the UK is expected to cost the insurance industry at least ВЈ2 billion, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). Floods Minister John Healey said recovery and clean-up efforts could take a number of months.
One of the biggest problems during flooding emergencies is obtaining an overall view of the phenomenon, with a clear idea of the extent of the flooded area. Aerial observation is often very difficult due to prohibitive weather conditions and, if the phenomenon is widespread, would be very time-consuming and expensive.
With inundated areas typically visible from space, Earth Observation (EO) is increasingly being used for flood response and mitigation. In October 2000, ESA and the French space agency (CNES) initiated the International Charter on 'Space and Major Disasters', a joint initiative for providing emergency response satellite data free of charge to those affected by disasters anywhere in the world. On 24 July, the UK Environment Agency requested the aid of the Charter.
Heat and fire
While Britain fights floods, southern European countries are battling blazes and searing temperatures that have surpassed 40 degrees Celsius, spawning fires in Greece, Italy and Macedonia.
Fire fighters have battled some 1500 blazes within a 24-hour period in parts of central and southern Italy. In Italy's southern region of Puglia, thousands of tourists fled to beaches to escape a fast-burning fire and had to be rescued via boats and helicopters. Local media reports two elderly locals were killed trying to escape the flames.
Fires continued to rage across Calabria and Abruzzo as strong winds thwarted fire-fighting efforts. According to the environmental group WWF, at least 4500 hectares of protected areas have burned in the past three weeks in Italy, with the hardest hit areas being Campania, Abruzzo, Calabria, Sicily and Puglia.
Although searing temperatures and tinder dry conditions are to blame for some of the fires, Italian politicians and forestry officials blamed some on arsonists.
Some 200 fires were reported burning across Greece, where temperatures have been as high as 45 C, with more than a dozen burning out of control. Peloponnese and the island of Cephalonia in the Adriatic off the peninsula's northwest coast are among the worst hit areas.
Major fires are visible from space -- satellites detect not only the smoke billowing from major conflagrations but also the burn scars left in their wake and even the fires themselves -- appearing as 'hotspots' when scanning the Earth's surface in infrared wavelengths.
For a decade now, ESA satellites have been continuously surveying fires burning across the Earth's surface. Worldwide fire maps based on this data are now available to users online in near-real time through ESA's ATSR World Fire Atlas (WFA).
The WFA data are based on results from the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) instrument onboard ESA's ERS-2 satellite and the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) onboard Envisat. These twin radiometer sensors work like thermometers in the sky, measuring thermal infrared radiation to take the temperature of Earth's land surfaces.
Source: Mariangela D'Acunto
European Space Agency
Buy Bactroban Without Prescription
Studies Look At Hispanics' Access To U.S. Health Care System
Three studies published online on Wednesday in the American Journal of Public Health look at how poverty, language and health insurance coverage affect access to care among foreign-born U.S. residents, particularly Hispanics, HealthDay/U.S. News & World Report reports.
In the first study, C. Annette DuBard of University of North Carolina's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and colleague Ziya Gizlice of UNC's Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention examined Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 2003 to 2005 on 45,076 U.S. Hispanic adults. DuBard and Gizlice found that more than half of Spanish-speaking adults were uninsured and did not have a primary care physician, and one out of four had to forgo needed medical care within the last 12 months because they could not afford it.
Researchers also compared Spanish-speaking Hispanics with those who spoke English for 25 health indicators and found that those in the Spanish-speaking group had significantly lower rates of chronic disease, obesity and smoking. They also were less likely than English-speaking Hispanics to use preventive health care services and participate in a physical activity. DuBard said, "We found that the U.S. Spanish-speaking adult population represents a particularly vulnerable subset of U.S. Hispanics, with far worse access to the health care system." She added, "Fully addressing health care disparities will require a better understanding of contributing factors within the rich diversity of the U.S. population."
According to Rea Panares, director of Minority Health Initiatives, more than 70% of Spanish-speaking Hispanics are uninsured, particularly in areas experiencing new growth. She said the problem in part can be attributed to a federal policy to not reimburse states for care provided to documented immigrants who have not lived in the U.S. long enough to qualify for benefits.
William Vega, a professor of family medicine at the University of California-Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, said that poverty and not language is the cause of limited access to health care among Hispanics. He added, "Spanish language is a proxy of low acculturation, lower income and lower education in the [Hispanic] population, and studies have shown that this language differential does not persist across generations, that is, the children of immigrants become English-language dominant in childhood even when Spanish is their first language."
In the first study, C. Annette DuBard of University of North Carolina's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and colleague Ziya Gizlice of UNC's Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention examined Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 2003 to 2005 on 45,076 U.S. Hispanic adults. DuBard and Gizlice found that more than half of Spanish-speaking adults were uninsured and did not have a primary care physician, and one out of four had to forgo needed medical care within the last 12 months because they could not afford it.
Researchers also compared Spanish-speaking Hispanics with those who spoke English for 25 health indicators and found that those in the Spanish-speaking group had significantly lower rates of chronic disease, obesity and smoking. They also were less likely than English-speaking Hispanics to use preventive health care services and participate in a physical activity. DuBard said, "We found that the U.S. Spanish-speaking adult population represents a particularly vulnerable subset of U.S. Hispanics, with far worse access to the health care system." She added, "Fully addressing health care disparities will require a better understanding of contributing factors within the rich diversity of the U.S. population."
According to Rea Panares, director of Minority Health Initiatives, more than 70% of Spanish-speaking Hispanics are uninsured, particularly in areas experiencing new growth. She said the problem in part can be attributed to a federal policy to not reimburse states for care provided to documented immigrants who have not lived in the U.S. long enough to qualify for benefits.
William Vega, a professor of family medicine at the University of California-Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, said that poverty and not language is the cause of limited access to health care among Hispanics. He added, "Spanish language is a proxy of low acculturation, lower income and lower education in the [Hispanic] population, and studies have shown that this language differential does not persist across generations, that is, the children of immigrants become English-language dominant in childhood even when Spanish is their first language."
Additional Research
Another AJPH study conducted by researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found that after the year 2000, foreign-born children were 1.59 times more likely than U.S.-born children to be uninsured. The study also found that indigent foreign-born children were just as likely as U.S.-born children to have public insurance coverage.
In addition, an AJPH study conducted by researchers from the University of Texas found that the number of uninsured residents increased by 7% from 2000 to 2005 along the U.S.-Mexican border, indicating that "existing disparities in health care access will continue to undermine the health status of the region's population unless major health care policy reforms are initiated to promote greater accessibility to U.S. health care" (Reinberg, HealthDay/U.S. News & World Report, 9/17).
An abstract of the DuBard/Gizlice study is available online. An abstract of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia study is available online. The University of Texas study abstract also is available online.
Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
© 2008 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Buy Noroxin Without Prescription
Robotic Problem Solving For Mars Has Implications For Disaster Settings
Today's advanced mobile robots explore complex terrains across the globe and even on Mars, but have difficulty traversing sand and other granular media like dirt, rubble or slippery piles of leaves.
A new study published February 10 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences takes what may be the first detailed look at the problem of robot locomotion on granular surfaces. Among the study's recommendations: robots attempting to move across sandy terrain should move their legs more slowly, especially if the sand is loosely packed.
"We have discovered that when a robot rotates its legs too fast or the sand is packed loosely enough, the robot transitions from a rapid walking motion to a much slower swimming motion," said Daniel Goldman, an assistant professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This project was funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.
The physics of movement on granular media has been largely unexplored systematically, so Goldman and his team set out to systematically investigate the performance of a small six-legged device called SandBot. The robot was designed by Haldun Komsuoglu and Daniel Koditschek at the University of Pennsylvania.
"This is new territory because researchers have not examined the interaction between an animal's foot and sand like they have a whale or duck's flipper and water," said Goldman. "Sand is a uniquely challenging terrain because it can shift quite easily from solid to fluid to solid and requires different locomotion strategies."
To conduct controlled experiments, Georgia Tech physics graduate student Chen Li built a trackway for SandBot to run along. The trackway consists of an eight-foot-long poppy seed-filled container with tiny holes in the bottom through which air can be blown. The air pulses elevate the granules and cause them to settle into a loosely packed solid state, allowing the researchers to closely control the density of the material.
"We used poppy seeds as the granular material because they were large enough not to get into the SandBot motors but light enough to be manipulated with our air blowers," explained Goldman. "We have done experiments with small glass beads, which more closely approximate desert sand, and found no qualitative change in the results."
In the desert, typical volume fractions for granular media range from 55 to 64 percent. For the study's initial experiments, the researchers packed the poppy seeds to a volume fraction of 63 percent, placed SandBot onto the surface and set its c-shaped legs to rotate five times per second. The little robot, which could bounce quickly across hard ground, became completely stuck in the granular material after just a few steps.
The researchers discovered that the problem was the rotational motion of the robot's limbs. The SandBot moves its limbs in an alternating tripod gait and during a rotation, each limb moves fast while it is in the air and slow while it is in the ground. The researchers found that the robot could walk across the sand quickly - at a speed of one body length per second - if the rotation frequency was fixed and three parameters were adjusted: the durations of the slow and fast phases and the angle at which the limb changed from slow to fast.
"A systematic study of the motion then revealed that changes in volume fraction of less than one percent resulted in either rapid motion or slower swimming," added Goldman. "We saw similar sensitivity when we changed the limb rotation frequency."
To study this phenomenon further, Goldman and Paul Umbanhowar of Northwestern University developed a simple kinematic model of penetration and slip of a curved limb on granular media. The model results showed that the relationship of the speed to the volume fraction and frequency of leg rotation was largely controlled by the degree to which the robot limbs penetrated into the sand with each step.
The higher the limb frequency and the looser the granular material, the deeper the robot sank into the granular material. Thus the length of the step the robot could take was shortened and when the step size became too short, the robot took its next step into ground disturbed by the previous step. This triggered a catastrophic loss of speed and a shift from walking to continuous paddling through the poppy seeds.
Goldman believes that this study's experiments and model describing the basic behavior of motion on granular media will help biologists understand how animals appear to move effortlessly across a diversity of complex substrates.
He also plans to use the information to help roboticists design devices with the appropriate feet and limb motion to move well in complex terrain - including sand. Future robots may have the ability to sense the type of material they are walking across, allowing them to adjust their limb motion accordingly. Such smart robots would advance the exploration of other planets, as well as search-and-rescue missions in disaster settings.
This material is based on research sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory and was accomplished under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-08-2-0004. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Army Research Laboratory or U.S. Government.
Source: John Toon
Georgia Institute of Technology Research News
Buy Elavil Online no Prescription
A new study published February 10 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences takes what may be the first detailed look at the problem of robot locomotion on granular surfaces. Among the study's recommendations: robots attempting to move across sandy terrain should move their legs more slowly, especially if the sand is loosely packed.
"We have discovered that when a robot rotates its legs too fast or the sand is packed loosely enough, the robot transitions from a rapid walking motion to a much slower swimming motion," said Daniel Goldman, an assistant professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This project was funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.
The physics of movement on granular media has been largely unexplored systematically, so Goldman and his team set out to systematically investigate the performance of a small six-legged device called SandBot. The robot was designed by Haldun Komsuoglu and Daniel Koditschek at the University of Pennsylvania.
"This is new territory because researchers have not examined the interaction between an animal's foot and sand like they have a whale or duck's flipper and water," said Goldman. "Sand is a uniquely challenging terrain because it can shift quite easily from solid to fluid to solid and requires different locomotion strategies."
To conduct controlled experiments, Georgia Tech physics graduate student Chen Li built a trackway for SandBot to run along. The trackway consists of an eight-foot-long poppy seed-filled container with tiny holes in the bottom through which air can be blown. The air pulses elevate the granules and cause them to settle into a loosely packed solid state, allowing the researchers to closely control the density of the material.
"We used poppy seeds as the granular material because they were large enough not to get into the SandBot motors but light enough to be manipulated with our air blowers," explained Goldman. "We have done experiments with small glass beads, which more closely approximate desert sand, and found no qualitative change in the results."
In the desert, typical volume fractions for granular media range from 55 to 64 percent. For the study's initial experiments, the researchers packed the poppy seeds to a volume fraction of 63 percent, placed SandBot onto the surface and set its c-shaped legs to rotate five times per second. The little robot, which could bounce quickly across hard ground, became completely stuck in the granular material after just a few steps.
The researchers discovered that the problem was the rotational motion of the robot's limbs. The SandBot moves its limbs in an alternating tripod gait and during a rotation, each limb moves fast while it is in the air and slow while it is in the ground. The researchers found that the robot could walk across the sand quickly - at a speed of one body length per second - if the rotation frequency was fixed and three parameters were adjusted: the durations of the slow and fast phases and the angle at which the limb changed from slow to fast.
"A systematic study of the motion then revealed that changes in volume fraction of less than one percent resulted in either rapid motion or slower swimming," added Goldman. "We saw similar sensitivity when we changed the limb rotation frequency."
To study this phenomenon further, Goldman and Paul Umbanhowar of Northwestern University developed a simple kinematic model of penetration and slip of a curved limb on granular media. The model results showed that the relationship of the speed to the volume fraction and frequency of leg rotation was largely controlled by the degree to which the robot limbs penetrated into the sand with each step.
The higher the limb frequency and the looser the granular material, the deeper the robot sank into the granular material. Thus the length of the step the robot could take was shortened and when the step size became too short, the robot took its next step into ground disturbed by the previous step. This triggered a catastrophic loss of speed and a shift from walking to continuous paddling through the poppy seeds.
Goldman believes that this study's experiments and model describing the basic behavior of motion on granular media will help biologists understand how animals appear to move effortlessly across a diversity of complex substrates.
He also plans to use the information to help roboticists design devices with the appropriate feet and limb motion to move well in complex terrain - including sand. Future robots may have the ability to sense the type of material they are walking across, allowing them to adjust their limb motion accordingly. Such smart robots would advance the exploration of other planets, as well as search-and-rescue missions in disaster settings.
This material is based on research sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory and was accomplished under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-08-2-0004. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Army Research Laboratory or U.S. Government.
Source: John Toon
Georgia Institute of Technology Research News
Buy Elavil Online no Prescription
'Femtomolar Optical Tweezers' May Enable Sensitive Blood Tests
Cutting-edge "tweezers" are so sensitive that they can feel the tell-tale tug of tiny concentrations of pathogens in blood samples, yet don't ever need to be sterilized - or even held - as they are ephemeral and weightless. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has licensed a patented "optical tweezers" technique for detecting and measuring very small concentrations of a biological substance - such as a virus on a surface. NIST has issued a non-exclusive license for the technology to Haemonetics, a global health care company that provides blood management technologies for hospitals and blood and plasma collection agencies.
Optical tweezers are actually tightly focused laser beams. They can trap certain objects, such as latex microspheres or biological cells, and move them around in water. This occurs because the lasers' electric fields interact with electric charges on the objects.
To detect disease-causing agents, researchers can coat a microsphere with antibody particles and then touch it to a surface containing infectious particles (antigens). The antigens then stick to the antibodies on the sphere, reminiscent of Velcro, in which loops on one strip combine with hooks on the other. By determining how much laser power is required to pull the microsphere away from the surface, one can then calculate the amount of force needed to break off the antibodies from the antigens and thus count the number of individual antigens that were bound to the sphere. This in turn can detect and count biological antigens at extraordinarily low "femtomolar" concentrations - roughly equivalent to one antigen particle per quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) water molecules.
Following up on earlier work in optical tweezers in the industrial and academic research communities in the 1970s, the licensed technology was patented in 1997 (patent #5,620,857), as a result of research conducted under the NIST BioSensor Consortium. The inventors are Howard Weetall (since retired), Kristian Helmerson, and guest researcher Rani Kishore.
Source: Ben Stein
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Buy Savella Online no Prescription
Optical tweezers are actually tightly focused laser beams. They can trap certain objects, such as latex microspheres or biological cells, and move them around in water. This occurs because the lasers' electric fields interact with electric charges on the objects.
To detect disease-causing agents, researchers can coat a microsphere with antibody particles and then touch it to a surface containing infectious particles (antigens). The antigens then stick to the antibodies on the sphere, reminiscent of Velcro, in which loops on one strip combine with hooks on the other. By determining how much laser power is required to pull the microsphere away from the surface, one can then calculate the amount of force needed to break off the antibodies from the antigens and thus count the number of individual antigens that were bound to the sphere. This in turn can detect and count biological antigens at extraordinarily low "femtomolar" concentrations - roughly equivalent to one antigen particle per quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) water molecules.
Following up on earlier work in optical tweezers in the industrial and academic research communities in the 1970s, the licensed technology was patented in 1997 (patent #5,620,857), as a result of research conducted under the NIST BioSensor Consortium. The inventors are Howard Weetall (since retired), Kristian Helmerson, and guest researcher Rani Kishore.
Source: Ben Stein
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Buy Savella Online no Prescription
American Medical Association Wants Physicians To Stake A Claim For Accurate Insurer Payments This Fall
As part of its national campaign to save the health system billions of dollars by improving the accuracy and efficiency of medical claims processing, the American Medical Association (AMA) today announced it has selected November for the first national Heal that Claim Month.
Many physician practices often experience an increase in claim denials from health insurers during the last quarter of the year, making November an ideal time to appeal inappropriately underpaid and denied claims. An estimated 90 percent of claim denials are preventable and 67 percent of denials are recoverable, according to the Advisory Board Company, a Washington-based research organization. Based on those estimates, physicians collectively lose billions of dollars a year of revenue to health insurers.
"The AMA is encouraging both physicians and insurers to take steps to prevent claim denials and improve the efficiency of billing and collections during Heal that Claim Month," said William Dolan, M.D., AMA board member. "Insurers should pay claims accurately the first time, and comply fully with federal standards for electronic transactions to make claims processing as easy and transparent as possible. Physicians can also play a role in ensuring accurate payments by reviewing their claims process, double-checking claims results and appealing any irregular insurer payments."
To help physicians participate in Heal that Claim Month, the AMA is offering tools to physicians for cutting through the ambiguity and bureaucracy of processing claims with health insurers. The AMA's easy-to-use online resources can help physicians and their administrate staff create a systematic approach to claims management and offer instructions on preparing claims, tracking claims and appealing claims when necessary. The tools are available to all physicians at no charge through the AMA's Practice Management Center.
"The AMA's Practice Management Center can help physicians focus on caring for their patients, instead of battling health insurers over delayed, denied or shortchanged payments for their services," said Dr. Dolan. "Studies suggest that physicians divert 14 percent of their revenue to a costly fight for fair reimbursement. The AMA is committed curing the ailing claims process and helping physicians reduce the cost of submitting claims to 1 percent of revenue."
The Practice Management Center's library of education materials includes the following practical tools:
- Prepare That Claim is designed to help physician practices review their claims-management process. It includes sample workflows for patient registration, clinical documentation, patient check-out, coding, billing and collection. It also includes sample forms to help physicians work efficiently and effectively in preparing, submitting and collecting claims.
- Follow That Claim is a look at how health plans process claims, both electronic and paper. It includes flow charts and tables detailing how plans typically handle their internal and external claims processing, adjudications and payments. This information can help physicians better understand and comply with health plan policies, thereby assisting in receiving timely and complete payment.
- Appeal That Claim offers charts, tips and advice for setting up an internal claims-auditing system, which is key to knowing what claims should be appealed. The booklet helps physicians and staff reduce their administrative burden, yet gain greater awareness of how and when to appeal an underpaid, delayed or inappropriately denied claim.
These tools also include interactive user-friendly tools and resources, such as template appeal letters and printable checklists and logs that help physicians simplify their claims management revenue cycle. To access the AMA's Practice Management Center, and any of the educational tools associated with Heal that Claim Month, please visit the AMA Website at ama-assn/go/pmc.
Heal that Claim Month is part of the AMA's ongoing Heal the Claims Process campaign, which launched last June with the unveiling of the AMA's first National Health Insurer Report Card, an objective comparison of the nation's largest health insurers and their claims processing performance. The findings of the National Health Insurer Report Card are available on the AMA Website at: ama-assn/ama/pub/category/18660.html
Source
Robert J. Mills
AMA Media Relations
American Medical Association
Buy Antabuse Without Prescription
Many physician practices often experience an increase in claim denials from health insurers during the last quarter of the year, making November an ideal time to appeal inappropriately underpaid and denied claims. An estimated 90 percent of claim denials are preventable and 67 percent of denials are recoverable, according to the Advisory Board Company, a Washington-based research organization. Based on those estimates, physicians collectively lose billions of dollars a year of revenue to health insurers.
"The AMA is encouraging both physicians and insurers to take steps to prevent claim denials and improve the efficiency of billing and collections during Heal that Claim Month," said William Dolan, M.D., AMA board member. "Insurers should pay claims accurately the first time, and comply fully with federal standards for electronic transactions to make claims processing as easy and transparent as possible. Physicians can also play a role in ensuring accurate payments by reviewing their claims process, double-checking claims results and appealing any irregular insurer payments."
To help physicians participate in Heal that Claim Month, the AMA is offering tools to physicians for cutting through the ambiguity and bureaucracy of processing claims with health insurers. The AMA's easy-to-use online resources can help physicians and their administrate staff create a systematic approach to claims management and offer instructions on preparing claims, tracking claims and appealing claims when necessary. The tools are available to all physicians at no charge through the AMA's Practice Management Center.
"The AMA's Practice Management Center can help physicians focus on caring for their patients, instead of battling health insurers over delayed, denied or shortchanged payments for their services," said Dr. Dolan. "Studies suggest that physicians divert 14 percent of their revenue to a costly fight for fair reimbursement. The AMA is committed curing the ailing claims process and helping physicians reduce the cost of submitting claims to 1 percent of revenue."
The Practice Management Center's library of education materials includes the following practical tools:
- Prepare That Claim is designed to help physician practices review their claims-management process. It includes sample workflows for patient registration, clinical documentation, patient check-out, coding, billing and collection. It also includes sample forms to help physicians work efficiently and effectively in preparing, submitting and collecting claims.
- Follow That Claim is a look at how health plans process claims, both electronic and paper. It includes flow charts and tables detailing how plans typically handle their internal and external claims processing, adjudications and payments. This information can help physicians better understand and comply with health plan policies, thereby assisting in receiving timely and complete payment.
- Appeal That Claim offers charts, tips and advice for setting up an internal claims-auditing system, which is key to knowing what claims should be appealed. The booklet helps physicians and staff reduce their administrative burden, yet gain greater awareness of how and when to appeal an underpaid, delayed or inappropriately denied claim.
These tools also include interactive user-friendly tools and resources, such as template appeal letters and printable checklists and logs that help physicians simplify their claims management revenue cycle. To access the AMA's Practice Management Center, and any of the educational tools associated with Heal that Claim Month, please visit the AMA Website at ama-assn/go/pmc.
Heal that Claim Month is part of the AMA's ongoing Heal the Claims Process campaign, which launched last June with the unveiling of the AMA's first National Health Insurer Report Card, an objective comparison of the nation's largest health insurers and their claims processing performance. The findings of the National Health Insurer Report Card are available on the AMA Website at: ama-assn/ama/pub/category/18660.html
Source
Robert J. Mills
AMA Media Relations
American Medical Association
Buy Antabuse Without Prescription
Journal Of Correctional Health Care Accepted In Medline
SAGE and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) are pleased to announce that the Journal of Correctional Health Care (JCHC), the official publication of NCCHC, has been accepted for inclusion in MEDLINE. MEDLINE is the premier bibliographic database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), containing more than 16 million journal article citations.
"This is a wonderful accomplishment that underscores the quality and importance of JCHC," said NCCHC board chairman Joseph Penn, MD, CCHP, director of mental health services for University of Texas Medical Branch Correctional Managed Care. "Correctional health care is a vital, yet sometimes overlooked, aspect of public health. Now, the wide array of research and case studies featured in JCHC will be more accessible to a vast audience of researchers, practitioners, policy makers and others."
The Journal of Correctional Health Care, published by SAGE on behalf of NCCHC, is the only national, peer-reviewed scientific journal to address correctional health care topics. Published quarterly under the direction of editor John R. Miles, MPA, JCHC features original research, case studies, best practices, literature reviews and more to keep correctional health care professionals up-to-date on trends and developments important to their field. JCHC addresses areas such as clinical health care, health services and support, personnel and staffing, ethical issues, clinical services, medical records, continuous quality improvement, risk management and medical-legal issues.
"SAGE is very pleased to see the important work published in JCHC now included in this prestigious database," said Nancy Olsen, SAGE Executive Editor, STM Journals. "It is a testament to the quality of the work and dedication of John R. Miles and the entire editorial team."
Notes:
The mission of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care is to improve the quality of health care in jails, prisons and juvenile confinement facilities. With support from the major national organizations representing the fields of health, law and corrections, NCCHC's leadership in setting standards for health services is widely recognized. Building on that foundation, the not-for-profit organization offers a broad array of resources to help correctional health care systems provide efficient, high quality care.
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC.
Source:
Jim Gilden
SAGE Publications
Buy Quinine Without Prescription
"This is a wonderful accomplishment that underscores the quality and importance of JCHC," said NCCHC board chairman Joseph Penn, MD, CCHP, director of mental health services for University of Texas Medical Branch Correctional Managed Care. "Correctional health care is a vital, yet sometimes overlooked, aspect of public health. Now, the wide array of research and case studies featured in JCHC will be more accessible to a vast audience of researchers, practitioners, policy makers and others."
The Journal of Correctional Health Care, published by SAGE on behalf of NCCHC, is the only national, peer-reviewed scientific journal to address correctional health care topics. Published quarterly under the direction of editor John R. Miles, MPA, JCHC features original research, case studies, best practices, literature reviews and more to keep correctional health care professionals up-to-date on trends and developments important to their field. JCHC addresses areas such as clinical health care, health services and support, personnel and staffing, ethical issues, clinical services, medical records, continuous quality improvement, risk management and medical-legal issues.
"SAGE is very pleased to see the important work published in JCHC now included in this prestigious database," said Nancy Olsen, SAGE Executive Editor, STM Journals. "It is a testament to the quality of the work and dedication of John R. Miles and the entire editorial team."
Notes:
The mission of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care is to improve the quality of health care in jails, prisons and juvenile confinement facilities. With support from the major national organizations representing the fields of health, law and corrections, NCCHC's leadership in setting standards for health services is widely recognized. Building on that foundation, the not-for-profit organization offers a broad array of resources to help correctional health care systems provide efficient, high quality care.
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC.
Source:
Jim Gilden
SAGE Publications
Buy Quinine Without Prescription
Novel Cell Therapies To Treat Cancer
Ortho Biotech Oncology Research & Development, a unit of Centocor Research & Development, Inc., has announced that it has entered into a five-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), with Steven A. Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., chief, Surgery Branch, serving as the NCI principal investigator, to research and develop novel cell therapy technologies as potential treatments for a variety of cancers. These adoptive immunotherapy technologies are designed to work by helping the immune system fight cancer. Standard cancer treatments still have not progressed much beyond surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, which are effective at killing tumor cells but also can harm or kill healthy tissues. Adoptive immunotherapies have the potential to spare healthy tissue because they are designed to directly find and destroy cancerous tumor cells using a patient's own immune system T cells.
Dr. Rosenberg has been a pioneer in the field of adoptive immunotherapy of cancer for decades. His group developed Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs), T cells obtained from a patient's tumor, expanded and then re-administered to actively seek and destroy cancer cells. Remarkable responses to this therapy have been observed in patients with malignant melanoma, a type of skin cancer that ranks sixth among U.S. men and seventh in U.S. women for the most commonly diagnosed cancer, according to the NCI. In recent years, Dr. Rosenberg's team pioneered a new technology in which T cells obtained from a patient's blood are genetically engineered to express receptors that give them specific immunity against cancer cells and then re-administered.
Researchers at Ortho Biotech Oncology Research & Development independently developed a different and proprietary adoptive immunotherapeutic approach that uses tumor antigens and other materials to stimulate T cells from a patient's blood to become Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes (CTLs), which recognize and attack tumor cells. Early clinical results show that this technology holds promise in melanoma patients and also has the potential to work in other types of cancers.
Under the CRADA, Dr. Rosenberg's lab will conduct a clinical trial in melanoma patients using Ortho Biotech Oncology Research & Development's proprietary technology. It is hoped that the technology will be effective in other types of cancer, as well. The other part of the CRADA will focus on a collaborative effort on a T-Cell Receptor (TCR) research program.
"This public-private partnership represents an extraordinary opportunity to bring together complementary and substantial expertise and resources from two groups with the common goal of advancing a highly promising new modality of therapy for patients with cancer," says Jay P. Siegel, M.D., chief biotechnology officer of Johnson & Johnson's Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices & Diagnostics businesses.
"Dr. Rosenberg and NCI have extensive experience in the development of immunotherapies for melanoma and other cancers, as well as a strong track record in conducting early phase clinical studies. We look forward to collaborating with NCI to optimize technologies and to begin testing of our immunotherapy technology in melanoma patients by the end of 2009, with the possibility of additional studies for other types of cancer and other technologies in years to come," adds William N. Hait, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president and worldwide head of oncology research and development, who with Dr. Siegel will direct the Ortho Biotech Oncology Research & Development team under the collaboration.
Melanoma:
Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, and Melanoma, its most deadly form, accounts for 4 percent of all diagnosed skin cancers, according to NCI. Melanoma, which usually begins in cutaneous melanocytes - the cells that produce the pigment melanin - is more likely to spread to other body parts, known as metastatic melanoma. In 2008 in the United States, an estimated 68,000 people were diagnosed with melanoma and 8,420 people died. The percentage of people in the United States who develop melanoma has more than doubled in the last 30 years. When detected early, melanoma can be successfully treated with surgery; however, more advanced disease has limited treatment options, with a poor prognosis. Treatment of patients with melanoma in the United States costs about $1.5 billion annually, NCI reports.
Source:
William Foster, J&JPRD
Porter Novelli
Buy Fosamax Without Prescription
Dr. Rosenberg has been a pioneer in the field of adoptive immunotherapy of cancer for decades. His group developed Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs), T cells obtained from a patient's tumor, expanded and then re-administered to actively seek and destroy cancer cells. Remarkable responses to this therapy have been observed in patients with malignant melanoma, a type of skin cancer that ranks sixth among U.S. men and seventh in U.S. women for the most commonly diagnosed cancer, according to the NCI. In recent years, Dr. Rosenberg's team pioneered a new technology in which T cells obtained from a patient's blood are genetically engineered to express receptors that give them specific immunity against cancer cells and then re-administered.
Researchers at Ortho Biotech Oncology Research & Development independently developed a different and proprietary adoptive immunotherapeutic approach that uses tumor antigens and other materials to stimulate T cells from a patient's blood to become Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes (CTLs), which recognize and attack tumor cells. Early clinical results show that this technology holds promise in melanoma patients and also has the potential to work in other types of cancers.
Under the CRADA, Dr. Rosenberg's lab will conduct a clinical trial in melanoma patients using Ortho Biotech Oncology Research & Development's proprietary technology. It is hoped that the technology will be effective in other types of cancer, as well. The other part of the CRADA will focus on a collaborative effort on a T-Cell Receptor (TCR) research program.
"This public-private partnership represents an extraordinary opportunity to bring together complementary and substantial expertise and resources from two groups with the common goal of advancing a highly promising new modality of therapy for patients with cancer," says Jay P. Siegel, M.D., chief biotechnology officer of Johnson & Johnson's Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices & Diagnostics businesses.
"Dr. Rosenberg and NCI have extensive experience in the development of immunotherapies for melanoma and other cancers, as well as a strong track record in conducting early phase clinical studies. We look forward to collaborating with NCI to optimize technologies and to begin testing of our immunotherapy technology in melanoma patients by the end of 2009, with the possibility of additional studies for other types of cancer and other technologies in years to come," adds William N. Hait, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president and worldwide head of oncology research and development, who with Dr. Siegel will direct the Ortho Biotech Oncology Research & Development team under the collaboration.
Melanoma:
Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, and Melanoma, its most deadly form, accounts for 4 percent of all diagnosed skin cancers, according to NCI. Melanoma, which usually begins in cutaneous melanocytes - the cells that produce the pigment melanin - is more likely to spread to other body parts, known as metastatic melanoma. In 2008 in the United States, an estimated 68,000 people were diagnosed with melanoma and 8,420 people died. The percentage of people in the United States who develop melanoma has more than doubled in the last 30 years. When detected early, melanoma can be successfully treated with surgery; however, more advanced disease has limited treatment options, with a poor prognosis. Treatment of patients with melanoma in the United States costs about $1.5 billion annually, NCI reports.
Source:
William Foster, J&JPRD
Porter Novelli
Buy Fosamax Without Prescription
Reuters Examines Obesity, Health Care Reform
Reuters on Thursday examined "the difficulties facing the United States as it confronts an epidemic of obesity, and the problems for President Barack Obama as he sets about extending health insurance to more Americans at a time of runaway costs." According to a 2000 report by the U.S. Surgeon General, the direct and indirect costs of obesity total $117 billion annually. About two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. Adult obesity rates increased in 37 states last year, and did not fall in any state, according to not-for-profit Trust for America's Health.
Christine Ferguson, associate professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and the director of STOP Obesity Alliance, said the stigma surrounding obesity and the belief that it is not a disease prevents the government from addressing the issue. "At the root of this is that people still have a real problem thinking about obesity as anything other than a willpower issue." She added, "It is still perfectly acceptable to think about excluding treatment."
Aetna Chair and CEO Ronald Williams said most large employers that purchase insurance from the company have at least one plan that covers bariatric surgery. However, he added, "The bigger end of the story is, 'How do we help people not become obese to begin with?'" He said, "If they are suffering the complications from being overweight or obese, how can we help them manage those conditions?"
Reuters also examined the difficulties lawmakers face in several states trying to pass legislation requiring insurance companies to cover the cost of bariatric surgery. Jeff Haaga, a lobbyist in Utah, said, "Insurers are covering people who are morbidly obese one way or the other, whether it's surgery or just keeping us alive with medication" (Sherman, Reuters, 1/22).
Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Buy Flagyl Without Prescription
Christine Ferguson, associate professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and the director of STOP Obesity Alliance, said the stigma surrounding obesity and the belief that it is not a disease prevents the government from addressing the issue. "At the root of this is that people still have a real problem thinking about obesity as anything other than a willpower issue." She added, "It is still perfectly acceptable to think about excluding treatment."
Aetna Chair and CEO Ronald Williams said most large employers that purchase insurance from the company have at least one plan that covers bariatric surgery. However, he added, "The bigger end of the story is, 'How do we help people not become obese to begin with?'" He said, "If they are suffering the complications from being overweight or obese, how can we help them manage those conditions?"
Reuters also examined the difficulties lawmakers face in several states trying to pass legislation requiring insurance companies to cover the cost of bariatric surgery. Jeff Haaga, a lobbyist in Utah, said, "Insurers are covering people who are morbidly obese one way or the other, whether it's surgery or just keeping us alive with medication" (Sherman, Reuters, 1/22).
Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Buy Flagyl Without Prescription
Health Savings Account Enrollment Reaches Eight Million
Eight million Americans are covered by Health Savings Account (HSA)-eligible insurance plans, an increase of more than 31 percent since last year, a new census released today by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) finds. Health Savings Accounts were authorized starting in January 2004. Since then, AHIP has conducted a periodic census of its members participating in the HSA/high-deductible health plan (HDHP) market.
Another report released today found HSA accountholders have a broad range of incomes across the country. The report, Estimated Income Characteristics of HSA Accountholders in 2008, used a geo-coding technique to estimate the income characteristics of HSA accountholders.
"HSA plans provide coverage to a number of consumers of all ages and incomes across the country, and they represent an important choice for employers and individuals when looking at the portfolio of coverage options available," said Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of AHIP.
Key findings from the census include:
- There was an increase of approximately 1.9 million Americans enrolled in an HSA plan since January 2008. Previous AHIP census reports found that 6.1 million were enrolled in January 2008, 4.5 million were enrolled in January 2007, 3.2 million were enrolled in January 2006, and 1.0 million were enrolled in March 2005.
- 30 percent of individuals covered by an HSA plan were in the small group market, 47 percent of individuals covered by an HSA plan were in the large-group market, and the remaining 23 percent were in the individual market.
- A majority of HSA enrollees are covered by Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) products (83 percent) and Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) products (10 percent). In the individual market, almost 92 percent of enrollees in HSA plans were in PPO products, while approximately 85 percent of enrollees in large-group and 76 percent of enrollees in small-group HSA plans were in PPO plans.
- States with the highest levels of HSA/HDHP enrollment were California (854,000), Florida (524,000), Illinois (497,000), Texas (476,000), Ohio (464,000), and Minnesota (388,000).
Key findings from the income characteristics analysis include:
- Households with a wide range of incomes hold HSA accounts, with almost half (49 percent) of accountholders living in neighborhoods with median incomes under $50,000 (incomes based on 2000 Census data).
- Average total deposits (including personal deposits, employer contributions, and interest) for all HSA accounts were $1,634 and average total withdrawals (including fees) were $1,063.
For more information about the 2009 census and the income report, please visit AHIPResearch.
Source
America's Health Insurance Plans
Buy Griseofulvin Without Prescription
Another report released today found HSA accountholders have a broad range of incomes across the country. The report, Estimated Income Characteristics of HSA Accountholders in 2008, used a geo-coding technique to estimate the income characteristics of HSA accountholders.
"HSA plans provide coverage to a number of consumers of all ages and incomes across the country, and they represent an important choice for employers and individuals when looking at the portfolio of coverage options available," said Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of AHIP.
Key findings from the census include:
- There was an increase of approximately 1.9 million Americans enrolled in an HSA plan since January 2008. Previous AHIP census reports found that 6.1 million were enrolled in January 2008, 4.5 million were enrolled in January 2007, 3.2 million were enrolled in January 2006, and 1.0 million were enrolled in March 2005.
- 30 percent of individuals covered by an HSA plan were in the small group market, 47 percent of individuals covered by an HSA plan were in the large-group market, and the remaining 23 percent were in the individual market.
- A majority of HSA enrollees are covered by Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) products (83 percent) and Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) products (10 percent). In the individual market, almost 92 percent of enrollees in HSA plans were in PPO products, while approximately 85 percent of enrollees in large-group and 76 percent of enrollees in small-group HSA plans were in PPO plans.
- States with the highest levels of HSA/HDHP enrollment were California (854,000), Florida (524,000), Illinois (497,000), Texas (476,000), Ohio (464,000), and Minnesota (388,000).
Key findings from the income characteristics analysis include:
- Households with a wide range of incomes hold HSA accounts, with almost half (49 percent) of accountholders living in neighborhoods with median incomes under $50,000 (incomes based on 2000 Census data).
- Average total deposits (including personal deposits, employer contributions, and interest) for all HSA accounts were $1,634 and average total withdrawals (including fees) were $1,063.
For more information about the 2009 census and the income report, please visit AHIPResearch.
Source
America's Health Insurance Plans
Buy Griseofulvin Without Prescription
HHS Launches High-Risk Pools, Consumer Website As Part Of Health Reform Implementation
U.S. health officials on Thursday launched the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, a provision of the new health reform law (PL 111-148) that aims to temporarily provide coverage to individuals with health problems through high-risk insurance pools, the AP/Chicago Tribune reports (Alonso-Zaldivar, AP/Chicago Tribune, 6/30).
Buy Vibramycin Without Prescription
Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have elected to administer their own pools, while 21 states have opted to let the federal government run the pools. According to the Wall Street Journal, coverage under federally run pools is expected to commence on Aug. 1 for consumers who apply by July 15. However, several states -- including California, Maryland and Michigan -- anticipate that coverage will not be available until September.
Under the program, eligible U.S. residents will receive coverage for care from primary care physicians, specialists and hospitals (Adamy, Wall Street Journal, 7/1). The pools are modeled after the federal Children's Health Insurance Program, which gives states flexibility to alter benefits and premiums to reflect the needs of their marketplace, according to Richard Popper, deputy director of HHS' Office of Insurance Information and Oversight (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 7/1).
To qualify, individuals must have been uninsured for at least six months and denied insurance coverage because of a pre-existing condition, possibly requiring a letter from a physician.
Monthly premiums will range from $140 to $900, based on a person's age and state of residence. For example, a 50-year-old California resident could expect to pay $575 monthly for a comprehensive policy with a $1,500 annual deductible and $2,500 annual cap on out-of-pocket expenses. However, the program will not charge enrollees more because of their medical condition (Wall Street Journal, 7/1).
HHS officials have said 200,000 U.S. residents will be covered through the pools at one time, but have predicted the program could cover as many as 350,000 U.S. residents because of patient turnover (CQ HealthBeat, 7/1).
The government has allotted $5 billion to fund the pools until 2014, when insurers will be barred from denying coverage based on pre-existing health conditions, and low- and middle-income U.S. residents will become eligible for insurance subsidies (AP/Chicago Tribune, 6/30).
Obama Administration Unveils New Health Care Website
On Wednesday, the Obama administration unveiled its new HealthCare website, the Washington Post reports. On the site, U.S. residents can apply for the high-risk pools.
The site also provides information on a range of public and private health insurance plans. For example, the site offers insurance plan information based on an individual's income, job status and ZIP code, and it allows users to see how their coverage options might change as provisions of the new reform law take effect. According to the Post, federal health officials expect the site to list prices and offer plan comparison charts by October (Aizenman, Washington Post, 7/1).
Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
© 2010 National Partnership for Women & Families. All rights reserved.
Buy Vibramycin Without Prescription
Up To 50% Of Medicines Sold Through Rogue Web Sites Are Fake
The World Health Organization (WHO) and more than 20 international partners are today launching a comprehensive package of measures to help national authorities safeguard their populations from the dangers of counterfeit medicines.
At the opening of the first official meeting of IMPACT (the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce) in Bonn, WHO and its partners are unveiling a programme covering legislation, law enforcement, regulation, technology and communication. IMPACT is also issuing a warning against buying medicines from rogue web sites as well as cautioning governments that existing laws against medical counterfeiters are inadequate and do not act as deterrents.
Counterfeit medicines range from products containing no active ingredients to those containing highly toxic substances. They can harm patients by failing to treat serious conditions, can provoke drug resistance and in some cases kill.
The latest estimates jointly elaborated by WHO, the OECD, and the Pharmaceutical Security Institute show that more than 30% of medicines in some areas of Latin America, South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are counterfeit. In emerging economies, the proportion is estimated at 10% but in many of the former Soviet republics it can be as high as 20%. In wealthy countries, with strong regulatory mechanisms, counterfeits account for less than 1% of the market value, but 50% of illegal Internet sales are counterfeit.
"The impact on people's lives behind these figures is devastating," said Dr Howard Zucker, WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals. "Whether rich or poor, many patients trustingly taking medicines may end up sicker or die. In addition, precious resources spent on these medicines go to waste."
The legal systems of most countries do not consider the counterfeiting of medicines a more serious crime than counterfeiting luxury items such as handbags or watches. Their laws are designed mainly to protect trademarks than people's health. In some industrialized countries, counterfeiting t-shirts receives a harsher punishment than counterfeiting medicines.
WHO and its IMPACT partners will present guiding principles for model legislation to help countries adapt their laws to the gravity of the crime. "A major objective is for countries to agree that counterfeiting is a crime against human security and incorporate that principle into their laws," added Dr Zucker.
Legislation, regulation and enforcement also provide the basis for dealing with the sale of counterfeit medicines on the Internet, which is already rife in industrialized countries and is growing in a number of emerging economies in Latin America and Asia.
Some Internet pharmacies are completely legal operations, set up to offer clients convenience and savings. They require patient prescriptions and deliver medications from government licensed facilities. Other Internet pharmacies operate illegally, selling medications without prescriptions and using unapproved or counterfeit products. These rogue Internet pharmacies are operated internationally, they have no registered business address and sell products that have an unknown or unclear origin.
"This area needs more work," said Dr Valerio Reggi, WHO Coordinator of IMPACT. "But the message for now is: do not take the risk of buying your medicines from unknown sources, such as the Internet. If you must buy from the Internet, ensure that the website is that of a pharmacy you know and trust."
In the technology area, WHO has launched a challenge to technology providers to come up with new technologies or adapt existing ones to prevent counterfeiting and detect and track counterfeits on markets and on web sites.
WHO is currently looking at proposals from three mobile telephone companies to apply their technologies to check the authenticity of medical products. DNA-based technologies, nanotechnology and other approaches will be assessed by IMPACT in the first quarter of 2007.
To improve communication, a small group has been created to continuously update global data on medical counterfeiting and share the information with IMPACT partners. In addition, advocacy campaigns including public service announcements, short descriptive films and other awareness raising materials have begun targeting different professional sectors likely to come across the problem of counterfeits. Organizations representing health professionals and consumers are supporting these initiatives.
Three countries with a high proportion of counterfeits have already started tackling the problem with IMPACT's support. Indonesia and Mali have begun wide communication campaigns to educate the general public on the dangers of counterfeits and to dissuade people seeking treatment from buying on the black market. Vietnam is establishing mechanisms to coordinate more effectively between regulatory, police, customs and provincial authorities in order to improve detection of counterfeit medicines and counterfeiters.
"It is clear that action in a single sphere, like legislation or technology is not enough to deal effectively with the problem," said Dr Reggi. "This is why we need to act on five axes - legal, enforcement, regulatory, technology and communication. It's also why we need to coordinate action at a global level. But the fact that individual countries are already taking this on bodes well for the future."
By the end of 2007 IMPACT aims to have all 193 WHO Member States formally collaborating to stem global and national counterfeiting of medical products.
-- Fact sheet: counterfeit medicines
who.int
Buy Urispas Without Prescription
At the opening of the first official meeting of IMPACT (the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce) in Bonn, WHO and its partners are unveiling a programme covering legislation, law enforcement, regulation, technology and communication. IMPACT is also issuing a warning against buying medicines from rogue web sites as well as cautioning governments that existing laws against medical counterfeiters are inadequate and do not act as deterrents.
Counterfeit medicines range from products containing no active ingredients to those containing highly toxic substances. They can harm patients by failing to treat serious conditions, can provoke drug resistance and in some cases kill.
The latest estimates jointly elaborated by WHO, the OECD, and the Pharmaceutical Security Institute show that more than 30% of medicines in some areas of Latin America, South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are counterfeit. In emerging economies, the proportion is estimated at 10% but in many of the former Soviet republics it can be as high as 20%. In wealthy countries, with strong regulatory mechanisms, counterfeits account for less than 1% of the market value, but 50% of illegal Internet sales are counterfeit.
"The impact on people's lives behind these figures is devastating," said Dr Howard Zucker, WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals. "Whether rich or poor, many patients trustingly taking medicines may end up sicker or die. In addition, precious resources spent on these medicines go to waste."
The legal systems of most countries do not consider the counterfeiting of medicines a more serious crime than counterfeiting luxury items such as handbags or watches. Their laws are designed mainly to protect trademarks than people's health. In some industrialized countries, counterfeiting t-shirts receives a harsher punishment than counterfeiting medicines.
WHO and its IMPACT partners will present guiding principles for model legislation to help countries adapt their laws to the gravity of the crime. "A major objective is for countries to agree that counterfeiting is a crime against human security and incorporate that principle into their laws," added Dr Zucker.
Legislation, regulation and enforcement also provide the basis for dealing with the sale of counterfeit medicines on the Internet, which is already rife in industrialized countries and is growing in a number of emerging economies in Latin America and Asia.
Some Internet pharmacies are completely legal operations, set up to offer clients convenience and savings. They require patient prescriptions and deliver medications from government licensed facilities. Other Internet pharmacies operate illegally, selling medications without prescriptions and using unapproved or counterfeit products. These rogue Internet pharmacies are operated internationally, they have no registered business address and sell products that have an unknown or unclear origin.
"This area needs more work," said Dr Valerio Reggi, WHO Coordinator of IMPACT. "But the message for now is: do not take the risk of buying your medicines from unknown sources, such as the Internet. If you must buy from the Internet, ensure that the website is that of a pharmacy you know and trust."
In the technology area, WHO has launched a challenge to technology providers to come up with new technologies or adapt existing ones to prevent counterfeiting and detect and track counterfeits on markets and on web sites.
WHO is currently looking at proposals from three mobile telephone companies to apply their technologies to check the authenticity of medical products. DNA-based technologies, nanotechnology and other approaches will be assessed by IMPACT in the first quarter of 2007.
To improve communication, a small group has been created to continuously update global data on medical counterfeiting and share the information with IMPACT partners. In addition, advocacy campaigns including public service announcements, short descriptive films and other awareness raising materials have begun targeting different professional sectors likely to come across the problem of counterfeits. Organizations representing health professionals and consumers are supporting these initiatives.
Three countries with a high proportion of counterfeits have already started tackling the problem with IMPACT's support. Indonesia and Mali have begun wide communication campaigns to educate the general public on the dangers of counterfeits and to dissuade people seeking treatment from buying on the black market. Vietnam is establishing mechanisms to coordinate more effectively between regulatory, police, customs and provincial authorities in order to improve detection of counterfeit medicines and counterfeiters.
"It is clear that action in a single sphere, like legislation or technology is not enough to deal effectively with the problem," said Dr Reggi. "This is why we need to act on five axes - legal, enforcement, regulatory, technology and communication. It's also why we need to coordinate action at a global level. But the fact that individual countries are already taking this on bodes well for the future."
By the end of 2007 IMPACT aims to have all 193 WHO Member States formally collaborating to stem global and national counterfeiting of medical products.
-- Fact sheet: counterfeit medicines
who.int
Buy Urispas Without Prescription
Подписаться на:
Сообщения (Atom)