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Oculus Innovative Sciences Announces Preliminary Results From 40-Patient Feasibility Study For Treatment Of Acne With The Microcyn(R) Technology
Oculus Innovative Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: OCLS), a healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets a family of products based upon the Microcyn® Technology platform, announced that preliminary results from its U.S. 40-patient feasibility study, in which an enhanced formulation of the company"s Microcyn Technology-based hydrogel was used in the treatment of acne, are highly encouraging and warrant further examination.

Language Skills In Your Twenties May Predict Risk Of Dementia Decades Later
People who have superior language skills early in life may be less likely to develop Alzheimer"s disease decades later, despite having the hallmark signs of the disease, according to research published in the July 9, 2009, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
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Parents Needed To Help Curb Teenage Births Among Hispanics, Group Says
A coalition of Hispanic organizations on Tuesday urged parents of Hispanic teenagers to talk with their children about sex to curb the high teenage birth rate among the group, the McClatchy/Miami Herald reports. Hispanics are predicted to make up 25% of the teenage population nationwide by 2025 and efforts to curb their teen pregnancy rate is key to reducing unwanted pregnancies among all teenagers, according to the McClatchy/Herald. More than half of Hispanic teenage girls will become pregnant before age 20 -- nearly twice the national average and the highest of any ethnic or racial group in the U.S., according to coalition, which includes MANA, a national Hispanic women"s organization. Ana Sol Gutierrez, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates and a participant in the coalition, said the higher pregnancy rates among Hispanic teenagers can be attributed in part to a "different mind-set" among the group that embraces motherhood even at a young age. She said the key to reducing unplanned teenage pregnancies among Hispanics is to educate them about choosing "when and how" to become parents, while still embracing maternity. The National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy surveyed more than 1,600 Hispanic teenagers and adults nationwide and found that 76% of teens said their parents most influenced their decisions about sex but that most parents said they did not know how to have such a conversation with their children. The finding was particularly evident among parents who only speak Spanish. Ruthie Flores, a co-author of the study, said the solution is culturally appropriate education (Chung, McClatchy/Miami Herald, 5/19).
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Comparison Is Key To Lower Costs, Better Outcomes From Medications

Patients can expect significant savings and better outcomes from their prescription medications when health care professionals use comparative effectiveness research, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Obama includes more than $1 billion over the next two years for comparative effectiveness research, a practice that evaluates different options for treating a medical condition among a certain group of patients. "Despite having the highest per capita health care expenditures in the world, the United States does not always perform well on measures of health compared with other countries," said Glen Schumock, associate professor and director of the UIC Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research. "With prescription drugs accounting for more than 10 percent -- $227.5 billion -- of the total amount Americans spent on health care in 2007, we need to know more about how drugs compare to one another in terms of effectiveness, safety, and value for money." The analysis is published in the online version of American Journal of Health-Systems Pharmacy and is co-authored by A. Simon Pickard, UIC associate professor of pharmacy practice. Comparative effectiveness is a relatively new concept, and it contains two important components, Schumock said. It provides information to help clinicians choose among alternative treatments, and it examines outcomes in actual practice. Randomized control trials have long been the most widely accepted method to study the efficacy of innovative medical care interventions, and they are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market a new drug, Schumock said. However, such trials have drawbacks. A traditional randomized control trial does not show how the drug works, Schumock said, "and it usually compares a new drug with a placebo or an inferior treatment option rather than the drug or drugs that might be legitimate therapeutic alternatives." The patient populations are also narrowly selected, and are usually healthier than the patients who will eventually use the drug, he said. Comparative effectiveness studies matches up comparable medications based on current choices available to health care professionals. The patients are those who actually use the drug once it is marketed. The outcomes, Schumock said, are more relevant to decisionmaking at the clinical or policy level. Comparative effectiveness research may reduce spending on pharmaceuticals and lower overall health care costs, said Pickard. According to the Congressional Budget Office, direct spending by the federal government -- mostly for Medicare and Medicaid -- would be reduced by $100 million from 2008-2012 and $1.3 billion from 2008-2017. Those figures could be much higher, as they were developed before the recent large investment in comparative effectiveness research, Pickard said. "With the shared goal of improving decisionmaking at every level of the health care system, pharmacy and other professions can use comparative effectiveness research as an opportunity to be more efficient and more accountable," Pickard said. University of Illinois at Chicago


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