Construction crews returned to work Friday after the United States Senate approved a last-minute deal to avoid a construction shutdown at a troubled veterans’ hospital outside Denver.
Category: HEALTHCARE/MEDICAL
$100 million partnership in brain health and aging innovation
Baycrest Health Sciences will lead a new Canadian venture aimed at optimizing the cognitive, emotional and physical well-being of older adults—across the country and around the globe. The Government of Canada 2015 Budget announcement included a federal investment of $42 million over five years for the creation of the Canadian Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation (CC-ABHI). Combined with commitments from the Baycrest Foundation and 40 leading industry, academic, public sector and not-for-profit partners, this brings the total investment in CC-ABHI to $100 million. CC-ABHI will become a national hub and network dedicated to the development, validation, commercialization, dissemination and adoption of brain health and seniors care products and services. This is one of the largest senior care investments globally, and creates
A strong sense of purpose from "the bottom"
Melanie Evans at Modern Healthcare reports: “One of the nation’s largest health systems, Ascension Health, will for the first time set a system-wide minimum wage of $11 an hour.” This is good and as it should be, but these folks are slow to have made these changes.A decade ago, when I was CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, I made a decision that no one in our hospital should be paid less than $10 an hour. There was no market-based reason to change their wages. Other Boston academic medical centers were also paying their lowest paid workers–housekeepers, transporters, and food service workers–below $10 an hour. I just thought it was wrong for a health care organization, particularly one with a
Who Let The Dogs In? We Did, About 30,000 Years Ago
A new study suggests that canis familiaris split from wolves much earlier than the 11,000 to 16,000 years ago that was long assumed.» E-Mail This
Human stem cell model reveals molecular cues critical to neurovascular unit formation
Crucial bodily functions we depend on but don’t consciously think about—things like heart rate, blood flow, breathing and digestion—are regulated by the neurovascular unit. The neurovascular unit is made up of blood vessels and smooth muscles under the control of autonomic neurons. Yet how the nervous and vascular systems come together during development to coordinate these functions is not well understood. Using human embryonic stem cells, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute created a model that allows them to track cellular behavior during the earliest stages of human development in real-time. The model reveals, for the first time, how autonomic neurons and blood vessels come together to form the neurovascular unit.
Missed our Indoor Tanning Event, Don’t Fret…We’ve got a Recap
Our Skin Cancer Awareness Month series comes to a close today. Below is a recap of Wednesday’s event co-hosted with the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program, The Hazards and Allure of Indoor Tanning Beds on College Campuses. It was a late night call to Dr. Elizabeth Tanzi that made dealing with melanoma a personal experience. Tanzi, a dermatologist who previously had many difficult face-to-face conversations with patients to discuss a skin cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment options, had decided to test a sample of her own skin after discovering noticeable symptoms. She had no risk factors, limited sun exposure, and at 37 years of age, she hadn’t been in a tanning bed since she was college-aged. But when she listened to her voicemail,
Oxidative stress is an aggravating factor in Lafora rare disease
Neurodegenerative Lafora disease usually becomes apparent through seizures during adolescence and puberty and occurs as a consequence of defects in glycogen metabolism and in the cellular mechanisms that are responsible for its disposal. Researchers at the University of Valencia have led a study in which they propose that Lafora could be aggravated by oxidative stress. These ideas have been put forward in a review article recently published in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine.
Researchers call for more fairness in using testosterone levels to judge femaleness of elite athletes
(Medical Xpress)—A pair of researchers, one with Stanford University, the other Barnard College, has published a Policy Forum piece in the journal Science, calling for changes to the way female athletes are judged on their fitness to compete as women in major sporting events. Katrina Karkazis and Rebecca Jordan-Young note that thus far there have only been two serious studies done on the topic and they came back with conflicting results, which suggests that sports organizations that use testosterone levels to exclude women from competing with other women are unfair.
Breakthrough brain implant helps paralysed people gain independence
A new kind of brain implant that can sense a patient’s intent to move a robotic arm is being hailed as a breakthrough in harnessing mind power to help paralysed people gain more independence.
How Do You Motivate Kids To Stop Skipping School?
A study in an Indian slum tried promising a reward: Improve your attendance, and you’ll get a small treat. But for third-graders, sometimes these incentive schemes can do more harm than good.» E-Mail This
Pot kills crippling pain, medical marijuana user says
Cancer-sufferer Paul Lawrence says he survives crippling daily pain with medical marijuana, including a breakfast marijuana smoothie, joints and hash oil throughout the day.