Category: Regulations
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Patient-Doctor Communication Linked to Patients Taking Meds
Medical researchers at University of California in San Francisco and the health plan Kaiser Permanente found patients who feel their doctors involve them in decisions and understand their problems are more likely to take their medications as prescribed. The team that included researchers from University of Washington in Seattle, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Veterans…
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Statistical Tools Sought for Smaller Placebo Group Sizes
A new challenge on InnoCentive seeks a technique for reducing sizes of placebo group samples in clinical trials — patients who do not receive the test treatments, to whom the patients getting the treatments are compared — without compromising the ability to interpret the results. Proposals describing the solution to this challenge are due by…
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Economic Growth Affected by Parasitic, Insect-Spread Disease
Researchers in the U.S. and France built a mathematical model to estimate the impact of health on economic data that indicates infectious diseases spread by insects, called vector-borne diseases, and parasites found in tropical regions affect economic development in those countries. Their analysis is published online in the journal PLoS Biology. The team led by…
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FDA Extends Flu Therapy Approval for Infants
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the prescription of oseltamivir phosphate to treat acute, uncomplicated influenza in children as young as two weeks in age. Oseltamivir phosphate, developed by Genentech, a division of the pharmaceutical company Roche in South San Francisco, California, is marketed under the brand name Tamiflu. Tamiflu blocks the…
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Clinical Trial Underway for Cancer Stem Cell Therapy
OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biotechnology company in Redwood City, California, began dosing patients enrolled in a clinical trial of its therapy addressing cancer stem cells. The phase 1 trial is testing OMP-52M51, a monoclonal antibody — a type of engineered antibody molecule — designed for patients with hematologic cancers, in this case lymphoid malignancies. Cancer…
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Cell Phone, GPS Data Identify Urban Traffic Jam Sources
Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California at Berkeley devised a method for locating sources of urban traffic jams with anonymous data from cell phone records, which can encourage more effective strategies for reducing congestion. The team led by MIT civil and environmental engineering professor Marta González reported its findings in yesterday’s…
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Portable Air Pollution Sensors Built Into Smartphones
Computer scientists at University of California in San Diego created pollution sensors that monitor air quality in real time on smartphones. CitiSense, as the sensor system is called, comes from the lab of computer scientist William Griswold that described the system at the Wireless Health 2012 conference in October, also in San Diego. The sensors…
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Safety Info Variations Found between Branded, Generic Drugs
Researchers at the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis found safety warnings on drug labels vary on a large majority of drugs between their brand-name and generic equivalents. The findings of the team led by Regenstrief professor of internal medicine Jon Duke appear online in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety…
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Study: Insurance Industry Adjusting to Climate Change
A study by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California finds the global insurance industry is taking human-induced climate change seriously and undertaking a variety of actions to limit the impact of climate change on their companies’ finances. Environmental scientist Evan Mills describes his findings in this week’s issue of the journal Science (paid subscription required).…
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Kidney Stone Monitor Boosts Treatment Effectiveness
Engineers at University of Southampton in the U.K. tested a prototype monitoring device for ultrasound treatments of kidney stones that showed the device ready for full-scale clinical trials. The team led by Southampton engineering professor Tim Leighton published its findings yesterday online in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A (paid subscription required). In…