Science and Enterprise

Tag: statistics

  • 23andMe Identifies New Genetic Nearsightedness Factors

    Researchers at the consumer genetics company 23andMe in Mountain View, California found 20 new associations with myopia or nearsightedness from data provided by their customers. The team led by Nicholas Eriksson, the company’s principal scientist, published its findings online in a recent issue of the journal PLoS Genetics. Nearsightedness is a common vision condition, which…

  • Statistical Tool Helps Cut Heart Failure Readmissions

    Medical researchers at Intermountain Heart Institute in Murray, Utah developed a statistical index that evaluates a cardiac patient’s condition and calculates the risk of readmission for the same disorder within 30 days. The team led by Benjamin Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the institute, a division of Intermountain Medical Center in Salt…

  • Industry Technology Formulas Given Real-World Tests

    Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico found two formulas for predicting technological change, including Moore’s Law, produce reasonably accurate forecasts. The team led by MIT engineering systems professor Jessika Trancik (pictured right), formerly a postdoctoral fellow at Santa Fe Institute, published its findings last week in the online…

  • Grant to Fund Patient-Sourced Health Outcome Measures

    PatientsLikeMe, a health data-sharing network and platform in Cambridge, Massachusetts, received a $1.9 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to establish a system for involving patients in the development of health outcome measures. Paul Wicks, PatientsLikeMe’s research director (pictured right), is scheduled to describe the project today at the TED2013 conference in Long…

  • Statistical Database Analysis Links Genes, High Cholesterol

    Researchers at University of Massachusetts in Amherst and University of Pennsylvania developed a technique for analyzing public databases with open-source software to discover populations at genetic risk for disease at lower cost. The team led by UMass biostatistician Andrea Foulkes (pictured right) reported its findings yesterday in the online journal PLoS One. The technique called…

  • U.S. Industrial Companies Plan More 2013 R&D Spending

    Manufacturers in the U.S. expect to make research and development investments in 2013 at the same or higher levels as in 2012, according to a survey by Industrial Research Institute conducted last summer. The annual survey covered 141 medium and large companies mainly in chemicals, advanced materials, gases, food, industrial machinery, and consumer products. Industrial…

  • 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…

  • 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).…

  • Lower Copays, Mail Orders Close Hypertension Drug Gaps

    Researchers with the health care system Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California found lower copayments and use of mail-order refills help reduce race and ethnic disparities in drug adherence for patients diagnosed with high blood pressure. The findings on medicine-taking behavior and measures to cut those differences in drug adherence are reported online in the journal…

  • Report: Pharmas Increasing Medicine Access in Poor Regions

    A foundation in the Netherlands reports that developing areas of the world have more access to drugs from the top 20 pharmaceutical companies than two years ago. The Access to Medicine Foundation that publishes a bi-annual index of drug access in developing regions says GlaxoSmithKline repeats in 2012 as the leading company in making its…