Science and Enterprise

Search results for: “law”

  • Health Reform To Cut Out-of-Pocket Costs for Newly Insured

    A new study from the Rand Corporation shows health care costs will decline for most people, particularly those newly insured or changing their plans under the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. health reform law. The impact of the law is expected to vary, however, with newly insured consumers having higher incomes and thus ineligible for…

  • Who’s a Patent Troll? You’ll be Surprised by the Answer

    Nobody likes patent trolls, the “non-practicing entities” accused of filing lawsuits with questionable infringement claims aimed at extorting settlements from companies just trying to do business. A conference today in Washington, D.C. sponsored by Innovation Alliance — a group promoting a strong U.S. patent system — featured a panelist who would under some definitions be…

  • FDA to Limit Oversight to Medical Device Mobile Apps

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will focus its regulation of mobile health apps on those that act as traditional medical devices, according to final guidance released yesterday. The guidance, to be published tomorrow in the Federal Register for public comment, says FDA will not enforce regulations on the majority of health-related smartphone and tablet…

  • Simple Authentication Scheme Cuts Phishing, Password Theft

    Computer scientists at Royal Hollaway in the U.K., a part of University of London, developed a method for verifying the identify of computer users when logging on to password-protected Web sites that reduces opportunities for stealing user credentials. Royal Hollaway professor Chris Mitchell and researcher Haitham Al-Sinani in the university’s Information Security Group describe an…

  • Nanotech Window Coating Controls Building Light, Heat

    Chemists and materials scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California created a window coating of nanocrystals that can dynamically control the sunlight passing through the window and thus improve a building’s energy efficiency. The team led by Berkeley Lab’s Delia Milliron published its findings yesterday in the journal Nature (paid subscription required). The Department…

  • Actelion to Acquire Developer of Rare Cancer Treatment

    Actelion Ltd, a biopharmaceutical company based in Switzerland, acquired Ceptaris Therapeutics Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical developer in Malvern, Pennsylvania, in a deal with a potential value of at least $250 million. The acquisition, however, depends on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving Ceptaris’s only current product, a topical treatment for symptoms from a rare…

  • Telemedicine Facing Financial, Regulatory Headwinds

    Health care organizations with telemedicine programs run into challenges implementing their services, particularly in getting acceptance from payers, and meeting legal or regulatory requirements across multiple jurisdictions. These issues arose in two sessions today at the mHealth + TeleHealth World Congress in Boston. A key financial issue is reimbursement by insurance companies for telemedicine services.…

  • Renewable Biochemical Spin-Offs Land Small Business Grants

    Two start-up companies, founded to commercialize research on renewable biochemicals at Iowa State University at Ames, received small business research grants from National Science Foundation to develop their technologies for the marketplace. The companies — OmegaChea Biorenewables in Ames and Glucan Biorenewables in St. Louis — are spin-off enterprises from Iowa State’s Center for Biorenewable Chemicals. OmegaChea Biorenewables,…

  • Thin Illuminating Touch-Sensitive Electronic Film Developed

    Engineers and materials scientists at University of California in Berkeley created an interactive electronic film with a network of pressure sensors built into flexible plastic. The findings from the lab of Berkeley engineering professor Ali Javey, with colleagues from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, appear online in yesterday’s advance issue of the journal Nature Materials (paid…

  • Lightning Detection System Upgraded for Houston, Texas

    A meteorologist at Texas A&M University in College Station developed an enhanced lightning detection system for the Houston region, one of the most lightning-prone areas in the U.S. Richard Orville, an atmospheric sciences professor, led the $1.2 million project, which was funded by National Science Foundation. Houston averages some 1,700 lightning strikes in the months…