Top News

What's appropriate in pharma collaboration? What do physicians think? Physicians broadly perceived the majority of collaborations with the pharmaceutical and medical-device industries, as well as receiving payment for such collaboration, as appropriate. The American Journal of Medicine (10/2009)

Clinical Updates

   From AJM and other Elsevier publications

Glatiramer acetate: Good news in treating MS Early treatment with glatiramer acetate is efficacious in delaying conversion to clinically definite multiple sclerosis in patients presenting with clinically isolated syndrome and brain lesions detected by MRI. (Free registration required.) The Lancet (10/7)

Endurance training doesn't do much for diastolic decline In this study the amount of endurance training did not alter diastolic parameters in either ventricle in the young and, furthermore, the biventricular decline in diastolic function observed in healthy, nonathletic individuals with age was also observed in the aging athletes' heart. The American Journal of Cardiology (10/2009)

A postpartum diet that promotes weight loss? Using a food-frequency questionnaire and recording the weights of 430 women for nine months postpartum, researchers found that participants on a high protein diet lost on average 316 grams more per month than those on a low protein diet. The article asks whether this should become standard practice after childbirth. Nutrition (11/2009)

Second-stage labor duration: What it means in outcomes Increasing duration of the second stage of labor in nulliparous women is associated principally with adverse maternal outcomes. The second stage of labor does not need to be terminated for duration alone. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology (10/2009)

Why nurse assistants in long-term care are not effective Nurses' assistants say the worst barriers to effective job performance are workload and lack of teamwork. (Free abstract available.) Journal of the American Medical Directors Association (10/2009)

A better method to determine pubertal maturation An attempt to formulate a uniformly applicable method of determining the relative timing of pubertal maturation demonstrated good reliability and strong associations with all pubertal timing parameters, as well as BMI and percent body fat. (Full-text access is time-limited.) Journal of Adolescent Health (10/2009)

Medical News

• CDC: Most hospitalized H1N1 patients are younger than 25
  CDC officials said that slightly more than half of the people sick enough to be hospitalized with the H1N1 flu virus are younger than 25, which is very different from the seasonal flu, in which the elderly account for about 60% of hospitalizations. The CDC report also showed that 23.6% of H1N1 deaths are in people younger than 25. ABC News/Reuters (10/20)

• Many discharged heart patients don't get recommended drugs
  Only one-third of hospitalized heart failure patients are sent home with recommended, inexpensive pills shown to reduce hospitalizations and deaths, despite being seen at hospitals participating in a program designed to encourage adherence to treatment guidelines. Researchers said a lack of marketing for the drugs and safety concerns may be behind the poor adherence. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model)/The Associated Press (10/21)

• Study links autism to complications, not prematurity
  Autism may stem from complications during pregnancy and shortly after birth, according to a study in Pediatrics. Researchers said while premature babies had a higher risk of autism, it was negated when complications were factored in, indicating the complications, not the prematurity, were the link. Reuters (10/19)

Business Practice News

• BCBS: Stolen computer contained info on physicians
  Blue Cross Blue Shield said it warned 800,000 U.S. physicians their personal and business information may be at risk because a computer was stolen from an employee's vehicle in Chicago. The American Medical Association posted an online alert but said there has not been any evidence of identity theft related to the missing computer. Chicago Tribune/The Associated Press (10/14)

• Medical errors increase when new residents begin training
  Australian researchers said teaching hospitals see a spike in medical errors during the first months after a new class of medical residents begins training. The study in the British Medical Journal showed errors increased in the first month and then tapered off, with the increase disappearing after the fourth month. Reuters (10/16)

• Other News

• Video technology brings specialist care to more patients
  The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model) (10/20)

• Medical schools see 2% enrollment increase for 2009
  MSNBC/The Associated Press (10/20)

Patient's Perspective

• Social networking fuels online health sites
  The number of health Web sites has increased from about 35 in 2005 to almost 500 due in part to the popularity of social networking and the desire of patients to make informed decisions about their health. One health-focused social-networking Web site is Inspire, which allows its 130,000 members to share their health issues and experiences with treatment options. The Washington Post (10/19)

SmartQuote

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater." --Gail Godwin, American novelist