IFPJ

ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2010) — All clinical trials have guidelines that clearly state who can and cannot participate, but according to the National Institutes of Health these guidelines are typically based on age, gender, previous treatment history, the type and stage of a disease, and other medically relevant factors. However, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have gathered evidence indicating that some trials explicitly exclude individuals based on their sexual orientation. Their findings are published in a research letter appearing in the March 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 16, 2010) — Living through the trauma of war seems to increase the risk of developing asthma, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Those who are most traumatised are twice as likely to develop the condition as those who are least traumatised by their experiences of war, the research suggests.

The authors base their findings on a random sample of just over 2000 Kuwaiti civilians who endured the Iraqi invasion and seven month occupation of their country in 1990, and were aged between 50 and 69 at the time.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 16, 2010)— Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine are presenting more than 20 ground-breaking studies at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 59th annual scientific session (ACC.10) in Atlanta. Their research includes data showing that the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse has caused potentially dangerous heart problems in responders on-site.

No Consensus in Definitions of 'Had Sex,' Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2010) — When people say they "had sex," what transpired is anyone's guess. A new study from the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University found that no uniform consensus existed when a representative sample of 18- to 96-year-olds was asked what the term meant to them.

Is oral sex considered sex? It wasn't to around 30 percent of the study participants. How about anal sex? For around 20 percent of the participants, no. A surprising number of older men did not consider penile-vaginal intercourse to be sex. More than idle gossip, the answers to questions about sex can inform -- or misinform-- research, medical advice and health education efforts.

Healthcare Reform Advisory

Hepatitis B and C Remain Public Health Issue -- Up to 5.3 Million Americans Infected

ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2010) — A recent report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) confirmed that 3.5 to 5.3 million people (1-2 % of the U.S. population) have chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. Despite efforts by federal, state and local government agencies to control and prevent these diseases, they remain a serious public health concern. The major factor impeding efforts to control HBV and HCV is lack of knowledge and awareness among health care providers, social service professionals, members of the public, and policy-makers.

Intense War News Reduces Ability to Remember Ads

ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2010) — A new study shows that the more graphic and intense war news is, the less likely that viewers -- regardless of political beliefs -- will remember the advertising that follows the news.

However, the researchers did find that lower-intensity programming resulted in a better recall of the
advertising by proponents of the war.

because they won't follow their own doctors' orders - and other reasons we need universal, single payer healthcare.

Even the Boss Doesn't Follow the Doctor's Orders

Hours Worked by Physicians Have Decreased Steadily in Last Decade

Why Do Physicians Order Costly CTs? Ultrasound Yields Better Diagnosis, Safer, Less Costly, Expert Argues

Dirty Air in California Causes Millions Worth of Medical Care Each Year, Study Finds

Significant Amount of Inappropriate CT and MRI Referrals from Primary Care Physicians, Study Finds

The Most Frequent Error in Medicine

Similar Advertising Strategies Used by Indoor Tanning and Tobacco Industries

At least somebody is thinking the unthinkable -- and giving military drones a better name.

Engineering Team Developing Helicopter That Would Investigate Nuclear Disasters

ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2010) — A new UN resolution has the potential to fight torture and cruelty, say experts on the British Medical Journal website.

The resolution, passed in March 2009, goes further than previous rulings, say the authors and spells out that "states must never request or require anyone, including medical or other health personnel, to commit any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Lead author, Dr Peter Polatin from the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims in Denmark, says there is substantial evidence that health professionals have been involved in torture around the world, for example in Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in the mid-1990s, in Israel and in Guantanamo Bay.

CheneyCARECheneyCARE POGS

Pharmaceutical Industry Support Not Desirable but Frequently Accepted by Residency Program Directors

ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2010) — Most directors of internal medicine residency training programs would prefer not to accept pharmaceutical support for the residencies they oversee, but more than half report doing so, according to an article in the February 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Sepsis and Pneumonia Caused by Hospital-Acquired Infections Kill 48,000 Patients, Cost $8.1 Billion to Treat

ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2010) — Two common conditions caused by hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) killed 48,000 people and ramped up health care costs by $8.1 billion in 2006 alone, according to a study released in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

This is the largest nationally representative study to date of the toll taken by sepsis and pneumonia, two conditions often caused by deadly microbes, including the antibiotic-resistant bacteria MRSA. Such infections can lead to longer hospital stays, serious complications and even death.

Role of Mass Media in Climate Change Skepticism

ScienceDaily (Feb. 23, 2010) — Mass media have been a key vehicle by which climate change contrarianism has traveled, according to Maxwell Boykoff, a University of Colorado at Boulder professor and fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES.

Boykoff, an assistant professor of environmental studies, presented his research February 22 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego. He spoke during a panel discussion titled "Understanding Climate Change Skepticism: Its Sources and Strategies."

Boykoff's segment was titled "Exaggerating Denialism: Media Representations of Outlier Views on Climate Change" and discussed prominent pitfalls.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 18, 2010) — Childhood leukemia rates have more than doubled over the last 15 years in the southern Iraq province of Basrah, according to the study, "Trends in Childhood Leukaemia in Basrah, Iraq (1993-2007), published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The authors, three of whom are from the University of Washington, say they hope their calculations can now pave the way for an investigation into reasons why the rates have climbed so high, and why they are higher than found in nearby Kuwait, or in the European Union or the United States.

The study documents 698 cases of leukemia for children aged 0-14 during the 15-year period, with a peak of 211 cases in 2006. Younger children had higher rates than older ones.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2010) — Traditional gauges of economic activity severely overstate the standard of living as experienced on Main Street, say University of Maryland researchers, who have worked with their state officials to apply a more accurate and greener index.

Maryland recently became the fourth U.S. state to adopt the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) as a supplement to the traditional state-level economic index, the Gross State Product (GSP).

"This is not merely a question of dueling statistics -- the difference in the two figures can be startling and represents very different pictures of our standard of living," says Matthias Ruth, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER), which calculated the GPI for the state.

"In 2000, the classic economic measure showed Maryland more than 50 percent wealthier than we actually were, as measured by the GPI." Ruth explains.

They will also support numerous treaties, including the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the proposed treaty to ban the production of nuclear materials for weapons.

Nuclear Downsizing: Report Identifies Steps to Reduce US Arsenal, Prevent Spread of Atomic Bombs and Keep Stockpile Safe

ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2010) — The American Physical Society (APS), the world's leading organization of physicists, has released a report identifying technical steps that will help the U.S. achieve its goals to downsize the nuclear arsenal, prevent the spread of atomic bombs and keep the stockpile safe and secure.

Vice President Joe Biden outlined those objectives during a speech in Washington, D.C., and the APS report, Technical Steps to Support Nuclear Downsizing, provides concrete steps -- including the use of nuclear archaeology to validate nations' production of atomic material -- that will help the nation accomplish its goals.

Charging Less for More Effective Treatments Could Reduce Health Care Costs While Improving Health

ScienceDaily (Feb. 16, 2010) — Value-based insurance design (VBID) in which consumer payments are waived for highly effective treatments, but are raised for less effective ones, could increase the benefits of healthcare in the US without increasing expenditures, according to research published in PLoS Medicine. The costs saved by VBID could be used to subsidize coverage for the currently uninsured, providing a substantial improvement in health outcomes.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 15, 2010) — Despite good intentions, the push to privatize government functions and insistence upon "free trade" that is too often unfair has caused declining food production, increased poverty and a hunger crisis for millions of people in many African nations, researchers conclude in a new study.

Market reforms that began in the mid-1980s and were supposed to aid economic growth have actually backfired in some of the poorest nations in the world, and just in recent years led to multiple food riots, scientists report Feb 15 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Energy-Efficient Lighting Made Without Mercury

ScienceDaily (Feb. 15, 2010) — RTI International has developed a revolutionary lighting technology that is more energy efficient than the common incandescent light bulb and does not contain mercury, making it environmentally safer than the compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb.

Remember the Maine

Lobbying Top Spenders

We the Corporations

ScienceDaily (Feb. 4, 2010)— Male homosexuality doesn't make complete sense from an evolutionary point of view. It appears that the trait is heritable, but because homosexual men are much less likely to produce offspring than heterosexual men, shouldn't the genes for this trait have been extinguished long ago? What value could this sexual orientation have, that it has persisted for eons even without any discernible reproductive advantage?

One possible explanation is what evolutionary psychologists call the "kin selection hypothesis." What that means is that homosexuality may convey an indirect benefit by enhancing the survival prospects of close relatives. Specifically, the theory holds that homosexual men might enhance their own genetic prospects by being "helpers in the nest." By acting altruistically toward nieces and nephews, homosexual men would perpetuate the family genes, including some of their own.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2010) — The presumption that children need both a mother and a father is widespread. It has been used by proponents of Proposition 8 to argue against same-sex marriage and to uphold a ban on same-sex adoption.

On the other end of the political spectrum, Barack Obama endorsed the vital role of fathers in a 2008 speech: "Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation."

The lead article in the February issue of Journal of Marriage and Family challenges the idea that "fatherless" children are necessarily at a disadvantage or that men provide a different, indispensable set of parenting skills than women.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 1, 2010) — Psychologists and psychiatrists should not be expected to participate in torture as they do not have the expertise to assess individual pain or the long-term effects of interrogation, says experts in an analysis posted online in the British Medical Journal.

The authors, Derrick Silove and Susan Rees, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, say some senior members of the US military have argued that a psychologist's presence is necessary to protect the prisoner or detainee from the "severe physical or mental pain or suffering resulting in prolonged mental harm."

Top gripes: What bugs America most

When it comes to everyday annoyances, two are clear winners—or make that losers: unexpected fees and difficulty reaching a human when you call about a bill or service.

In a nationally representative survey conducted in late September, we asked 1,125 Americans to score 21 gripes on a 1-to-10 scale, 1 meaning an experience "does not annoy you at all" and 10 meaning it "annoys you tremendously."

Hidden fees scored 8.9 overall; inability to reach a human, 8.6. Mean scores for all the gripes are in the chart below. When we crunched the numbers further, more eye-openers were revealed:

● Women were significantly more irritated than men by 11 of the 21 choices, including speeding drivers, having to remember passwords and PINs, and products that shrank but still cost the same.
● People older than 50 were more annoyed than younger folks about eight of the choices. Among them: speeding drivers, discourteous cell-phone use, e-mail spam, and cell-phone use while driving.
● Respondents who identified themselves as Democrats were more annoyed than Republicans by television or radio shows during which people shout their opinions.
● Residents of densely populated urban areas were more annoyed than rural residents by unscooped dog poop.
● When it comes to driving habits, Americans in general were more annoyed by people who tailgate than by very slow drivers or speeders.

Despite all the complaining, one group escaped the worst of the public's wrath: weather forecasters who get it wrong. They scored a mere 4.3 on our gripe scale.

Integrating Private Insurance With Public Health Would Improve US Health Care, Researchers Say

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2010) — The United States has an inefficient and expensive health care system, but it could be improved with a new integrated health care system detailed in a new study in the American Journal of Public Health.

According to researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and UCLA, the American healthcare system is riddled with inefficiencies due to a lack of an integrated system that could promote an optimal mix of personal medical care and population health measures.