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It appears that physicians are not immune the economic struggles present in the United States. Modern Physician’s 16th annual Physician Compensation Survey found that most physicians received smaller compensation increases this year with many of those pay hikes not keeping up with inflation.

http://www.thedoctorschannel.com/video/2425.html?utm_source=news_2009-09...

Source the-scientist.com Image Source - © Greg Betza

We need to improve our healthcare system and allow the life science industries to flourish.

On healthcare reform it’s hard to find consensus. The one point everyone is in agreement on is that the current system is broken, and something must be done to fix it. The Obama administration and Congress are eager to enact broad reforms to improve care and access, and quickly. This is a commendable aim, one that Amgen fully supports. But in the rush to make change happen, it’s important to consider the long-term consequences of decisions made today.

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Daniel Mazanec, MD, FACP, FACR, Associate Director, Center for Spine Health Cleveland Clinic, discusses medical acupuncture, the different training programs in the US and how to interpret the qualifications of a medical acupuncturist.

Acupuncture some states have credentialing boards with specific requirements for medical acupuncturists. It is usually clear within 5-10 treatments if acupuncture is going to be effective in managing pain.

Source: Discover Magazine

Sleek, streamlined wind turbines have become the icons of the green movement, but for all the growth in wind power — it accounted for 42% of all new electricity generation added to the U.S. grid last year — wind still makes up less than 3% of America’s total electricity generation [Time]. Its marginal role has led many to wonder whether the technology is worth investing in, and whether wind power is capable of supplying enough electricity to meet our needs. To answer those questions, researchers analyzed wind patterns around the world and found that wind power could theoretically supply the entire world with energy, and then some.

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A chemist has created a new chemical compound using the chinese herb Artemisinin which kills cancer cells. Cancer (medical term: malignant neoplasm) is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, and do not invade or metastasize. Most cancers form a tumor but some, like leukemia, do not. The branch of medicine concerned with the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer is oncology.

Location:Four Seasons Hotel, 2800 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W., Washington, DC 20007
Phone: 202.342.0444

By Peter Schmidt, The Health Care Blog

The Obama team is talking very seriously about including health information technology in his “main street” stimulus package. While I generally agree with the predictions of doom and gloom for providers saddled with the burden of data entry, this creates a potentially huge opportunity for Health 2.0.

J.P. Morgan is pleased to announce the 27th Annual Healthcare Conference, January 12-15, 2009 in San Francisco.

This event is the premier conference of its kind, bringing together established industry leaders, emerging fast-growth companies, innovative technology creators and globally minded service providers. This year we expect more than 300 companies, both public and private, to deliver presentations to more than 3,500 investors. The format is 30 minute presentations followed by 30 minute Q&A sessions in a separate room.

Nyaya Health operates the regional health center and mobile medical care services in Achham, a large district in Nepal. Achham is one of the poorest regions in South Asia, and shoulders some of the world’s highest mortality rates, particularly among women. Following a decade-long civil conflict, the health infrastructure of the region has been ravaged. Nyaya provides essential primary care to the region, as requested and directed by community members. We work in partnership with local government officials as part of an initiative to rebuild the public sector health system.

"I am a 20 year old who lives with anorexia. I thought I would share my story with a small collection of videos, maybe it'll help some people see what's its like to live with this devastating disease. This is not meant to be anything but a story of my everyday life. This is my first video and i left it a bit vague on purpose. As i progress, I'll try to explain exactly WHY its hell."

Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes an eating disorder, characterized by low body weight and body image distortion, with an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Individuals with anorexia are known to control body weight commonly through the means of voluntary starvation, purging, excessive exercise or other weight control measures, such as diet pills or diuretic drugs.

Mostafa Analoui, PhD
The Livingston Group - New York, NY

As we get closer to January 20th, 2009, pundits are debating about top challenges that President Obama needs to deal with immediately. Regardless of whom you talk to and which focus group you get your feedback from, there is no doubt that economy, healthcare and national security remain among top agenda items. While bleak global and national economic news seems to be capturing the headline (and clearly it requires immediate surgical attention to stabilize this trauma before a long and slow rehabilitation for full recovery) we should not lose sights on healthcare and its short and long term impact on national well being, future work force and ever-increasing economic cost to the nation.

By Tim Hornyak, Sciam.com

(Photo: right) SHINYA YAMANAKA, discovered how to revert adult cells to an embryonic state. These induced pluripotent stem cells might soon supplant their embryonic cousins in therapeutic promise.

When historians chronicle the stem cell research wars, Shinya Yamanaka will likely go down as a peacemaker. The Japanese scientist has helped send the field on a surprising end run around the moral debate surrounding embryonic stem cells, the creation of which requires the destruction of embryos. Last year Yamanaka led one of two teams that showed that normal human skin cells can be genetically reprogrammed into the equivalent of stem cells. These so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) seem to be essentially identical to embryonic stem cells and possess the ability to become any cell.

By: Alison McCook, THE SCIENTIST

ABSTRACT:

Identical four-year-old twins Addi and Cassi Hempel smile, laugh, and play. They also have dementia, a manifestation of a genetic disease known as Niemann-Pick type C that disrupts cholesterol trafficking inside the cell. Although rare, NPC bears a striking resemblance to something much more common.

Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food borne illness. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards. Food can transmit disease from person to person as well as serve as a growth medium for bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Debates on genetic food safety include such issues as impact of genetically modified food on health of further generations and genetic pollution of environment, which can destroy natural biological diversity. In developed countries there are intricate standards for food preparation, whereas in lesser developed countries the main issue is simply the availability of adequate safe water, which is usually a critical item.

Drug companies need research money and doctors have to cover their rears from lawsuits.

Also many of us lead lifestyles that are unhealthy.

By taking charge of our lives and taking better care of ourselves, we can lead longer, healthier lives and spend less on healthcare.

A few simple things you can do include:

• Get 8 hours of sleep a night
• Eat healthier
• Stop smoking
• Cut down or eliminate alcohol consumption and
• Exercise

Stay Smart, Stay Healthy

Growth in the bottle water market has finally begun to slow for the first time in a decade.

Greenland wants to bottle glacier H2O.

Corn Refiners Association says, "You can have your HFCS and eat it, too."

Big corporations are swallowing up small organic food companies.

We are excited about changes at Medical Journal of Therapeutics Africa (MJoTA), http://www.mjota.org. The first issue was published on 15 January 2007: the following 4 issues were published every 4 months and since June, 2 to 4 articles have been published each month.

A simple, non-invasive procedure may be able to predict who is at risk for a heart attack.

Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. Although this limit varies from person to person, it is approximately 20 kilohertz (20,000 hertz) in healthy, young adults and thus, 20 kHz serves as a useful lower limit in describing ultrasound. The production of ultrasound is used in many different fields, typically to penetrate a medium and measure the reflection signature or supply focused energy. The reflection signature can reveal details about the inner structure of the medium. The most well known application of this technique is its use in sonography to produce pictures of fetuses in the human womb. There are a vast number of other applications as well.

Researchers have identified 11 genotypes that may increase esophageal cancer risk, according to research published in the November issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"We observed a significantly increased risk of esophageal cancer with increasing numbers of risk genotypes," said Yuanqing Ye, Ph.D., an instructor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

More reliable genome-searching tools may give new clues to disease mechanism, therapies

By: Sue McGreevey, Massachusetts General Hospital

The first family-based genome-wide association study in Alzheimer's disease has identified the sites of four novel genes that may significantly influence risk for the most common late-onset form of the devastating neurological disorder. In their report in the November 7 American Journal of Human Genetics, being released online today, a team led by researchers from the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (MGH-MIND) describes how newly available technology is improving understanding of genetic mechanisms underlying the disease. The study presents the first results of the Alzheimer's Genome Project supported by the Cure Alzheimer's Fund and the National Institute of Mental Health.