Entries in "Health"
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January 26, 2007
Diagnosis: boomeritis: Sports injuries are tripping up middle-agers
The Plain Dealer, January 25, 2007
When 59-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger fell on the ski slopes last month, the snap of his breaking femur joined a sort of sad symphony. Same with the thud of 60-year-old President Bush falling face first off his mountain bike. "In their mind, they would like to be just as fit as they were when they were younger," said Julie Glodich, fitness supervisor at Case Western Reserve University's 1-2-1 Fitness Center. "Or be 'the hot grandma.' " Read article.
January 24, 2007
Venture dollars drop for local biotechs
Crain's Cleveland Business, January 24, 2007
Investors injected $87 million into young health care companies in Northeast Ohio in 2006—barely half of what was raised in 2005, but $26 million more than 2004, according to an annual report by BioEnterprise Corp. BioEnterprise president Baiju Shah said he is "very encouraged" by the findings, which he said indicate an upward trend in health care investment, despite the drop from 2005. Mr. Shah spread credit for the increase in investment over the past few years to institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University; a growing venture capital community; and groups such as BioEnterprise and JumpStart, a nonprofit that invests in early stage companies with high growth potential. Read article.
January 09, 2007
Adult stem cells spur market rush, avoid embryo ban
Bloomberg News, January 9, 2007
Five-month-old Luis Fernando Rojo was near death in a Miami hospital, suffering with blisters and bloody diarrhea after his tiny body rejected part of a marrow transplant for a rare bone disorder. So U.S. regulators allowed Luis's doctors to try an unapproved therapy from Baltimore-based Osiris Therapeutics Inc. Osiris, which first sold shares to the public on August 4, was founded in 1992 using technology developed by Arnold Caplan, a stem cell researcher at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Read article.
December 22, 2006
Holidays and children with ADHD: Tips to help parents cope
Star Beacon, December 20, 2006
It's a given: During the holidays, the youngsters are going to be more distracted, more fidgety, than normal. But for a child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the natural excitement of the holidays combined with their response can transform the family dinner, gift exchange or worship service into a tortuous, tumultuous experience. "Putting the brakes on these kids can be really hard during the holidays," says Robert Findling, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University and director of child and adolescent psychiatry at University Hospitals of Cleveland. Read article.
December 19, 2006
Teen tummies trimmed
WNYC, December 18, 2006
As the national waistline grows larger, more people are choosing to make their stomachs smaller. They're undergoing bariatric surgery, a category of various operations to reduce the size of the stomach or bypass it entirely. People feel full faster, eat less, and take on fewer calories. A growing proportion of these patients are teenagers. Nutritional expert Paul Ernsberger doesn't think that's a good enough reason to go under the knife. The Case Western Reserve University medical school professor thinks the risks are too high for people to think of obesity surgery like they would breast implants or liposuction. Read article.
December 11, 2006
Study finds risk of getting HIV not raised by birth control pills
The Plain Dealer, December 9, 2006
Birth control pills and other forms of hormonal contraception do not elevate a woman's risk of contracting HIV, according to a large international study that included work by Case Western Reserve University. The findings were published Thursday in the online edition of the journal AIDS and will appear in the January printed edition. Read article.
December 08, 2006
Standardizing ICU care would not harm patients
Reuters, December 7, 2006
Resources used by different physicians in intensive care units (ICU) vary widely without influencing patient outcomes, according to a report in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Garland and colleagues from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine at MetroHealth Medical Center investigated the discretionary costs, ICU length of stay, and hospital mortality for 1,184 patients cared for by nine different intensive care specialists. Read article.
December 07, 2006
Super kids: Boost your baby's brain power
News 14 Carolina online, December 7, 2006
Get moving: Researchers from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland studied the children of 20 women who continued to exercise throughout pregnancy and 20 expectant moms who quit exercising. At 5 years old, the children born to the moms who exercised performed significantly better on tests of general intelligence and oral language skills. Read article.
December 06, 2006
Pfizer problems emblematic of industry obstacles
NPR Online, December 5, 2006
The decision by Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, to abandon work on a promising cholesterol drug has some analysts wondering whether the industry can continue to grow at the same pace. Cardiologist Eric Topol of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland says it's difficult for the pharmaceutical industry to find a drug that adds meaningful new benefits for someone who is already taking four or five drugs a day, including aspirin, a statin and a blood thinner. Read article.
December 05, 2006
Revamp of brain 'could slow CJD'
BBC News Online, December 4, 2006
Tests in mice with scrapie—a disease similar to CJD in humans and BSE in cattle—showed the life-extending treatment works. The method used by the German team involves molecules called special RNAs (siRNAs), Journal of Clinical Investigation reports. These shut down the production of proteins that go awry in prion disease. Qingzhong Kong, an expert in prion diseases at the Case Western Reserve University in the United States, said: "Much more research is needed before RNA interference can be harnessed to treat prion disease." Read article.
December 04, 2006
New moms and newborns need privacy, study shows
USA Today, December 3, 2006
Flowers are always nice, but perhaps the best gift you can give a brand-new mom is some quiet time alone with her baby. "I can remember when I first got into obstetrics, back in the late '70s, early '80s, fathers could stay on the floor all the time, and grandparents and siblings were the only ones who could come to visit," says lead author Barbara Morrison, an assistant professor of nursing at the Case Western Reserve University Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. Read article.
Growing health advocacy industry takes pressure off individuals
Crain's Cleveland Business, December 4, 2006
Tom Bregar spent two years writing what he calls the "perfect software program" to flush out errors and reconcile and compile medical bills and insurance. In 2002, he turned his idea into MedBill Advantage—his Broadview Heights company that is part health-service- and part technology-based. Today, MedBill Advantage is part of a growing industry of health advocates geared toward helping busy and overwhelmed patients work their way through the health care maze. "This is an outgrowth of taking care of grandma's bills from a shoebox," said J.B. Silvers, faculty director of the Health Systems Management Center in Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management. Read article. (subscription required)
November 27, 2006
Search for cure means chase for funding: Breast cancer research part lab, part grant work
The Plain Dealer, November 27, 2006
Ruth Keri inched forward with the crush of runners in the annual Race for the Cure. Like the others, she is fighting for a cure for breast cancer one painstaking step at a time. Keri is a cancer biologist, a laboratory scientist at Case Western Reserve University who studies an aggressive form of breast cancer. At 43, she is a rising star in breast cancer research who also is elbow to elbow with young scientists in the high-stakes race for grants that fuel their work. Read article.
November 21, 2006
A new way to treat migranes
Kansas.com (The Wichita Eagle). November 21, 2006
Katherine Lahar's migraines stole years of Christmases and birthdays and other special occasions from her. She never knew when the tunnel vision, the nausea, the vomiting and diarrhea and excruciating pain would hit. She just knew they would—sometimes for a week at a time. That was then. Now, she's a different person. Lahar is a beneficiary of work done by Bahman Guyuron, chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Read article.
November 20, 2006
OSU cancer project apparently in limbo
Columbus Dispatch, November 20, 2006
Ohio State University officials have worked for at least two years to bring a rare, expensive cancer-treatment machine to central Ohio. University President Karen A. Holbrook included a statement about particle therapy in her 2005 State of the University speech, and university leaders talked about it to state officials and doctors at other hospitals. Now, however, university leaders won't talk about the project, and uncertainty about how to pay for it might be the reason. Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Columbus Children's Hospital, Case Western Reserve University and Battelle were named in the 2006 Third Frontier proposals as possible partners in the Ohio State project. Read article.
November 17, 2006
A focus on cure or care?
Minnesota Public Radio, November 17, 2006
Researchers are learning more about Alzheimer's everyday, but some may argue that there is not enough of an emphasis on helping families cope and care for patients. Guests for the discussion are Peter Whitehouse, professor of neurology at Case Western Reserve University, and John Hardy, senior investigator with the National Institutes of Health. Read article.
November 16, 2006
Michigan, Ohio deer deemed safe to eat
The Toledo Blade, November 15, 2006
Hunters need not worry about contracting a brain-wasting disease from deer when the Michigan deer firearms season opens today, officials said. So far, the disease has not been found in Michigan or Ohio deer. Ohio firearms season opens November 27. Venison lovers may take some comfort in research from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, which suggests that chronic wasting disease may not jump to humans. "So far, at least with the model available, there is still a significant species barrier," said Shu G. Chen, assistant director of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case and a coauthor of a study in the August issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Read article.
New test predicts best candidates for defibrillators
Forbes.com, November 16, 2006
A new, noninvasive test easily performed in a doctor's office may be able to predict which patients are at risk for sudden cardiac death and who would likely benefit from implanted defibrillators. "This trial suggests there's a way to individualize therapy for patients," said study senior author Dr. David S. Rosenbaum, professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Read article.
November 13, 2006
Researchers relinking brain, paralyzed limbs
The Plain Dealer, November 12, 2006
In a sunny Case Western Reserve University lab, the 49-year-old Emma Freeman eases her wheelchair to an array of video screens. One displays the ghostly image of a disembodied right arm and hand, hanging motionless against a black background. A cable snakes from underneath her shirt, connecting Emma to the computer. Functional electrical stimulation (FES), the technology driving Emma's arm, is not new. Scientists at the Cleveland FES Center, a consortium of Case, MetroHealth Medical Center and the Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, have used various forms of stimulation to trigger muscles involved in bowel and bladder control, hand grasping and sitting upright. Read article.
November 08, 2006
Analysis: elections hold sway for health
United Press International, November 7, 2006
This Election Day voters are taking health to the ballot box through several state initiatives and their views on medical research, experts say. A series of midterm ballot initiatives on tobacco, reproduction and social determinants such as housing throughout the country may dramatically sway the direction of public health, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, director of the American Public Health Association. Yet some experts predict a troubled outlook for funding health initiatives, regardless of what party takes over. The "big clash" will come in trying to save money in the federal budget while also funding federal agencies such as NIH, said J.B. Silvers, a professor of health systems management at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. Read article.
November 06, 2006
Orthopedic boom continues
Crain's Cleveland Business, November 6, 2006
There's no need to sit around with achy joints when surgery can fix it. That's the mindset of many Americans today, and one that's prompting hospitals to cash in on the popularity of orthopedic surgery. "We're seeing a huge increase in people around the country who want orthopedic surgery," said Randall Marcus, Charles H. Herndon professor and chairman of orthopedics at Case Western Reserve University. Read article (subscription required).
'Star Trek' inspires Case speech therapy
The Plain Dealer, November 4, 2006
Think Wizard of Oz on board the Starship Enterprise. As an unseen force behind a curtain calls the shots, a virtual reality "holodeck" transports its users to a fast-food restaurant and beyond. The woman behind the curtain—and the concept—is Stacy Williams, an assistant professor of communication sciences at Case Western Reserve University. And the idea she has championed for almost a decade, inspired by the reality simulator of "Star Trek" fame, is about to go into use at the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center. Read article.