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The FDA said it will collaborate with the U.S. Defense Department and the National Eye Institute to identify the percentage of patients who experience blurred vision, dry eyes and other side effects following Lasik eye surgery. The agency also will conduct a clinical trial tracking patients who undergo the procedure, which is expected to be completed in 2012, to better understand the risks and lessen the side effects of the surgery.
The FDA is undertaking initiatives to make its decision-making process more transparent to regain public trust and confidence in the agency, the FDA Commissioner said. The agency also needs to develop a more streamlined regulatory process for drugs and other medical products to include the application of biomarkers and test-animal models.
Tax-funded community clinics, which have seen unprecedented demand in the past year, are poised to take on a major role in caring for millions more patients if health care reforms are enacted. “There is going to be a wave of chronically ill people,” said one clinic director. “We’re well positioned to care for them.”
Palliative care aimed at managing pain and other symptoms may be more appropriate for some frail elderly nursing home patients than more aggressive treatments, two new federally funded studies suggest. Dialysis treatment not only failed to improve the quality of life of elderly nursing home residents with kidney failure but also may further their decline, one study found. A second study indicated patients with serious dementia — which researchers said should be considered a terminal illness at the end stages — tend to die within six months regardless of the treatment provided.
Evidence shows that chocolate can lower blood pressure, reduce systemic inflammation, inhibit cavities, increase cerebral blood flow and stimulate the central nervous system. This article details how some particular qualities of cocoa remain unexplained.
Three medical centers in Colorado have been chosen as testing sites for the state’s Connected Care program, which will be installed early next year. A joint venture among the state, Centura Health and UnitedHealthcare, the project will enable patients in rural areas to use video conferencing and other virtual solutions to communicate with doctors and specialists.
Editor’s Note: If you are working in the Telemedicine area, it may be worth visiting www.boost.me, a community for telehealth professionals.
New federal regulations, still to be finalized, ban health plans and employers from offering financial incentives to workers who take a health risk assessment if it asks about their family medical history. The rules would apply to wellness programs that incorporate Health Risk Assessments asking about genetic information, regulators said.
A provision in the health reform legislation in the House would allow children to remain on their parents’ insurance policies until they are 27, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The proposal is based on legislation from Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Penn., who notes that 31 percent of Americans age 19 to 29 don’t have health care coverage.
Heart disease in women should be called ischemic heart disease because it is different from the coronary artery version most common in men, cardiologists suggest in a paper in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The authors, representing the Women’s Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation, said the change could help focus attention on the greater symptom burden, functional disability and adverse outcomes experienced by women. |
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