Copyright 2009 Medical News Today Latest IT / Internet / E-mail News From Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/it/ admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin) editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors) en-us Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156328.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156328.php The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) submitted comments to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONC) request for feedback on determining criteria for the term "meaningful use" of electronic records (EHRs), prepared by ONC's HIT Policy Committee. Pharmacy / Pharmacist Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156395.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156395.php A new type of optical particle trap can be used to manipulate bacteria, viruses and other particles on a chip as part of an integrated optofluidic platform. The optical trap is the latest innovation from researchers at the Jack Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who are developing new sensor technology for biomedical analysis and other applications. Medical Devices / Diagnostics Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156426.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156426.php Video from portable cameras is analysed to calculate the distance of obstacles and predict the movements of people and cars. This information is then transformed and relayed to a blind person as a three-dimensional 'picture' of sound. The concept is apparently simple and two prototypes have been successfully tested. Laser and digital video cameras become the eyes for the blind man and see the objects and activity going on around him. Eye Health / Blindness Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156232.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156232.php A study published in the July 2009 issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology revealed that internet-based lung cancer information was of a higher quality in the United States (US) than in Japan. Dr. Yasushi Goto of the National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo and his team of researchers from both the US and Japan evaluated 150 Web sites and determined noticeable differences in the quality and type of information on lung cancer available over the internet in the two countries. Lung Cancer Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156162.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156162.php Comparative-Effectiveness Research - Implications of the Federal Coordinating Council's Report Primary Care / General Practice Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156174.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156174.php The UN is launching, on Wednesday the 1st of July 2009, a ten-day initiative intended to reach out to 10,000 people in Uganda through mobile phones to demonstrate the reach and potential use of mobile phones in health information and promotion. The initiative, "Texting4Health" will invite residents of Uganda's second largest commercial city of Jinja to participate in a short health quiz using text messages. IT / Internet / E-mail Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156163.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156163.php The White House sought the help of actor Ashton Kutcher to promote National HIV Testing Day on June 27, through his Twitter page, Politico reports. Kutcher has over 2.5 million followers on Twitter, where he recently posted a link to a White House blog post and video commemorating the day. HIV / AIDS Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156081.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156081.php The London Borough of Croydon's Drug & Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) is using SAS software to achieve better results in its efforts to get more people into drug treatment, reduce drug-related crime and empower the local community to resist drug misuse. SAS, the leader in IT / Internet / E-mail Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156053.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156053.php Researchers at the University of Michigan have devised a microscale tool to help them understand the mechanical behavior of biofilms, slimy colonies of bacteria involved in most human infectious diseases. Most bacteria in nature take the form of biofilms. Bacteria are single-celled organisms, but they rarely live alone, said John Younger, associate chair for research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the U-M Health System. Medical Devices / Diagnostics Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156027.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156027.php As scientists continue to decode the human genome and the information becomes publicly available, private companies that offer online genetic testing are multiplying. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health were concerned that perhaps these tests posed a risk. They evaluated responses to an online test among smokers who did or did not have a common genetic variant associated with risk for lung cancer. Lung Cancer Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156030.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156030.php A new report from the Institute of Medicine recommends 100 health topics that should get priority attention and funding from a new national research effort to identify which health care services work best. It also spells out actions and resources needed to ensure that this comparative effectiveness research initiative will be a sustained effort with a continuous process for updating priorities as needed and that the results are put into clinical practice. Public Health Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156031.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156031.php The equipment used for biomedical research is shrinking, but the physical properties of the fluids under investigation are not changing. This creates a problem: the reservoirs that hold the liquid are now so small that forces between molecules on the liquid's surface dominate, and one can no longer shake the container to mix two fluids. Instead, researchers must bide their time and wait for diffusion to occur. Medical Devices / Diagnostics Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155975.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155975.php "This year, 39 percent of doctors said they'd communicated with patients online, up from just 16 percent five years earlier, according to health-information firm Manhattan Research, a unit of Decision Resources Inc," the Wall Street Journal reports. Primary Care / General Practice Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155978.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155978.php Health Insurance / Medical Insurance Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155982.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155982.php The Grameen Foundation on Tuesday launched the first application of its Application Laboratory (AppLab) project, which aims to use "the proliferation of mobile phones in Africa as a way to get information and services to poor communities in Uganda without Internet access," the Seattle Times' blog, the "Business of Giving," reports (Heim, 6/29). IT / Internet / E-mail Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155993.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155993.php Researchers at North Carolina State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have received a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study whether and how video games can boost memory and thinking skills in the elderly - and then to use their findings to develop a prototype video game to do just that. The researchers will use the grant money, which is part of the federal stimulus package, to fund a two-phase research initiative. Seniors / Aging Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155996.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155996.php A team of scientists have developed an innovative robot rat which can seek out and identify objects using its whiskers. The SCRATCHbot robot will be demonstrated this week (1 July 2009) at an international workshop looking at how robots can help us examine the workings of the brain. IT / Internet / E-mail Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155945.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155945.php Many young smokers want to quit but don't know what methods work. The University of Illinois at Chicago is leading a $2.9 million National Cancer Institute project to increase demand for evidence-based, Internet-based smoking cessation treatment among young adults. Smoking / Quit Smoking Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155902.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155902.php A new computer model developed at MIT can help solve a problem that has plagued drug companies trying to develop promising new treatments made of antibodies: Such drugs have a relatively short shelf life because they tend to clump together, rendering them ineffective. Antibodies are the most rapidly growing class of human drugs, with the potential to treat cancer, arthritis and other chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases. Cancer / Oncology Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155885.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155885.php In an effort to increase understanding of the medical device development process and help companies execute the bench-to-bedside process of product development more effectively, researchers at Stanford University have published the first comprehensive model representing the medical device development process. Medical Devices / Diagnostics Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155893.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155893.php A new scientific system developed by a St. Michael's Hospital physician, designed to rapidly evaluate the world's air traffic patterns, accurately predicted how the H1N1 virus would spread around the world, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine. St. Michael's Hospital scientist and infectious disease physician Dr. Kamran Khan and colleagues analyzed the flight itineraries of the more than 2. Swine Flu Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155881.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155881.php There is no way to know how the newest strain of the H1N1 influenza virus will behave in the future. But scientists, notably those working at the intersections of epidemiology, mathematics, modeling and statistics, are monitoring it closely to identify anomalies on its pattern of spread while evaluating ways of mitigating its impact. Swine Flu Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155863.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155863.php Varian Medical Systems, Inc., (NYSE: VAR) announced it has acquired the assets of Houston-based IKOEmed and IKOEtech, privately-owned suppliers of software used in the planning of radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments. The acquisition enables Varian to offer hospitals and clinics an additional software tool to automate and accelerate the most time-consuming portion of the treatment planning process. Varian is paying approximately $2. Radiology / Nuclear Medicine Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155840.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155840.php Researchers from North Carolina State University and Mayo Clinic have developed a computer model that medical doctors can use to determine the best time to begin using statin therapy in diabetes patients to help prevent heart disease and stroke. "The research is significant because patients with diabetes are at high risk for cardiovascular disease and statins are the single most commonly used treatment for patients at risk of heart disease and/or stroke," says Dr. Diabetes Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155845.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155845.php The UK spends around £2.5 billion each year on dental materials to replace or strengthen teeth*. The Chewing Robot is a new biologically inspired way to test dental materials and it will be shown to the public for the first time at this year's Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition [30 June to 4 July]. Dentistry