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 Blog Directory ID: 2984 | ||||||||||||||||||
 Blog URL: http://aushealth.blogspot.com/ | ||||||||||||||||||
 Google Pagerank: N/A | ||||||||||||||||||
 Blog Description: A synthesis of thought on health, and the politics and technology that guides it into the future. | ||||||||||||||||||
 Blog Tags: health - technology - australia - medicine - politics - future | ||||||||||||||||||
 Blog Category: Health & Wellness Blogs | ||||||||||||||||||
 Blog Owner: gabriel james | ||||||||||||||||||
 Blog Added: June 05, 2008 01:29:18 PM | ||||||||||||||||||
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Blog Platform:  Blogger/BlogSpot | ||||||||||||||||||
 Blog Country:  Australia | ||||||||||||||||||
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 Crohn's can affect the intesti |
Researchers believe the lack of a specific bacterium in the gut may be a cause of Crohn's disease.
A shortage of naturally-occurring bacteria is thought to trigger the inflammatory gastrointestinal disorder by over-stimulating the immune system.
Now a French team has highlighted the bug, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, which they show secretes biochemicals that reduce inflammation.
Medical Student Suicide more 'burnout' than depression
It's probably no surprise to those of us currently undergoing medical studies, but we still need some proof and this comprehensive study from the US offers some interesting insights into the reality of depression in medical students.The study in the Sept. 2 Annals of Internal Medicine found that 50% of approximately 2,200 medical students surveyed at seven medical schools reported burnout, while 11% said they considered suicide in the past year. This is despite them beginning medical school with mental health profiles similar to their non-medical peers.
While previous studies understandably tied such ideations to depression, these findings link medical student burnout -- depersonalization, emotional exhaustion and low personal accomplishment -- to the thoughts of suicide.
What is universally true is that the majority of my friends in medical school, like myself, come to medical school having previously been at the top of the academic pile. Suddenly they are barely passing and might even feel like they are not learning anything because they are so inundated with information. It is a unique and challenging place to be.
There is also a constant need to excel that is stretched to it's limits as one tries to cram early adulthood, studies and other responsibilities into a few short years. Just this morning, walking to hospital, I was talking with two classmates that have been trying to write up PhD's throughout the last three years of medical studies.
Prostate protein better than Morphine
A soon to be published study says that PAP, a protein used to help detect prostate cancer, is better than morphine at reducing pain.The researchers from the University of North Carolina found that PAP works by stripping away phosphate groups, the chemical tags that serve to activate or inactivate chemical messengers. In particular, it removes adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, which normally initiates the activities that invoke a painful sensation in a neuron.
This is another victory for biologics in the new world of drug discovery.
Make stem cells in your home kitchen
Long gone are the debates between the embryonic and adult stem cell camps. With the news that virtually any adult stem cell can be made pluripotent with the addition of 4 genes, embryonic stem cells have surely been consigned to the dustbin (except in places like California where Arnie had committed a billion to their study and no one wants to look bad).Researchers at the Harvard Stem cell institute are now able to make cells pluripotent using a relatively harmless adenovirus.
When one considers that only a few years ago these cells were the holy grail of scientists, I feel that useful treatments may come sooner than we expect.
E-health and Ginseng
Yet another one of my friends came up to me last week and said - Hey, this whole PHR thing is making sense to me now!!Awesome!&*%# - I said - So you, who work in IT and listened to me rave on about the need for PHR's for some years now, have finally got it?
I'm just hoping not everyone takes this long to cotton on. The friend in question - who is a great bloke mind you - had recently moved and was seeing a whole new bunch of doctors including specialists. The effort to get all his records, referrals and scans to his new doctors was proving more than cumbersome.
Enough said about PHR's - I'm always talking about them - to something different...
I love Chinese medicine, in fact, I love alternative or non-western medicine in general. In part because it reminds me of my lovable mother that falls for every quackery offered in Sydney to cope with the aches and strains of aging and being the mother of 10 children (yes one zero, ten). I also love it because it offers insight into what the world would be like without a regulated pharmaceutical industry.
So I was amused to read that in China, authorities have had to crack down on a company that sells Ginseng for injection that has been killing people. I mean, I know of Ginseng cream, and Ginseng tea, but Ginseng for injection? IV? What else do they inject over there English breakfast?
At least if it's already approved for use here, Dr. Phillip Nitschke may have found his solution to qualms about how to kill his suffering friends.
Our patent system is stuffed
It pretty much ruined my masters of science research experience. And I know it has caused no end of dramas for most other scientists I know. Yet it lives on as a necessary evil. When will we finally change it?More evidence that the patent system stifles innovation has come out of a 'landmark' Canadian study. They say that in comparison to IT, biosciences have really failed to deliver over recent decades. Few major problems have been solved. Indeed, the IT patent system is quite different from that used in biotech/pharma.
The study backed the idea of more public-private partnerships to share risks during early stages of research, and more patent pooling during the later stages of development and commercialisation. A summary of other recommendations are as follows:
Governments should:
- Seek other ways to encourage innovation?not just through IP, but through health and environmental regulations, the judicial system and tax rules, for instance.[
- Work with industry to help create respected and trusted entities whose members that can be counted on to mediate disputes fairly and encourage indigenous and local communities in policy development
- Develop Public-Private Partnerships to conduct early stage research including through the sharing of health related data to allow the sharing of risk across industry.
Patent offices should:
- Collect standardized patent-related information, including license data as they are doing in Japan
- Assist developing countries and NGOs in finding out which patents exist in order to enable licensing
Industry should:
- Establish an independent, non-profit technology assessment organization to evaluate new biotechnology products from developing countries
- Participate actively in the creation of Public-Private Partnerships and other collaborative mechanisms
- Be transparent about patent holdings
- Develop new business models that promote partnerships and collaborations
Universities should:
- Develop clear principles relating to the use and dissemination of intellectual property and promote greater access and broad licensing
- Develop measures of the success of transfer of technology based on social returns rather than on the number of patents hold
- Enter into collaborations between developed and developing countries to ensure that developing country doctoral and post-doctoral students have opportunities to study and work at home.
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