RxPG News : Latest Medical, Healthcare and Research News

Healthcare experts from UK and India meet at the UK Parliament to discuss ways to improve health care in India, UK

Tue, 12 Sep 2017 19:38:11 PST

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Healthcare service providers from UK and India, policymakers from UK and India, Members of House of Lords & House of Commons gathered at the UK Parliament on 12th September to exchange healthcare related information as the two nations seek ways to extend access, improve quality, and lower the cost of care to their citizens.

Panel discussions during the summits focused on opportunities that are available in Indo UK healthcare corridor, role of medical apps in health care reforms, necessity of developing world class healthcare in tier 2 and 3 cities in India, innovations in healthcare which can help healthcare providers to optimize their resources, improving patient outcome and experience, benefits of Ayurveda and ethical sustainable healthcare. Some of the British MPs who participated in the summit included Lord Swraj Paul; Mr.Virendra Sharma MP ( Ealing Southall ); Baroness Verma - Former Energy & Climate Change Minister and former International Development Minister, United Kingdom and Mr.Bob Blackman MP (Harrow East).
The panel discussion on opportunities for India UK healthcare partnerships looked at various scenarios for healthcare providers from UK and India to work together. Experts who were part of the panel discussion also mentioned about their current work in UK and India. The panellists included Dr Sushma Acquilla - Vice Chair - Global Health Committee, Faculty of Public Health; Mr.Mike Nithavrianakis - Group International Advisor, Aster DM Healthcare; Dr Umesh Prabhu - Former Medical Director of NHS; Mr.Marc Ramaer - Group Commercial Director – Industry, Indo UK Institute of Health;
This session was followed by presentation by Dr Sachin Gothi – Founder, Happy Pregnancy Global initiative/ Consultant Gynaecologist on how medical apps can help to close the gap between doctors and patients and thereby, play a lead role in health care reforms
The next presentation by Dr. Mayank Somani - CEO, Medics Super Speciality focused on those opportunities which are available for healthcare providers so as to develop world class healthcare in tier 2 and tier 3 cities of India.
Following this, the next panel discussion focused on how innovations in healthcare can help healthcare providers in making better use of their resources. The panelist discussed about various healthcare mobile applications which they are working on in order to enable healthcare providers to optimize their resources. The panelists included Dr. Claire Novorol - Founder and Chief Medical Officer, Ada Digital Health Ltd; Dr Sheldon Steed – Founder – Mumoactive; Dr Asif Qasim - Founder & CEO, MedShr; Mr.Ghalib Khan - Co-founder, Written Medicine and Dr Sachin Gothi – Founder, Happy Pregnancy Global initiative.

The following panel discussion looked at how healthcare organizations focuses on sustainable development, respecting the needs of the individual, society and the environment and also support good business practices. The panelists included Dr. Sukhbindar Singh Sibia – Director, Sibia Medical centre; Mrs Nadra Ahmed OBE – Chair, National Care Association and Dr Helen Susan Crawley– Medical Director, Royal College of General Practitioners International, South and South East Asia;
The next panel discussion focussed on various initiatives followed by organisations to improve patient outcome and enhance their experience while visiting a healthcare provider. The panellists included Ms.Jean Hardiman smith - Hon Secretary, Socialist Health Association; Mr.Harish Haridas – Founder , MobD / Vice Chairman, Lords Hospital; Mr Peter Bailey - Technology and Process Lead, Circle Health Hospitals and Dr Amita Agarwal – Head, Dr Batra’s Clinic UK.
The final panel discussion at the summit focussed on Ayurveda and its benefits. The panel discussion was led by Dr.Amarjeet S Bhamra - Lead Secretariat, All Party Parliamentary Group on Indian Traditional Sciences and included Ayurveda experts including Prof Madan Thangavelu and Prof Venkat Joshi
The summit aimed to establish an understanding of major health industry challenges and opportunities in India and UK/ Europe. The objective of the summit was achieved as the conversation during the summit helped to promote the exchange of knowledge, ideas and experiences among current and future healthcare service sector leaders from India and U.K/ Europe.

‘India Healthcare Summit' was 19th summit of the business meet series which have been held at UK Parliament, London over the last years and these summits has so far engaged more than 2700 delegates from more than thousand companies and institutions.

How do consumers see a product when they hear music?

Thu, 27 Jul 2017 04:00:00 PST

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Shoppers are more likely to buy a product from a different location when a pleasant sound coming from a particular direction draws attention to the item, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

"Suppose that you are standing in a supermarket aisle, choosing between two packets of cookies, one placed nearer your right side and the other nearer your left. While you are deciding, you hear an in-store announcement from your left, about store closing hours," write authors Hao Shen (Chinese University of Hong Kong) and Jaideep Sengupta (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology). "Will this announcement, which is quite irrelevant to the relative merits of the two packets of cookies, influence your decision?"

In the example above, most consumers would choose the cookies on the left because consumers find it easier to visually process a product when it is presented in the same spatial direction as the auditory signal, and people tend to like things they find easy to process.

In one lab study, consumers were asked to form an impression of pictures of two hotel rooms on a computer screen, one of which was at the right of the screen and the other at the left, while listening to a news bulletin from a speaker placed on either side. Consumers found it easier to process the picture of hotel room located in the direction of the news and also indicated a greater preference for that room. In another study, consumers were more likely to choose soft drinks from a vending machine that broadcast a local news bulletin.

But things get a little more complicated if the signal is one we wish to avoid, like an unpleasant noise. In that case, people first turn their attention to the unpleasant noise in order to decipher the signal. Then avoidance kicks in as they voluntarily turn their attention away from the unpleasant signal.

In another set of studies, consumers examined pictures of two restaurants while listening to either annoying or pleasant music that came from their left or right side. The music was played for either a very short time (20 seconds) or a relatively long one (1.5 minutes). "The predicted impairment effect was observed when the unpleasant music was played for a longer time -- now, it was the picture in the direction away from the music that was preferred," the authors conclude.

Drug activates virus against cancer

Tue, 15 Mar 2016 04:00:00 PST

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Parvoviruses cause no harm in humans, but they can attack and kill cancer cells. Since 1992, scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have been studying these viruses with the aim of developing a viral therapy to treat glioblastomas, a type of aggressively growing brain cancer. A clinical trial has been conducted since 2011 at the Heidelberg University Neurosurgery Hospital to test the safety of treating cancer patients with the parvovirus H-1.

We obtained impressive results in preclinical trials with parvovirus H-1 in brain tumors, says Dr. Antonio Marchini, a virologist at DKFZ. However, the oncolytic effect of the viruses is weaker in other cancers. Therefore, we are searching for ways to increase the therapeutic potential of the viruses.

In doing so, the virologists also tested valproic acid, a drug belonging to a group of drugs called HDAC inhibitors. The effect of these inhibitors is to raise the transcription of many genes that have been chemically silenced. Valproic acid is commonly used to treat epilepsy and has also proven effective in treating specific types of cancer.

The researchers initially used a combination of parvoviruses and valproic acid to treat tumor cells that had been obtained from cervical and pancreatic carcinomas and raised in the culture dish. In both types of cancer, the drug raised the rate of virus-induced cell death; in some cases, the cancer cells were even completely eliminated.

The encouraging results obtained in cultured cells were confirmed in cervical and pancreatic tumors that had been transplanted to rats. After the animals were treated with a combination of parvoviruses and valproic acid, in some cases the tumors regressed completely and animals remained free of recurrences over a one-year period. In contrast, animals treated with the same virus dose without the drug displayed no regression, not even when a 20-times higher dose of viruses was administered.

The virologists were also able to unravel the molecular mechanism by which valproic acid assists parvoviruses in fighting cancer: Treatment with the drug activates a viral protein called NS1, which is toxic. This helps the viruses replicate more rapidly and kill cancer cells more effectively.

Bone loss associated with increased production of ROS

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 04:00:00 PST

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Bone is constantly being broken down and remodeled. Osteoporosis results when bone resorption outpaces bone regeneration. Production of reactive oxygen species, a form of oxidative stress, has been predicted to promote bone loss, but a source of reactive oxygen is unknown.

In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Katrin Schröder and colleagues at Goethe-University identify a relationship between NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4), an enzyme that promotes reactive oxygen species formation, and bone resorption. In a mouse model of osteoporosis, genetic disruption or drug-induced loss of NOX4 protected the mice from bone loss. Additionally, the authors identify a small nuclear polymorphism in NOX4 in human patients that associated with increased bone turnover. Together, these data suggest treatments targeting NOX4 activity may benefit osteoporosis patients.

Sound preconditioning prevents ototoxic drug-induced hearing loss in mice

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 04:00:00 PST

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The death of sensory hair cells in the ear results in irreversible hearing loss. Several classes of drugs, including aminoglycoside antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs are known to kill hair cells; however, in many cases the benefit of using the drug outweighs the potential for hearing loss. Previous research has shown that a class of proteins induced in response to cell stress, the heat shock proteins (HSPs), can protect against sensory hair cell death in response to ototoxic drugs. Despite understanding how HSPs protect the hair cells of the inner ear, there are no current therapies to induce expression of or deliver HSP directly to the inner ear.

In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Lisa Cunningham and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health developed a sound preconditioning protocol in mice that did not damage hearing, but induced HSP expression in the ear. They found that sound conditioning prior to treatment with ototoxic drugs, protected mice from drug-induced hearing loss. Furthermore, sound preconditioning resulted in increased expression of HSPs in the inner ear. Together, these data indicate that sound therapy may protect hearing in patients that require treatment with ototoxic drugs.

Crystal methamphetamine use by street youth increases risk of injecting drugs

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 04:00:00 PST

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The use of crystal methamphetamine by street-involved youth is linked to an increased risk of injecting drugs, with crystal methamphetamine being the drug most commonly used at the time of first injection, found a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Amphetamine-type drugs, including crystal methamphetamine, are second only to cannabis in popularity. Injection rates of crystal methamphetamine have increased substantially among adult drug users in some Canadian centres such as Vancouver, BC. Overall use of crystal methamphetamine by street-involved youth aged 15-24 in Canada also increased,from 2.5% in 1999 to 9.5% in 2005.

To understand whether crystal methamphetamine use is linked to first-time drug injection in youth, researchers from the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, University of British Columbia and the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, looked at data from the At-Risk Youth Study of street-involved youth aged 14-26 in Vancouver. There were 991 youth who completed a questionnaire on drug use, with 395 (40%) reporting using crystal methamphetamine and 390 (39%) injecting drugs at the start of the study. The researchers focused on the 395 youth who had not injected drugs at the start of the study. They found that 64 (16%) of these young people reported injecting drugs for the first time during the study period (October 2005 to December 2010). The average age for first-time use of crystal methamphetamine was 14 years in youth who later became intravenous drug users.

"Within a sample of street-involved youth in a Canadian setting, recent noninjection use of crystal methamphetamine was independently associated with an increased risk of subsequent initiation of injection drug use," write Dr. Evan Wood and Dan Werb, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, with coauthors. "Within a subsample of first-time injection drug users, crystal methamphetamine was most commonly reported as the drug used during initiation events."

Although youth described varied locations for first-time drug injection, 39% reported injecting drugs in public places, many in Vancouver's downtown eastside neighbourhood. Participants reported injecting for the first time with other people present, including friends (57%), family members (13%) and acquaintances (10%).

"Addressing the impact of crystal methamphetamine use in increasing the risk of injection initiation among injection-naive street-involved youth represents an urgent public health priority," write the authors.

They call for further research to develop evidence-based interventions to prevent drug injection that consider the complexities of using crystal methamphetamine with other drugs.

Johns Hopkins-led study shows increased life expectancy among family caregivers

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 04:00:00 PST

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Contradicting long-standing conventional wisdom, results of a Johns Hopkins-led analysis of data previously gathered on more than 3,000 family caregivers suggests that those who assist a chronically ill or disabled family member enjoy an 18 percent survival advantage compared to statistically matched non-caregivers.

In a report, published in the current online version of the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers found that providing care for a chronically ill or disabled family member not only fails to increase health risk, but also is associated with a nine-month extension in life expectancy over the six-year period of the study.

According to the Commission on Long-Term Care, family caregivers -- the backbone of America's long-term care system -- provide an estimated $450 billion in care and immeasurable support every year. An aging America means more demand for caregivers who help care for the elderly, but a looming shortage of caregivers could endanger many of the most vulnerable.

"Taking care of a chronically ill person in your family is often associated with stress, and caregiving has been previously linked to increased mortality rates," says first author, David L. Roth, Ph.D., director of the Johns Hopkins University Center on Aging and Health. "Our study provides important new information on the issue of whether informal family caregiving responsibilities are associated with higher or lower mortality rates as suggested by multiple conflicting previous studies."

Roth and his colleagues conducted an analysis of information gathered originally in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study. That study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), looked at information from over 30,000 people, aged 45 years or older, to assess the excess stroke risk among African-Americans living in the nation's Southeastern "stroke belt." Dr. Roth's team studied whether 3,503 family caregivers from the REGARDS study showed differences in rates of death from all causes over a six-year period compared with a matched sample of 3,503 non-caregivers. The groups were matched using a measure based on 15 common variables that included demographics, health history and health behaviors.

According to Roth, theirs is the first study of its kind to show mortality effects for caregivers using this "propensity score matching" approach. "Although our findings are not entirely new, the statistical methods we used were unique and innovative and our large national database, which included a large number of African-American caregivers, is what really sets our research apart," he said.

Roth added that analyses of subgroups of caregivers were consistent with the findings for the overall group of caregivers. "We did not find any subgroup of caregivers in the REGARDS sample that appeared to be vulnerable to increased mortality risks. This includes our analyses of all spouse caregivers and of the spouse caregivers who report experiencing some caregiving strain," stated Roth.

"In many cases, caregivers report receiving benefits of enhanced self-esteem, recognition and gratitude from their care recipients. Thus, when caregiving is done willingly, at manageable levels, and with individuals who are capable of expressing gratitude, it is reasonable to expect that health benefits might accrue in those situations," added Roth.

Roth cautioned that his team's analysis had its limitations, and could not rule out the possibility that some subgroups of caregivers might be more vulnerable to increased risk of death. The limitations were mostly due to a lack of information on the functional status of the care recipients and the specifics of the care being provided.

"If highly stressful situations can be avoided or managed effectively, caregiving may actually offer some health benefits for both the care recipients and the caregivers, including reduced risk of death for those providing care," Roth said. "Negative public health and media portrayals of the risk of family caregiving may do a disservice by portraying caregiving as dangerous, and could potentially deter family members from taking on what can be a very satisfying and healthy family role. Public discussions of caregiving should more accurately balance the potential risks and gains of this universal family role."

Roth says future research should examine specific group of caregivers. "We need to research adult children who are providing regular care to a disabled parent, because this group is rapidly growing in size in our population, but largely understudied, at least in comparison to spouses," said Roth.

Moderate to severe psoriasis linked to chronic kidney disease, say experts

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 04:00:00 PST

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The authors recommend closer monitoring for kidney problems in patients with 3% or more of their body surface area affected to help detect and treat signs early and suggest careful consideration of medications which may cause kidney disease in this at risk patient population.

Psoriasis is a common, chronic inflammatory disease of the skin and joints that affects 2-4% of the general population. Increasing evidence suggests that psoriasis is associated with diabetes and heart disease independent of traditional risk factors. Some doctors think psoriasis may also be associated with kidney disease, but so far, studies have been small and shown conflicting results.

So a team of researchers based in Philadelphia, USA decided to compare the risk of chronic kidney disease in patients with and without psoriasis.

Using a UK primary care electronic medical records database (THIN), they identified 143,883 patients aged 18 to 90 years with psoriasis. These patients were matched with 689,702 patients without psoriasis who acted as controls. Patient with psoriasis who received phototherapy or oral or injectable (biologic) medications were defined as having severe disease.

The team then analysed how many of these patients had received a diagnosis of chronic kidney disease based on standard tests between 2003 and 2010.

Known risk factors for chronic kidney disease, such as age, sex, presence of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and use of NSAIDs were also taken into account.

The researchers found that patients with psoriasis, particularly those with severe disease, were at greater risk of developing moderate to advanced (stage 3 to 5) chronic kidney disease compared with control patients. Furthermore, those with severe psoriasis were nearly twice as likely to develop chronic kidney disease and were more than four times as likely to develop end stage renal disease requiring dialysis.

After adjusting for known risk factors, severe psoriasis remained an independent risk factor for chronic kidney disease and end stage renal disease requiring dialysis.

A further analysis of 8,731 psoriasis patients with measurements of affected body surface area matched to 87,310 patients without psoriasis showed similar results - a greater risk of chronic kidney disease in patients with moderate and severe disease.

Mild psoriasis is defined as limited disease with 2% or less body surface area affected, moderate as scattered disease with 3-10% body surface area affected and severe as extensive disease with more than 10% body surface area affected.

The combined results indicate that, although no association is seen in patients with truly mild disease, associations are seen in moderate and severe psoriasis, which are estimated to affect over 20% of patients worldwide, say the authors.

They also point out that, although the relative risk was higher in younger patients, the absolute risk of chronic kidney disease attributable to psoriasis increases with age.

For example, in patients aged 40-50 with severe disease, psoriasis accounts for one extra case of chronic kidney disease per 134 patients per year, and in those aged 50-60, it accounts for one additional case per 62 patients per year, they explain.

Future studies are warranted to confirm our findings, determine the mechanisms mediating renal insufficiency in psoriasis, and examine the impact of treatment for psoriasis on the risk of chronic kidney disease, they conclude.

Licensing deal marks coming of age for University of Washington, University of Alabama-Birmingham

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 04:00:00 PST

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Researchers, led by University of Washington (UW) physicist Jens Gundlach, have developed a nanopore sequencing technology that is capable of reading the sequence of a single DNA molecule. In this system, the DNA is pulled through a nanopore while an ion current through the pore electronically reads the DNA's sequence. The nanopore is an engineered protein developed specifically for DNA sequencing by Gundlach's team in collaboration with Michael Niederweis, a microbiologist at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB). This technology has led to a patent-licensing deal between UW and Illumina, Inc.

The licensing deal gives San Diego-based Illumina, Inc., developer of integrated systems for genetic variation analysis, exclusive worldwide rights to develop and market the nanopore DNA sequencing technology that is based on the engineered pore.

Many companies and universities are looking at nanopore technology as one way to realize that potential, but the technology developed by Drs. Gundlach and Niederweis is among the most promising, said Christian Henry, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Illumina's Genomics Solutions business.

The nanopore was created by genetically engineering a protein pore from a mycobacterium smegmatis. The pore has an opening 1 billionth of a meter in size, just large enough for a single DNA strand to pass through, but needed to be modified to become useful for this sequencing technology.

Last year Gundlach's team published a study in Nature Biotechnology that found the combination of a genetically altered M. smegmatis pore and DNA polymerase could be used to directly determine DNA sequences using just single DNA molecules. The polymerase serves as a molecular motor that moves a DNA strand through the pore one nucleotide at a time. Their study reported a successful demonstration of this new technique using six different strands of DNA. The results corresponded to the already known DNA sequence of the strands, which had readable regions 42 to 53 nucleotides long.

While mycobacterial nanopores were first studied as potential chinks in the armor of the tuberculosis bacteria, they are now part of efforts to make genetic sequencing faster and cheaper. Gundlach believes this may lead to readily available personalized medicine, potentially revealing predispositions for a variety of illnesses, such as cancer, diabetes and addiction.

Sequencing reveals genetic variations, which partly determine each person's risk for many diseases, as well as which drugs will work best for each individual. Cancer centers are already sequencing tumors in search of variations that make some resistant to chemotherapy. And global sequencing studies seek to find the genetic contributors to a variety of conditions from autism to diabetes.

The nanopore technique also can be used to identify subtle DNA modifications that happen over the lifetime of an individual, said Gundlach. Such modifications, referred to as epigenetic DNA modifications, may take place as chemical reactions on the DNA within cells -- and tell the cells how to interpret their DNA. While essential for proper cellular functioning, epigenetic modifications can also be the underlying causes of various undesired conditions.

Epigenetic modifications are important for things like cancer, Gundlach said, and being able to provide DNA sequencing that can directly identify epigenetic changes is one of the charms of the nanopore sequencing method.

Simple blood or urine test to identify blinding disease

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 04:00:00 PST

( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Research led by physician-scientists at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has produced a breakthrough discovery in diagnosing retinitis pigmentosa, a blinding disease that affects about 1 in 4,000 people in the United States.

Rong Wen, M.D., Ph.D., and Byron Lam, M.D., professors of ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer, in collaboration with biochemist Ziqiang Guan, Ph.D., a research associate professor at Duke University Medical School, discovered a key marker in blood and urine that can identify people who carry genetic mutations in a gene responsible for retinitis pigmentosa (RP). A simple urine test can tell who has the RP-causing mutations, said Dr. Wen. Collecting urine is non-invasive and easy, especially from young children.

The first mutation in this gene, named DHDDS, was identified in 2011 by scientists at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, including Stephan Zuchner, M.D., Ph.D., professor and Interim Chair of the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics, Wen, Lam, and Margaret A. Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., Director of the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics, on behalf of a South Florida couple who were searching for the reason why three of their children were blinded by RP. Mutations in this gene are more common in persons of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage than in the general population. RP is a group of inherited eye diseases that cause progressive vision loss and blindness due to degeneration of the retina, the layer of light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye.

It is our vision that every patient who is affected with an inherited eye disease like RP should have access to a clinician who is knowledgeable about the diseases, as well as to affordable diagnostic testing and counseling, said Lam, director of Bascom Palmer's hereditary eye disease center. This diagnostic test is a powerful tool that will help in developing treatments for RP caused by DHDDS mutations.

The DHDDS mutation has special meaning to the Lidsky family of South Florida. Three of the four Lidsky children, who are now in their 30s, began to lose their sight in their teens. The fact that a simple blood or urine test can identify the genetic defect that causes this form of RP is very important, said Betti Lidsky, mother of the children, and a founder of Hope for Vision, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting retinal research. I have tremendous hope in the doctors and scientists doing this life-changing work and am confident that RP is one step closer to being treated.