Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles
Burdock Root

Nursing Workforce Solutions For 21st Century Health Care: How Do We Get There?
At a June 12 forum cosponsored by Health
generic viagra online
Some Medical Providers Slow To Adopt Electronic Records, Prescribing
"Digital medical records could cut down on office visits," and maybe even health care costs, Marketplace reports. "But for doctors, going electronic could be complicated and expensive. And nothing at all like what they learned in medical school." Relatively few doctors have made the switch so far, though new government incentives, funded by the stimulus bill, could shift the industry into gear. The doctors who have pioneered e-health have confronted a newish industry with few standards. One recalled that his early adoption of the records in 2003 was "a disaster," though he is now touted as an example for other practices (Carroll, 7/20).
News of the day
Newborn Brain Cells Show The Way
Although the fact that we generate new brain cells throughout life is no longer disputed, their purpose has been the topic of much debate. Now, an international collaboration of researchers made a big leap forward in understanding what all these newborn neurons might actually do. Their study, published in the July 10, 2009, issue of the journal Science, illustrates how these young cells improve our ability to navigate our environment.
Diagnostics

Therapy For Parkinson's, Other Diseases, Advanced By ORNL

By miniaturizing a device that monitors the delivery of healthy cells, researchers at Department of Energy"s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are developing a powerful instrument for physicians to use in treating patients with Parkinson"s syndrome, brain tumors and other diseases. While cell replacement therapies can be effective, the challenge is to deliver a sufficient quantity of healthy cells, said Boyd Evans III of the lab"s Measurement Science and Systems Engineering Division. "Regardless of the of cells and the location of delivery, there is a great need to improve cell viability after the cells are transplanted," Evans said. "The vast majority of transplanted cells do not survive more than 24 hours regardless of their ." Studies have shown that merely implanting more cells does not necessarily increase the number that survive and differentiate into dopamine-producing, or viable, cells in Parkinson"s models. The key is being able to deliver precise quantities of healthy cells to a targeted location. This requires the ability to determine if the cells are viable upon delivery and the ability to make meaningful measurements. ORNL"s proprietary instrumented cell delivery catheter allows physicians to do just that. "Our approach consists of monitoring cells that are implanted using a catheter equipped with a fiber optic probe to perform fluorescence-based cytometric measurements on cells as they exit the port at the catheter tip," Evans said. These measurements confirm that the cell is alive and provide indications of the cell"s health. "What we have done is taken the function of a laboratory instrument and put it on the tip of a catheter that can make measurements inside the brain," Evans said. Results from several studies underscore the value of delivering a highly controlled amount of tissue into the host brain, and understanding cell viability at the delivery point is critical for meaningful comparison of experimental results, according to Evans. The instrumented catheter is part of a larger effort to develop a complete system for collecting healthy tissue from an individual who is both the donor and recipient, expanding this tissue in vitro and implanting the tissue under monitored conditions. Joining Boyd in this effort are other researchers from ORNL, George Gillies of the University of Virginia, and neurosurgeon William Broaddus and neuroscientist Helen Fillmore of Virginia Commonwealth University. Funding provided through ORNL"s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program was used to develop a prototype device and demonstrate its functionality for characterizing cell flows of cell. Following completion of the LDRD funded project, NexGen Medical Systems and Kopf Family Foundation at the University of Virginia, and the Cullather, Hord and Hafner Funds at Virginia Commonwealth University worked on other issues associated with flows of slurries of cells, such as cell delivery, cell selection and culturing technique. Ron Walli DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009