Nurse practioner: Let’s do what we’re trained to do (Morning Read)

Highlights of the important and interesting in the world of healthcare:

Not a ‘scope of practice’ issue. The Institute of Medicine’s “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” is a logical read and echos what nurse practitioners (NPs), patients and some other professions have been saying for years: let NPs do the work they are educated and trained to do without arbitrary and archaic state and/or federal barriers, according to A Nurse Practitioner’s View blog.

NVCA: Not a dull moment. Never before has the National Venture Capital Association faced so many defining moments at once, Mark Heesen, president of the trade group, and Emily Mendell, its vice president of strategic affairs, told the Wall Street Journal’s Venture Capital Dispatch blog.

Still a long way to go. Two mice — one dragging its hind leg and incontinent; the other, with better use of its hind legs — showed the promise of stem cells for treating spinal cord injury at the World Stem Cell Summit in Detroit, Michigan, this week, reports the Detroit News.

GE selling heart muscle cells. GE Healthcare began selling human cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells, developed under a license with Geron Corp. (NASDAQ:GERN) this week. The cells will be used in drug discovery and toxicity screening.

Celldex shares take a ride. Shares of Celldex Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CLDX) shot up 21 percent after a team of top researchers from Duke University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announced some impressive mid-stage clinical trial results for a therapeutic vaccine designed to fight brain cancer, according to FierceBiotech.

Biotech Graveyard gets bigger. Eight more biotech companies have failed in the economic fallout — among them Wisconsin’s VitalMedix — according to the 2010 Biotech Graveyard by FierceBiotech.