Highlight HEALTH is a new media news organization that promotes advances in biomedical research and new ideas in health and medicine.
Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a new silk-based stabilizer that, in the laboratory, kept some vaccines and antibiotics stable up to temperatures of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This provides a new avenue toward eliminating the need to keep some vaccines and antibiotics refrigerated, which could save billions of dollars every year […]
The U.S. Surgeon General recently challenged mobile device application developers to come up with apps that would “provide tailored health information and empower users to engage in and enjoy healthy behavior.” The first place winner in the Fitness/Physical Activity category was Lose It!, an app designed to help users lose weight. According to the Lose […]
The progress in artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping patient care, across various dimensions, from facilitating faster discharge to curating treatment plans and suggesting lifestyle changes.
A new series of billboard and television ads is outraging Georgians, who object to the “Stop Sugarcoating It, Georgia” campaign being run by the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta pediatric hospital. The ads depict overweight and obese children in a variety of settings, and are meant to shock parents into action. The campaign, launched in August […]
The Is My Cancer Different? campaign urges patients to ask their doctors a crucial question — is my cancer different? — and provides powerful information on why, when and how it could matter to their treatment choices. Presented in video format and featuring cancer survivors, physicians, scientists, advocates and Ronnie Andrews, the president of Clarient, […]
The term “open source” describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product’s source materials. I’m sure you’ve heard of open source software such as Perl, WordPress, Linux and Android, and are familiar with open content projects such as Wikipedia and Wiktionary, but what about open source drug discovery? Specifically, Open […]
While computer gamers have long used gaming to interact with one another, build social connections, and de-stress, it’s now possible to contribute to scientific exploration while gaming. A new computer game called FoldIt encourages gamers to attempt to fold proteins into the lowest energy structure. From the FoldIt website: [K]nowing the structure of a protein […]
Hear executives from Quantum Health, Surescripts, EY, Clinical Architecture and Personify Health share their views on digital transformation in healthcare.
WebLib, a small international technology startup of experts in information retrieval, natural language processing and medical informatics, recently released NLMplus, a semantic search and knowledge discovery application that utilizes a variety of semantic resources and natural language processing tools to produce improved search results from the vast collection of biomedical data and services of the […]
Mobile technology company Qualcomm announced today the formation of a new subsidiary, Qualcomm Life. The subsidiary will run the company’s former Wireless Health business. Qualcomm Life was unveiled Monday at the mHealth Summit in Washington D.C. As part of the launch, Qualcomm presented the 2net hub, a mobile device designed to plug into a wall […]
While the alleged link between vaccines — particularly the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine — and autism has been thoroughly discredited in more than 20 well-conducted studies of vaccine side effects [1], fears about the side effects of vaccination nevertheless remain a major factor influencing the healthcare decisions some parents make. This has led […]
Regardless of high or low overall scores on an IQ test, children with dyslexia show similar patterns of brain activity, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health. The results call into question the discrepancy model — the practice of classifying a child as dyslexic on the basis of a lag between reading […]
Closing cancer health equity gaps require medical breakthroughs made possible by new funding approaches.
We’ve been fighting the war on cancer for forty years and although there has been a decrease in U.S. cancer deaths, the global burden of cancer has doubled over the last three decades [1]. Indeed, the leading cause of death in the world today is cancer, followed by heart disease and stroke [2,3]. Cancer also […]
Last Thursday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the highly anticipated final regulations for accountable care organizations (ACOs) under Section 3022 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) [1]. The PPACA requires accountable-care agreements to be offered under Medicare, starting in 2012. What is an Accountable Care Organization (ACO)? An […]
New research published in this month’s Archives of Internal Medicine has caused quite a stir amongst vitamin- and mineral-popping Americans [1]. Researchers report that over the course of a decades-long study, older women who regularly took vitamin and mineral supplements were more likely to die than those who did not. This news may surprise those […]
The National Institutes of Health recently announced that it is awarding $143.8 million to challenge the status quo with innovative ideas that have the potential to propel fields forward and speed the translation of research into improved health for the American public. These awards are granted under three innovative research programs supported by the NIH […]
Inhaled corticosteroids are used by millions of asthma patients every day. However, as with all treatments to control asthma, there is marked patient-to-patient variability in the response to treatment. New research published today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has identified a genetic variant associated with the response to inhaled corticosteroids [1]. Investigators […]