Inequalitites: The public health puzzle
Bettina Döbereiner continues her reports on theories, policy strategies and current projects aired in the Berlin conference Reducing Health Inequalities. What do we really know about successful strategies?
The 2009 Bernhard Dräger Award
Dr Vasilios Papaioannou, of the Democritus University of Thrace in Alexandroupoli, Greece, received the €15,000 Bernhard Dräger Award for Advanced Treatment of Acute Respiratory Failure during the opening of The European Society for Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) annual conference in Vienna.
Experts fear for Europe’s medical engineering
When over 3,000 international experts gathered at the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering in Munich, Germany to evaluate future trends, they heard that Asia is showing major gains in medical engineering — a field in which computer sciences are a key innovation driver – but that Europe is on the way to innovation leadership in telemedicine and e-health.
Parkinson's Disease: genetic risk factors identified
Two genes containing mutations known to cause rare familial forms of parkinsonism are also associated with the more common, sporadic form of the disease where there is no family history, researchers have found. An International study reveals common gene variants in people of European descent.
A promising new breast cancer test
The Innovation Prize for outstanding, application-oriented ideas in life sciences has been awarded by the Working Group of BioRegions at the Biotechnica in Hanover to research groups from Heidelberg, Munich and Ulm. Professor Lisa Wiesmüller, of the Women’s Hospital, University of Ulm, received the €2,000 prize for developing a test system for the identification and early detection of breast…
The biology of cancers
Cancer research is progressing rapidly. For a large part, biology contributes to its most significant advances, which aim to renew the whole model of cancer care.
The first whole-body MRI-PET system
The technological integration of positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been the dream of molecular imaging experts and engineers for some time. Now, the German Science Council has agreed to provide 6.56 million funding to install a whole-body MRI-PET prototype in the centre of excellence for imaging procedures at the radiology clinic in Eberhard-Karls…
A 7-Tesla in clinical diagnostics?
Most of the 30 institutes around the world that work with a 7-Tesla MRI scanner do not focus on answering questions about the clinical benefit of this field strength; their efforts revolve around the brain and neurosciences. One exception is the Erwin L Hahn, at the Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, which is based at the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, a World Heritage Site in…
11.7-T scanner a magnet to draw international researchers to France
A massive scanner for in vivo molecular imaging of the human brain will reveal the metabolic processes of neurological disorders, John Brosky reports
Eröffnung des Heidelberger Ionenstrahl-Therapiezentrums (HIT)
Am 2. November wurde das Heidelberger Ionenstrahl-Therapiezentrum (HIT) feierlich eröffnet. Die am GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt entwickelte Krebstherapie steht nun erstmals im Routinebetrieb einer großen Patientenzahl zur Verfügung. Bislang wurden Patienten ausschließlich am Therapieplatz bei GSI behandelt. Die Therapie mit Ionenstrahlen…
Taking part in clinical trials is good for health
Patients with chronic heart failure who agree to take part in clinical trials have a better prognosis than those who do not, according to a study reported in the November European Journal of Heart Failure. The finding, say the authors, may even call into question the commonplace ethical requirement of most clinical trials that by choosing not to take part in the study a patient will not be…
Biochips to aid in cancer diagnosis
It is very difficult to predict whether a cancer drug will help an individual patient: only around one third of drugs will work directly in a given patient. Researchers at the Heinz Nixdorf Chair for Medical Electronics at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have developed a new test process for cancer drugs. With the help of microchips, they can establish in the laboratory whether a…
HPV vaccines indicate further benefits for cervical cancer protection
New human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine studies presented at the 16th International Meeting of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) in Belgrade, Serbia, this week have confirmed sustained protection against precancerous cervical lesions in healthy young women, as well as beneficial effects for women previously treated for cervical, vulvar or vaginal precancers or genital warts.
Carl Zeiss Speeds brain mapping and 3-D reconstruction
Electron microscopy and analysis instruments from Carl Zeiss are redefining the science of brain mapping and 3-D reconstruction. Wide-field, high resolution imaging, huge data storage and manipulation capabilities plus highly automated sample preparation techniques are yielding research results 100-times, or more, faster than ever before.
Cutting costs with medical technology
Medical technology innovation, often viewed as a cost-driver can also be the key to cost-cutting in healthcare while at the same time improve the health outcome for patients. This was the core message of an experts' panel organised by the European Health Technology Institute for Socio-Economic Research (EHTI) at the European Health Forum Gastein.
Cancer: Holistic approach is needed
Europe is facing the challenge of an expected dramatic increase in the prevalence of cancer that could reach 15 million Europeans by 2020. Health systems will require the promotion of innovative funding and a rethink in regulation, according to a new study released today at the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG), the European Union's leading health policy congress for experts and…
Pharma research suffers
The biotech industry is being hit twice as hard by the economic crisis. In addition to the general economic downturn, the largely dried-up equity market, which has massively complicated the usual equity financing through the stock exchange or venture capital, is causing problems for companies.
Child diabetes cases set to soar across Europe
Expert advises specific strategies should be developed to deal with this relatively new patient group.
Colorectal cancers
Incidence data from cancer registries have drawn the attention to colorectal cancer. It is one of the most common cancers in developed countries. In 2006, the estimated number of new cases in the European Union of 25 member states was 297,000 for both genders.
Synthetic lethality
Completion of a Phase I clinical trial has demonstrated the great promise of a completely new type of cancer treatment, according to results announced this June in The New England Journal of Medicine by scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and the Royal Marsden Hospital in the United Kingdom, working with pharma firm AstraZeneca.
Nutrition and functionality: key partners in ageing
Every second geriatric patient acutely hospitalised in Europe suffers malnutrition and, worse, this often goes unnoticed. These shocking facts were aired this July in Paris, during a satellite symposium held by the Nestlé Nutrition Institute at the 19th IAGG World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics.
Embracing Excellence in Prostate, Bladder and Kidney Cancer
Barcelona, Spain 26-29 November
Russia's continuing laser medicine advances
For the past 30 years, in the former USSR and Russia, laser medicine has been actively developed and regular annual conferences have opened new avenues for its use by the country's doctors.
Research on insulin cancer risk rings alarm
Four different population-based studies, recently published in Diabetelogia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), examine a possible link between insulin glargine (brand name, Lantus) and cancer.
Cardiovascular research
As Professor Valentin Fuster pointed out this year, the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) is now a splendid reality thanks to the support of the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III institutions on which, now and for the future, it depends. Along with that public sector backing, CNIC will also receive civil support from the ProCNIC…
