Frost & Sullivan has awarded the COMPAS software technology platform its 2006 North America Technology Innovation of the Year Award in the field of Cardiac Safety Analytics. The software was created at the University of Rochester Medical Center and is being commercially developed by iCardiac Technologies, a Rochester, New York-based company. [click link for full article]

NAACP’s New England council President Juan Cofield sent a “sharply worded letter” to the Boston regional office of CMS stating that NitroMed’s heart failure drug BiDil, the only drug approved by [click link for full article]

There is “no reason” why a voluntary human papillomavirus vaccination program that is “based on an informed and sensitive health education campaign … would not work,” Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy writes in an opinion piece. According to Milloy, [click link for full article]

Many cancers arise due to defects in genes that normally suppress tumor growth. Now, for the first time, MIT researchers have shown that re-activating one of those genes in mice can cause tumors to shrink or disappear.The study offers evidence that the tumor suppressor gene p53 is a promising target for human cancer drugs. [click link for full article]

Men who have been treated for breast cancer face a significantly high risk of getting cancer once again, according to UC Irvine epidemiologists.Their study found that more than 10 percent of these men ultimately developed second primary cancers, particularly those of the breast, stomach and skin.The researchers recommend that men who have suffered from breast cancer need to be more closely monitored for this second onset of cancer. [click link for full article]

A three-judge panel of Arizona Court of Appeals on Tuesday unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that said a Maricopa County policy requiring deputies to transport inmates to medical facilities for abortions only when they are medically necessary posed an unconstitutional burden on the woman, the AP/Tucson Citizen reports (Davenport, AP/Tucson Citizen, 1/24). [click link for full article]

The majority of asthma is driven by allergies, in fact, at least 80-90% of people with asthma have allergic asthma. Asthma is an extremely common disease, affecting up to 8%…

New York City’s public hospitals and clinics would lose $350 million per year — 7% of their annual budget — under a Medicaid rule proposed last week by CMS, according to the New York State Department of Health and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the [click link for full article]

The California Medical Association Foundation on Wednesday launched a campaign to promote awareness of cervical cancer screenings and urge immunization against human papillomavirus, the Sacramento Bee reports (Griffith, Sacramento Bee, 1/24). [click link for full article]

A respiratory pathogen common in newborns may be passed on to the lungs following initial infection in the eye say researchers from the University of South Alabama, College of Medicine. They report their findings in the January 2007 issue of the Journal of Virology. [click link for full article]