Mental health services in England and Wales have been accused of being institutionally racist. In this week’s BMJ, two senior doctors say that, although services are pioneers in moving towards equity, they have some way to go before they meet the challenges of a multi-cultural society. [click link for full article]

A new bright spot in heart disease research may soon allow physicians to peer directly into patients’ blood vessels and find dangerous cholesterol-filled plaques before they rupture and cause a heart attack.Scientists at New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center and the New York University School of Medicine, under the direction of Dr. Edward A. Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., and Dr. Zahi A. Fayad, M.D., Ph.D. [click link for full article]

Australia-listed Singapore-based diagnostics group Rockeby biomed Ltd (ASX: RBY) is pleased to announce that it has received the European approval, CE Mark, for its Human Antigen Detection Test for Influenza A. By obtaining CE Mark notification, Rockeby will be able to launch the product in both Europe and Australia. Australia generally recognises CE Mark approval as clearance for the import of medical devices into Australia. [click link for full article]

Over 20 million Americans suffer from back pain caused by the derangement of an intervertebral disk. After the common cold, back pain is the second most common cause that Americans call in sick, costing businesses as much as $100 billion every year. With the goal of preventing this all-too-common ailment, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s Spine Center offers tips on avoiding back injury. “The back is a complex structure with many delicate parts. [click link for full article]

In North America, ovarian cancer is the second most common gynecological cancer and is the leading cause of death among women with gynecological cancer. The high mortality is in part due to the difficulty of detecting and diagnosing this condition at an early stage.In this case-control study, Abenhaim and colleagues examined whether the frequency of medical visits and pelvic examinations and the type of health care provider visited had an effect on the risk of ovarian cancer. [click link for full article]

Where you live might play a bigger role in your risk for heart disease than your ethnicity or race. New research reveals that rural residents were more knowledgeable about healthy eating and heart disease risk than urban residents, but that urban residents were more motivated and optimistic about getting healthy. And further, these differences persisted when the researchers compared rural Caucasians to urban Caucasians. [click link for full article]

A leading expert on modern day management of cancer is calling for the implementation of proper procedures that would allow NHS patients to top up cancer care in the private sector. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Professor Karol Sikora said paying for cancer care was the new dilemma for the NHS. [click link for full article]

Women in their 70s who keep active could be dodging painful arthritis symptoms, according to research published today in Arthritis Research & Therapy. The study is the first to show that the more you exercise, the better your chances of preventing the onset of stiff and painful joints. Kristiann Heesch and colleagues at the [click link for full article]

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s (NICE) decision to review its own ruling denying patients NHS access to an important drug for the treatment of myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer, has been hailed as a significant development by a coalition of cancer charities. [click link for full article]

A study of human lung tumors indicates that lung cancer patients who lack a particular protein may do more poorly than those with normal levels of that same protein.If the findings are verified in a clinical trial, the absence of the protein might be used to identify lung cancer patients who need more aggressive therapy after surgery. [click link for full article]