While the infant mortality rate in the USA has carried on to falling, compared to other industrialized nations around the globe, the country is ranked very near the bottom. In 1960 US infant mortality rate stood at 26 deaths per 1,000 births, while in 2006 it improved to 7 deaths per 1,000 births (Save the Children). Even though child mortality rates have improved in the USA, over the last half-century other industrialized countries have progressed faster and moved ahead. [click link for full article]

Tibotec BVBA announced that it has opened 5 trial sites in Belgium and Germany in its first clinical study of telaprevir (VX-950) an investigational protease inhibitor (PI) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection. The phase II study will open shortly in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, subject to the necessary approvals. [click link for full article]

On the eve of Remembrance Sunday, leading brain injury charity Headway has reminded the Government of the importance of identifying brain injury in British troops exposed to explosions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Luke Griggs, spokesperson for Headway, said: “We welcome the recent decision taken by the Ministry of Defence to conduct a major survey into possible brain injury suffered by troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. [click link for full article]

Representing the interests of pain patients in light of federal pain management policy reform, leading pain expert and former President of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) briefed congress on the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2007.”The crisis of under-treated pain extends well beyond an issue of comfort for those who suffer. It is now a social issue with major economic and political ramifications,” said AAPM representative, Scott M. [click link for full article]

The first academic thesis in Sweden on international health assistance in disaster zones is to be presented at the medical university Karolinska Institutet. In his thesis, Dr Johan von Schreeb shows that international assistance is often sent to disaster areas without any prior needs assessment having been made of the affected population. Dr von Schreeb has carried out needs assessments in a number of disaster situations. [click link for full article]

Engineering experts from the University of the West of England are working on the development of a skin analyser tool that will help enable doctors to diagnose malignant melanoma and other dermatological conditions such as burn severity. Recent sponsorship to the tune of £650K has been awarded to the consortium composed of UWE, Frenchay Hospital and Astron Clinica Ltd. by the DTI Technology Programme to fund this project entitled ‘PhotoDerm’. [click link for full article]

UroToday.com- This article published in the September issue of Urology details the feasibility of bladder preservation with muscle-invasive cancer using transurethral resection alone. The authors evaluated 327 patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer who were treated in at M.D. Anderson from 1997 to 2002. Repeat bladder tumor resection was repeated in all patients. [click link for full article]

UroToday.com- Heads-up paradigm shift on the horizon! The combination of better imaging, more efficient, smaller biopsy needles, and advances in immunohistochemical staining for renal cell cancer (e.g. vimentin and CD10 for clear cell carcinoma) is forcing the issue of “making a diagnosis before you make a treatment” when dealing with the small (i.e. [click link for full article]

UroToday.com- In this article published in the October issue of the Journal of Urology, Steven and Poulsen report the 5-year cancer specific and overall survival on 336 consecutive patients with invasive bladder cancer who underwent a radical cystectomy and extended lymph node dissection that included the common iliac and peri-aortic lymph nodes up to the inferior mesenteric artery. None of the patients received neo adjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. [click link for full article]

Hispanics in the United States receive fewer vascular surgeries than the general population and have worse outcomes in some cases, according to new research, which also finds that Hispanics often seek treatment only after developing more advanced disease. Reasons for the disparities are not fully understood, but may include a combination of socioeconomic factors and genetic variations. [click link for full article]