Developing networks, improving communication, simplifying work - the term “workflow” includes all of this and is playing an increasingly important role in modern healthcare. At the ECR (European Congress of Radiology) in Vienna, Austria, Siemens Healthcare is presenting a whole array of IT services for radiology and its communication within hospitals and with physicians’ practices.

Soon the Internet may hold your medical record where you and your doctor can access it at all hours. Even if you are undergoing a complicated chemotherapy regimen, your computer may prompt you to follow doctor’s orders and, via a daily questionnaire, alert your doctor to any new problems, predicted roundtable participants at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s 13th Annual Conference, March 5-9. Former AOL chief Steve Case said he launched RevolutionHealth.

Snippets of genetic material that have been linked  to cancer also play a critical role in normal embryonic development  in mice, according to a new paper from MIT cancer biologists. The work, to be reported in the March 7 issue of Cell, shows that a  family of microRNAs-short strands of genetic material-protect mouse  cells during development and allow them to grow normally.

Lower rates of breastfeeding might be a reason for some U.S. minorities’ higher risk of becoming overweight, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics, Reuters reports. While some previous research has indicated that breastfeeding might lower children’s risk of becoming overweight, other studies have found no such link.

The House on Wednesday by a 268-148 vote passed a bill (HR 1424) that would require most health insurers to provide equal levels of coverage for physical and mental illnesses, the AP/Contra Costa Times reports (Miga, AP/Contra Costa Times, 3/6).

The All Pakistan Women’s Association in collaboration with the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the United Nations Population Fund on Monday launched a two-day workshop to discuss HIV/AIDS-related issues among women in the country, the

A consortium of cancer groups has published new guidelines for screening colorectal cancer, which for the first time focus on prevention and early detection.The guidelines are published online in CA, A Cancer Journal for Clinicians and were issued by the American Cancer Society Colorectal Cancer Advisory Group, the US Multi-Society Task Force, and the American College of Radiology Colon Cancer Committee.

On International Women’s Day, 8 March 2008 the National AIDS Trust calls on Government and pharmaceutical companies to support trials of a new class of microbicides that could offer the greatest hope for women’s sexual health in the 21st century. Existing methods of HIV prevention are failing millions of women, particularly in developing countries, where women often cannot negotiate condom use.

A comprehensive prevention strategy for reducing the threat of cervical cancer has been called for by the World Medical Association and the Medical Women’s International Association.

A federal court in New Jersey on Monday invalidated Bayer Schering’s patent on its oral contraceptive Yasmin, ruling in favor of a challenge filed by Barr Pharmaceuticals, AFP/Google.com reports. The ruling now allows Barr to sell a generic version of Yasmin in the U.S. (AFP/Google.