News

The emergence of a fourth tier of copayment for expensive drugs calls into question how Americans are going to handle the rising costs of health care, according to a perspective article in the July 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act (GINA), recently signed into U.S. law, creates a troublesome distinction between those at genetic risk for a disease and those with other characteristics that predispose them to a condition, according to a perspective article published in the July 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Doctors using an electronic prescriptions system will be eligible for a bonus from Medicare from 2009 onwards for four years, according to U.S. health officials.

Prophylactic antibiotics administered to children an hour or less before spinal surgery may reduce the subsequent risk of infections, according to the online Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

The use of topiramate as monotherapy or as an adjunct to other treatment for epilepsy during pregnancy raises some concerns about the increased risk of congenital malformation, according to a report published in the July 22 issue of Neurology.

Many adolescent boys with a varicocele will have "catch-up" growth that reduces their testicular size discrepancy without requiring surgical repair, according to research published in the July issue of Urology.

A review of studies published in the International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health has found a link between bullying, being bullied, and suicide among children.

Offspring of obese mother rats or those overfed after birth are considerably heavier and are more likely to be fatter, glucose intolerant, have high lipid levels and have changes in appetite hormones, according to study findings published online July 17 in Endocrinology.

Infants of low-income women who are predominantly breast-fed have a lower risk of gastrointestinal infection but a higher risk of iron deficiency than infants who are partially or entirely formula-fed, according to the results of a study published in the August issue of the Journal of Nutrition.

Routine vaccination of 12-year-old girls against human papillomavirus, combined with an initial catch-up campaign to cover girls up to the age of 18, would likely be cost-effective, according to research published online July 17 in BMJ.

The U.S. health system is operating poorly compared to its potential, with America falling further behind other nations that are leading on performance indicators, according to a report released by The Commonwealth Fund on July 17.

Implicit racial bias is present in pediatricians, but is not associated with differences in treatment decisions, according to an article published in the July issue of Medical Care.

Five new changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) yearly recommendations to fight the flu call for more and earlier immunizations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that while smoking prevalence among high school students declined from 1997 to 2003, it has remained stable between 2003 and 2007.

Children ages 3 to 13 with the stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori may be less likely to have asthma, according to the online Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Childhood infection with Helicobacter pylori reduces the likelihood of developing asthma and related illnesses, according to an article published online July 3 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. A related review in the May issue of Gut discusses the current evidence and possible mechanisms linking H. pylori infection, asthma and allergy.

Pay-for-performance programs benefit from use of exclusion reporting, whereby certain patients are excluded from quality calculations, and the practice of excluding patients to disguise missed targets, known as gaming, is rare, according to study findings published in the July 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Medical schools must adapt their admission requirements and curricula to changes in scientific theory, and are also facing a challenge to the traditional definition of who is suited to the study of medicine, according to two articles published in the July 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

More than 80 percent of breech infants in the United States are born by Caesarean section, although rates vary widely by state, researchers report in the July issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

The United States must focus on effective delivery if adolescents are going to benefit from the development of recent vaccines, according to two articles published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Menthol content in cigarettes is one of the ways in which tobacco companies manipulate the sensory characteristics of cigarettes to appeal to adolescents and young adults, according to the results of a study published online July 16 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Children whose mothers ate nuts on a daily basis during pregnancy may be at increased risk of asthma, according to the results of a study published in the July 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Decreased gestational age at birth was associated with a higher risk of severe medical disabilities in adulthood, as well as a lower likelihood of reaching several educational milestones or having a high income, according to research published in the July 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Young adolescents who believe that they have easy access to cigarettes are more likely to become regular smokers, especially if they have friends who smoke, according to study findings published in the July/August issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

Background television may have a disruptive influence on the behavior of children ages 12 to 36 months, as reported in the July/August Child Development.

Between the ages of 9 and 15, physical activity fell steeply for American boys and girls in a geographically diverse sample, according to research published in the July 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The use of simvastatin was not associated with cognitive improvements in children with neurofibromatosis type 1, contrary to findings in mouse models suggesting efficacy of this treatment, according to research published in the July 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

From the post-Civil War years to the civil rights era a century later, the American Medical Association (AMA) made decisions that helped support a division between white and black Americans in the field of medicine in the United States, according to an article in the July 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.