Popular Articles

FDA Confirms E. Coli O157:H7 In Prepackaged Nestlç© Toll House Refrigerated Cookie Dough
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it has found E. coli O157:H7 (a bacterium that can cause serious food borne illness) in a sample of prepackaged Nestlç© Toll House refrigerated cookie dough currently under recall by the manufacturer and marketer, Nestlç© USA. The contaminated sample was collected at Nestlç©"s facility in Danville, Va. on June 25, 2009.
new payday loan lenders
The Largest Single-site Children's Hospital In The UK Is Opening On 11th June On Manchester's Oxford Road
The development, which has taken five years to complete, is part of a ÷£500m PFI scheme, commissioned by Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT), and delivered in partnership with Catalyst Healthcare. The new Royal Manchester Children"s Hospital - a "super-hospital" for children - will be accompanied by The Manchester Royal Infirmary, Saint Mary"s Hospital and Manchester Royal Eye Hospital.
News of the day
Waits To See Specialists In Boston Increased To Average Of 50 Days, Study Finds
The average time patients in Boston wait for an appointment to see a specialist has increased over the last five years to an average of 50 days and can be up to one year, despite the fact that the city has an "abundance" of specialists, according to a recent study, the Boston Globe reports. For the study, Merritt, Hawkins & Associates, a Texas-based consulting and physician recruiting firm, surveyed 1,162 physician offices in 15 metropolitan areas to try to re-create the situation of a new patient seeking a nonurgent appointment in five specialty areas -- cardiology, dermatology, family medicine, obstetrics-gynecology and orthopedic surgery. The average wait time in Boston is more than three weeks longer than any other city included in the study. The study determined that while Boston patients had the longest wait times for appointments to see dermatologists, ob-gyns and family practitioners, Dallas had the longest wait times to see orthopedic surgeons, followed by Boston. Miami, Minneapolis and San Diego all had longer wait times to see cardiologists than Boston.According to the study, while Boston patients have long faced delays, the problem may have been exacerbated by an increase in patients seeking care following the implementation of the 2006 Massachusetts health insurance law. While the study did not pinpoint a cause for longer wait times in Boston, the study"s authors wrote that the city"s experience "may signal what could happen nationally in the event that access to health care is expanded through health care reform."Brian Rossman, research director for Health Care for All, said the reason for long wait times also is because many specialists in Boston work for academic medical centers and do not see patients full time (Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, 5/15).
Medical Devices

Human Milk And Blood Serum SRMs For Contaminant Measurements Issued By National Institute Of Standards And Technology

Responding to scientists" need to measure organic contaminants in human body fluids, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recently made four new Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) available for purchase. Developed in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the human milk and serum SRMs have certified levels of contaminants, including flame retardants and pesticides, commonly found in the U.S. population. Scientists at the CDC and other laboratories will use the SRMs as controls in their experiments to ensure their methods are providing trustworthy results. NIST first released its first serum-based SRM (SRM 1589 Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Human Serum) in 1985 to aid with the detection of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a toxic mixture of compounds used in transformer oils that was banned in the U.S. in the 1970s. Since NIST researchers last updated the SRM in 2000, the levels of PCBs, pesticides, dioxins/furans and other contaminants have decreased by 50 percent while the levels of brominated flame retardants, chemicals found in carpeting and upholstery, have been on the rise. NIST researchers created the new SRMs to reflect these changes. The first of their kind, the milk SRMs contain similar contaminants as the serum materials. To prepare these SRMs, scientists collected 200 liters of blood serum and 100 liters of milk from banks across the United States and divided the sample pools in half. (Note that the milk that was used to prepare the SRM was not suitable for feeding babies because the donors may have taken medications such as acetaminophen or the milk had reached its expiration date.) Researchers packaged half of each material as received, containing the natural (unfortified) level of contaminants, and treated (fortified) the other halves with a solution containing 172 selected contaminants. The fortified samples contain a concentration of those contaminants at levels five to 10 times higher than the median concentrations found in the U.S. population. NIST SRMs have been rigorously tested and certified as having specific properties that researchers can trust as accurate within stated levels of uncertainty. The values stated on the certificates for these SRMs were measured by NIST and the CDC using a number of different methods including gas and liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry detection. Mark Esser National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):