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New York Becomes First State To Allow Payment For Donating Eggs For Stem Cell Research
New York"s Empire State Stem Cell Board earlier this month decided to allow embryonic stem cell researchers who receive state funding to compensate women for donating their eggs for use in research, making New York the first state to enact such a policy, the Washington Post reports (Stein, Washington Post, 6/26). According to the New York Times, the New York state Legislature in 2007 allotted $600 million for an 11-year stem cell research plan (Nelson, New York Times, 6/26). Under the board"s decisions, researchers receiving the state funding may pay women up to $10,000 to compensate them for the time, discomfort and expenses associated with egg donation. David Hohn, vice chair of the board"s two committees that endorsed the decision, said that the board "could not distinguish ethically between the payment for in vitro fertilization, which is very well precedented, and the compensation for donation for research." The board said researchers should follow the same guidelines as infertility clinics that receive donated eggs for infertile couples. Under those guidelines, payments exceeding $5,000 must be justified, and those exceeding $10,000 are considered excessive (Washington Post, 6/26). Robert Klitzman, director of the master"s degree program in bioethics at Columbia University and a member of the stem cell board"s ethics committee, said the payments will be carefully evaluated by an institutional review board (New York Times, 6/26).The Post reports that the decision goes against policies in other states that offer funding for embryonic stem cell research, as well as against current guidelines from scientific organizations like the National Academy of Sciences (Washington Post, 6/26). NAS guidelines, for example, prohibit paying women for eggs used in stem cell research. Similarly, the internal guidelines for New York-based groups like Rockefeller University, Cornell University and the Sloan-Kettering Institute prohibit financial compensation for donated eggs. However, researchers say that efforts to recruit unpaid donors have been unsuccessful and that the board"s decision will give New York an advantage in stem cell research (New York Times, 6/26). The decision was welcomed by scientists and other proponents of stem cell research, who said it will allow them to further research in areas like therapeutic cloning. The process, also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, involves replacing the genetic material in a human egg with genes from the nucleus of a patient"s cell. The egg is then developed into an early embryo, which, in theory, could be used to produce stem cells that the patient"s immune system would not reject. Although the procedure has been unsuccessful so far, researchers say the board"s decision will help attract more donors, which will allow for more experiments. Egg donation involves weeks of hormone injections to stimulate the ovaries and a painful egg extraction procedure, which carries rare but serious risks. Other attempts at soliciting women to donate eggs for stem cell research have been unsuccessful, according to the Post.Some critics of the board"s decision said that paying women for eggs could lead to exploitation, especially for low-income women. Thomas Berg -- a Roman Catholic priest who is director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person and a member of the Empire State Stem Cell Board"s ethics committee -- said that in the current economic recession, paying a woman $10,000 to participate in a research project is an "undue inducement." He added that he thinks it "manipulates women" and "creates a trafficking in human body parts." Other opponents of the decision questioned if compensating women who donate eggs for research is indeed equivalent to the process for infertility treatments. Jonathan Moreno, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said that donors recognize that egg donation for infertility treatments is a "very concrete good for society" but that "you can"t be sure any biological material you collect for research wi
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Free Clinics Affected By Primary Care Physician Shortage
In the face of growing numbers of uninsured and low-income patients due to the economy, some free clinics are having difficulty meeting the increased demand, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Since March, the Parma Health Ministry, in Cleveland, "which has only two volunteer primary care physicians who see patients in the evenings, has had to turn people away." Nicole Lamoureux, executive director of the National Association of Free Clinics, said the number of people seeking care at free clinics had increased by 40 to 50 percent in recent months, and that many of the newcomers have recently lost insurance coverage.
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Environmental Cues Control Reproductive Timing And Longevity, University Of Minnesota Study Shows
When humans and animals delay reproduction because food or other res are scarce, they may live longer to increase the impact of reproduction, according to a new study by University of Minnesota researchers published in the June 25 issue of PLoS (Public Library of Science) One.
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Pharma Enhances Patient Recruitment Methods Through Industry Site Level Dataset

KMR GROUP, a firm analyzing biopharmaceutical R&D performance since the early 1990s, announces SiteView, its newest module in the Enrollment Metrix Application. Enrollment Metrix helps companies plan more effectively and reliably when setting recruitment targets and timelines, therefore helping companies save millions of dollars due to delay and non-conformance. SiteView users can examine enrollment KPIs derived from site level data. The information is used for planning and forecasting recruitment in clinical trials. This new module allows users to anticipate the expected number of patients to be recruited from any given site as well as the time it takes any given site to complete recruitment. Thus, the data gives companies a more nuanced view when it comes to planning for any region or country. The TrialView module, used by a variety of companies since its unveiling in 2005, enables planning and performance measurement at a broader level. The module enables companies to plan study start up and recruitment time as well as volume of patients and sites for a given trial at a global, region or country level. One key benefit of Enrollment Metrix (SiteView and TrialView) is its unparalleled access to industry data. No company on its own can have the same statistically-valid sample sizes once it starts to segment the data into finer parcels such as disease, phase, or geography. KMR Group has the broadest repository of enrollment industry information available, all obtained directly from the world"s major biopharmaceutical companies. With access to data from close to 100,000 sites from thousands of recently-completed trials, users can have confidence in the quality and breadth of data. Use Enrollment Metrix to develop more innovative enrollment and site-based strategies, assess enrollment performance, plan more effectively, evaluate opportunities in emerging markets, and identify ways to reduce cost. The tool is flexible; results can be depicted in a variety of ways, including in maps, grids, box & whisker charts, and tables. All charts and tables can be easily saved by the user and employed for internal discussion or presentation. "We are providing biopharmaceutical companies with a solution to address their most important recruitment questions. The need for reliable data, flexible criteria and robust viewing options is now satisfied with our enhanced Enrollment Metrix Application," commented Linda Martin, Principal of KMR GROUP. KMR


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