This should have went up yesterday, but unfortunately I had something come up (a 4 hour afternoon nap to catch up for a lost weekend).
Boston Globe:
Journal investigating duplication allegation against Boston researcher- This particular post focuses on a Boston researcher who is accused of duplicating large portions of a research paper with work done by someone else. The commentary in Naturesuggests that 0.2% of papers were suspected of plagiarism, but as much as 10.5% of suspected duplications involving the same authors. Perhaps this is motivated by a desire to pump out publications to boost their ego as many academics love to talk about how many papers they have published or perhaps it just comes down to money (grants and tenure).
New medicine for what ails hospitals- A look at how hospitals in and around Boston are using process improvement techniques to improve hospital efficiency. Hopefully more hospitals look into this because I have found that hospitals are maddeningly inefficient (and yes, that’s even when I am on the team).
Project to reformulate children’s medicine launched- A non-profit has decided to reformulate children’s medicines to make them safer/more effective. Not much to say here, but still noteworthy.
Yahoo! News:
Cervical cancer vaccine cost-effective: EU agency- This article is almost a week old, but I thought it was interesting as an EU agency determined that the HPV vaccine (both Merck and GlaxoSmithKline have products) is cost-effective against cervical cancer. Britain, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy have already instituted vaccination as part of their national health programs. The current report recommends that girls should receive the vaccine between 12 and 15. I’m not sure how this recommendation will play out in Europe given the outcry from conservatives when the issue was brought up in the United States earlier.
New York Times:
Really? The Claim: Too Much Cola Can Cause Kidney Problems - Another interesting piece out of the NY Times where that looked at a recently published studythat analyzed the relationship between cola consumption and kidney problems. The group found that increased consumption (2+ per day) of colas, which contain phosphoric acid (linked to kidney stones and other problem), increased the risk of chronic kidney disease by 2.3 times.
California Governor’s Plan for Health Care in Trouble- It looks like The Terminator’s health care plan has run into some resistance in the California legislature. Already $14.5 billion over budget, the legislature is poised to reject the proposed universal health care plan. Some of the listed reasons include shifting the cost burden to individuals rather than companies, fighting between the Republicans & Democrats, and political issues (increasing the cigarette tax and offering coverage to illegal residents).
Tags: California, Cervical Cancer, Hospital, HPV, Process improvement, Universal Health Care
