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Lack Of Sleep Could Be More Dangerous For Women Than Men
Women who get less than the recommended eight hours sleep a night are at higher risk of heart disease and heart-related problems than men with the same sleeping patterns.
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Washington Post Examines Lobbying Efforts Of Health Information Technology Industry
The Washington Post on Saturday examined the role of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society in lobbying for the national adoption of health information technology as part of health reform efforts. According to the Post, HIMSS has collaborated with various allies, including technology vendors and research groups, "in a sophisticated, decade-long campaign to shape public opinion and win over Washington"s political machinery."HIMSS in the early part of this decade forged a "strategic alliance" with the Center for Information Technology Leadership, a not-for-profit health IT research group in Massachusetts, to develop and distribute data reports on the cost efficiency and benefits of health IT, the Post reports. CITL also had sponsorship ties with several health and technology companies, including Google, Microsoft, Kaiser Permanente and Siemens Medical Solutions. In 2004, CITL issued a report that concluded in part that a national health IT system could reduce spending by as much as $77.8 billion by limiting drug prescribing errors and notifying providers of more cost-effective drug alternatives.According to the Post, the findings of the report were used by the Obama administration in developing the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package, which included billions in new spending for the creation and adoption of health IT systems. Although a Congressional Budget Office report found that the assumptions of CITL report were "overly optimistic" -- a follow-up CBO analysis projected that electronic health records would reduce health care spending by $17 billion over 10 years -- the health IT measures in the stimulus package "represented a triumph" for HIMSS, "whose members now stand to gain billions in taxpayer dollars," the Post reports. The Post notes that HIMSS" "sudden success shows how the economic crisis created a remarkable opening for a political and financial windfall: the enactment of a sweeping new policy with no bureaucratic delays and virtually no public debate about an initiative aimed at transforming a sector that accounts for more than a sixth of the American economy" (O"Harrow, Washington Post, 5/16).Please note: The Kaiser Family Foundation is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries.
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Alzheimer's Disease: Disclosing Genetic Risk Does Not Cause Psychological Distress
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have shown that disclosing genetic risk information to adult children of patients with Alzheimer"s disease (AD) who request this information does not result in significant short-term psychological distress. The report from the REVEAL Study*, which appears in the July 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, is the first randomized trial to disclose to participants whether or not they carried the íµ4 variant of the APOE gene, a variant that has been found to increase the risk of developing AD. The study demonstrated that test-related distress was reduced among those who learned that they were APOE íµ4 negative, and was only transiently increased among those who learned they were APOE íµ4 positive. The study also showed that persons with high levels of emotional distress before undergoing genetic testing were more likely to have emotional difficulties after disclosure.
Sexual Health

Widely Used Cancer Drug Bevacizumab Associated With Significantly Increased Risk Of Gastrointestinal Perforation

Cancer patients treated with the widely used drug bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy are at significantly greater risk of potentially life-threatening gastrointestinal (GI) perforations (a hole in the wall of the stomach, small intestine or large bowel)-particularly patients with advanced colorectal cancer and renal cell cancer, according to an Article published Online First and in the June edition of The Lancet Oncology. Bevacizumab belongs to a class of drugs called angiogenesis inhibitors, that slow down the growth of tumours by cutting off their blood supply. Bevacizumab has been shown to be beneficial in the treatment of many types of cancer including colorectal cancer, renal cell cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and breast cancer. Despite concerns about the use of bevacizumab and GI perforation, including a black-box warning issued by the US Food and Drug Administration to discontinue bevacizumab in patients with GI perforation, the link is not well established and so far no trials have proved a significant association. To resolve this uncertainty, Shenhong Wu and colleagues from Stony Brook University Cancer Center, New York, did a meta-analysis of 17 randomised trials involving 12 294 patients with a variety of solid tumours to assess the role of bevacizumab in GI perforation. The authors also examined whether the dose of bevacizumab or having a specific type of cancer was related to a higher risk of developing GI perforation. Findings showed that the incidence of GI perforation was 0.9%, with a two-fold increased risk of GI perforation in patients receiving bevacizumab compared with controls, and a mortality of 21.7% in patients who developed GI perforation. Interestingly, the likelihood of developing GI perforation was found to be dose-dependent. Versus controls, lower doses of bevacizumab (2.5 mg/kg per week) increased risk of GI perforation by 61%; while at a higher dose (5 mg/kg per week), the risk of a GI perforation increased by 167%. The incidence of GI perforation with bevacizumab also varied among different tumours-with the highest incidence observed among patients with advanced colorectal cancer and renal cell cancer, and the lowest in patients with pancreatic cancer. The authors conclude that: "As bevacizumab is extensively used in routine cancer treatment...it will be increasingly important to recognise symptoms indicating perforation and intervene promptly to reduce morbidity and fatality...our study might help to identify a subset of patients receiving bevacizumab at high risk of bevacizumab-associated perforation." Link to Article The Lancet Oncology


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