When Prax Sanchez coughed after returning home from his doctor’s office last week, it wasn’t because of an everyday, ordinary tickle in his throat.  It was because of a 1-inch nail that had been stuck in his sinus cavity for…

In spite of help from the entire world, the United States’ soon-to-be First Family’s quest for a hypoallergenic dog may best be settled in educated compromise because all dogs emit allergens, to one extent or the other.  Perhaps the best…

The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston is reducing its workforce by almost one-third, a move that will leave the teaching hospital with too few patient beds to accommodate its medical students’ educational needs.  Reduced patient capacity, and…

Three scientists were awarded the $1.35 million 2004 Nobel Prize for chemistry, thanks to their discovery that one particular component of the cellular system works a bit like a microscopic Mafia don, even marking cells for destruction in a process…

Recent announcement of the winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine marks, for some, the end of a long-running controversy surrounding which team of researchers are to be credited with discovering the AIDS virus. Two French researchers were named, along…

New York City officials have taken their city to task on the obesity epidemic sweeping the United States and other industrialized countries. Trans fats were recently banned in all New York City restaurants and fast-food restaurants are now required to…

After more than a decade of lobbying for equal coverage for mental health treatments in health care plans, both the US Senate and the House of Representatives approved a bill yesterday that makes coverage for mental health on par with…

San Francisco recently passed a city-wide ordinance that bans the sale of all tobacco-based products in pharmacies, such as Walgreens. The ban, scheduled to take effect October 1, has stirred up a fire at the nationwide pharmacy chain, Walgreens leading…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, along with industry partners from health and technology, are hosting a National E-prescribing Conference on October 6 – 7, 2008 at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, Boston, MA.

The federal government’s top toxicologists report “concerns” over bisphenol A (BPA), the controversial chemical in many of the nation’s favorite plastic beverage containers, after a full investigation of the chemical suspected of causing problems with behavior and development of the…

With the hope of putting to rest the question, posed in 1998, that the widely used childhood measles vaccine is linked to gastrointestinal (GI) illness that heralds the onset of autism, researchers at Columbia University have released the findings of…

On August 26, the US Census Bureau released the news that although the number of Americans living without healthcare insurance, and the level of medical care that insurance promises, has dropped by 1.3 million since 2006, there were, nevertheless, 45.7…

After several incidents of contaminated produce sickening people across the nation, the Food and Drug Administration has decided to allow food producers to use irradiation to kill dangerous organisms such as E-coli and salmonella on fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce.…

The number of Americans of working age who have accumulated medical debt or are experiencing financial difficulties paying off their medical bills has climbed to a staggering 41% by 2007, up from only 34% in 2005. Of these 72 million…