CBI registers four FIRs in AIIMS exam manipulation |  |
- CBI registers four FIRs in AIIMS exam manipulation
- Uttar Pradesh doctor spreads smiles, and greenery
- Only 13 doctors punished under PNDT Act last year
- Pregnant women to get transport fare to hospitals: Azad
- Operation Vigilant Sample: First responder training for suspicious powders
- A research tale with a heart to match: Professor looks at cardiovascular disease in dogs
- Johns Hopkins scientists begin first-of-its-kind research to create blood platelets from stem cells
- Home pharmacist visits seek to cut hospital readmission rates
- 4,500 MBBS seats added: Azad
- Now, a tracking system for immunisation in India: Azad
| CBI registers four FIRs in AIIMS exam manipulation Posted: 05 Aug 2011 12:43 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The Central Bureau of Investigation - Wednesday registered four cases for manipulating the entrance exam results of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences -, said an officer. The CBI registered four separate cases for rigging of the post-graduate and one graduate entrance results, he said. The first case registered by CBI pertains to rigging of the results of All India P.G. entrance exam in January 2010. 'In the exam, optical mark recognition - answer sheets of seven candidates were interpolated. These candidates succeeded in getting admissions in different Medical colleges of India,' said official. The second case registered was of rigging of results of MBBS entrance exam held on June 2010. In this exam, the answer sheets of six candidates were changed. In this one candidate succeeded in getting admission in AIIMS, said official. The third case was of P.G. entrance exam held in November 2010. In this eight candidates got admitted. The fourth was registered for rigging of AIl India P.G. entrance exam held in January 2011. In this exam, four candidates succeeded in getting admissions. The cases have been registered against kingpin Mahipal Singh and his associates along with the candidates. http://www.rxpgnews.com    |
| Uttar Pradesh doctor spreads smiles, and greenery Posted: 04 Aug 2011 12:00 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Varanasi, Aug 4 - Having successfully treated thousands of cleft-lip patients, including the little waif Pinki Sonkar -- the lead character of Oscar-winning documentary 'Smile Pinki' -- a doctor here is now on another noble mission: making the earth greener. Subodh Kumar Singh, a noted plastic surgeon, gifts saplings to patients visiting his hospital in the Mahmorganj area and makes them aware about environmental issues. 'It's just around a couple of weeks ago I started offering saplings to the patients visiting the hospital. It's a small initiative aimed to make our mother earth and surroundings greener,' Singh, who established the G.S. Memorial Plastic Surgery Hospital in 2001, told IANS on phone. 'Patients visit a doctor's clinic for healthy living. The distribution of saplings amongst the patients and their families has been initiated to serve the same purpose. Plantation is the best way to nurture nature and mitigate environmental degradation,' he added. His hospital, which has emerged as one of the finest centres for cleft surgeries in the world, performs more than 3,500 surgeries every year. 'I ask the parents to make a commitment that they would look after the sapling in the same way they take care of their kids,' said Singh, 42. 'I wish more and more people are made aware about environmental problems, so that they could become eco-conscious and contribute their bit to the environment. I know the situation cannot be changed overnight, but, don't forget, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step,' said Singh, who started the saplings distribution July 15. Singh's hospital, which is associated with Smile Train -- a non-profit organisation with the mission of providing free corrective surgery for children with cleft lip and palate in over 70 countries -- receives most patients from eight states of the country -- Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Uttar... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Only 13 doctors punished under PNDT Act last year Posted: 03 Aug 2011 11:12 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, Aug 3 - Only 13 doctors, with the majority from north India, were punished in 2010 under the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques - Act that bans revealing the sex of the unborn child, parliament was told Wednesday. Eleven punished doctors belonged to the northern states of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi while two were from Maharashtra, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said in an answer to a question by nominated member H.K. Dua in the Rajya Sabha. Six doctors were from Haryana, three from Punjab and two from Maharashtra and Delhi each. While those from Delhi were imposed fine, the others were sentenced to both imprisonment and fine. The minister said several steps have been taken for effective implementation of the PNDT Act. The Act has been amended to confiscate the diagnostic machines of those doctors who do not register under the law. The national inspection and monitoring committee has been reconstituted and empowered to oversee follow-up action, he added. http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Pregnant women to get transport fare to hospitals: Azad Posted: 03 Aug 2011 10:31 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, Aug 3 - As part of its effort to reduce maternal and infant mortality, the government has launched a new scheme for providing transport fare, free medicines and other facilities to pregnant women for delivery in hospitals, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said Wednesday. Replying to a discussion on a bill on the Jawaharlal Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, the health minister said that it was for the state governments to implement the policy. The minister informed the Rajya Sabha that under the newly-launched scheme of the health ministry, pregnant women from poor strata of society will get to and fro transport fare to hospitals, free medicines and also free care for the infants. 'The women who have normal delivery will get three-day care and free medicines and those having caesarean will get free blood and other medicines,' Azad said. 'The sick infants will also get free care for one month,' he said. The health minister added that the government was specially focusing on reducing infant and maternal mortality. The health minister also said that in a bid to ensure that immunisation is properly administered to all infants, the union government was seeking a detailed list of children who received vaccination, including the names of their parents and phone number. This, however, irked the opposition members who raised the pitch saying that the poor did not have phone. The health minister clarified that the provision for giving the phone number included that of relative, neighbour or village. The health minister was, however, upset at the protest and said the opposition was not interested in knowing the schemes of the health ministry. The bill was later passed by the house. The Bill seeks to amend the Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry Act, 2008, which declared it as an institution of national importance. Before the Act came into... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Operation Vigilant Sample: First responder training for suspicious powders Posted: 03 Aug 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working with the U.S. National Guard on a coordinated effort to train emergency first responders in the delicate and potentially critical task of securing reliable samples of suspected biothreats. The project, dubbed Operation Vigilant Sample, seeks to coordinate training programs for first responders at the state, local and federal levels based on newly developed sample collection protocols. NIST serves as an objective third party to evaluate how well the standards are being integrated into practice, and to develop quantitative metrics to evaluate training exercises, according to Jayne Morrow, an environmental engineer at NIST who led the development of the standard, which was released last year.* The aim of the operation is to provide a training lane that can help standardize the interface between initial local, state and federal responders to make sure everyone gets what they need from a collected sample of suspicious material, including providing a solid chain of custody, says Morrow. Our goal here at NIST is to help integrate standards and training so that everyone from first responders to investigators knows they can rely on that sample. The National Guard has 57 Civil Support Teams (CSTs) around the country that serve as the first wave of federal response to domestic chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents. The teams assess suspected attacks, advise civilian responders, and facilitate the arrival of additional state and federal military forces. Operation Vigilant Sample will help the CSTs by providing consistent training among the first responders with whom they work. In February, 2011, NIST participated in a 72-hour Operation Vigilant Sample exercise at the army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md. After leading development of the ASTM standards relied on in the exercises, explains Morrow, we are... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| A research tale with a heart to match: Professor looks at cardiovascular disease in dogs Posted: 03 Aug 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) MANHATTAN -- For more than 15 years, Kansas State University researcher Michele Borgarelli has studied heart diseases in man's best friend. But there is an interesting twist in his work with mitral valve disease: chronic mitral valve disease in dogs is similar to the same disease affecting humans, making Borgarelli's research beneficial to dog's best friend, too. Further proof of the bond between owner and dog? Perhaps. But for Borgarelli, Kansas State University associate professor of cardiology, the heart-filled similarities motivate him to learn more about mitral valve disease, the most common acquired cardiovascular disease in dogs. The disease is a heart condition where the mitral valve -- one of the four valves in the heart -- deteriorates. As the valve deteriorates, more blood backflows through the valve and can lead to congestive heart failure. We know that the disease affects geriatric dogs very commonly, Borgarelli said. I'm interested to know why some dogs progress faster and die from the disease when other dogs do not. Small breed dogs, such as Cavalier King Charles spaniels, cocker spaniels, dachshunds, miniature poodles and Yorkshire terriers are more prone to chronic mitral valve disease. But Borgarelli's research has shown that the disease can also affect large breed dogs, such as German shepherds. He wants to search a list of factors to identify dogs more likely to progress to a severe disease stage. Although a lot of these patients never progress to heart failure, you don't want to wait until they get to an age where it is too late, Borgarelli said. You want to identify these patients as early as possible. About 70 percent of the dogs that are affected by mitral valve disease are not affected from heart failure and do not die from the disease. That's very similar to people, Borgarelli said. There are some people who don't progress to heart failure even without any treatment. Treatments options are also... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Johns Hopkins scientists begin first-of-its-kind research to create blood platelets from stem cells Posted: 03 Aug 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Johns Hopkins scientists have launched a pioneering research program to create, for the first time, human platelet cells from stem cells in order to study inherited blood clotting abnormalities ranging from clots that cause heart attacks and stroke to bleeding disorders. The study is funded by a $9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of a nationwide initiative to examine how genetic variations cause heart, lung and blood diseases. One goal of the Hopkins research is to increase understanding of how genes regulate the function of platelets, which are the sticky cells in blood that are important to stop excessive bleeding. The researchers will also investigate how genetic variations can affect a person's responsiveness to aspirin and other medications that are designed to prevent clotting, in order to find new ways to prevent and treat abnormal clotting. Current anticoagulants, or blood thinner medications that are essential to prevent life-threatening complications from some heart or vascular diseases, are not always effective for individuals with certain genetic variations. The other key aspect of the research will be to develop the technical capacity to produce large numbers of blood platelets from a single individual's blood sample. That way, patients who need platelet transfusions, such as those whose platelets were wiped out following chemotherapy, would be able to be transfused with their own platelets without the risk of rejection that comes with receiving platelets donated from others. We will work to develop a completely new approach to generating blood cells for people who are desperately in need of chronic infusions, says Lewis Becker, M.D., professor of medicine and cardiologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who is the co-principal investigator of the study, called Functional Genomics of Platelet Aggregation Using iPS and Derived Megakaryocites. To begin the... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Home pharmacist visits seek to cut hospital readmission rates Posted: 03 Aug 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) KINGSTON, R.I., July 21, 2011 - The University of Rhode Island's College of Pharmacy is pairing home visits from pharmacists with the latest technology, providing instant access to a patient's medical history and medications, all in an effort to reduce hospital readmissions. The Center for Technology and Aging has awarded a Tech4Impact Diffusion Grant to the College of Pharmacy to work collaboratively with the Rhode Island Department of Elderly Affairs to gain more experience with and to evaluate the benefits of technologies that improve patients' transitions from hospitals to their homes. The one-year, $98,000 grant will make it possible for a pharmacist to visit the homes of patients who have been discharged from the hospital, double check medications prescribed in the hospital against those prescribed by the patient's regular doctors, and help the patient create their own electronic personal health record. The pharmacist can add tremendous value and help avert problems, said URI Pharmacy Associate Professor Stephen Kogut, who will oversee the grant. Too many patients end up back in hospitals, especially elderly patients. The United States has an 18-percent rate of hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge and as many as 76 percent of these readmissions are preventable, according to Medicare data. If these unnecessary readmissions were avoided, an estimated $25 billion could be saved annually. Studies show that medication problems occur frequently after hospitalization, with about half of patients experiencing a drug therapy duplication, interaction, or other type of medication problem after discharge. Pharmacists can make sure that new medications prescribed in the hospital are reconciled with the ones prescribed by the patient's usual doctors, and also review any over-the-counter medications that the patient may be taking. Additionally, pharmacists are specifically trained to look for an important medication that may... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2011 08:21 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, Aug 2 - Easing of norms in medical colleges has resulted in addition of approximately 4,500 seats in MBBS courses, while nearly 6,400 seats have been increased at the post graduate level, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said Tuesday. In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said the recent revision of guidelines by the Medical Council of India 'has increased a total of 4,542 MBBS seats in 21 new medical colleges and 33 existing medical colleges during the academic year 2011-12'. Among the steps take to increase the number of seats for medical courses was reducing the change in teacher-student ratio from 1:1 to 1:2. 'These initiatives has resulted in increase of approximately 6,400 additional PG seats in various disciplines in medical colleges during the last two academic years 2010-11 and 2011-12,' Azad said. He added that 4,000 more PG seats are like to be increased as government has schemes for starting new PG disciplines and increasing PG seats by central funding. http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Now, a tracking system for immunisation in India: Azad Posted: 02 Aug 2011 08:20 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, Aug 2 - In a major stride towards ensuring that children and pregnant women get basic immunisation, the government has a tracking system for vaccination in place, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said here Tuesday. 'We have introduced name- and telephone-based tracking of pregnant mothers and children through a web-enabled system. The initiative intends to make sure that all pregnant mothers and children receive full care and complete vaccination,' Azad said at a high level ministerial meeting of the World Health Organisation - in the capital. The meet was attended by health ministers and delegates of the South-East Asia Region. The tracking system will enable health officials to track each and every child and monitor the provision of timely immunisation services to help verify and improve outreach of services, Azad said. Basic vaccines in routine immunisation include four vaccines against six diseases such as BCG -, DTP -, OPV - and measles. While the ministry is confident about its move, WHO officials feel it was a much needed step for a country like India that has a vast population. 'India's size is a challenge as a sizable population is not aware of the benefits of immunisation. We always needed a tracking system to spot the drop outs in vaccination, and reach out to the grass root population,' Poonam Khetarpal Singh, Deputy Regional Director, WHO -, told IANS. 'Intense monitoring and accountability are needed. India must also use the tracking system to get a feedback from the health officials in gram panchayats to know the problems they are facing in manpower,' Singh added. http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| You are subscribed to email updates from RxPG News : Latest Medical, Healthcare and Research News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Post a Comment