Prostate cancer radiation device a boon for docs. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy, or IMRT, has seen a sharp increase in prostate cancer treatment numbers, and the reason stands behind a lucrative reimbursement arrangement between urologists and radiation oncologists, according to The Wall Street Journal.
BPA found on paper money. A new study from health advocacy groups Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families and the Washington Toxics Coalition found that bisphenol A, a chemical used in plastic bottles and food can linings that has been linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and sexual dysfunction in people and cancer in mice, is detectable on dollar bills, reports to The Los Angels Times.
TB has a new enemy in rapid test. A two-hour tuberculosis test could dramatically change treatment for the disease, which killed 1.7 million people last year, according to the World Health Organization, reports to The Guardian.
Blame Medicare, not private insurers. Health spending continues to be a concern in America, with projections as high as $4.5 trillion by 2019. But a new study in the journal Health Affairs suggests that we should blame Medicare more than private insurance companies for the spending trend, reports FierceHealthcare.
GSK to buy Chinese drug company. GlaxoSmithKline will buy a Chinese pharmaceutical company for about $70 million, a small deal that reinforces the drug maker’s efforts to expand in important emerging markets, according to the News & Observer.
U.S. economic horizon brightens. Wall Street economists are ready to ratchet up their economic-growth forecasts for 2011 in light of the tax deal struck by President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans, particularly the surprise one-year reduction in payroll taxes, according to a MarketWatch story in the Columbus Dispatch.
Stem cells are hope for disabled. Adult stem cell companies like Athersys Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio, are giving hope for brain and spinal cord injury cures to the disabled, writes the Disability Rights for the Physically Challenged blog.
On Bill Hawkins’ reading table? Bill Hawkins, chairman and CEO of medical device giant Medtronic, is reading Start Up Nation, by Saul Singer. “This is a truly inspiring book on how nations and their culture can directly influence innovation,” reports FastCompany.
Orexigen wins while rivals lose. Orexigen Therapeutics Inc.’s success in winning the first U.S. panel recommendation for a long-sought prescription diet pill shows the company benefited from earlier difficulties of rivals, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
Material from MedCity News was used in this report.
