C M G Buttery

A panel of immunization experts voted today (February 24, 2010) to expand the recommendation for annual influenza vaccination to include all people aged 6 months and older. The expanded recommendation is to take effect in the 2010 – 2011 influenza season. The new recommendation seeks to remove barriers to influenza immunization and signals the importance [...]

Also in today’s JAMA is a report on Josiah Macy, Jr, Foundation commissioned the IOM to assess the possibility of creating a national inter-professional institute dedicated to improving continuing education for clinicians. Over the years there have been many reviews of the lack of measurements of the effectiveness of CME among the health professionals, with [...]

A Commentary in today’s JAMA is worth reading as it explains the numerous attempts by Congress and the FDA to restrict inappropriate advertising by food companies which are repeatedly knocked down the courts. The commentary could musty as well have been applied to drug company advertising and its often lethal  effects. The commentary clearly identifies [...]

A team of researchers at Warwick Medical School (UK) carried out a systematic literature review of studies examining vitamin D and cardio-metabolic disorders. Cardio-metabolic disorders include cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome. Comment. We seem to raising Vitamin D on a pedestal, just as Linus Pauling did Vitamin C years ago.  Literature [...]

Reported in ScienceDaily today new research shows people who regularly take ibuprofen may reduce their risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to a study that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto in April. This cohort study of involved 136,474 people who did not have Parkinson’s disease at [...]

Health, United States 2009, just released by the NCHS should be required reading for health economists and translational researchers, including epidemiologists.  Much of the increase is driven by application of new drugs and new procedures, most of which are intended to provided secondary prevention of deterioration from chronic diseases.  Many of the procedures are driven [...]

This British study [BMJ (2010, February 18)] showed that alcohol implicated in rising toll of fatal car crashes involving young women drivers may be due to drug misuse among young women, possibly as a result of changing social and cultural norms. There is no reason to think that US women drivers are any different to [...]

Once again another study shows evidence for the safety and efficacy of influenza vaccines in the over 65s is poor, despite the fact that vaccination has been recommended for the prevention of influenza in older people for the past 40 years. These are the conclusions of a new Cochrane Systematic Review. “As the evidence on [...]

While many genetic markers have been identified as being associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), it is unknown whether genetic screening improves a doctor’s ability to predict cardiac risk for events such as heart attack, stroke, coronary revascularization, or cardiovascular death. Researchers found that the genetic data marginally predicted risk on its own but had almost [...]

The project, just published by the RWJF should be of interest to everyone involved in improving community health. This project sets baselines and indicates how far, and in what way, individual counties deviate from the optimal for their citizens.. See more about this project, and the rankings at www.countyhealthrankings.org.