Newsline — Friday, September 30, 2011 19:47
New Study Reveals Non-verbal Clues May Guide Doctor/Patient Relationships, Clinical Judgments
Weill Cornell Receives $5.5 Million NIH Grant for Research Toward Spina Bifida Prevention
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 14:50
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a five-year, $5.5 million Transformative Research Project (T-R01) Award to fund research into risk factors for spina bifida and related congenital defects in which an area of the affected baby’s spine or brain is not fully enclosed. Dr. Margaret Elizabeth Ross and Dr. Christopher E. Mason at Weill Cornell Medical College will lead the research efforts. Dr. Ross is the director of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Development and professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, and Dr. Mason is an assistant professor of computational genomics in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and at the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Institute for Computational Biomedicine. They will work in collaboration with Dr. Richard H. Finnell of the University of Texas at Austin. The award is among 79 awards totaling $143.8 million that were recently announced by the NIH. It also is one of only 17 given in the transformative research category in 2011. According to the NIH: “The…
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New Technology May Improve Diagnosis, Treatment of Individuals Suffering Traumatic Brain Injuries
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 17:18
A new test program, which is being run by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine (CNRM), in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, is utilizing a whole-body simultaneous positron emission topography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device. The emphasis and central focus of the Biograph mMR will be to improve the diagnosis and treatment of military service members and civilians suffering primarily from traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The imaging technology was purchased through CNRM, a Department of Defense-funded collaboration between the USU and the NIH to carry out research in TBI and PTSD that would benefit the servicemen and -women returning to then-Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center (now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center). Researchers at the NIH Clinical Center also will use the Biograph mMR in studies with patients with other brain disorders, cardiovascular disease and cancer. To read more about the test program and the technology, click here.
New Study Focuses On Link Between Gliomas and Seizures
Monday, September 19, 2011 17:06
A team of researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has targeted the relationship that exists between primary brain tumors and epileptic seizures. The findings of the study, which were published in the Sept. 11, 2011, issue of Nature Medicine, show malignant glioma cells produce sizable amounts of the neurotransmitter glutamate – amounts much greater than the amounts neurons normally use to communicate with each other – into healthy neurons around the tumor. According to the article, researcher Harald Sontheimer, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology at UAB and lead investigator in the study, said “These tumor cells produce an enormous amount of glutamate, 100-fold beyond normal. This leads to a state of hyper-excitability that overwhelms healthy neurons and leads to their death.” Sontheimer continued by saying that the death of neurons in proximity to the glioma gives the malignant cell room to grow and expand into the space previously occupied by the neurons. To read more about the study, click here. A PubMed link to an abstract on the paper also can be accessed by clicking here.
Study Reveals Possible Breakthrough in Drug Delivery to the Brain
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 18:50
Researchers at Cornell University may have made a breakthrough in determining how to safely open and close the blood-brain barrier – the specialized cells that constitute the brain’s blood vessels. Because the barrier limits entry to essential molecules that the brain requires, delivering drugs to the brain to help provide treatment has been severely limited. However, in a new study featured in the Sept. 14, 2011, Journal of Neuroscience, researchers found that adenosine, a molecule produced by the body, can modulate entry of large molecules into the brain. According to the study, they discovered that when adenosine receptors on cells that make up the blood-brain barrier are activated, an entryway into the blood-brain barrier can be established. To read more on this story, click here.
Neurosurgeon Peter W. Carmel Inaugurated as AMA President
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 21:36
Peter W. Carmel, M.D., a pediatric neurosurgeon practicing in Newark, N.J., was inaugurated June 21 as the 166th president of the American Medical Association (AMA). Dr. Carmel has served in numerous positions in both the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS). For 17 years, Dr. Carmel was a CNS representative in the House of Delegates, the AMA’s primary policy-making body. He received the AANS Distinguished Service Award 2008. For additional information visit American Medical News at https://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/carmel-named-president.page.
Neurosurgeon Monica C. Wehby Elected to AMA Board of Trustees
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 21:18
Monica C. Wehby, M.D., a pediatric neurosurgeon from Portland, Ore., was elected June 21 as a new member of the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association (AMA). Dr. Wehby was elected by an assembly of physician leaders from across the country who gathered in Chicago for the annual meeting of the House of Delegates, the AMA’s primary policy-making body. Dr. Wehby is a recognized leader in organized medicine and has formerly served as president of the Oregon Medical Association and the Medical Society of Metropolitan Portland. She is currently northwest regional director of the board of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. “We’re delighted that the AMA has recognized Dr. Wehby’s tremendous leadership talents, which those of us in neurosurgery have known about for a long time” said Alex B. Valadka, M.D. chair of the AANS/CNS Washington Committee. “ Along with the election of New Jersey neurosurgical resident Krystal Tomei to the AMA Council on Medical Education, and especially with the inauguration of Peter Carmel as AMA President, Dr. Wehby’s election to the AMA Board…
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Notice of Censure
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 12:57
Dr. J. Martin Barrash. following an appeal to the AANS General Membership on April 11, 2011, has been censured for giving expert testimony without having seen the imaging studies relevant to that testimony, and for failure to provide unbiased testimony during part of a deposition in a civil lawsuit.
Membership Suspension
Saturday, April 9, 2011 12:55
The AANS Board of Directors on April 8 2011 approved the recommendation of the Professional Conduct Committee that the membership of Mihai D. Dimancescu, M.D. of Freeport N.Y. be suspended for a period of six months for unprofessional conduct. The unprofessional conduct occurred during Dr. Dimancescu’s testimony as an expert witness in a civil trial and consisted of testifying with inadequate subject matter knowledge, misrepresenting his credentials to the court, and failing to testify as to the full range of the standard of care resulting in a misrepresentation of the applicable standard of neurosurgical care.
Medicare Pay Cut Reprieve Assured for 2011, Physician Groups Target SGR
Saturday, December 18, 2010 0:07
On Dec. 15 President Barack Obama signed legislation that will extend the 2010 Medicare physician fee schedule through 2011, avoiding a 25 percent cut in payment to doctors. The legislation sets a zero update to the calculation that determines physician payment under Medicare, known as the sustainable growth rate formula. In a lame duck session the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4994, the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010, on Dec. 9; the Senate had approved the bill Dec. 6. Without additional legislation the SGR formula will again kick in on Jan. 1, 2012, with attendant reductions in physician payment. Physician groups, including the American Medical Association and the Alliance for Specialty Medicine, have decried the continued usage of the SGR formula, which ties physician payment under Medicare to the cost of providing services and the performance of the nation’s economy. “It has come time for Congress to ensure senior citizens have access to the medical care they need by stepping up and permanently fixing the outdated SGR formula,” stated AANS member Alex B….
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