Autism, which affects one in about 150 children, covers a broad spectrum of developmental disorders. Children with the less severe diagnoses often are educated in "regular" public or private schools. But in Northeast Ohio, parents of children who are most severely affected have two choices nearby, the Monarch and Clinic schools.
With technology that can now scan each of an individual's 46 chromosomes for minute aberrations, doctors are providing thousands of children lumped together as "autistic" or "developmentally delayed" with distinct genetic diagnoses. The symptoms, they are finding, can be traced to one of dozens of deletions or duplications of DNA that were previously hard or impossible to detect.
Purdue Pharma of Stamford, CT, hired Rudolph Giuliani and his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, in 2002 to help stem the controversy about OxyContin. Among Giuliani's missions was the job of convincing public officials that they could trust Purdue because they could trust him.
The question about who will build the proposed Madison hospital could be answered in less than three weeks. But a lawsuit challenging a state panel's approval of the hospital threatens the $90 million-plus project's hopes for a 2008 groundbreaking.
The Cleveland Clinic recently began studying a mega-EKG machine that has nearly seven times the number of leads. It takes 80 readings of electrical activity, which is said to increase detection of heart attacks.
Nemours Children's Clinic in Orlando, FL, announced that its new division of orthopedics will be led by Suzanne Jaffe Walters, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in pediatric and adolescent sports medicine.
Almost 4 million Floridians will be eligible for a discount on prescription drugs under a new program unveiled Thursday by Gov. Charlie Crist. Residents who qualify will be able to save between 5 percent and 42 percent on almost every brand-name and generic drug at more than 3,000 participating pharmacies.
Citing the controversy that has embroiled its $100 million pledge for a city high school scholarship program, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center yesterday said it was dropping its request for a possible tax credit in exchange for its commitment to the Pittsburgh Promise.
Scientists blamed Alzheimer's on misfolded proteins, broken neural pathways, misprinted gene maps, and much more. For years they have laid plans to fight the disease with all of the Big Pharma firepower they could muster. But they also talked about inhaling insulin, eating turmeric, fixing vitamin deficiencies, injecting stem cells and inventing neuro-protective vaccines.
Now, annual checkups for the nearly half a million Massachusetts children on Medicaid will carry a new requirement: Doctors must offer simple questionnaires to detect warning signs of possible mental health problems, from autism in toddlers to depression in teens. Over the last several years, such questionnaires have increasingly become the standard of care in pediatric practices, but spurred by legal action Massachusetts is jumping ahead of other states by requiring the screens for all its young Medicaid recipients.