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Colorado Rural Co-Ops Provide Example For Health Care System Proposal
Rural utility co-ops in Colorado could provide an example of how a co-op would work nationally for health care, The Denver Post reports.
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Neurons That 'Mirror' The Attention Of Others Discovered By Scientists
Whether a monkey is looking to the left or merely watching another monkey looking that way, the same neurons in his brain are firing, according to researchers at the Duke University Medical Center.
News of the day
San Francisco Organizations Urge Lawmakers To Restore HIV/AIDS Funding, Plan Rally
San Francisco area HIV/AIDS organizations are urging lawmakers to restore millions of dollars in funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs that were cut from the California budget by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) this week, KCBS.com reports. "The governor has removed a substantial amount of our capacity to make sure that people know their HIV status," Dana Van Gorder of Project Inform said, adding "Services that are keeping people who are already HIV positive healthy will be reduced with a major impact on their health." A rally is planned to take place next week at the state building in San Francisco to protest the cuts, according to the article (7/30). David Brinkman of the Desert AIDS Project in Palm Springs, "says the budget cuts are literally a matter of life and death," KESQ.com reports. The Desert AIDS Project is hoping that planned fundraising will temporarily offset the cuts to services in the Palm Springs area (Diaz, 7/30).
Diagnostics

NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia Implants 100th Heart Valve Replacement Without Open-Heart Surgery

Over the last four years, heart specialists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center have implanted an innovative aortic heart valve replacement using a catheter-based approach that does not require open-heart surgery in a total of 100 patients -- the most of any U.S. medical center to date. Open-heart surgery can require a two- to three-month recovery period, compared to only a few days for the transcatheter approach. The procedures were conducted as part of multiple clinical research studies of the Edwards SAPIEN transcatheter heart valve. Currently ongoing is the PARTNER (Placement of AoRTic traNscathetER valves) trial, a Phase 3 multicenter study led by national co-principal investigators Dr. Martin Leon and Dr. Craig Smith and focused on the treatment of patients who are at high risk or not suitable for open-heart valve replacement surgery. The SAPIEN heart valve, made of bovine pericardial tissue leaflets hand-sewn onto a metal frame, is implanted via one of two catheter-based methods -- either navigated to the heart from the femoral artery in the patient"s leg, or through a small incision between the ribs and into the left ventricle. It is then positioned inside the patient"s existing valve, using a balloon to deploy the frame, which holds the valve replacement in place. Both procedures are performed on a beating heart, without the need for cardiopulmonary bypass and its associated risks. "This breakthrough technology could save the lives of thousands of patients with heart valve disease who have no other therapeutic options," says Dr. Leon, the study"s national co-principal investigator, associate director of the Cardiovascular Interventional Therapy (CIVT) Program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center, and professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Annually, some 200,000 people in the U.S. need a new heart valve, but nearly half of them do not receive a new valve for a variety of reasons. "This study may show that transcatheter valve replacement is a safe and effective alternative to open surgery, which remains the "gold standard" for most patients," says Dr. Smith, study co-principal investigator, interim surgeon-in-chief and chief of cardiothoracic surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, and acting Chairman of the Department of Surgery and the Calvin F. Barber Professor of Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The transcatheter valve procedures take about 90 minutes, compared with four to six hours for open-heart surgery. In open-heart surgery, the surgeon cuts through the breastbone, stops the heart, removes the valve and replaces it. The PARTNER trial is a prospective randomized study with two separate treatment arms. In the surgical arm, patients are randomized to receive either the Edwards SAPIEN transcatheter heart valve or an Edwards surgical valve via open-heart surgery. In the non-surgical, medical management arm, patients considered to be non-operative are randomized to receive either the Edwards SAPIEN transcatheter heart valve or appropriate medical therapy. The PARTNER trial is designed for patients with severe aortic stenosis -- a narrowing of the valve that restricts blood flow from the heart -- who are not good candidates for surgery due to age or other concurrent health factors. The PARTNER trial is also available at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center"s Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute, led by Dr. Karl H. Krieger (vice chairman of cardiovascular surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Philip Geier Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College) and Dr. Shing-Chiu Wong (director of cardiac catheterization laboratories at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College). The Edwards SAPIEN transcatheter heart valve is manufactured by Edwards Lifesciences of Irvine, Calif., which is also funding the study. Jennifer Homa New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center


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