Latest Science and Society News

When it pays to spend on health care
MIT study shows that spending more on emergency-room patients saves lives. Intuitively, it may seem logical that high-end medical care would lead to better results for patients. But economists and policy specialists have debated the question extensively, and uncovering a clear answer has proven difficult.
 
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Blue Collar Workers Can Look Forward to Working Longer and in Worse Health than their White Collar Bosses

While more Americans are working past age 65 by choice, a growing segment of the population must continue to work well into their sixties out of financial necessity.  Research conducted by the Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine looked at aging, social class and labor force participation rates to illustrate the challenges that lower income workers face in the global marketplace. 

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Doctors Differ in How Best to Care for America’s 12 Million Cancer Survivors

There are major differences between oncologists and primary care physicians regarding knowledge, attitudes, and practices required to care for American’s 12 million cancer survivors. That is the key finding of the first nationally representative survey of doctors that reveals how these differences pose significant barriers to effective communication and coordination of care following initial cancer treatment.
 

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“E-Cigarette or Drug Delivery Device?”

Devices marketed as “electronic cigarettes” are in reality crude drug delivery systems for refined nicotine, posing unknown risks with little new benefits to smokers, according to tobacco control experts.  In a “Perspective” published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the Legacy’s Steven A. Schroeder National Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies explore the current regulatory climate around electronic cigarettes (“e-cigarettes”) and their safety.

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Report on the use of animals containing human material published

A new report published today by the Academy of Medical Sciences examines the use of animals containing human material (ACHM) in biomedical research and calls for a national expert body to be set up to advise on this complex and sensitive area of research. The report explores in great detail the scientific, social, ethical, safety and regulatory aspects of ACHM research.
 

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Stronger social safety net leads to decrease in stress, childhood obesity

Social safety net programs that reduce psychosocial stressors for low-income families also ultimately lead to a reduction in childhood obesity, according to research by a University of Illinois economist who studies the efficacy of food assistance programs on public health.

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