RECENT NEWS

Public Health England (PHE) is calling for more pregnant women to come forward for the free flu vaccination as a report shows how fatal the virus can be for pregnant women.

New research suggests that people who arrive at hospital emergency departments with acute heart failure should have their blood sugar levels checked on arrival. This simple and inexpensive measure could identify patients at high risk of early death, further hospitalisations, or the development of more health problems, such as diabetes.

A novel Parkinson's vaccine (Affitope PD03A) will now be tested in a clinical Phase I trial in Austria by an EU-funded consortium. The vaccine was developed by the Austrian biotech company AFFiRiS AG and targets a protein called alpha-Synuclein.

MR CLEAN, a ground-breaking study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has showed that intra-arterial treatment for acute ischaemic stroke patients improves patient outcomes.

A new combination of two different approaches – virotherapy and immunotherapy – is showing promise as a treatment for pancreatic cancer, according to new research from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).

BMI The London Independent Hospital has unveiled its newly enhanced intensive therapy unit (ITU). The new department, which has undergone a £40,000 investment, will allow the hospital to expand the level of critical care it is able to provide in London and the international healthcare market.

Following a recent Ebola virus disease (EVD) patient being discharged from a Glasgow hospital and transferred by military plane to a specialist north London centre, Bioquell technology was called into action. The company was commissioned to deploy its hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) technology – the gold standard in biodecontamination.

The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt has announced measures to tackle sepsis, involving the NHS, Government and national health bodies.

Results from the National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA) show that a substantial number of patients are needlessly dying of lung cancer as a result of local variation in care. While some patients may not be eligible or able to have surgery but can receive radiotherapy, surgical treatment represents the best chance of cure of the disease.

A number of senior health policy makers, clinicians and patients have spoken about the need for more patient involvement in their care and how they should be consulted in the shaping of new NHS services in the future.

Midwives’ overtime claims are costing more than giving them the recommended 1% pay award rejected by the Government and NHS employers, according to the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).

Delays in spotting the early signs and symptoms of cancer could be costing the lives of thousands of people in England and Wales every year, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). To tackle this issue it is updating its guidance to better support GPs and other primary healthcare professionals, and ultimately improve early diagnosis rates.

With more soldiers returning from combat suffering devastating injuries, doctors are turning to a reconstructive surgery that uses tissue transplantation along with immunosuppression therapy. This approach has had encouraging results; however, rejection of transplanted tissue from an unmatched donor remains a critical complication. A study has found a way around this.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has announced awards, which total £12.1 million, to fund Blood and Transplant Research Units (BTRUs). Each BTRU is a partnership between a university and NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT).

Even mild depressive symptoms can weaken the outcome of lumbar spinal stenosis surgery, according to a study completed at the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital.

Micreos, a Dutch biotech company, has developed Staphefekt, a bacteria-killing enzyme specific to Staphylococcus aureus, which is equally effective in killing methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA) as methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus(MSSA).

Royal Philips has launched a Europeanwide research initiative designed to better understand some of the key issues affecting the many millions of people currently living with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), a condition that kills 25,000 people in the UK every year.

The ‘Clinical Research Impact’ award, sponsored by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network, was recently presented to Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust at a ceremony in London, after demonstrating how it has taken a multi-faceted approach and introduced numerous new initiatives throughout the organisation to maximise the impact of research.

Medical technology designers are to pitch a new contoured support snood helping to improve the quality of lives of motor neurone disease sufferers whose neck muscles have weakened to a panel of ‘Dragons’ Den’ style judges as part of a £10,000 innovation challenge.

The death rate for people under 75 from cancer has fallen steadily over the past decade, according to figures published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. Statistics show that, across England, cancer has remained the top cause of death among under-75s but that the cancer death rate in this age group fell by 14.7% between 2003 and 2013.