News by Subject Medicine & Health

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have developed a unique model allowing them to predict which children arriving in emergency departments are most likely to go into septic shock, a life-threatening condition.

A team of researchers including those from King's College London and the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, have for the first time successfully applied bacteriophage (phage) therapy in mice to alcohol-related liver disease. Phages are viruses that specifically destroy bacteria.

After decades of little or no progress, biomedical researchers are finally making some headway at detecting and treating sepsis, a deadly medical complication that sends a surge of pathogenic infection through the body and remains a major public health problem. They report data Nov. 13 in Science Translational Medicine.

National attention has been drawn to the plight of patients who have experienced the unintended side effects of prolonged ICU care such as memory loss and muscle weakness. Now, a research team led by UC San Diego have evaluated the employment impacts to ICU patients, with concerning findings.

Six years ago the initial Three Wishes Project began at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, when hospital staff asked patients or their families how they might honour the life and dignity of those dying in the intensive care unit. Staff would then help families by implementing these wishes. Now a study with three additional hospital intensive care unit sites in Toronto, Vancouver and Los Angeles, California has proven the project is a success elsewhere.

A new analysis of US data finds an unexpectedly high prevalence of prescription opioid use among youth. As recently as 2015-2016, 21% of adolescents and 32% of young adults said they had used these drugs in the past year. Nearly 4 percent and 8 percent, respectively, reported misusing opioids. Findings were published Nov. 5 in PLoS Medicine.

Boosting the milk of premature babies with healthy bacteria may have helped half the number of serious gut problems and infections, according to new research. Researchers reviewed the outcomes of almost 1,000 very premature babies who were admitted to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) over a 10-year period.