Online Medicine

HOUSTON -- (March 26, 2008) -- Meeting in groups, as opposed to the traditional one-on-one appointment, is a valuable learning environment for pregnant women, said midwives from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

A new program at Casa de Amigos Health Center, part of the Harris County Hospital District, provides prenatal education to women in groups, said Cynthia Wade, a certified nurse midwife at BCM, who leads the program CenteringPregnancy® that is affiliated with a national organization called the Centering Healthcare Institute (http://www.centeringpregnancy.com/).

Sharing experiences

Women in the program may learn and benefit more from a variety of prenatal experiences that can be found within a group, said Wade.

"We are really enthusiastic about this program," she said. "The traditional approach is a great option of care for some women, but this provides a unique opportunity for women to honor their need for affiliation and learn from one another at the same time. It is helping to normalize the issues and concerns they are facing as their pregnancy progresses."

Wade holds the group visits at the district's community clinic for women who are going to deliver their babies around the same date. The groups are scheduled every four weeks and then every two weeks—similar to the traditional prenatal care schedule. The program is designed for groups of eight to 12. They begin the group visits when they are 12 to 16 weeks pregnant and attend 10 two-hour sessions facilitated by the group leader.

Betty Carter, another BCM midwife, also started Centering groups at the Good Neighbor Healthcare Center.

Pregnancy and parenting

"The sessions focus on issues of pregnancy and parenting," said Wade. "At the beginning, we distribute self assessment sheets targeting personal and physical issues that help guide the discussion."

Before the women enter the group, certified nurse midwives talk to them about their medical history. The midwives do a physical examination and lab work. One advantage of the program is that patients have more time with a healthcare provider, said Wade. That means they can ask more questions and have more time to hear and respond to other experiences.

She said group prenatal care can improve pregnancy outcomes by reducing the risk that babies will be born prematurely. They also encourage breastfeeding and good interaction between mother and baby without costing more than standard care.

Wade said, "It is a cost-efficient, energizing way to provide care."

March of Dimes grant

BCM received two of the approximately 17 statewide March of Dimes grants to fund this model of group prenatal care and is participating in a research study conducted by the March of Dimes.

"Not only is the program fun and interesting, but it enables our participants to learn from each other," said Wade. "It provides an efficient conduit for information and is a vehicle for social change."

In addition to assistance with pregnancy, BCM midwives offer full-scope care for women, including family planning or child spacing techniques, annual physical exams and pap smears, as well as treatment for minor gynecologic conditions.

For more information on the BCM Midwifery program, visit http://www.bcm.edu/obgyn/?PMID=7139. For more information on CenteringPregnancy®, visit www.centeringpregnancy.org.

Gosh it’s been a while since I’ve written in my “daily blog”!  I’ve been busy visiting family and taking a little down time.  I found that traveling 6 hours via car with two young children (20 mo. and 4.5 yrs) works quite well if you have dvd players.  My husband bought the kind that has one plug (into the lighter) with two separate screens.  That way my oldest could watch his shows w/ a headset and the baby could watch his show with volume only.  Surprisingly the dvd’s kept them entertained for the most part and my husband and I actually got to have a few conversations free of interruptions!

MUMBAI: Suven Life Sciences has received two product patents in Eurasia for two new chemical entities for the treatment of disorders associated with Neurodegenerative diseases. These patents are valid until 2023.

The patents are valid in all contracting countries like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

The granted claims of the patents include the class of selective 5-HT compounds discovered by Suven and are being developed as therapeutic agents and are useful in the treatment of cognitive impairment associated with neuro-degenarative disorders like Attention deficient hyperactivity, Alzheimer's, Parkinson, Schizophrenia and Huntington's.

The company has six internally-discovered therapeutic drug candidated currently in pre-clinical stage of development targeting conditions such as ADHD, dementia, depression, Huntington's disease. Parkinson's disease and obesity in addition to developmental candidates in Alzheimer's disease and Schizophrenia.

"We are very pleased by the issuance of these patents to Suven for our drug candidates that are being developed for CNS disorders which targets an $18 billion potential market opportunity globally," said Venkat Jasti, CEO of Suven.

HOUSTON -- (March 24, 2008) -- Sequencing the genome of the red flour beetle, also known as Tribolium castaneum, could prove of double benefit – both in understanding how organisms develop and in fighting the insect pest, said a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who was part of the international consortium that published the genetic sequence in the current issue of the journal Nature.

On one hand, the red beetle is a voracious pest with an appetite that destroys millions of dollars worth of grain stored in flour-mills. On the other, the beetle serves as a model for studying the genetics of development – much in the way that scientists study fruit flies or Drosophila to understand how genes can affect the ways in which organisms grow, said Dr. Stephen Richards, assistant professor in the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center. Dr. Richard Gibbs of BCM directs the center.

A peek at pest biology

"The Tribolium genome sequence is the first for any beetle," said Dr. Dick Beeman, a research entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service in Manhattan, Kansas. "Since beetles are the most diverse and successful animals on earth, this is an important milestone in evolutionary biology. Also, Tribolium is the first significant agricultural pest insect to have its genome revealed, and this creates new opportunities for understanding and exploiting pest biology."

"The genome sequence in combination with the ability to perform RNAi (a method that inhibits gene expression) at virtually any life stage makes Tribolium a premier insect model organism for studies that are not as readily accessible in Drosophila," said Dr. Susan J. Brown, professor of biology at Kansas State University. "It's really exciting to see the burst of activity in Tribolium studies that has accompanied the sequencing project."

The sequencing effort took the talents of 100 scientists from 14 countries, all of whom participated in the Tribolium Genome Sequencing Consortium. The three-year project sped along, buoyed by the high through-put sequencing that is a hallmark of the BCM Genome Sequencing Center, which has led the sequencing efforts for the human genome as well as several model organisms.

Shared ancestry?

Richards said that some of the genes found in the beetle apparently share ancestry with similar genes in humans. For example, the gene for the receptor for vasopressin, which regulates how water is stored in the body, shares the same ancestry as the gene for the same hormone in humans.

"These beetles are good at living in dry environments," said Richards. "They survive partially on metabolic water, but 10 percent humidity in their environment is enough."

Beeman agreed, saying "As just one example, more than 100 interesting genes associated with the exoskeleton have been identified, and many of these have been shown to have specific, vital functions. Tribolium has several attributes that make it unique among sequenced insects, including a preference for arid environments and a cosmopolitan palate."

"This independence of water makes Tribolium a prime-candidate for a companion as a research organism during the long-term space flight such as the one planned for the red planet Mars," said Dr. Reinhard Schröder of the University of Rostock, Germany, and a co-author of the study.

A consortium of researchers from many countries took part in this work, but Richards cited in addition to those above the efforts of Drs. Gregor Bucher of Georg August University in Göttingen, Germany; Roben Denell of Kansas State University in Manhattan, and Martin Klingler of Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen, Germany, as key leaders in completing the sequence and its analysis.

Funding for this research came from the National Human Genome Research Institute and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The full article can be found at www.nature.com.

MUMBAI: Medical parks will soon be built across the country for makers of diagnostic equipment to set up plants thereby reducing manufacturing costs and making it easily available, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said on Saturday.

"Diagnostic equipment will be manufactured at these parks all across the country," Ramadoss said on the sidelines of a CII conference on diabetes and obesity here.

"The first one we are doing at Chennai where equipment manufacturers can set up base so that 75 to 80 per cent of things made should be used in India," Ramadoss said

This will help reduce the cost of diagnostic equipment most of which is presently made abroad, he said.

The manufacturers of these products had also given a commitment to ensure prices stayed low, the Minister said.

Speaking on the increasing cost of healthcare, Ramadoss said the country already had among the lowest cost of pharmaceuticals and medical treatment in the world but would like to see it reduced further.

"Health insurance which will be addressed in a very big way and is expected to take care of the problems associated with individual health spending," he said.

The Health Ministry will also be introducing the National Urban Health Mission in the next four to five months at a cost of Rs 22 crore which would provide health insurance for the urban poor particularly for slum dwellers.

"The advantage of having health insurance for the people living in slums is when they visit a public hospital the money will be received by the public sector. This will further help develop it," Ramadoss said.