Conference Alert: Australasian Epidemiological Association Annual Scientific Meeting 2013

20-22 October 2013; BCEC

Abstract submission closes – Monday 3 June 2013

This year’s conference, themed “Life Course Approach to Health and Wellbeing”, investigates the role of biological, behavioural and psychosocial processes that link adult health and disease risk to physical and social exposures acting during life or across generations. This is a relatively new concept of epidemiological thinking that began to emerge in the 1980s and 1990s. It is, therefore, very timely to convene a meeting on a life course approach to health in Australia that will provide an opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas and findings in this important and emerging field. Themes will be varied and cover topics such as epidemiological methods, life stages, nutrition, physical activity and more. Your attendance and active participation in the meeting will help enhance epidemiological research.

The Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Epidemiological Association (AEA) provides an opportunity to present and discuss current and future epidemiological, biostatistical and public health issues, and to provide a forum for networking with like-minded individuals. Students and early career researchers in epidemiology, biostatistics and public health are particularly encouraged to attend.

Click here to visit conference website

Click here for Call for Abstracts

New search engine finds rare diagnoses

(Technical University of Denmark 21 May 2013) Doctors are trained to think “common disease” when they meet patients in their practices, and as they rarely or never meet a rare disease, it often takes many years to reach the right diagnosis. A new search tool called FindZebra developed at the Technical University of Denmark can dramatically reduce this time in many cases.

Read EurekAlert Summary

Click here to link to FindZebra

Biomarkers discovered for inflammatory bowel disease

(University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center 21 May 2013) Using the Department of Defense Serum Repository, University of Cincinnati researchers have identified a number of biomarkers for inflammatory bowel disease, which could help with earlier diagnosis and intervention in those who have not yet shown symptoms.

Read EurekAlert Summary

Metabolic biomarkers can predict mortality in the ICU

(American Thoracic Society 20 May 2013) A metabolic profile of intensive care unit patients based on biomarkers of four metabolites can be used to accurately predict mortality, according to a new study.

Read EurekAlert Summary

Leading explanations for whooping cough’s resurgence don’t stand up to scrutiny

(University of Michigan) Whooping cough has exploded in the United States and some other developed countries in recent decades, and many experts suspect ineffective childhood vaccines for the alarming resurgence.

Read EurekALert Summary

Request the source article from Information & Research Services (QH Staff only)

Scientific insurgents say ‘Journal Impact Factors’ distort science

(American Society for Cell Biology 16 May 2013) An ad hoc coalition of unlikely insurgents — scientists, journal editors and publishers, scholarly societies, and research funders across many scientific disciplines — today posted an international declaration calling on the world scientific community to eliminate the role of the journal impact factor in evaluating research for funding, hiring, promotion, or institutional effectiveness.

Read EurekAlert Summary

Click here to read the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment

 

Breakthrough for IVF?

(Elsevier 16 May 2013) Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the publication of a recent study in Reproductive BioMedicine Online on 5-day old human blastocysts showing that those with an abnormal chromosomal composition can be identified by the rate at which they have developed to blastocysts, thereby classifying the risk of genetic abnormality without a biopsy.

Read EurekAlert Summary

Request the first source article from Information & Research Services (QH Staff only)

Request the second source article from Information & Research Services (QH Staff only)

Genetic diversity within tumors predicts outcome in head and neck cancer

(Massachusetts General Hospital 20 May 2013) A new measure of the heterogeneity — the variety of genetic mutations — of cells within a tumor appears to predict treatment outcomes of patients with the most common type of head and neck cancer better than most traditional risk factors.

Read EurekAlert Summary

Request the source article from Information & Research Services (QH Staff only)

Running a Lean, Mean AP Lab Machine

DOTmed daily news 16 May 2013

Deep, wide and all-encompassing-the new realities of ongoing anatomic pathology (AP) laboratory reimbursement cuts figured prominently in the topics discussed at the recent Executive War College in April. At the annual event focusing on business, clinical and administrative resources for laboratory and pathology management leaders, concerns about today’s financial realities were a major topic. Another theme emerged at the event: one of the ways labs across the country are addressing financial pressure is through Lean Process Improvement.

Read more

Mayo Clinic: Molecular marker from pancreatic ‘juices’ helps identify pancreatic cancer

(Mayo Clinic 19 May 2013) Researchers at Mayo Clinic have developed a promising method to distinguish between pancreatic cancer and chronic pancreatitis — two disorders that are difficult to tell apart. A molecular marker obtained from pancreatic “juices” can identify almost all cases of pancreatic cancer, their study shows.

Read EurekAlert Summary