U.S. moves to spur digital health record network
The U.S. government is taking steps to help spawn a nationwide network of electronic medical records that are easily accessible but protect patient privacy, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said on Monday.
A new advisory panel will make recommendations aimed at prodding the private sector to establish standards so medical records can be shared throughout the health-care system, Leavitt said.
Whopping cough vaccine cost effective in U.S. teens
One-time whopping cough vaccination for all adolescents in the U.S. is likely to be cost effective, according to a report published in the medical journal Pediatrics. If implemented, such a strategy may help stem the rise in whopping cough rates seen in the past two decades.
By contrast, the study did not find adult vaccination for whopping cough, also known as pertussis, to be cost effective, nor was the use of booster shots.
Drug testing company sues PETA over videos
Covance Inc., a pharmaceutical testing firm, said on Monday it filed suit against animal rights group PETA, charging it with fraud and conspiracy for illegally videotaping animals at a Covance plant.
Covance said an agent for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals misrepresented herself to get hired by Covance and then violated her employee contract when she videotaped the firm’s Vienna, Virginia facility.
One in 10 UK kids bullied by picture phone-survey
One in 10 British children say they have been threatened or made uncomfortable by people taking a photograph of them with a mobile phone, according to a survey published on Tuesday.
Children’s charity NCH said nearly a sixth of this total believed their image had then been sent to someone else.
A recent craze of “happy slapping”, where random attacks on strangers are filmed by camera phone, has fuelled concerns about youth crime in Britain where tackling anti-social behaviour is a top political issue.
No human clones this century - stem cell expert
There will be no human clones this century because the work is dangerous, complicated and unethical, a South Korea scientist at the forefront of stem cell research and cloning technology said on Tuesday.
“I don’t think we will have any chance to meet a cloned human being within the next 100 years, at least,” said Woo-Suk Hwang, the head of a team of South Korean scientists who cloned the first human embryo to use for research.
