Geron Corp. has spent at least $100 million on human embryonic stem cell research. Founded in 1992, it does not have any therapies on the market.
However, the company is considered the world’s leading embryonic stem cell developer thanks to its claims on several key stem cell technologies. Geron helped finance researchers at the University of Wisconsin who first isolated human embryonic stem cells in 1998. The company has retained exclusive rights on several of those cell types.
Madison – Lawmakers asked the University of Wisconsin Hospital to drop a plan to provide second-trimester abortions at a private clinic. Twenty-eight Republicans and one independent signed a letter to the hospital CEO, calling the procedure “barbaric.” Doctors at UW and Meriter hospitals have proposed performing the abortions for women between 13 and 22 weeks pregnant.
Nearly one-quarter of Wisconsin lawmakers asked the University of Wisconsin Hospital on Thursday to back off a plan to provide late-term abortions at a private clinic.
In a letter to Hospital CEO Donna Katen-Bahensky, 28 Republican senators and representatives and the Legislature’s one independent called second-trimester abortion a barbaric procedure that kills viable babies.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than two dozen Wisconsin lawmakers are asking the University of Wisconsin Hospital to drop a plan to provide late-term abortions at a private clinic.
Twenty-eight Republican senators and representatives and one independent signed a letter to Hospital CEO Donna Katen-Bahensky on Thursday. The letter calls second-trimester abortion a “barbaric” procedure and asks Katen-Bahensky to use her power to stop it.
University of Wisconsin-Madison orthopedic surgeon and researcher Dr. Thomas Zdeblick has received millions of dollars in royalty payments from a medical device company for a variety of spinal implants he helped invent, according to an investigation recently made public by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
But a review by The Capital Times finds that the university has no legal right to share in Zdeblick’s windfall. University policy only requires its researchers to patent inventions through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation if their discoveries are funded with federal money.
Wisconsin is facing a shortage of primary care physicians, especially in small towns and in the farm country.
It’s an alarming trend that could impact healthcare for decades to come.
Amy Romandine is a first year medical student at the UW School of Medicine. She’s wanted to be a doctor nearly as long as she can remember.
As students return to campus for the spring semester, the new Student Services Tower will offer endless dining, shopping and health facilities.
The pilot in a fatal helicopter crash near La Crosse couldnâ??t use instruments to navigate through the fog because his company hadnâ??t certified him to do so, records show.
University of Wisconsin Hospital Med Flight pilot Steve Lipperer was using visual flight rules when the helicopter crashed into hilly terrain in May, killing Lipperer, a doctor and a nurse.
Thomas Zdeblick, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, raised eyebrows three years ago when it was learned that he had been receiving $400,000 yearly from the medical device company Medtronic.
But a document obtained Friday indicates the actual yearly payments averaged about 10 times that figure.
Zdeblick, a professor and chairman of the department of orthopedics at UW, received more than $19â??million in payments from Medtronic from 2003 through 2007, according to a letter that Sen. Charles Grassley R-Iowa sent Monday to UW System President Kevin Reilly.
Foggy conditions may have contributed to the fatal crash of a University of Wisconsin Med Flight helicopter last year, according to documents released Thursday.
Two medical helicopter crews in the area told federal safety investigators they declined requests for flights May 10 because of the danger brought on by deteriorating weather. One of them, a pilot for a La Crosse hospital’s program, said he noticed “fog and scud forming” on the bluffs near the Mississippi River during an earlier flight.
A new report says the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has not found a cause for a University of Wisconsin medical helicopter crash near La Crosse last year.
The helicopter was sent to La Crosse May 10 from the UW Hospital in Madison to take a patient from Prairie du Chien to Gundersen Lutheran.
A prominent spine surgeon and researcher at the University of Wisconsin received $19 million in payment over five years from Medtronic Inc., one of the country’s largest makers of spinal devices, according to a senator who is investigating potential conflicts of interest in medicine.
The surgeon, Thomas Zdeblick, received the payments while helping Medtronic develop and promote a number of spinal products. Medtronic’s $19 million in payments to Dr. Zdeblick from 2003 to 2007 went “greatly” beyond what was evident in disclosures he made to the university, Sen. Charles Grassley said in a Jan. 12 letter to Kevin P. Reilly. (Subscription required.)
A surgeon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison received millions of dollars from a medical device company, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, says.
Grassley claimed in a letter to university President Kevin Reilly that Dr. Thomas Zdeblick received more than $19 million from Medtronic between 2003 and 2007, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. Zdeblick, who heads the orthopedics department at the medical school, acknowledged three years ago that Medtronic was paying him $400,000 a year.
The medical industry has 20 billion reasons to expect cooperation from doctors in marketing its products. That’s how many dollars the industry spends each year in payments and gifts, according to Senate estimates.
The practice should be banned outright, but for now, we’ll settle for full disclosure, which a Senate bill introduced in 2007 by Sens. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would require.
Turns out that two pains can make a right. Hot peppers are a key to reducing the misery associated with shingles, or herpes zoster, a viral infection that frequently causes a painful rash, according to results from a promising new clinical trial.
The study found that a high dose of capsaicin, the chemical in hot peppers that makes eyes water and mouths sting, applied through a skin patch can be surprisingly effective in relieving postherpetic neuralgia, the debilitating nerve pain that is frequently a complication of shingles.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal safety investigators said Thursday that flying at night in poor weather conditions contributed to three medical helicopter crashes that killed 12 people.
….The board released the probable cause of the four crashes and information on five others. All total, 35 people were killed in nine EMS helicopter crashes since December 2007.
Three years ago, the board recommended all EMS helicopters be equipped with Terrain Awareness Warning Systems. The technology, which is used aboard commercial jetliners, warns pilots who can’t see where they’re heading when the aircraft is on course to fly into the ground.
Since then, more than three dozen people have been killed in EMS helicopter accidents and installation of the equipment still is not required by the Federal Aviation Administration. Other safety recommendations included more formal procedures for evaluating the risks of making an emergency medical flight, particularly at night and in poor weather, and for obtaining up-to-date weather information. Those recommendations have not been fully implemented either.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Foggy conditions may have contributed to the fatal crash of a University of Wisconsin Med Flight helicopter last year, according to documents released Thursday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it has not yet found a probable cause of the May 10 crash that killed the pilot, a doctor and a nurse. But hundreds of pages of documents released by the board indicate that foggy conditions may have limited the pilot’s visibility.
Two other medical helicopter crews in the area told investigators they declined requests for flights that night because of the danger brought on by deteriorating weather, records show. One of them, a pilot for a La Crosse hospital’s program, said he noticed “fog and scud forming” on the bluffs near the Mississippi River during an earlier flight.
Have long heard criticisms that the tax-supported University of Wisconsin is too liberal, and the staff generally promotes viewpoints contrary to the thinking of the vast majority of Wisconsin taxpayers. But we keep paying them.
There have been soul-wrenching discussions in recent years on the morality of some university personnel using tissues from unborn babies for medical research.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration is pushing ahead with an expanded plan to tax hospitals to bring in more federal money to balance the budget and help hospitals.
The plan would bring in an additional $300 million a year in federal money that could be used to increase payments to hospitals to care for the poor, expand state Medicaid programs that provide health care for the poor, and help cover the cost of existing Medicaid programs, Doyle aides said.
The U.S. National Stem Cell Bank — located at the WiCell Research Institute, a private, nonprofit support organization for UW-Madison — announced Monday it has received deposits of two human embryonic stem cell lines from Cellartis AB.
The National Stem Cell Bank now has received all 21 cell lines from the six providers listed on the National Institutes of Health federal registry.
Missing information, loopholes and weak oversight hamper efforts to uncover financial conflicts by researchers who test experimental drugs before companies seek government approval, an internal watchdog says.
As a result, the Food and Drug Administration’s screening system is unreliable, the Health and Human Services inspector general’s office says in a report being released today.
Critics say that when university doctors give speeches for drug companies, they can step over the line that separates research and education from marketing, especially when they do unaccredited talks at restaurants and other locations.
Amid the evening din of customers ordering martinis and carving up steaks, a few doctors seated themselves at a table in the private dining room at Johnny Delmonico’s restaurant.
Wine, steak and a white tablecloth helped set the atmosphere for the guest speaker, Melissa Meredith, a physician and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
Moonlighting for the drug company Amylin, Meredith was there to give a promotional talk about the diabetes drug Byetta.
Meredith was one of more than 40 UW physicians in 2007 who were paid to work as speakers or authors by drug or medical device companies, records show.
More than two years ago, University of Wisconsin-Madison doctor James Gern approached the pharmaceutical giant Merck with a proposal for an unusual human experiment.
The university would find people in the Madison area with asthma, deliberately infect them with cold viruses and give them the Merck asthma drug montelukast to see if it lessened their symptoms.
From 2003 through 2007, Gern, a professor of pediatrics and an allergy and asthma specialist, has been a regular speaker and consultant for Merck, putting in 28 days of work and making between $35,000 and $70,000.
In 2007, Eric Heiligenstein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison psychiatrist, worked as a speaker for Pfizer, giving talks to other doctors and health care professionals about the smoking-cessation drug Chantix, which has been under increased scrutiny. Chantix has been associated with depression, suicidal thoughts, blackouts and serious injuries.
Heiligenstein put in 14 days for Pfizer and was paid $10,000 to $20,000. Heiligenstein also gave paid talks for Pfizer in 2006.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have solved a mystery surrounding a “rogue protein” that plays a role in the release of neurotransmitters and hormones in the brain.
As a cold gray winter day began, more than 50 enthusiastic volunteers gathered at Chet’s Car Care Center in north Madison on Saturday to load boxes of medical and school supplies onto a semi-trailer headed for Honduras.
Many more hours had been spent during prior months boxing and wrapping the material, and designating where in the Central American country it should go so that volunteer teams arriving in February and March can provide free services for 4,000 to 5,000 patients.
Anti-abortion activists are calling on the UW Health Clinic to cancel its plan to open an abortion clinic in downtown Madison. But a spokeswoman for UW Health says opposition to the clinic is premature because there’s been no final decision to actually open it.
About sixty protesters lined the sidewalk in front of the UW Clinic yesterday holding signs saying “Abortion is Not Health Care.” The leader of the vigil, Steve Karlen, says he hopes the large turn out will convince the doctors who plan to open the clinic to reconsider.
“Weâ??re asking the university not to take this facility, which is a beautiful medical facility that should be the pride and joy of Madison and the pride and joy of Wisconsin, weâ??re asking them not to turn it in to a place of death and a killing center.” (Third item.)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The University of Wisconsin-Madison has quietly decided to stop manufacturing its signature aerosol chambers used for researching infectious disease, which were involved in a few dangerous lab accidents nationwide.
The College of Engineering is shutting down the business after an internal audit found it was poorly managed and carried the potential for huge liability costs in the event the chambers failed, exposing researchers to toxic agents.
Noted: But then a family friend suggested they contact Dr. Adam Rindfleisch, a University of Wisconsin family doctor who specializes in integrating traditional Western medicine with alternative medicine.
Rindfleisch suggested probiotics — “friendly” bacteria that he says have been shown to help babies and children with diarrhea. While probiotics didn’t cure Luke, Kruse-Field said, they seem to have helped.
Protesters came out Thursday morning to voice their opposition against the University of Wisconsin and Meriter Hospital after they announced plans this week to perform late-term abortions.
The rally, organized by Madison’s Vigil For Life, gathered protesters in front of the Madison Surgery Center. The protesters’ goal was to convince UW officials not to go through with these plans, which were made public on Tuesday.
Dozens braved bitter cold temperatures to protest the location of a potential abortion clinic jointly run by UW Health, UW Medical Foundation and Meriter Hospital. The clinic would perform second trimester abortions. There currently are no clinics in the Madison area that offer the later term procedure, something that UW Health claims is an essential public health service. Protestor Peg Gibson, who’s had an abortion, doesn’t agree.
MADISON (WKOW) — Protesters were out this morning in Madison, demonstrating against the UW hospital’s plan to offer second trimester abortions.
The group of about 60 people protested peacefully outside the Madison Surgery Center on Park Street, where the abortions would be performed.
University of Wisconsin doctors are using new technology to help more patients who need kidney transplants get the life-saving organ they need.
The LifePort Kidney Transporter keeps the organ constantly pumped with oxygen and blood with a cold solution — even during transportation. Unlike traditional coolers, the transporter will ensure more kidneys will be available and that the organs will arrive at the recipient in better condition.
There are more than 20,000 new cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed in the United States each year. It remains one of the most difficult cancers to beat — only 37 percent of patients survive at least 5 years.
New research suggests that women might reduce their odds of ovarian cancer by maintaining a healthy weight.
Magnetic resonance imaging is increasingly being used to evaluate back pain, U.S. physicians say.
An article, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, predicts additional technical developments will allow MRI to provide even more useful benefits.
“The possibilities of magnetic resonance have not yet been realized. It is a rapidly evolving field. When we need tools to identify a possible herniated disk, the simplest type of imaging can be used successfully,” co-author Dr. Victor Haughton of the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics says in a statement.
The Madison Surgery Center on Park Street could soon offer abortions.
The UW Hospital is proposing to allow a number of UW Gynecologists at the center to offer an uncommon procedure, 2nd tri-mester abortions, which are performed on women between 13 and 22 weeks of pregancy.
UW hospital officials say they’re proposing this because a Madison Planned Parenthood doctor who performed 2nd trimester abortions recently retired.
An arrangement between UW Hospitals and a Madison clinic to provide second-trimester abortions for women is raising questions.
State Senator Glenn Grothman says fetuses would be aborted five or six months after conception, according to allegations from the Alliance Defense Fund. The West Bend Republican says that’s something many hospitals won’t do.
University of Wisconsin Hospital, its doctor group and Meriter Hospital are proposing to open an abortion clinic at their jointly owned Madison Surgery Center near Meriter, which anti-abortion groups say could violate state laws.
The clinic, which could open next month, at 1 S. Park St., would primarily offer second-trimester abortions, said UW Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Brunette.
Anti-abortion groups are condemning a University of Wisconsin plan to provide second-trimester abortions at a Madison clinic and questioning whether it’s illegal.
UW Health spokeswoman Lisa Brunette said its gynecologists plan to begin performing abortions for patients between 13 and 22 weeks pregnant at the Madison Surgery Center. She said the plan needs final approval from the center’s board, which could take action this month.
With no clinics in the Madison area currently administering second trimester abortions, a group of UW Health gynecologists is considering a plan to provide the procedure to patients who seek it.
“The physicians involved believe this is part of a comprehensive plan of care for reproductive health,” said UW Health spokeswoman Lisa Brunette. “Right now there is no clinic in the area that provides that type of termination and the physicians involved believe there is a public health responsibility to provide them, so they wish to move forward.”
MADISON, Wis. — A Christian legal group is calling on University of Wisconsin health officials to reconsider a plan to perform second-trimester abortions.
In Dane County, more young people between seventh and 12th grades are abstaining from alcohol than regularly using it, according to a 2005 assessment. Still, the fact that nearly 30 percent of local youth are considered regular drinkers is a cause for concern for many.
About 30 people turned out Monday night for the first meeting of a new coalition looking to combat alcohol abuse in Dane County. Every seat was filled in an upstairs meeting room at the Exhibition Hall of the Alliant Energy Center.
Want to visit the wild Web world of Madison adolescence? Np! (No problem!) Log into MySpace and type in a local zip code.
A browse through the Web pages and social lives of local teens is a virtual visit to their messy bedrooms — full of blaring music, colorful posters, gossip, and, in this age of exhibitionism spawned by cell phone cameras, hundreds and hundreds of photos.
(Megan Moreno, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, has co-authored a new study, the results of which have been published in this month’s issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.)
More than half of teenagers mention risky behaviors such as sex and drugs on their MySpace accounts, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
They said many young people who use social networking sites such as News Corp’s (NWSa.N) MySpace do not realize how public they are and may be opening themselves to risks, but the sites may also offer a new way to identify and help troubled teens.
A new study shows that more than half of teenagers mention drugs, alcohol, sex or violence on their MySpace pages. Yet getting teens to clean up their pages is easier than many might assume, researchers say.
Many teenagers cleaned up their MySpace profiles, deleting mentions of sex and booze and boosting privacy settings, if they got a single cautionary e-mail from a busybody named “Dr. Meg.” The e-mail was sent by Dr. Megan Moreno, lead researcher of a study of lower-income kids that she says shows how parents and other adults can encourage safer Internet use.
Many teenagers cleaned up their MySpace profiles, deleting mentions of sex and booze and boosting privacy settings, if they got a single cautionary e-mail from a busybody named “Dr. Meg.”
The e-mail was sent by Dr. Megan Moreno, lead researcher of a study of lower-income kids that she says shows how parents and other adults can encourage safer Internet use.
A new medical study is linking the popular social network MySpace to some risky behavior among teenagers.
Researchers hope the findings of the study lead teens and parents to talk about personal information online.
“I don’t really use MySpace anymore because in high school, most people use Facebook,” said high school freshman McKenna Meuer.
But MySpace is a well-known place to log in and make new friends. The online social network has 250 million users.
Teenagers often use social networking sites like MySpace to post intimate personal information they come to regret, as it lets future employers (or online predators) learn about sex activity and substance abuse. Enter â??Dr. Meg.â?
Economists are hanging black crepe on the New Year’s baby even before the tyke pushes the old guy out the door. And no wonder: From the financial industry to real estate to auto manufacturing, there’s plenty of grim news seeping into almost every sector.
Technology-based businesses are not immune, but some emerging national and global trends suggest most of Wisconsin’s tech-driven companies and clusters can survive 2009 and even prosper in 2010 and beyond.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have isolated the set of three genes that made the Spanish flu the most deadly influenza pandemic in history.
A team led by UW-Madison virologists Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Tokiko Watanabe identified the genes that give the virus the ability to reproduce in lung tissue — the trait which caused primary pneumonia among its victims and made the 1918 influenza pandemic so deadly. The findings were reported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The cold and snowy weather is forcing many people indoors this time of year, and that can make life miserable for those with allergies.
UW School of Medicine Allergist Dr. Robert Bush says allergy sufferers face many common irritants this time of year. Those include dust, mold, pets, and even Christmas trees. Although, he says those allergic to the trees may really just be reacting to the smells they bring in the house.
The UW School of Medicine is looking for new ways to provent potential conflicts of interest between doctors and private companies.
When a doctor prescribes a drug, some patients may wonder if it’s the best solution for them. It’s a common question raised at the UW School of Medicine, where many doctors work with pharmaceutical companies on research or consulting.
The plane carrying the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team had arrived late to Miami International airport this past November and any opportunity of making the connecting flight to St. Thomas looked lost.
But there was hope in the form of Andy North, who was on the flight with the team. He quickly and quietly fixed the problem as soon as he got inside the terminal. Amazingly, the plane was waiting for the team when the Badgers arrived at the gate. Every piece of luggage miraculously made it, too.
Wisconsin’s new law that requires hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims may be unenforceable due to an 11th-hour administrative rule released by the Bush administration that allows medical staff to refuse to provide services they find morally objectionable.
“It would in essence nullify our compassionate care law,” confirmed Rea Holmes, executive assistant of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Signs will be posted in UW Health clinics next month telling patients that drug companies may be paying their doctors for research or consulting work.
Signs going up at UW Health clinics next month will tell patients that their doctors might be getting paid by drug companies for research or consulting work, officials announced Monday.
Signs will be posted in UW Health clinics next month telling patients that drug companies may be paying their doctors for research or consulting work.
University of Wisconsin-Madison officials say they will post the signs as part of an ongoing effort to strengthen conflict-of-interest policies.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have re-created the key traits of a devastating neurological disease in the lab using stem cells derived from an afflicted patient, a breakthrough that will allow scientists the opportunity to better study the ailment and develop new treatments for it.
The findings, to be reported this week in the journal Nature, came out of UW-Madison stem cell biologist Clive Svendsen’s lab and relate to spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA. The team at UW-Madison and a group at the University of Missouri-Columbia created these disease-specific stem cells by genetically reprogramming skin cells from a patient with spinal muscular atrophy.
