Health News

Study offers alternative explanation for much-heralded decline in hospital readmission rates under pay-for-performance

The decline in hospital readmission rates that occurred following the launch of a federal program designed to improve quality of care and reduce repeat hospitalizations has been lauded as proof of the program’s effectiveness. But a new analysis led by researchers at Harvard Medical School offers an alternative explanation for the outcome. The findings, published […]

Health News

Barley: A tasty alternative to rice

(HealthDay)—Looking for a simple yet delicious way to enjoy whole grains? Start with nutritious, easy-to-cook barley, a great swap for processed grains like white rice. When shopping, choose hulled barley instead of pearl. Hulled barley retains more of the outer bran layer with its fiber and nutrients. Pearl parley has had most of the bran […]

Health Problems

Unravelling an alternative mechanism of airway mucosal immunity

Contrary to popular belief, there may be more than one mechanism involved in microbial airway protection. Researchers from Japan and China have found an alternative mechanism that may be involved in fighting microbial infections. The inflammation pathway in response to microbial infections involves multiprotein complexes known as inflammasomes. It is known that inflammasomes induce inflammation […]

Health Problems

Alternative molecular mechanisms observed in cancer cells

Current anti-cancer drugs can be quite effective but too often, tumors are not fought off completely and end up returning. A recent study published in The FASEB Journal provides the first evidence that some cancer cells evade therapy by switching over to alternative molecular mechanisms that are not affected by existing anti-cancer treatments. A research […]

Health News

Pace of Change Has Accelerated in Alternative Payment Models

THURSDAY, Oct. 25, 2018 — The impact of alternative payment models (APMs) on physician practices has been described in a study published by the RAND Corp. and the American Medical Association. In a follow-up to a 2014 study that examined the effects of APMs on physician practices, Mark W. Friedberg, M.D., M.P.P., from the RAND […]

Health Problems

Alternative splicing is crucial to muscle mass maintenance

Despite the importance that changes in muscle mass have in aging, overall body metabolism and in chronic disease, we still don’t fully understand the mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance of adult muscle mass. “A number of cell signaling and metabolic pathways have been studied regarding their involvement in sustaining adult muscle mass, but not […]