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Health Affairs Study Finds No Link Between Cost, Quality Of Care
Quality of care is not linked to the cost of care, according to a study published last week on the Web site of the journal Health Affairs, CQ HealthBeat reports. For the study, researchers from Dartmouth College and Harvard University analyzed the health care bills of chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries in their last two years of life who received end-of-life care from 2,172 unidentified hospitals. The patients had one of three common conditions: heart attack, pneumonia or congestive heart failure. The study -- sponsored by the National Institute on Aging -- looked at common quality indicators at a hospital-by-hospital level instead of regional level (Norman, CQ HealthBeat, 5/22). Researchers compared the data with some of the quality measures reported on the HHS Hospital Compare Web site (Goldstein, "Health Blog," Wall Street Journal, 5/21). The study found that among the one-fifth of hospitals that spent the least, the cost of end-of-life care was $16,059 on average. In comparison, the cost of end-of-life care at the top 20% of highest-spending hospitals was $34,742 on average. The study also found no link -- or even evidence against a link -- between spending and the quality indicators. The researchers noted that the results might be skewed because the quality indicators they used might penalize hospitals that treat sicker patients. In addition, the study used process-of-care measures instead of patient outcomes. According to CQ HealthBeat, the findings of the study could have an effect on the debate over health care reform legislation because lawmakers and President Obama both have said that a reform plan must be able to control costs and expand access to high-quality, affordable health care (CQ HealthBeat, 5/22).

Prestigious National Fellowship Awarded To University Of Miami Nurse To Improve Health Care
A national fellowship program focused on expanding the role of nurses to lead change in the U.S. health care system has been awarded to Elias Provencio-Vasquez, Ph.D., N.P., F.A.A.N., F.A.A.N.P., associate professor at the University of Miami (UM) School of Nursing and Health Studies. He is one of twenty nurses selected nationwide as a 2009 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation® (RWJF) Executive Nurse Fellow.
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Innovative Medicines Initiative: 246 Million Euros To Support Public-private Research Cooperation For A Fast Development Of Better Medicines
Today, 15 new research projects aimed at bringing innovative medicines more quickly to the market have been selected to receive 246 million euros from the European Commission and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). The projects will foster understanding of health issues such as diabetes, pain, severe asthma and psychiatric disorders while increasing drug safety. They will also help improve the training of researchers and clinicians involved in medicines development. The projects were chosen following the first call for proposals launched within the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a public-private partnership - so called Joint Technology Initiative- between the European Commission and the pharmaceutical industry. With this selection, IMI has reached a key milestone. This initiative marks the first time that pharmaceutical competitors are pooling their res, together with research organisations, patient groups and other stakeholders in large consortia, in order to develop generic, pre-competitive knowledge. The Commission"s contribution of €110 million is backed up with €136 million provided in-kind from the pharmaceutical industry. The successful projects will now enter into the final negotiation phase.
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Protein Can Help Cells Or Cause Cancer, Purdue Researcher Finds

A Purdue University scientist has discovered a key process in cell growth that can lead to the formation of tumors. Xiaoqi Liu, an assistant professor of biochemistry, found that an overabundance of the polo-like kinase 1, or Plk1, molecule during cell growth, as well as a shortage of the p53 molecule, will lead to tumor formation. Studies in Liu"s laboratory showed that the Plk1 molecule indirectly attacks p53 in a process called ubiquitination. "This provides the mechanism for how p53 loses its function in cancer cells," said Liu, whose work was published in the early online publication of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. "If we understand how the cancer forms, then we can create a more useful therapeutic approach to treating that cancer." During cell growth, Plk1 uses its protein kinase activity called phosphorylation, which consists of adding a phosphate group to a protein called Topors. Topors binds itself to p53 molecules during the ubiquitination process. Phosphorylation is basically an instruction from Plk1 to increase its ubiquitination activity, which kills p53 molecules. Liu said p53 could be thought of as a protective force. When Topors kills off that force, Plk1 becomes stronger, allowing the cells to become cancerous. "We"re trying to understand how p53 is regulated. We want to keep p53 as normal as possible," Liu said. "In about 50 percent of cancers, p53 had lost its function, and there was too much Plk1. Since Plk1 is overexpressed in cancers, it is a cancer therapy target." Topors can also carry out a function called sumoylation, in which Topors binds to p53 molecules and creates more p53. Liu was able to force cells in his lab to go through the ubiquitination or sumoylation process to show how p53 molecules were affected. Liu said it is unknown why the Plk1 molecule chooses to initiate ubiquitination over sumoylation. Researchers from Sichuan University in China and faculty in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences at Purdue collaborated with Liu on the research. The work was funded through a Howard Temin Award from the National Institutes of Health. Liu said the next step in the research is to test different Plk1 inhibitors to see how they affect the phosphorylation process. Writer: Brian Wallheimer Brian Wallheimer Purdue University


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