Could some probiotic bacteria be helpful in treating stress-related disorders and other mental health conditions? That’s the subject of a new review paper by researchers at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) at University College Cork, who have been researching the potential…
Novus Medica
Medical news service from Penhire
Blog Archives
Jeremy Irons: Mental health system too drug-related
The farm is run by charity, Slí Eile, which is HSE-funded and was set up by Joan Hamilton in 2001 as a result of her experiences with her daughter, who suffered from mental health difficulties and whose condition deteriorated in…
New IVF therapy ‘will boost couples’ success rate by 50pc’
Experts have described the new method – which will be available here for the first time – as the “biggest fertility breakthrough for decades”. Professor Simon Fishel, who is collaborating with the Beacon Clinic in Sandyford, Dublin, said the new…
Muiris Houston: We need a calm approach to breakthrough for treatment of patients with chronic low-back pain
Zits and back pain sharing a common cause? Multiple headlines in the British press proclaiming antibiotics to be a much sought after “magic bullet” for chronic back pain. Could this actually be true? Probably not is the short answer. The…
New hip replacement therapy halves hospital time, says surgeon
An innovative form of hip-replacement therapy, which cuts time in hospital in half, should be rolled out across the health service, an orthopaedic surgeon has said. Derek Bennett said the programme known as Rapid Recovery, which originated in Denmark, amounts to a…
Times Editorial: Time to legislate on stem cells
The news of another breakthrough in Oregon in stem-cell technology – the cloning of embryos using human tissues and then the ability to harvest stem cells from them – opens up new possibilities in the personalisation of therapeutic cloning. But,…
HSE pays €3.2m for cosmetic surgeries
Outlining how the costs were accrued the HSE said: “The HSE provides and sometimes funds surgery aimed at correcting disfigurement or restoring function lost as a result of accidents, birth defects, or treatment of disease and in some cases due…
Bill Tormey defends Peter Boylan
The case was about more than management of sepsis. It was also about preventing the onset of such sepsis in high-risk cases. That the outcome of the inquest did not recommend a change in Irish law does not make Dr…
Obstetricians on Savita Halappanavar inquest
The facts as produced at the inquest show this tragic case to be primarily about the management of sepsis, and Dr Boylan’s opinion on the effect of Irish law did not appear to be shared by the coroner, or the…
Obstetricians challenge Boylan inquest evidence
All obstetric units in Ireland need to reflect on the findings of the inquest into Ms Halappanavar’s death and learn how to improve care for pregnant women, the eight obstetricians and three other consultants say in a letter to The Irish…
Tagged with: Obstetrics
Posted in Doctors, John Monaghan (obs), Peter Boylan, Stephen Cusack (emerg), Treatments
Posted in Doctors, John Monaghan (obs), Peter Boylan, Stephen Cusack (emerg), Treatments
David Hickey: Kidney dialysis could be rationed
The State’s leading organ transplant practitioners have warned that the service is reaching a crisis that could end in facilities such as kidney dialysis being rationed or denied altogether to the old and infirm. David Hickey, director of the National…
Why this ‘pharming’ for mental health has to stop
Dr Daniel Herlihy (Letters Apr 12) adopts something of a classic QED approach when it comes to assessing medical GPs’ response to personal distress issues such as examination anxiety: “I would say that if one attends a medical doctor with…
New treatments for colon cancers not yet available in Ireland, conference hears
“These aren’t expensive treatments,” consultant oncologist and cancer geneticist at the Mater Private Hospital, Dr David Gallagher, said. “They are both cost-effective innovations that currently aren’t available here and they could make a considerable difference to how we treat colon cancer…
Letter to Examiner: Depressing response by medics
Dr Adrian Brady (Letters, Apr 5) takes Niamh Drohan to task as she rumbled the patent prescription of anti-depressants to stressed and anxious students as seemingly de-rigeur among many medical GPs (“Depressing truth about treating depression in the young”, Apr…
Muiris Houston on relative merits of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery
On the relative merits of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and stenting (percutaneous coronary intervention – PCI) in patients with stable coronary heart disease, research has found that rather than cardiac surgeons and cardiologists working in isolation, for anyone…
What these doctors would never prescribe for themselves
Dr Juliet Bressan, a Dublin GP who specialises in treating substance abuse, would never take sleeping tablets. Dr Illona Duffy, a GP in Monaghan, would never mix alternative medicine with conventional treatments or use homeopathy. Dr Mel Bates, a GP…
Homeopathy and healthcare
The National Institutes of Health in the United States makes the case clear ( nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy) with two devastating points: “There is little evidence to support homeopathy as an effective treatment for any specific condition” and “Several key concepts of homeopathy are…
State planning to restrict access to surgical treatment
Access to common procedures such as cataract surgery and varicose vein treatment is to be restricted under proposals from the State’s health watchdog. The Health Information and Quality Authority has published a series of reports which propose specific thresholds to…
New treatment for prostate cancer will be easier on patient
A spokeswoman for the Irish Cancer Society said that the treatment, which involves the implantation of radiotherapy seeds directly into the prostate, has been available to patients in the west on a local basis for the past five years through Professor Frank Sullivan,…
Gene Kerrigan: Saving a child’s life too costly these days
The NCP is a panel of doctors who do important work. They measure the effectiveness of new drugs and technologies, weighed against costs, and advise the HSE. If we pay for a new product for patients threatened by disease X,…
Shortage of cancer-care equipment in public hospitals
IRELAND is among 10 European countries without enough publicly funded radiotherapy machines to treat cancer patients. A new study today estimates that, based on the machines in public hospitals, 772 Irish cancer patients, who make up 4pc of the 19,200…
Embryo viability assessment (Eeva) to be offered here
A Dublin fertility clinic has become the first in Ireland to offer a revolutionary new fertility test that can help tell early on in treatment if the embryo will thrive. Dr David Walsh, director and consultant gynaecologist at Sims IVF,…
Drug maker urged to cut price of CF treatment
Negotiations by the HSE are already under way to reach a deal with the maker of Ivacaftor (Kalydeco), which would cost €234,000 a year per patient at current prices and has been deemed too expensive by the health authorities. The…
Tagged with: Cystic fibrosis, National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics
Posted in Medicines, Patients, Pharmaceutical, Treatments
Posted in Medicines, Patients, Pharmaceutical, Treatments
Families of children denied ear implants to protest
Families of deaf children blocked from accessing life-changing “international best practice” implants because the HSE will not fund the procedures are to protest at a major hospital today. Parents will meet with Beaumont chief executive Liam Duffy at 11am to…
Life-saving treatment denied due to Christmas post
Gráinne O’Connor, 27, from Shanagarry, Co Cork, whose epilepsy is life-threatening, applied under the HSE’s treatment abroad scheme (TAS) to travel to London for tests. She has spent 27 months on a waiting list to be seen at Beaumont Hospital.…
HSE to restrict 20 most common surgeries
Access to some of Ireland’s most common hospital surgeries could be drastically cut in a HSE bid to reroute funds for lifesaving services with chronic waiting lists. The move could limit access to 20 procedures — including hip replacements —…
Cleveland Clinic’s Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2013
10 Health insurance/Medicare Programme/Rewards for better health 9 Digital breast tomosynthesis 8 Modular devices for treating complex aneurysms 7 Ex-Vivo Lung Perfusion 6 Femtosecond laser cataract surgery 5 Hand-held optical scan for melanoma 4 Drugs for advanced prostate cancer 3…
Posted in Research, Treatments
Pill to stop Alzheimer’s in its tracks set for trial
A small number of patients with mild-to-moderate Alzhei-mer’s could get access to the drug, known only as MK-8931, when the trial starts in the new year. (Independent) >
Jacky Jones: We expect more from maternity services than women not dying
Rates for these procedures vary dramatically from country to country, and from hospital to hospital. Since women’s bodies are not that different, it is obvious that hospital policy determines whether or not an intervention takes place, rather than best practice…
Interview with Rhona Mahony
Doctors need to be able to exercise professional judgment without fear of prosecution, she stresses, “and at the heart of all of this is our wish to look after women the best way we can”. For instance, more women with…
