Yale University School of Medicine’s Harlan Krumholz, MD, explains in an NPR blog post how patients can use physician disagreement over a change in guideline recommendations concerning blood pressure targets to receive care that suits their wishes. 

The American Thoracic Society Foundation and the American Lung Association announced today that they are co-funding an $80,000 grant that will support important research into the mechanisms underlying Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS), a rare inherited disease which affects a number of organs including the lungs.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) today announced the launch of a joint initiative to share information on inspections of bioequivalence studies submitted in support of generic drug approvals. This collaborative effort provides a mechanism to conduct joint facility inspections for generic drug applications submitted to both agencies.

In a time when competition for federal research funding  is tougher than ever before, the University of Kentucky has been awarded one of the largest health grants ever made to the institution: an $11.3 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant  supporting research focusing on issues that plague the Commonwealth - the twin scourges of obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Fred Kummerow, the nutrition scientist who connected the dots between trans fats and atherosclerosis in the 1950s, at the age of 99 continues to explore how diet affects heart disease. The New York Times published a profile of the pioneering researcher in its science section. 

A study in PLOS One concludes that whole organic milk provides a greater cardio-protective punch than other milks because of its fatty acids, according to the New York Times.

Despite significant medical advances, there continue to be significant gaps in the health care of the growing number of patients with valvular heart disease. In the USA, the total number of people aged 65 years or older with valvular heart disease will grow to approximately 5.2 million by year 2020, and 6.8 million individuals by the year 2030 1. The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation™ (MHIF) has created a scientific program, "Valve Summit 2014: The Science and Delivery of Optimal, Multi-Disciplinary Care," to address the ongoing, complex evolution in the clinical management of patients with valvular heart disease. The conference will be held on April 25th and 26th at the Radisson Blu in downtown Minneapolis.

AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion recommending approval of Xigduo™ (dapagliflozin and metformin hydrochloride) for adults aged 18 and older with type 2 diabetes mellitus as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycaemic control in patients inadequately controlled on their current metformin-based treatment regimen or who are currently being treated with the combination of dapgliflozin and metformin as separate tablets.