NIH Updates

It’s Not the Hot Dog’s Fault – Medicare and Eating Healthly

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They are front and center at summer barbecues. And who hasn’t ordered one at a baseball game? Stuffed in a bun, slathered in ketchup, mustard, or whatever topping your prefer, they scream American summertime. But a group of pediatricians wants to fundamentally change the hot dog because they say its shape poses a choking risk to children. Sadly, hot dogs are the cause of 17 percent of asphyxiations in kids under 10.

Study of Health Outcomes in Autistic Children and Their Families

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The goal of this initiative is to describe the health and health care trajectories of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their families, and to evaluate the feasibility of using a large population-based database for research on risk factors for ASD. The most recent prevalence data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that one in 110 children have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), an increase of 57 percent between 2002 and 2006

MedicareCard.com – Development of a Clinically Useful Classification of Mental Disorders for Global Primary Care

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This initiative aims to consider whether correspondence can be created between a clinically useful classification of mental disorders for global primary care and the overarching typologies of mental disorders that have already been described and will continue to emerge from NIMH’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project.

Medicare – Organ Transplant: Getting the Call

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Donated organs have a limited period of viability, so timing is critical in the transplant process. If the
recipient can not be reached or be ready within the time constraints, the organs will be used for the recipient with the next highest priority. The organs intended for Scott were taken, by courier, to the airport to be flown to Scott’s location. Scott was at the hospital being tested and prepared for the surgery. Everything looked like it was a “go.”

Medicare: Same Genes Suspected in Both Depression and Bipolar Illness

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Researchers, for the first time, have pinpointed a genetic hotspot that confers risk for both bipolar disorder and depression. People with either of these mood disorders were significantly more likely to have risk versions of genes at this site than healthy controls

Medicare – From Neurons to Thought: Coherent Electrical Patterns Observed Across the Brain

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Amidst the background hum of electrical signaling generated by neurons in the brain, scientists have found that local groups of neurons, firing in coordination, sometimes create a signal that is mirrored instantaneously and precisely by other groups of neurons across the brain.