medicine

Dartmouth physician Ira Byock says even with incredible advances in medicine, far too many Americans suffer needlessly and die “badly”. In a new book,…

Shavings of metal can flake off of the artificial joints and cause serious pain and medical problems in the hip. About a half-million Americans have this type of implant, and though most patients won't have a problem, one doctor called the failure rate "unacceptably high."

The state legislature is now mulling a change to allow trained home care aides to administer medications to Medicaid patients while working under a nurse's supervision. If the proposal becomes law, it could save the state a bundle.

Scientists say they've developed a technique that reconnects the severed ends of a nerve, allowing it to begin carrying messages again very quickly — at least in rats. Usually, severed nerves must regrow from the point of injury — a process that can take months, if it ever happens.

Many hospitals around the nation are perilously close to running out of a form of the old standby cancer drug methotrexate. The reason: a principal supplier of injectable methotrexate shut down in November after it flunked an FDA inspection.

After taking nearly two decades to root itself in the popular consciousness, the mysterious neurological condition Asperger’s Syndrome may soon be history…

Jessica Golloher, Word of Mouth's eyes and ears in Moscow, reports on the scads of Russians signing up for alternative medicine.