Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health

Treatment Shows Excellent Results For Providence Tarzana Patients Following Cardiac Arrest

Less than two weeks after instituting new therapeutic hypothermia treatment for heart attack patients, Providence Tarzana Medical Center has applied the body-cooling treatment in three cases - and each patient showed remarkable neurologic recovery.

Food And Drug Administration Moves Towards Greater Openness

The Food and Drug Administration is taking steps towards greater openness. The Associated Press reports that FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg "announced Tuesday she has created a task force to make recommendations on how the agency can release more information in such areas as drug evaluation and enforcement matters. She wants a report in six months." Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein will head the task force, which will represent all of the FDA"s major divisions as well as its law enforcement branch. It will hold two public meetings with the first on June 24. "The FDA has long operated under strict confidentiality rules," the AP reports, and in opening up information, one sensitive issue will be what to do with unpublished clinical trial data from drug manufacturers. Despite such concerns, "Hamburg said she believes the need for secrecy may have been taken too far, and is harming the FDA"s credibility within the medical community and among consumers" (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/2).