Archives for April 2007

Healthcare Self-Management Suggestions for e-Patients

We are witnessing a transformation of healthcare in the information age. The Internet has become a powerful healthcare resource for both physicians and patients. e-Patients represent a new type of informed health consumer, a term encompassing both primary patients who use the Internet to educate themselves about a given medical condition for their own illness and the friends and family members who go online on their behalf [1].

FDA Attempting to Regulate Dietary Supplements

A new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) docket was published on the FDA website last month. The draft guidance, when finalized, will represent the FDA’s current thinking on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Docket No. 2006D-0480: Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration [1] discusses when a CAM product is subject to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) or the Public Health Service (PHS) Act.

Polyphenols

Polyphenolic compounds (meaning the presence of more than one phenol group per molecule), often referred to as polyphenols, are plant-derived polyhydroxylated (meaning has more than one hydroxyl (OH), or alcohol, group attached) phytochemicals. Polyphenols are divided into three classes and include tannins, phenylpropanoids and flavonoids.

Earth Day: A Call for Action on Climate Change

Today is the 38th annual Earth Day. This year, the Earth Day Network has called on lighting manufactuers and policy makers to encourage the transition to energy efficient lighting by 2016.

The Trust and Credibility of Healthcare Blogs

A recent survey from Zogby International finds that more than half of Americans (55%) believe bloggers are important to the future of American journalism and 74% said that citizen journalism and Web 2.0 websites such as NowPublic will play a vital new role [1].