State of Cancer Care in the US and More….

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Here are a few highlights of cancer research news that have recently caught my attention:

  • State of Cancer Care in America: 2015 Report Released by the American Society of Clinical Oncology

  • While there have been numerous studies on cancer survival outcomes of non-Hispanic whites and African-Americans, very little has been known about cancer survival outcomes for Asian-Americans, until now. A recent study conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital provides new insights into survival outcomes of Asian-Americans diagnosed with cancer. Read more on this study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
  • Text messaging could help boost breast cancer screening according to a study conducted in the UK. A randomized control trial was carried out and it included 2,240 women. Results were published in the British Journal of Cancer.

Please feel free to contact Marisol Hernandez to share any comments.

New App Helps Researchers Contribute Data to Medical Studies

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With the launch of ResearchKit, Apple has turned the iPhone into a medical research tool. ResearchKit makes it possible to generate large, wide-ranging datasets about the day-to-day of disease. Additionally, it allows researchers to recruit participants for large-scale studies. Bloomberg Business reported that 11,000 people had signed up for a cardiovascular study at Stanford University 24 hours after ResearchKit was introduced. Researchers at UCLA have already developed an app with ResearchKit for breast cancer, called Share the Journey: Mind, Body and Wellness after Breast Cancer – this app builds on the work of applied mathematician and TED Fellow Max Little. If you’re interested in finding out more about how Max Little’s work influenced the development of ResearchKit, you can watch his TED talk from 2012: A test for Parkinson’s with a phone call.

Discover Drug Class and Hierarchies with RxClass

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The RxClass browser is a web application for exploring and navigating through the class hierarchies to find the RxNorm drug members associated with each class. RxClass links drug classes of several drug sources to their RxNorm drug members (ingredients, precise ingredients and multiple ingredients).

RxClass allows users to search by class name or identifier to find the RxNorm drug members or, conversely, search by RxNorm drug name or identifier to find the classes that the RxNorm drug is a member of. Continue reading →