Medicare patients treated at top-rated hospitals nationwide across the most common Medicare diagnoses and procedures are 27 percent less likely to die, on average, than those admitted to all other hospitals, according to a study released today by HealthGrades. Patients who undergo surgery at these high-performing hospitals also have an average eight percent lower risk of complications during their stay.

Two previously identified pathways associated with aging in mice are connected, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The finding reinforces what researchers have recently begun to suspect: that the age-related degeneration of tissues, organs and, yes, even facial skin with which we all struggle is an active, deliberate process rather than a gradual failure of tired cells. Derailing or slowing this molecular betrayal, although still far in the future, may enable us to one day tack years onto our lives — or at least delay the appearance of that next wrinkle.

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine and at UC-San Francisco have succeeded in isolating stem cells from human testes. The cells bear a striking resemblance to embryonic stem cells—they can differentiate into each of the three main types of tissues of the body—but the researchers caution against viewing them as one and the same. According to the study, the testes stem cells have different patterns of gene expression and regulation and they do not proliferate and differentiate as aggressively as human embryonic stem cells.

In a disturbing trend a survey has found that in the last 3 months millions of Americans are stretching their drug prescriptions, saving themselves money, by either taking the medication less often or by taking a smaller dosage than the physician prescribed.

The DNA Repair Company (DNAR) announced today that it has identified a promising set of protein biomarkers that may aid in the treatment of a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. These findings were presented at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Scientists around the world may benefit from a powerful new database, available for free online, that will help them to home in on the parts of proteins most necessary for their function. Arend Sidow, PhD, associate professor of pathology and of genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, recently launched the novel bioinformatics tool, which enlists evolution as the guide to determining the role different proteins play in a wide array of organisms.

The genome of a squirrel-sized, saucer-eyed lemur from Madagascar may help scientists understand how HIV-like viruses coevolved with primates, according to new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine. The discovery, to be published online on Dec. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could provide insight into why non-human primates don’t get AIDS and lead to treatments for humans.

Dr. Leonel Fernandez Liriano, Professor of Medicine at Pontifical Catholic University School of Medicine (PCUSM), announced nine month follow up results for the first patient treated with engineered stem cells in a clinical study of primary pulmonary hypertension. The stem cells are extracted from patients’ own blood and trained to become new blood vessels.

An increasing number of type 2 diabetes patients in the U.S. are being treated by a progressively complex mix of therapies, according to a study featured in Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA/Archives journal. The report is the first to be published by members of the Health Services Research Network (HSRN), a consortium of leading U.S. academicians that conducts independent research using IMS Health’s evidence-based information to address key healthcare issues.

A nationally prominent expert at treating diabetes, a chronic illness with potentially serious complications including blindness, limb amputation and death, said today many complications of diabetes are preventable and family physicians play a key role in preventing and controlling the disease. Responding to a new study by the Lewin Group that puts the diabetes-related direct costs of treatment and indirect costs such as disability and early retirement at $218 billion a year in the U.S., Alan Glaseroff, MD, explained that these high costs and the underlying patient suffering are, in many cases, unnecessary.