Health-related news stories in brief
GPs to play greater role in NHS shake-up
THE BIGGEST shake-up of England’s National Health Service (NHS) in decades was unveiled yesterday. Health secretary Andrew Lansley, said GPs would be given a far greater role in commissioning services for their patients and take charge of much of the budget.
He told MPs that strategic health authorities and primary care trusts would be phased out. Responsibility for public health will be passed to local authorities. He hopes this will rid the health service of bureaucracy and reduce management costs by nearly a half within four years.
Big heads may provide more protection against Alzheimer's
PEOPLE WITH big heads may be protected if they develop Alzheimer’s disease, a study suggests. Scientists found that large-headed individuals with Alzheimer’s have better memory and thinking skills than sufferers with smaller heads. The difference can be seen even when the amount of brain cell death is the same in both groups.
Study leader Dr Robert Perneczky, from the Technical University of Munich in Germany, said: “These results add weight to the theory of brain reserve, or the individual capacity to withstand changes in the brain. Our findings also underline the importance of optimal brain development early in life, since the brain reaches 93 per cent of its final size at age six.”
Head size was one way to measure brain reserve and growth, he said. While brain growth is partly determined by genetics, it is also influenced by diet, infections and inflammation.
“Improving pre-natal and early-life conditions could significantly increase brain reserve, which could have an impact on the risk of developing Alzheimer’s or the severity of symptoms of the disease,” Dr Perneczky said.
The researchers looked at 270 people with Alzheimer’s who underwent tests of memory and thinking skills. They were also given magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to assess their levels of brain cell death. Measurements were taken of the circumference of patients’ heads to determine head size. The results, published in the journal Neurology, showed that having a big head was associated with better test performance despite brain cells dying off because of Alzheimer’s.
Galway researchers secure funding for titanium implants,
writes Lorna Siggins, western correspondent
RESEARCHERS IN Galway are working on new orthopaedic implants which should help to improve their lifespan.
The National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) team recently secured a €400,000 Enterprise Ireland commercialisation fund technology development grant for the project, which aims to develop titanium implants that would be more effective for patients with decreased “bone stock” in a joint requiring an implant.
Dr Pat McDonnell and Dr Noel Harrison of NUIG’s National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science (NCBES) are working with orthopaedic consultant surgeon Bill Curtin of Merlin Park University Hospital, Galway, on the project.
Prof Frank Barry, NCBES director, said the use of “new engineering approaches” was central to developing orthopaedic implants.
More than 3,000 hip replacements are performed in the public sector in Ireland each year, according to the NUIG team. The project will run for two years, during which the researchers will conduct “detailed design, mechanical testing and histological analysis of the new implants”. The team hopes to take the technology to a stage where a partner orthopaedics company can be identified to subject the new implants to clinical trials.
Prof Peter McHugh, NUIG head of mechanical and biomedical engineering, said the project “demonstrates the wonderful synergy that can be achieved by integrating engineering, biology and clinical applications”.
