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Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University announced earlier this year that it wanted to open a medical school, beginning a push that will take until 2013 or 2014 to get the first med students in the door.

The new school would be located in several buildings that the university, located near New Haven, purchased in nearby North Haven from WellPoint’s Anthem unit for $32 million several years ago. Read more on the plans here.

Schools like Quinnipiac that want to grant MD degrees go through ..read more

The annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology gets underway this weekend and some heart-related items are in the news this morning:

Documents from leading medical-device makers suggest some companies seem to have encouraged the use of surgical ablation to treat atrial fibrillation, a front-page article in the WSJ reports. The problem, of course, is that the devices that can carefully destroy heart tissue linked to A-fib troubles aren’t FDA-approved for that purpose. A-fib is the most common type of ..read more

As Democrats approach a deal for passing the health bill, Republicans are saying that getting the bill past the Senate is not a given, Peter Landers reports on the News Hub.

More here:  News Hub: Republicans Plan to Skewer Health Bill/a>

There have long been safety questions — and lawsuits — over whether bone-building drugs like Merck’s Fosamax can actually increase the chance of femur fractures. Today, the FDA said it was going to take another look at the safety issues.

In a posting on its Web site, the FDA said a 2008 examination of data from makers of osteoporosis drugs containing bisphosphonates didn’t show that women taking the medications had an increased risk of fracturing their femurs — the bone just ..read more

The President’s final push on health care reform may be creating a big rift with Democrats in Congress, Fox News’ Doug Luzader reports. Courtesy of Fox News.

Excerpt from:  White House Pushes for Passing of Health Bill/a>

It’s crunch time in the fight over a health-care bill, so groups for and against the legislation are getting ready for a final push before congressional votes that could come later this month.

These efforts take money, of course, and advocate groups have put together war chests, much of it slated to go to advertising. Here are some of the spending plans outlined in a WSJ report this morning:

Another day, another stock-price jump.

First, the preliminaries: An advisory panel this afternoon recommended the FDA approve a lung drug developed by InterMune, with majorities of the outside experts saying the proposed treatment appeared effective and safe.

The FDA is expected to decide by early May whether to go along with the panel’s recommendation on pirfenidone, which is intended to treat patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The FDA usually follows the lead of its advisory committees.

This all comes as good news for ..read more

Elective cosmetic surgery, which is often not covered by insurance, has dropped in demand during the recession, Anjali Athavaley reports on the News Hub panel.

The rest is here: News Hub: Plastic Surgery Demand Sags/a>

President Obama was back on the campaign trail Monday, using his election-style oratory to stump for a health-care overhaul that still awaits an uncertain fate in Congress.

As is the case routinely these days, the president took aim at health insurers. He lambasted them 22 times in a speech to a college audience near Philadelphia, according to the Washington Post. “How much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it,” Obama said in the speech punchline.

HHS Secretary ..read more

Pacific Biosciences is working on a DNA sequencing process that it says will allow a person’s genome to be sequenced in under an hour for less than $100 making a future of personally tailored genetic medicine more feasible.

View post: Pacific Biosciences Speeds DNA Sequencing/a>