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HIV Diagnoses Among Men In New Orleans Growing, Large Increases Reported Among Blacks
HIV diagnoses among all men in Louisiana declined from 1997 to 2006, but increased in 2007 and 2008 - diagnoses in the New Orleans metropolitan area alone increased by 9 percent from 2007 to 2008, according to the Louisiana Office of Public Health, the New Orleans Times Picayune reports. Of particular concern are the increases among black men in New Orleans. Among black men of all ages, new HIV diagnoses increased by 4 percent from 2007 to 2008, but increased 23 percent for black men age 20 to 24 and 30 percent for those age 45 to 54. The reasons behind the findings are "complex," according to the Times Picayune. Risky sexual behavior, a "declining sense of concern among young people about AIDS and the stubborn cultural stigma of homosexuality in the black community are all believed to be factors," the Times Picayune reports (Sandoval-Griffin, New Orleans Times Picayune, 6/27).

Nile Therapeutics, Inc. Announces Dosing Of First Patient In Phase 2 Study Of CD-NP For The Treatment Of Acute Heart Failure
Nile Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: NLTX), a company focused on the development of novel therapeutics for heart failure patients, today announced dosing of its first patient in a Phase 2 clinical study of its lead product, CD-NP, for the treatment of acute heart failure.
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CareFusion Expands Pyxis(R) Perioperative Solutions Offering
CareFusion Corporation, the company that will become publicly traded following the planned spinoff of the clinical and medical products businesses of Cardinal Health, announced it has expanded its Pyxis® perioperative offerings that integrate with leading operating room information systems (ORIS), incorporate radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology1 and include new services.
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Task Deconstruction Facilitates Acquisition Of Transurethral Resection Of Prostate Skills On A Virtual Reality Trainer

UroToday.com - Increasingly surgical education is being focused on specific procedural training techniques. These researchers at the University of Minnesota have shown the importance of breaking the procedure down into its specific steps and deconstructing the various tasks applied to each step of the procedure. In a prospective randomized study with 18 trainees, who had no previous exposure to transurethral resection of prostate (TURP), half of the group was randomized to training using a full task TURP training format versus the other half undergoing task deconstruction training. Length of training time and the actual components of the procedural training were the same except for the steps and tasks were broken into distinct tasks in the study group. They discovered that trainees who underwent the deconstruction training showed significantly better improvement in their pre-test and post-test performance evaluation with regard to the amount of tissue resected and grams resected over the total time of using the cutting pedal. There was no significant difference noted in the number of bleeders coagulated, fluid consumed compared to grams of tissue resected or bleeders coagulated compared to time on the coagulation pedal. There was also no difference in the perforation rate between the two groups. However, interestingly the group of trainees who underwent the curriculum with task deconstruction had a higher approval rating of the simulator training compared to the group who underwent the full task training technique. While it may seem intuitive that task deconstruction is superior to full task training, in novice surgeons the confirmation of this educational technique is important as the surgical disciplines begin to develop virtual reality simulated based surgical training. Attention to curriculum development and the stepwise learning of the surgical procedure are critical elements of surgical education. Kishore TA, Beddingfield R, Holden T, Shen Y, Reihsen T, Sweet RM J Endourol. 2009 Apr;23(4):665-8. doi:10.1089/end.2008.0531 Written by UroToday.com Contributing Editor Elspeth M. McDougall, MD, FRCSC, MHPE UroToday - the only urology website with original content written by global urology key opinion leaders actively engaged in clinical practice. To access the latest urology news releases from UroToday, go to: www.urotoday.com Copyright © 2009 - UroToday


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