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An influential government-appointed medical panel is urging doctors to routinely screen all American teens for depression -- a bold step that acknowledges that nearly 2 million teens are affected by this debilitating condition.

Even with the open-door policy at Hennepin County Medical Center, hospital officials say, getting health care is increasingly difficult for many illegal immigrants.

A new technology which dramatically improves the sensitivity of Magnetic Resonance techniques including those used in hospital scanners and chemistry laboratories has been developed by scientists at the University of York.

Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis offers an extraordinary vantage point on the ways immigrants are testing the medical establishment.

However they satisfy their nicotine cravings, tobacco users are facing a big hit as the single largest federal tobacco tax increase ever takes effect Wednesday.Tobacco companies and public health advocates, longtime foes in the nicotine battles, are trying to turn the situation to their advantage. The major cigarette makers raised prices a couple of weeks ago, partly to offset any drop in profits once the per-pack tax climbs from 39 cents to $1.01.Medical groups see a tax increase right in the middle of a recession as a great incentive to help persuade smokers to quit. . . .Standing outside an office building in downtown Washington last week, 29-year-old Sam Sarkhosh puffed on a Marlboro Light. His 8-year-old daughter has been pleading with him to quit, he explained, and he has set a goal to give up smoking by his 30th birthday.'I'm trying to quit smoking, and it could help,' . . .But smoking control advocates such as Lindblom say tobacco taxes should be even higher. 'Ther

Society Elects New Officers and 5 Board Members Benjamin O. Anderson, Professor, University of Washington, Seattle, and founder, Breast Health Global Initiative, announced today that nine outstanding leaders in the field of breast cancer were elected to positions on the Society's Board of Directors. Incoming President Gail Lebovic, MD, director of women's services at The Cooper Clinic, Dallas, Texas, will succeed Julio A.

Sparton Corporation's (NYSE:SPA) wholly-owned subsidiary, Sparton Medical Systems, Inc., produces the medical equipment that drives the CellSearch® System to measure circulating tumor cells (CTCs). The technology used to measure circulating tumor cells was ranked as the top medical innovation for 2009 at Cleveland Clinic's Medical Innovations Summit, a leading multispecialty academic medical center. CellSearch®, a proprietary Veridex technology, is cleared by the U.S.

Opening blocked arteries, trying to keep heart attack victims alive, fixing defective heart valves, and treating other heart ailments cost $78 billion in 2006 - roughly 8 percent of the more than $1 trillion spent on all medical care for the community population, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) announced the first patient implants of its Libra® deep brain stimulation (DBS) system for treating the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a progressive neurological disorder that affects a person's control over his or her movements and speech. The announcement was made at the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies and the Société Française de Neurochirugie joint annual meeting in Marseille, France.

HemCon announced results from an independent study investigating the time required to successfully treat fungal infected human nails which is a leading cause of Onychomycosis, the most common type of fungal nail infection. The studies were conducted as part of HemCon's continued program of development for a formulation based on its newest proprietary MycosinateT platform technology.