The official MedZine Blog

Monitoring blood glucose levels will be easy as never before easier for diabetics. The company DexCom has developed the first glucose monitoring device that can be linked to your smartphone, replacing the separate data receivers. The G5 Mobile Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) received the CE mark on the 14th of September and will become available in Europe in the coming weeks. Continue reading

From June 20th to 25th the 25th biannual meeting of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) will take place in Toronto. The organisers expect more than 8,000 participants from all over the world who will attend the presentations on various haemorrhagic disorders and thrombosis issues. Continue reading

June 10th to 13th, 2015, the annual conference of the European League Against Rheumatism will take place in Rome. Because of this year’s collaboration with the Paediatric Rheumatology European Society (PReS), part of the programme will focus on rheumatic diseases in children. With an expected 14,000 participants from 120 countries, the EULAR congress 2015 promises to become a major international event. Continue reading

“Please governments, keep on investing in basic science”, Paul Stoffels, Chief Science Officer of Johnson & Johnson, implored at the inaugural symposium of the Janssen Prevention Center (JPC) of Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies. The new research centre was established early 2015 and organised its first symposium titled “Reaching for immorbidity” on June 4th at the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam. Continue reading

With the theme Illumination & Innovation this year’s congress of the American Society of Clinical Oncology promises a lot of new developments and insights in the field of cancer. One of the progresses to keep an eye on is immunotherapy. This treatment strategy is rapidly gaining ground and will be discussed in numerous sessions at the 2015 Annual ASCO Meeting. Continue reading

Slowly the attendants of the second conference of the International Society for Wearable Technology in Healthcare gather in the Amsterdam Medical Centre. At first sight, this looks like a conference like any other, but the careful spectator notices a Google Glass here and there. This is the start of a day filled with technical gadgets. The organisers state: “We are the trendsetters in health care.” Continue reading

Early signs of autism are already noticeable before the age of one. Furthermore, female autists have a hard time maintaining their jobs. These issues were addressed by renown scientists during the 15th National Autism Congress on the 27th of March in Rotterdam. Continue reading

High- and normal-protein diets are associated with a higher metabolism and more storage of muscle mass than fat. To maintain this higher metabolism, dietary protein levels must remain high. This was postulated by Elisabeth Frost, researcher at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, during ObesityWeek 2014. Continue reading

At the Dutch Medicines Days (DMD), the Galen awards have been presented. Led by a jury, these awards are presented anually to one researcher and one drug that is the most innovative and meaningful. This year’s best researcher was Tom Würdinger, PhD of the neuro-oncology group at the VUmc, Amsterdam. The award for the best drug went to Kalydeco from Vertex, a compound indicated for cystic fibrosis (CF). Continue reading

This year, the Dutch Medicines Days 2014 (DMD) were predominated by the subject of personalised medicine. Medical doctors, researchers and delegates from insurance providers and pharmaceutical companies discussed implementation and innovative treatment methods considering this subject. The DMD is a congress on innovative drug research, hosted by the Federation for Innovative Drug Research in the Netherlands (FIGON). Continue reading