Chicago Team Uses Artificial Intelligence To Diagnose Metastatic Cancer.

When doctors are managing care for women with breast cancer, the information available to them profoundly influences the type of care they recommend. Knowing whether a woman"s cancer has metastasized, for instance, directly affects how her doctors will approach treatment -- which may in turn influence the outcome of that treatment. Determining whether a tumor has metastasized is not always straightforward, however. Radiologists often start by using diagnostic ultrasound to non-invasively probe the nearby lymph nodes -- tissues where cancer cells first migrate once they metastasize. But in the early stages of cancer, lymph nodes often appear completely normal even if the cancer has metastasized. Now a team of researchers at the University of Chicago has designed a computer program that uses artificial intelligence to analyze the features of ultrasound images in order to help doctors predict earlier whether a woman"s cancer has metastasized.

Shanghai To Relax One-Child Policy As China Faces Aging Population, Shrinking Work Force.

Nearly three decades after China implemented its one-child policy, the city of Shanghai is planning to encourage young couples to have a second child in an effort to address the country"s aging population and shrinking work force, the New York Times reports. The city"s plan is the most public effort made by the government to counteract a program that is "considered both a tremendous success and a terrible failure," the Times reports. The policy has managed to keep population growth under control but also has led to forced abortions, according to the Times.The country is not abandoning the one-child policy, which applies mostly to residents in urban areas. Rather, the government is allowing more exceptions to the rule, with Shanghai -- where about 22% of its 20 million residents are older than age 60 -- leading the effort. Blog about vibration machines

Federal Funding Should Be Available For Abortion Services, Opinion Piece Says.

"The current debate over government funding for abortion in the health care plan is a reminder of how we have failed poor women," Frances Kissling writes in a Salon opinion piece. According to Kissling, the 32-year-old Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortion services, has played a large role in denying impoverished women access to the procedure. "Restoring those funds has not been a top priority for pro-choice advocates, who sadly concluded that because the public does not care about poor women and is actually hostile to poor women who have sex and become pregnant, it would be futile to put too much capital into reversing Hyde," Kissling writes.However, "we have an opportunity to make amends" by reversing the Hyde Amendment and restoring federal funding for abortion services, according to Kissling.

Health Professionals Experience Difficulty Treating Patients With Dual Mental Health Diagnoses.

The Washington Post tells the story of Danny Watt, who drowned in April 2008 after a lifelong struggle with mental health. Watt had a dual diagnosis: a serious mental illness along with abuse of drugs or alcohol. "Danny Watt was a walking symbol of a phenomenon called co-occurring disorders, or dual diagnosis, which is estimated to affect 7 million adults in the United States. тЂ¦ About half of all adults who are seriously mentally ill are also thought to be addicted. The mental health community calls this "self-medication." The federal government estimates that 90 percent of people with co-occurring disorders do not get the treatment they need." According to officials interviewed by the Post, ""He is responsible for his care, and he has decisions and choices to make," said William H. Williams Jr., the agency"s director of alcohol and drug services. "When you look at the number of challenges that faced this particular case, I think we did an exceptional job in trying to resolve this young man"s issues."