The latest results from the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health show more than half of parents are interested in having their children checked for disease risks using at-home personal genetic testing kits. In May 2010, the poll asked 1,461 adults, ages 18 and older with children ages 0-17, about their interest in getting personal genetic testing for their children and reasons why they would be interested in getting testing for their children...

 The World Health Organization suggests that treating people with HIV earlier could save lives and help them stay healthy for longer, while at the same saving money; the organization also estimates that a record 5.2 million people worldwide were receiving life-saving HIV treatment at the end of 2009, compared with 4 million a year earlier...

 Research conducted by surgeons from the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center shows that using robotics reduces blood vessel trauma during minimally invasive procedures to repair diseased arteries. Research results were presented at the Society for Vascular Surgery's 2010 Vascular Annual Meeting in Boston. "When we manipulate a catheter through a diseased artery using the standard manual approach, the catheter follows along the walls of the artery...

 Siemens is proud to announce that its syngo® iFlow has been honored with a 2010 R&D 100 Award by the editors of R&D Magazine. syngo iFlow - Dynamic Flow Evaluation won in the Bioscience category. The annual awards event - now in its 48th year - salutes the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year. For use in the interventional suite, syngo® iFlow allows the creation of a static image displaying dynamic information, making flow visualization easier...

 Personalized medicine is about to get a much-needed kick start: The FDA has agreed to produce draft guidance documents that clarify and revise the standards by which companion diagnostics and biomarker qualifications are tested and approved. In a speech to the Personalized Medicine Coalition, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg identified personalized medicine as one of the key themes to the future of healthcare and said that regulatory science must evolve to keep pace with it...

 GTC Biotherapeutics, Inc. ("GTC", OTCBB: GTCB.OB) announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement whereby the Company has regained US commercialization rights to ATryn from Lundbeck, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of H. Lundbeck A/S in Denmark (Copenhagen Stock Exchange: LUN)...

 Some abortion-rights groups are criticizing HHS' recent announcement that state high-risk insurance pools generally will not include coverage for elective abortions, CQ HealthBeat reports. The insurance pools -- created under the federal health reform law (PL 111-148) -- are intended to provide coverage for people with pre-existing conditions (Norman, CQ HealthBeat, 7/15). According to an HHS statement released Wednesday, abortion will be covered under the pre-existing condition insurance plans only in cases of rape, incest or to save the woman's life...

 News outlets report on abortion coverage restrictions in state high-risk pools. "Elective abortion services will not be covered in state high-risk pools set up to provide coverage for sick people who can't get insurance, according to Obama administration officials," CQ HealthBeat reports. "The statement came following reports that abortion could be permitted in some states under proposals submitted for the pools...

 The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) - the nation's largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging - has chosen Pankaj Kapahi, PhD, of the Buck Institute for Age Research as the 2010 recipient of the Nathan Shock New Investigator Award. The distinguished honor is given for outstanding contributions to new knowledge about aging through basic biological research. It was established in 1986 to honor Nathan Shock, PhD, a founding member of GSA and pioneer in gerontological research at the National Institutes of Health...