If TV's Dr. House, diagnostician extraordinaire,
is ever truly stumped, he can refer his patient
to the National Institutes of Health's new "Undiagnosed Diseases Program."
Health care providers will refer patients whose
symptoms do not fit any known pattern, and the
agency will invite some of them for a work-up at
the NIH's Clinical Center in Bethesda. After
examinations by dozens of medical specialists,
patients might be enrolled in one of the existing
1,500 ongoing clinical trials or perhaps inspire
a new investigation. In addition to attempting to
diagnose the undiagnosable, the program will also
identify subtypes of more common illnesses,
leading to a "catalog of descriptions of
conditions a phenotype atlas that will provide
new information for textbook diagnoses," said
William A. Gahl, MD, PhD clinical director at the
National Human Genome Research Institute, who was
one of a panel of speakers at a telephone news
conference today announcing the program.
<http://blog.bioethics.net/2008/05/nih-recognizes-undiagnosed-diseases/>Link
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Posted By johannes to
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2008/05/national-institutes-of-healths-new.htm>monochrom
at 5/21/2008 06:32:00 PM
