Boosting patients' health literacy is a key component of the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center's strategy to improve best practices, transparency and patient safety in clinical research, say program manager Sylvia Baedorf Kassis and faculty director Barbara Bierer. Informed consent and participant benefit depend on health literacy, but about 87% of the public need at least some assistance understanding health information, and an MRCT analysis found a need for clinicians and investigators to use simple language, imagery, visualization and principles of numeracy, Bierer says.

Marketers are allocating more funds toward social media marketing and can boost their successes by developing "a fit between what your brand promises and delivers," write Deepa Prahalad and Ananthanarayanan V. They suggest asking four key questions regarding priorities, platforms, content strategy and creating two-way dialogue to "ensure that your social strategy aligns with your goals and adds values for your users."

The FDA will hold a meeting on virtual and augmented reality devices designed for medical purposes on March 5. The agency will discuss its approach to improving hardware evaluation, standards development and challenge assessment in an effort to advance product development.

According to the World Health Organization, the lack of innovation regarding new antibiotic development and a decline in private investments supporting the battle against antimicrobial resistance are key threats to global health. "Numerous initiatives are underway to reduce resistance, but we also need countries and the pharmaceutical industry to step up and contribute with sustainable funding and innovative new medicines," said WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

A study in Advanced Science found that patients with probable Alzheimer's disease experienced improvement in their memory for up to three months after receiving ultrasound-guided transcranial pulse stimulation for two to four weeks, and the improvements correlated with those observed on functional MRI. The findings were based on 35 patients with Alzheimer's who were a mean age of 70.37.

Three US airports -- San Francisco International Airport, New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport -- will begin screening travelers arriving from central China for a new coronavirus causing a pneumonia outbreak in China. The CDC is sending health workers to assist with screening for the virus, which is genetically similar to Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Johnson & Johnson is seeking the FDA's approval for the expanded use of its chronic lymphocytic leukemia drug Imbruvica, or ibrutinib, combined with rituximab, as a first-line treatment for the disease.

Eli Lilly announced its intention to increase the number of mergers and acquisitions this year to a rate of one deal within the range of $1 billion to $5 billion each quarter. Such deals would be similar to its recent acquisition of Dermira, according to Joshua Smiley, Lilly's senior vice president and chief financial officer.

The Supreme Court of Mexico last week overruled a regulation increasing the maximum ethanol content in gas sold in their country to 10% from 5.8%. "The ruling won't go into effect for 180 days, and proving ethanol is cheaper and better than MTBE for the environment shouldn't even take 180 minutes," said Ron Lamberty, senior vice president and market development director for the American Coalition for Ethanol, adding that the court ruled against the process and not the product.

A Philadelphia judge has reduced from $8 billion to $6.8 million the punitive damages awarded to a man who says Johnson & Johnson did not warn that its antipsychotic drug Risperdal could lead to female breast tissue growth in boys. The judge provided no reason for the reduction, and both parties said they will appeal the decision.