Monarch Teaching Technologies’ autism education software is already in several of the nation’s largest school districts, but the company is still looking to more than triple its customer base within the next year.CEO Terry Murphy says 2012 could be a “big year” for the Cleveland-area company, as it’s closing in on “major partnerships” with “big [...]

While the alleged link between vaccines — particularly the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine — and autism has been thoroughly discredited in more than 20 well-conducted studies of vaccine side effects [1], fears about the side effects of vaccination nevertheless remain a major factor influencing the healthcare decisions some parents make. This has led [...]

Parents with a child with autism have a 19 percent chance that their next child will have some form of the disorder, too, according to a new study in the Journal of Pediatrics. Researchers have long thought that autism runs in families, but previous studies using a smaller number of families and a narrower definition of autism estimated the recurrence rate of autism in siblings at only 3 to 10 percent. These findings run counter to a controversial report earlier this summer suggesting that the cause of autism may be more linked to environmental factors than genetic factors.

Current medical news and unique business news for anyone who cares about the healthcare industry.Controversial study: Autism may not be a genetic disorder. A controversial new analysis of autism in twins published in Archives of General Psychiatry challenges the autism genetics link. The study’s authors say they found that environment factors may be more [...]

I didn’t stop watching Tom Cruise movies because of his bizarre behavior and Scientology background. I didn’t stop listening to the Dixie Chicks after their 9/11 comments. But every time I see an ad for Mr. Popper’s Penguins I can’t get Jim Carrey’s ludicrous vaccine perspectives out of my heads. And that cuts down on the chances I’ll take my kids to see the movie, too.

Current medical news from today including: autism rates are higher according to a South Korea study (will it change autism education?); a look at patient ratios after the Tuft’s nursing negotiations; layoffs at Pfizer; and a poll on the dumbest new drug name.

Read current medical news from today, including: a study says some autism treatments do not work, best biotech stocks in March, the government’s focus on hospitals and competition, the end of the medical school gender gap,

Autistic children for years have been presented images on paper, a visual schedule that gives them the order and structure that they seek.Paper schedules don’t work for all autistic children. But even when they do work, they’re still just pictures on paper.The emerging health IT company AutismSphere is working to bring traditional paper methods into [...]

A University of Minnesota researcher will co-lead a $30 million international effort to map the complex electrical/chemical connections of the human brain. Kamil Ugurbil, director of the school’s Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, will help oversee the Human Connectome Project.

A Cleveland Clinic consultancy has agreed to help a hospital in one of Pennsylvania’s most medically underserved regions to design and staff a treatment center for autistic children.Highlands Hospital, a community hospital in Connellsville, Pa., has hired Cleveland Clinic Autism Development Solutions to help it open an autism center next year, according to a [...]