In many countries, November is diabetes awareness month, with November 14 - World Diabetes Day - the most significant date on the diabetes calendar. The need to increase diabetes awareness grows ever year with the increasing impact of the disease worldwide.

At the end of September month, in Brussels, over 300 cancer organisations, patients and cancer survivors, health professionals, researchers, health authorities and health ministers gather to mark the official launch of the European Partnership for Action against Cancer.

A web browser that can understand technical terms in life sciences and automatically find additional resources and services has been developed by European researchers. It could lead to a new generation of intelligent search engines. The life sciences community has built numerous databases - such as for gene sequencing and information about diseases - that are available to researchers as 'grid' services.

The purpose of Cleveland Clinic's annual "Top 10 Medical Innovations" is to share the perspective on what innovations would help to re-shape health care in the next year. Top 10 are representing the final results of a rigorous selection process when clinicians and researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have been asked: "What game-changing medical technology, device, or therapy do you see breaking through in 2010?"

About 35% of the U.S. adult population uses social media for health and medical purposes in 2009, according to pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research's Cybercitizen Health™ v9.0. These 80 million Health 2.0 Consumers create or consumer content on health blogs, message boards, chat rooms, health social networks and health communities, and patient testimonials.

Physician smartphone adoption rates will experience significant growth over the next few years. Currently, 64% of U.S. physicians own smartphones, but this will increase to 81% penetration in 2012, according to the latest physician report from pharmaceutical and healthcare company Manhattan Research. "Physicians in 2012: The Outlook for On Demand, Mobile, and Social Digital Media", is part of the company's Taking the Pulse® market research and strategic advisory service.

Since 2005, the number of patients using the Internet to research prescription drug information has doubled to 102.3 million. Similarly, the overall number of eHealth Consumers, those online for any health and medical information, has also grown significantly over the past four years. This market now stands at 157.5 million consumers, or 1.6 times the number of eHealth Consumers in 2005.