Healthcare – Page 15

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Artificial intelligence detects heart failure from one heartbeat with 100% accuracy

September 20, 2019

Doctors can detect heart failure from a single heartbeat with 100% accuracy using a new artificial intelligence-driven neural network.

That’s according to a recent study published in Biomedical Signal Processing and Control Journal, which explores how emerging technology can improve existing methods of detecting congestive heart failure.

Led by researchers at the Universities of Surrey, Warwick and Florence, it shows that AI can quickly and accurately identify CHF by analyzing one electrocardiogram (ECG) heartbeat.

CHF is a chronic progressive condition affecting the way in which blood is pumped around the body. Research shows that, in the US alone, around 5 million people live with it.

Continue reading… “Artificial intelligence detects heart failure from one heartbeat with 100% accuracy”

Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Doctors have put human livers in suspended animation

September 18, 2019

Supercooling organs could save the lives of people on transplant waiting lists.

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Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine, Robotics, Science & Technology News

First long-distance heart surgery performed via robot

September 13, 2019

In a feat of networking, engineering, and medicine, a doctor performed a heart procedure while standing 20 miles from his patient.

A doctor in India has performed a series of five percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures on patients who were 20 miles away from him. The feat was pulled off using a precision vascular robot developed by Corindus. The results of the surgeries, which were successful, have just been published in EClinicalMedicine, a spin-off of medical journal The Lancet.

The feat is an example of telemedicine, an emerging field that leverages advances in networking, robotics, mixed reality, and communications technologies to beam in medical experts to remote locations for everything from consultations to surgical procedures. Telemedicine, which could decentralize healthcare by distributing doctors into local communities virtually, could ease shortages of nurses and doctors and potentially cut healthcare costs. In France, people are already visiting Telehealth cabins for fast, convenient healthcare. During the recent Ebola crisis, the University of Virginia delivered care in parts of Africa via telemedicine.

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Engineering, Healthcare, new technology, Science & Technology News

Quantum radar has been demonstrated for the first time

August 30, 2019

A radar device that relies on entangled photons works at such low power that it can hide behind background noise, making it useful for biomedical and security applications.

One of the advantages of the quantum revolution is the ability to sense the world in a new way. The general idea is to use the special properties of quantum mechanics to make measurements or produce images that are otherwise impossible.

Much of this work is done with photons. But as far as the electromagnetic spectrum is concerned, the quantum revolution has been a little one-sided. Almost all the advances in quantum computing, cryptography, teleportation, and so on have involved visible or near-visible light.

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3D Printer, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

3D bioprinting breakthrough leads to full-scale, functioning heart parts

August 20, 2019

A 3D-printed heart valve produced by Carnegie Mellon University researchers

While in its early stages, bioprinting of human tissue is an emerging technology that is opening up some exciting possibilities, including the potential to one day 3D print entire human organs. This scientific objective has now grown a little bit closer, with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University reporting a breakthrough that enabled the printing of full-scale heart components that in some cases functioned similarly to the real thing.

The specialized cells that make up the various organs in the human body are glued together by what is known as an extracellular matrix (ECM). This is a web of proteins that not only holds everything together, but also provides the biochemical signaling needed for an organ’s regular, healthy function. Collagen is a protein that plays a key role in this structural integrity, but when it comes to bioprinting, also brings some unique and notable challenges.

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Automation, Healthcare, Robots, Science & Technology News

Desperate for workers, aging Japan turns to robots for healthcare

August 14, 2019

A woman wearing a Cyberdyne lumbar robotic suit, which is designed to help her walk, gets an assist from caregiver Asami Konishi.

TSUKUBA, Japan — In America and other aging societies around the world, it has become common for the elderly to be cared for by their graying children or older workers. That’s largely because the younger labor force is shrinking, and few want to do such low-paying, back-aching work.

Japan sees an answer in robots.

At Minami Tsukuba nursing home near Tokyo, caregiver Asami Konishi wears a robotic device on her hips that cuts the stress on her back when she bends and lifts someone.

“It really helps when I have to pick up a heavier male patient,” said the 34-year-old.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, Healthcare, Medicine, Science & Technology News

How hospitals are using AI to save their sickest patients and curb ‘alarm fatigue’

August 12, 2019

Early tests suggest artificial intelligence can improve patient care in hospitals’ intensive care units while helping curb “alarm fatigue.”Woody Harrington / for NBC News

Early tests show artificial “assistants” can help doctors and nurses spot potentially deadly problems in time to take life-saving action.

From interpreting CT scans to diagnosing eye disease, artificial intelligence is taking on medical tasks once reserved for only highly trained medical specialists — and in many cases outperforming its human counterparts.

Now AI is starting to show up in intensive care units, where hospitals treat their sickest patients. Doctors who have used the new systems say AI may be better at responding to the vast trove of medical data collected from ICU patients — and may help save patients who are teetering between life and death.

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Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Medicine, Science & Technology News

New research uncovers compelling link between gut bacteria, obesity and the immune system

August 8, 2019

Researchers have discovered the immune system can directly alter populations of certain bacteria in the gut that affect how dietary fats are absorbed

An impressive new study from scientists at the University of Utah has described how an impaired immune system can alter the composition of the gut microbiome resulting in metabolic disease and obesity. Demonstrated in mouse experiments, the research suggests certain species of gut bacteria can prevent the gut from absorbing fat, pointing to exciting potential future anti-obesity therapies.

The research originated from an unexpected observation. Ongoing experiments in mice engineered to lack a gene called MyD88 surprisingly resulted in the animals gaining significant amounts of weight. The specific gene was being studied for its relationship to immune function in the gut. It was discovered that suppressing this gene resulted in lower production of immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies in the gut, but the real mystery was how this gut-related immune mechanism resulted in metabolic disease and obesity.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Corporate Manipulation, Healthcare, Science & Technology News

76 billion opioid pills: Newly released federal data unmasks the epidemic

August 8, 2019

The data in the DEA database tracks the path of every single pain pill sold in the United States, including oxycodone, above.

America’s largest drug companies saturated the country with 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pain pills from 2006 through 2012 as the nation’s deadliest drug epidemic spun out of control, according to previously undisclosed company data released as part of the largest civil action in U.S. history.

The information comes from a database maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration that tracks the path of every single pain pill sold in the United States — from manufacturers and distributors to pharmacies in every town and city. The data provides an unprecedented look at the surge of legal pain pills that fueled the prescription opioid epidemic, which has resulted in nearly 100,000 deaths from 2006 through 2012.

Just six companies distributed 75 percent of the pills during this period: McKesson Corp., Walgreens, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, CVS and Walmart, according to an analysis of the database by The Washington Post. Three companies manufactured 88 percent of the opioids: SpecGx, a subsidiary of Mallinckrodt; Actavis Pharma; and Par Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Endo Pharmaceuticals.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

An ‘EpiPen’ for spinal cord injuries

August 4, 2019

ANN ARBOR—An injection of nanoparticles can prevent the body’s immune system from overreacting to trauma, potentially preventing some spinal cord injuries from resulting in paralysis.

The approach was demonstrated in mice at the University of Michigan, with the nanoparticles enhancing healing by reprogramming the aggressive immune cells—call it an “EpiPen” for trauma to the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord.

“In this work, we demonstrate that instead of overcoming an immune response, we can co-opt the immune response to work for us to promote the therapeutic response,” said Lonnie Shea, the Steven A. Goldstein Collegiate Professor of Biomedical Engineering.

Continue reading… “An ‘EpiPen’ for spinal cord injuries”

government, Healthcare, Legal Issues, Science & Technology News

Netherlands passes law making everyone an organ donor by default

July 26, 2019

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dutch senators have approved a new law that makes everybody a potential organ donor unless they decide to opt out of the system.

The new system narrowly passed a vote in the upper house of the Dutch parliament Tuesday. The lower house last year passed the legislation with a one-vote majority.

The new law’s drafter, lawmaker Pia Dijkstra, says under the new system — which is similar to donation laws in Belgium and Spain — every person over 18 who is not yet registered as a donor will receive a letter asking if they want to donate their organs after death.

Those who do not respond will be considered organ donors, although they will be able to amend their status at any time.

Via Canoe.com

Great New Product, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

The Band-Aid of the future knows when you’re healed

July 22, 2019

The Band-Aid of the future knows when you’re healed

It’s easy to imagine these wearable circuits on the shelves of CVS.

The Apple Watch is an enticing product, but it hasn’t revolutionized personal health the way its cheerleaders have promised. It can track steps, but it can’t see how your body is moving. It can measure your heart rate, but it can’t see how you are healing. The Apple Watch really only scratches the surface of what we imagine for intimate, wearable electronics.

But a new research project out of Carnegie Mellon is nearly as easy to put on as an Apple Watch and a whole lot more capable and customizable. Dubbed ElectroDermis, it’s a spandex bandage topped with stretchable, electric wiring and the sorts of circuits and sensors you find in any mobile electronic. “We were inspired by traditional medical bandages, as they come in a variety of shapes and sizes, soft and conformal, and can be placed anywhere on the body” for more accurate readings, says the paper’s co-lead Eric Markvicka.

Continue reading… “The Band-Aid of the future knows when you’re healed”