the system reportedly has the potential to aid sick or disabled people. eople with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) motor neuron disease,
or high spinal cord injuries face difficulties communicating or using their limbssaid Muller. ecoding what they intend from their brain signals could offer means to communicate
#Tadpole endoscope offers new hope for gastrointestinal cancer detection Hong kong researchers have devised a swimming housing for a capsule endoscopy camera which can be steered around to provide better images inside the stomach
and intestines The problem of looking at the inside of the body is a pressing one for doctors,
Cancers in this system the oesophagus, stomach, intestines and rectum are major causes of death and difficult to investigate,
and endoscopy, where a similar system goes in the other end are so unpleasant and traumatic for the patient.
and send pictures back to doctors isn a new one: indeed, so-called capsule endoscopy currently the best way to get pictures of the intestines between the stomach and colorectal system, the boundary zone between gastroscopy and endoscopy.
But it isn without drawbacks: The speed of transport through the system, from muscular ripples along the intestines called peristalsis can vary widely from person to person;
it can be difficult to determine precisely where lesions and growths are, because of mismatches between imaging speed and peristalsis,
Surgery Training Centre, both at the Chinese University of Hong kong, attempting to mimic the movement of the larval amphibians to design a capsule endoscope with a controllable swimming action that doctors can steer around inside the stomach to provide a guided tour,
then orient it ideally for its dive into the intestines where peristalsis can take over for the rest of its journey.
returning to the hospital the following day for the clinician to retrieve images from the pad. uture works include optimising the system model
including non-fouling medical tools and devices such as scalpels and implants, as well as nozzle heads for 3d printing.
a development with applications ranging from surgical scopes to security cameras to capture a broader perspective at a fraction of the size required by conventional lenses.
Identifying with precision the source of that anxiety, and the appropriate focus of action, is rather more challenging.
It is the marketplace of human knowledge, queries, anxieties, ideas, journeys, hopes, sorrows and dreams.
such as those transporting people between hospitals, cutting NHS fuel costs and improving patient care. So far, 20 traffic lights are using the system in Newcastle city centre.
#Instagram for doctors: how Figure 1 is crowdsourcing diagnoses Where do doctors turn when even they don know what wrong with you?
Colleagues? Books? The internet? A Canadian startup wants to make the answer an Instagram for doctors.
Figure 1 is an app that allows iphone and Android-owning doctors to share images of diseases, injuries and everything in between.
Launched in 2013, the app was born from the idea that sharing images of what confounds doctors with other doctors across the world can help point them in the direction of the right answer.
It something doctors were already doing. Over 10,000 texts, Whatsapps and emails with images of curious and classic cases are being sent in the US each day
according to Dr. Joshua Landy, cofounder of Figure 1, who sought to provide a more secure and useful alternative. edicine has used always asynchronous communications such as pagers
so colleagues could be collaborating on a diagnosis using the app while unknowingly standing next to each other.
but only medical staff be that doctors, nurses or other medically trained personnel can become erified In the same way Twitter blue tick verifies that a user is who they say they are,
Figure 1 will verify someone is a medic by contacting their hospital or a suitable authority database.
The company is verifying 1, 000s of doctors a week across 40 countries and at some stage Landy expects to be verifying all users who join,
but not at present. ee not after gore seekers, but in some countries such as India reliable databases of doctors are nonexistent,
so we don want to keep them out, explained Landy. Uploading images isn quite as easy as Instagram.
and is kept by the doctor, not Figure 1. Once uploaded, images are queued before being reviewed manually.
Verified doctors can be aged which sends them a notification of a query or picture asking for their expert opinion.
While Figure 1 has not found widespread adoption in the UK only one of 10 doctors contacted by the Guardian had heard even of it those that have started using the app say that it provides a great platform for learning
Dr Vikas Shah a consultant radiologist at University Hospitals Leicester. upload radiology cases such as x-rays or CT SCANS with a question or two,
borders, medical specialities and grades. The app is popular with medical students and forms part of their adoption of social media and the new smartphone and tablet tools that are increasingly being used in hospitals,
according to Shah. t is safe to use and there are strict regulations around privacy and anonymity,
#Brain-training game helps'minimise impact of schizophrenia on life'A rain traininggame improves the cognitive function of people with schizophrenia
was tested for four weeks by 22 participants with a schizophrenia diagnosis. Schizophrenia is a long-term mental health condition
which can contribute to behavioural changes, confused thinking, apathy and, in some cases, delusions or hallucinations.
People with schizophrenia may experience cognitive impairments, including poor episodic memory, which affects remembering things such as times and dates,
Wizard aims to improve the cognitive functionality and episodic memory of people with schizophrenia, with in-game tasks including users moving through rooms and identifying items in boxes and character locations.
e need a way of treating the cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, such as problems with episodic memory,
n conjunction with medication and current psychological therapies, Wizard could help people with schizophrenia minimise the impact of their illness on everyday life. eople with schizophrenia often find studying
The employment rate for people with schizophrenia was recorded at 8%,according to a 2013 paper. The Wizard game will be included as a mode within the popular brain-training app, Peak,
Could ractor beamtechnology be a reality in medicine? e can move bigger and heavier objects than we have done,
the scientists see medical applications as a priority for the technology. t could be used to manipulate kidney stones, clots,
who was paralyzed after suffering a spinal cord injury more than a decade ago. An array of electrodes was placed in the volunteer's sensory cortex (part of the brain that identifies touch)
it actually helped mice clear staph infections at a stage when conventional antibiotics normally stop being effective.
This means that it might one day be possible to use this technique to treat people with life-threatening antibiotic-resistant infections.
repeated infections that can be fatal. And to make matters worse, certain strains have become resistant to common antibiotics.
As a result, one type of resistant staph bacteria called MRSA causes over 80,000 infections and 11,285 deaths occur every year.
That's why researchers want to find ways to kill the pathogen when it's located inside cells,
a hideout where antibiotics typically used against staph infections aren't as effective.""Staph can hide inside blood cells for a couple of hours or days,
That's a big problem because drugs that are used normally against staph infections can take over four hours to work far longer than it takes for Staph bacteria to move into new cells,
'Can we tag the bacteria with antibodies armed with really potent antibiotics and kill these pathogens inside the cell?'"
Animals who received the treatment were able to recover from staph infections much sooner and with fewer negative health effects than they would have otherwise,
Genentech manufactured antibodies based on those the immune system makes to combat staph infections. Then, the researchers attached the antibiotics to the antibody by using amino acids as glue.
whether Staph bacteria hidden in cells are repeated responsible for infections, but if that's the case, then this treatment could put a stop to that by clearing the body of bacterial reservoirs.
it's possible that this treatment might one day help people avoid repeated infections, Mariathasan says.
THIS MIGHT HELP PEOPLE AVOID REPEATED INFECTIONS The technique might also prove to be less harsh on the body than common staph treatments.
doctors will probably only be able to give it to patients with a firm diagnosis. In some parts of the world,
that kind of diagnosis isn possible. Still, the act of combining two different weapons antibodies and antibiotics to fight off infections is an intriguing idea.
Today study suggests the technique is ripe for exploration c
#HTC One Max stored fingerprints where any app could see them HTC failed to lock down fingerprints captured by one of its phones,
Almost every new Android handset features some sort of solution for giving it a rapid injection of energy,
and too much exposure to mercury can lead to serious health problems for humans and wildlife. There have been ideas for ways to remove mercury pollution,
represents an inspiring case history for would-be female entrepreneurs. And the"Woman Entrepreneur of the Year"award
#Roche diagnostics & SAP Team to Fight Diabetes In 2014, diabetes took 4. 9 million lives worldwide.
That's one death every seven seconds. 52 million Europeans are living with diabetes, and in Germany alone, there are 6 to 8 million documented cases.
German-based Roche diagnostics is dedicated to driving personalized and preventative medicine, and with the severity of diabetes on the forefront of focus, Roche, in partnership with SAP, created new preventative care package.
The bundle, called Accu-Chek View, includes a blood glucose monitor, a wearable fitness tracker and an app developed by SAP that are integrated all together.
and transmit the information to the doctor's office via the app. All data transferred is stored securely
The app allows the doctor to monitor the patient remotely and allows the patient to communicate with the doctor's office.
This eliminates unnecessary trips to the physician, saving time and money. This strengthened patient-doctor relationship facilitates a supportive
and empowering psychological effect on patients. Slip ups in lifestyle can be caught quickly because the app will red-flag the issue,
the doctor can intervene, and the doctor and patient can work on solutions together. Even pre-diabetics can benefit from this preventative care app.
By using the app to detect the early signs of diabetes, individuals can make the changes necessary to live a normal life.
This Wednesday April 29th, Dr. Oliver Haferbeck, Head of Diabetes Care at Roche diagnostics will be part of a live panel on the Coffee break with Game Changers Radio.
Listen to the discussion titled, MD in the Palm of your Hand-Connected Care, and tune in live at 11 AM EST. You can also follow the conversation on Twitter via#SAPRADIO o
#Lifesaving research in the cloud Using the power of the cloud to improve organisational efficiencies is one thing,
but the potential benefits that can come from adopting on-demand IT in medical research are truly life-changing,
and clinicians in their quests to find cures for cancer, lupus and other diseases. The team used a preexisting next-generation sequencing toolkit,
The American Cancer Society uses cloud-based office and collaboration technology to improve organisational efficiencies.
cloud technology is vital to the medical world. On-demand IT cuts costs and increases healthcare options,
#SAP and Heidelberg University Hospital Personalize Pregnancy Care This Sunday is International Women's Day,
Eminently preventative in nature, connected care helps health providers stop illness before it starts. Through mobile innovations and sensor technologies, today's doctors can report on key health indicators to prevent illnesses altogether
or detect it early, saving lives and thousands in reactive care costs. Heidelberg University Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in all of Europe
is a perfect example of connected care working to improve women's lives. In partnership with SAP and abcmedien, the University Hospital developed an app to provide pregnant women all information needed along their pregnancy and beyond.
However, unlike the typical pregnancy app, which only pushes consumer product information, the healthcare experts at Heidelberg University Hospital created this app to serve as a dual resource for both mothers and physicians alike.
Because pregnancy doesn't require frequent doctors'appointments, it's difficult to gather feedback from pregnant moms.
To maintain a close relationship with mothers during pregnancy the app asks users discrete and subtle psychological questions purposed to gather information to identify
and can affect brain chemicals, inducing antepartum depression and/or anxiety. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, roughly 14-23 percent of women will struggle with symptoms of depression at some point during their pregnancy.
Luckily, antepartum depression is 100 percent treatable, but in many cases, the pregnant mother assumes that the mood changes are nothing more than normal hormonal imbalances (similar to PMS).
At Heidelberg University Hospital, doctors can analyze the answers obtained through the app, and proactively identify mothers at risk for such illness
and provide them with the necessary resources to treat the depression before it takes effect.
because research suggests that children of women who experienced depression during pregnancy have a higher risk of becoming depressed as adults (JAMA Psychiatry).
and was built on the SAP Mobile Platform to provide Heidelberg University Hospital an intuitive interface to connect doctors with patients and vice versa.
In the future, Heidelberg University Hospital hopes to expand the app to help treat and monitor cancer patients as well as other diseases.
By engaging with pregnant women and monitoring their health via this mobile application, Heidelberg University Hospital can reduce immediate and long-term risks for mother and for baby.
The traditional relationship between patient and doctor still exists but now, with connected care, society is transitioning to a more proactive and preventive patient/doctor relationship leading to healthier lives and lower healthcare costs s
#Italy's#6bn broadband plan: Spread 100mbps far and wide, fill in the rural notspots Summary: The government has laid down#6bn to give Italy better broadband,
and it's hoping local telcos will do the same. On Tuesday, the Italian government approved a plan to boost broadband connectivity in the country
and provide the medical standards of 37 countries. Source: ZDNET Korea (zdnet. co. kr) window. console && console. log && console. log("ADS:
#Germ-slaying robots fight infections Here's the problem: According to the CDC there are about 1. 7 million hospital-acquired infections in the U s. each year,
and complications arising from those infections lead to nearly 100,000 deaths annually. The health care and liability costs associated with infections are astronomical,
and despite increasingly rigid policies and best practices designed to keep hospitals sterile, human workers aren't great at disinfecting the thousands of surfaces in a hospital room where viruses
and bacteria may linger. Enter the robots. An emerging class of robotic technology uses UV LIGHT to fuse the DNA of viruses
and bacteria and prevent them from reproducing, and in the last couple years these bots have seen rapid adoption across the country.
but some hospital administrators have come to view them as the first must-have robot tech in a health care industry that's bracing for big changes with the imminent arrival of robot cleaners, diagnosticians, surgeons, and nurses."
"The acquisition of this technology is simply another way that we're working to protect the integrity of our health care environment,
"says Khiet N. Trinh, M d.,chief medical officer at Bon Secours St mary's Hospital in Richmond, Virginia,
The system also tracks infection control data and simultaneously uploads the information to the hospital's web portal,
meaning it integrates well into a new health care paradigm centering around data collection and analysis."With rising issues around health care-associated infections,
hospitals that provide an extra level of care for patients by disinfecting rooms with TRU-D are not only protecting patients'well-being,
but also ensuring that patients aren't being held financially responsible for things like preventable hospital-acquired infections,
"says Chuck Dunn, president of TRU-D LLC.""TRU-D can achieve 99.99 percent disinfection of all viruses and bacteria.
It takes the guesswork out of previous protocols and ensures confidence in clinicians and patients alike."
"The market for disinfection robots is expected to grow to $80 million by 2017. In part this is thanks to the Ebola scare.
When nurses in Dallas became infected, they inadvertently drew attention to the problem of hospital-acquired infections.
Hospitals are interested in technology that integrate into existing protocols and workflows, which these bots do need,
and that has led to lots of activity in the space. TRU-D's biggest competitor is Xenex,
In 2014 the company entered the disinfection robot market when it announced plans to distribute a system built by California-based Ultraviolet Devices.
though UV disinfection systems have been shown to be generally effective in independent tests, the competing technologies have various strengths and weaknesses
what technology works best and whether their use reduces rates of hospital-acquired infections. As more hospitals adopt the robots,
it's expected that more data will become available about the advantages and flaws of each product
#Personalized cellular therapy achieves complete remission in 90 percent of acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients studied Ninety percent of children
or failed to respond to standard therapies went into remission after receiving an investigational personalized cellular therapy CTL019 developed at the Perelman School of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
The results are published this week in The New england Journal of Medicine. The new data which builds on preliminary findings presented at the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting in December 2013 include results from the first 25 children and young adults (ages 5 to 22
) treated at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and first five adults (ages 26 to 60 treated at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Twenty-seven of the 30 patients in the studies achieved a complete remission after receiving an infusion of these engineered hunter cells
whose cancers came back even after stem cell transplants. Their cancers were so aggressive they had no treatment options left said the study's senior author Stephan Grupp MD Phd a professor of Pediatrics in Penn's Perelman School of medicine and director of Translational Research in the Center
for Childhood Cancer Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The durable responses we have observed with CTL019 therapy are unprecedented.
Shannon Maude MD Phd an assistant professor of Pediatrics and a pediatric oncologist at CHOP and Noelle Frey MD MSCE an assistant professor of Medicine and an oncologist at Penn's Abramson's Cancer Center
are co-first authors of the new study. The research team is led by Carl June MD the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of Translational Research in the Abramson Cancer Center
along with David Porter MD the Jodi Fisher Horowitz Professor in Leukemia Care Excellence and director of Blood and Marrow Transplantation in the Abramson Cancer Center.
CTL019 manufacturing begins with a patient's own T cells which are collected via an apheresis process similar to blood donation then reprogrammed in Penn's Clinical Cell
and Vaccine Production Facility with a gene transfer technique that teaches the T cells to target
and kill tumor cells. The engineered cells contain an antibody-like protein known as a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)
which is designed to bind to a protein called CD19 found on the surface of B cells including the cancerous B cells that characterize several types of leukemia.
The modified hunter cells are infused then back into the patient's body where they both multiply
A signaling domain built into the CAR promotes rapid multiplication of the hunter cells building an army of tumor-killing cells that tests reveal can grow to more than 10000 new cells for each single engineered cell patients receive.
Nineteen patients in the study remain in remission 15 with this therapy alone including a 9 year old who was the first ALL patient to receive the therapy more than two years ago.
Five patients went off-study for alternate therapy three of whom proceeded to allogeneic stem cell transplants while in remission.
Seven patients relapsed between 6 weeks and 8. 5 months after their infusions including three
whose cancers returned as CD19-negative leukemia that would not have been targeted by the modified cells.
All patients who received the CTL019 hunter cells experienced a cytokine release syndrome (CRS) within a few days after receiving their infusions--a key indicator that the engineered cells have begun proliferating and killing tumor cells in the body.
which included varying degrees of flu-like symptoms with high fevers nausea and muscle pain.
which also express the CD19 protein had been eliminated along with their tumors. The researchers note that persistent absence of normal B cells following CTL019 treatment indicates continued activity of the gene-modified T cells
which are thought to provide long-term vaccine-like activity preventing tumor recurrence. Since B cells play a role in helping fight infection patients typically receive immunoglobulin replacement to maintain healthy immune function.
Our results support that CTL019 can produce long-lasting remissions for certain heavily pre-treated ALL patients without further therapy Frey said.
For our patients who have relapsed already after stem cell transplants or don't have any options for donors this option has provided new hope.
In July 2014 the U s. Food and Drug Administration granted CTL019 its Breakthrough Therapy designation for the treatment of relapsed and refractory adult and pediatric ALL a step
which is intended to expedite the development and review of new medicines that treat serious or life-threatening conditions if a therapy has demonstrated substantial advantages over available treatments.
CTL019 is personalized the first cellular therapy to receive the designation. The first multicenter CTL019 trial has opened recently in the U s
. and additional multisite trials are expected to initiate by the end of the year. Story Source:
and cells offer new solutions for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Understanding the interdependency of physiochemical properties of nanomedicines in correlation to their biological responses
and functions is crucial for their further development of as cancer-fighters. To develop next generation nanomedicines with superior anticancer attributes we must understand the correlation between their physicochemical properties--specifically particle size
or smaller--exhibited enhanced performance in vivo such as greater tissue penetration and enhanced tumor inhibition. Over the last 2-3 decades consensus has been reached that particle size plays a pivotal role in determining their biodistribution tumor penetration cellular internalization clearance from blood plasma and tissues as well as excretion from the body--all of
which impact the overall therapeutic efficacy against cancers stated Li Tang first author of this PNAS article.
Our studies show clear evidence that there is an optimal particle size for anticancer nanomedicines resulting in the highest tumor retention.
Among the three nanoconjugates investigated the 50 nm particle size provided the optimal combination of deep tumor tissue penetration efficient cancer cell internalization as well as slow tumor clearance exhibits the highest efficacy against both
primary and metastatic tumors in vivo. To further develop insight into the size dependency of nanomedicines in tumor accumulation
and retention the researchers developed a mathematical model of the spatiotemporal distribution of nanoparticles within a spherically symmetric tumor.
The results are extremely important to guide the future research in designing new nanomedicines for cancer treatment Cheng noted
In addition a new nanomedicine developed by the Illinois researchers--with precisely engineered size at the optimal size range--effectively inhibited a human breast cancer
and prevented metastasis in animals showing promise for the treatment of a variety of cancers in humans.
Seitz Materials Research Laboratory and University of Illinois Cancer Center. Tang who obtained his Phd degree from the University of Illinois with Jianjun Cheng is currently a CRI Irvington postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts institute of technology.
Collaborators and co-corresponding authors of the paper at Illinois include Timothy Fan associate professor veterinary clinical medicine;
#New mechanism that can lead to blindness discovered An important scientific breakthrough by a team of IRCM researchers led by Michel Cayouette Phd is being published by The Journal of Neuroscience.
These findings could have a significant impact on our understanding of retinal degenerative diseases that cause blindness.
This is important because the death of photoreceptor cells is known to cause retinal degenerative diseases in humans that lead to blindness.
We believe our results could eventually have a substantial impact on the development of treatments for retinal degenerative diseases like retinitis pigmentosa
and Leber's congenital amaurosis by providing novel drug targets to prevent photoreceptor degeneration concludes Dr. Cayouette.
According to the Foundation Fighting Blindness Canada millions of people in North america live with varying degrees of irreversible vision loss
and power wearable sensors or medical devices or perhaps supply enough energy to charge your cell phone in your pocket says James Hone professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia and co-leader of the research.
The odorless tasteless element can cause skin discoloration stomach pain partial paralysis and a range of other serious health problems.
and can be collected easily in places where public smoking is allowed it could be part of a low-cost solution for a serious public health issue they say.
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