 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Scientists propose a modeling framework that could predict how antibiotic resistance will evolve in response to different drug combinations. A new framework may suggest which drug combinations would speed up, slow down, or even reverse antibiotic resistance. The research could help doctors optimize the choice, timing, dose, and sequence of antibiotics used to treat common infections in order to help halt the growing threat of antibiotic resistance to modern medicine. “Drug combinations are a particularly promising approach for slowing resistance, but the evolutionary impacts of combination therapy remain difficult to predict, especially in a clinical setting,” says Erida Gjini, a researcher at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and first author of the paper in eLife. read more at https://www.futurity.org/antibiotic-resistance-drug-combinations-2605182-2/
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Silicone wristbands are just as good as traditional testing methods at detecting chemicals in the air that can be harmful during pregnancy. Inexpensive, convenient silicone wristbands can measure exposure to a class of chemicals that can be harmful during pregnancy, researchers report. The researchers found that the wristbands, when used as passive samplers, have the ability to bind smaller molecular weight semi-volatile polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a similar pattern as active sampling. PAHs are a class of chemicals that occur naturally in coal, crude oil, and gasoline and are produced when coal, oil, gas, wood, garbage, and tobacco are burned. The use of wristbands is appealing because it is inexpensive and easy to wear,” access the study at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-021-00348-y read the original unedited article at https://www.futurity.org/silicone-wristbands-polycyclic-aromatic-hydrocarbons-chemicals-pregnancy-2602202/
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Enabling bi-directional APIs is one way to offer speed, efficiency and security while preserving the most necessary components of human intervention. These closed-loop data retrieval processes will shape the future of ROI in healthcare for higher quality and faster intake and fulfillment. Bi-directional APIs give healthcare providers maximum data visibility and control. Here’s how they’re shaping the future of release of information. In recent years, a fire has been lit under healthcare’s use of application programming interfaces (APIs). Actually, it has been a FHIR [Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources] as regulations encourage electronic medical record (EMR) vendors to continue to build its standards into their systems, expanding functionality and improving usability. But that does not mean the road to digitization and interoperability has been seamless, particularly as it relates to release of information (ROI). more at https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/07/22/healthcare-apis-a-two-way-street/
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
The distribution of fat in the body can influence a person's risk of developing various diseases. The commonly used measure of body mass index (BMI) mostly reflects fat accumulation under the skin, rather than around the internal organs. In particular, there are suggestions that fat accumulation around the heart may be a predictor of heart disease, and has been linked to a range of conditions, including atrial fibrillation, diabetes, and coronary artery disease. A team led by researchers from Queen Mary University of London has developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that is able to automatically measure the amount of fat around the heart from MRI scan images. Using the new tool, the team was able to show that a larger amount of fat around the heart is associated with significantly greater odds of diabetes, independent of a person's age, sex, and body mass index. The research team invented an AI tool that can be applied to standard heart MRI scans to obtain a measure of the fat around the heart automatically and quickly, in under three seconds. This tool can be used by future researchers to discover more about the links between the fat around the heart and disease risk, but also potentially in the future, as part of a patient's standard care in hospital. The research team tested the AI algorithm's ability to interpret images from heart MRI scans of more than 45,000 people, including participants in the UK Biobank, a database of health information from over half a million participants from across the UK. The team found that the AI tool was accurately able to determine the amount of fat around the heart in those images, and it was also able to calculate a patient's risk of diabetes read the research published at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.677574/full read more at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210707112427.htm also at the QMUL website https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2021/smd/ai-predicts-diabetes-risk-by-measuring-fat-around-the-heart-.html
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Until recently, clinicians didn’t have good tools for personalized genetic analysis. But that’s changing, thanks to quantitative biology. The discipline merges mathematical, statistical, and computational methods to study living organisms. Quantitative biologists develop algorithms that chew through big datasets and try to make sense of them. In case of rare genetic disorders, that means analyzing loads of data from multiple patients to understand how their genes work in tandem with each other. Researchers hope to give clinicians a peek at what their patients’ genes are doing, helping devise personalized therapies. In recent years, DNA-sequencing technologies have matured to the point where a smart algorithm can parse genetic data from multiple patients and their families—and find tale-telling trends much faster than experiments on rodents can read the entire post at https://nautil.us/issue/102/hidden-truths/data-crunchers-to-the-rescue
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Electronic health records are overloading outpatient docs with info in "disparate files and folders rather than presenting comprehensive, actionable data in a context that gives meaning," say researchers in a VA-funded study A primary care physician may care for 2,500 or more patients in a given year, and many of their patient encounters may last only 20 minutes – much of which is often spent at a computer with a back turned to the patient. It's become a truism by now that electronic health records are often viewed askance by primary care docs, many of whom see them as detrimental to the patient encounter. A new report from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University details just how outpatient EHRs are often failing the physicians who use them. Why it matters
EHRs "are not rising to the challenges faced by primary care physicians because EHRs have not been designed or tailored to their specific needs," The report draws on eight years of close study of EHR use patterns to argue for wider acceptance of "human factor approach for the design or redesign of EHR user interfaces." many EHRs as currently configured make it too difficult for primary care docs to do their job in a streamlined and efficacious manner – requiring navigation through multiple screens and tabs to find basic information, increasing redundancy and decreasing efficiency. Something as simple as auto-save – a default capability for most online shopping, for instance – is missing from many EHR systems. Roots of the problem The study traces the roots of the challenge to the fact that many EHRs were initially designed for specialists and hospitals – without much attention to the specific needs of primary care physicians. For Primary care physicians, effective decision-making is grounded in perception and comprehension of a patient's dynamic situation." For example, they note, an outpatient doc's choice to stop a patient's use of a particular medication will usually be informed by trends in that patient's blood pressure or cholesterol numbers, or other medications taken over the course of a month – all holistic information with implications for the patient's future health trajectory, but data that isn't always readily seen on a single EHR screen. Technology needs to adapt to humans' needs, abilities, and limitations in healthcare delivery as it has in other domains. EHRs should be redesigned to improve situational awareness for busy primary care physicians and support their tasks including reviewing patient information, care coordination, and shared decision-making." read more at https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/regenstrief-study-shows-ehrs-underperforming-primary-care
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
This week, the academic community provided a rather impressive example of the promise of neural implants. Using an implant, a paralyzed individual managed to type out roughly 90 characters per minute simply by imagining that he was writing those characters out by hand Dreaming is doing Previous attempts at providing typing capabilities to paralyzed people via implants have involved giving subjects a virtual keyboard and letting them maneuver a cursor with their mind. The process is effective but slow, and it requires the user's full attention, as the subject has to track the progress of the cursor and determine when to perform the equivalent of a key press. It also requires the user to spend the time to learn how to control the system. But there are other possible routes to getting characters out of the brain and onto the page. Somewhere in our writing thought process, we form the intention of using a specific character, and using an implant to track this intention could potentially work. Unfortunately, the process is not especially well understood. Downstream of that intention, a decision is transmitted to the motor cortex, where it's translated into actions. Again, there's an intent stage, where the motor cortex determines it will form the letter (by typing or writing, for example), which is then translated into the specific muscle motions required to perform the action. These processes are much better understood, and they're what the research team targeted for their new work. Disclaimer: Not even a prototype As the researchers themselves put it, this "is not yet a complete, clinically viable system." To begin with, it has only been used in a single individual, so we have no idea how well it might work for others. The simplified alphabet used here doesn't contain any digits, capital letters, or most forms of punctuation. And the behavior of the implants changes over time, perhaps because of minor shifts relative to the neurons they read or the build-up of scar tissue, so the system had to be recalibrated regularly—at least once per week to maintain a tolerable error rate read the research at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03506-2 related code : https://github.com/fwillett/handwritingBCI read the article in its complete and unedited form at https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/05/neural-implant-lets-paralyzed-person-type-by-imagining-writing/
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, rapid and accurate triage of patients at the emergency department is critical to inform decision-making. We propose a data-driven approach for automatic prediction of deterioration risk using a deep neural network that learns from chest X-ray images and a gradient boosting model that learns from routine clinical variables. Our AI prognosis system, trained using data from 3661 patients, achieves an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.786 (95% CI: 0.745–0.830) when predicting deterioration within 96 hours. The deep neural network extracts informative areas of chest X-ray images to assist clinicians in interpreting the predictions and performs comparably to two radiologists in a reader study. In order to verify performance in a real clinical setting, we silently deployed a preliminary version of the deep neural network at New York University Langone Health during the first wave of the pandemic, which produced accurate predictions in real-time. In summary, our findings demonstrate the potential of the proposed system for assisting front-line physicians in the triage of COVID-19 patients. read the open article at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-021-00453-0
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
COVID-19 is impacting people worldwide and is currently a leading cause of death in many countries. Underlying factors, including Social Determinants of Health (SDoH), could contribute to these statistics. Our prior work has explored associations between SDoH and several adverse health outcomes (eg, asthma and obesity). Our findings reinforce the emerging consensus that SDoH factors should be considered when implementing intelligent public health surveillance solutions to inform public health policies and interventions.
Objective: This study sought to redefine the Healthy People 2030’s SDoH taxonomy to accommodate the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we aim to provide a blueprint and implement a prototype for the Urban Population Health Observatory (UPHO), a web-based platform that integrates classified group-level SDoH indicators to individual- and aggregate-level population health data.
Methods: The process of building the UPHO involves collecting and integrating data from several sources, classifying the collected data into drivers and outcomes, incorporating data science techniques for calculating measurable indicators from the raw variables, and studying the extent to which interventions are identified or developed to mitigate drivers that lead to the undesired outcomes.
Results: We generated and classified the indicators of social determinants of health, which are linked to COVID-19. To display the functionalities of the UPHO platform, we presented a prototype design to demonstrate its features. We provided a use case scenario for 4 different users.
Conclusions: UPHO serves as an apparatus for implementing effective interventions and can be adopted as a global platform for chronic and infectious diseases. The UPHO surveillance platform provides a novel approach and novel insights into immediate and long-term health policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and other future public health crises. The UPHO assists public health organizations and policymakers in their efforts in reducing health disparities, achieving health equity, and improving urban population health.
access the study at https://publichealth.jmir.org/2021/6/e28269/
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Patient travel history can be crucial in evaluating evolving infectious disease events. Such information can be challenging to acquire in electronic health records, as it is often available only in unstructured text.
Objective: This study aims to assess the feasibility of annotating and automatically extracting travel history mentions from unstructured clinical documents in the Department of Veterans Affairs across disparate health care facilities and among millions of patients. Information about travel exposure augments existing surveillance applications for increased preparedness in responding quickly to public health threats.
Methods: Clinical documents related to arboviral disease were annotated following selection using a semiautomated bootstrapping process. Using annotated instances as training data, models were developed to extract from unstructured clinical text any mention of affirmed travel locations outside of the continental United States. Automated text processing models were evaluated, involving machine learning and neural language models for extraction accuracy.
Results: Among 4584 annotated instances, 2659 (58%) contained an affirmed mention of travel history, while 347 (7.6%) were negated. Interannotator agreement resulted in a document-level Cohen kappa of 0.776. Automated text processing accuracy (F1 85.6, 95% CI 82.5-87.9) and computational burden were acceptable such that the system can provide a rapid screen for public health events.
Conclusions: Automated extraction of patient travel history from clinical documents is feasible for enhanced passive surveillance public health systems.
Without such a system, it would usually be necessary to manually review charts to identify recent travel or lack of travel, use an electronic health record that enforces travel history documentation, or ignore this potential source of information altogether. The development of this tool was initially motivated by emergent arboviral diseases. More recently, this system was used in the early phases of response to COVID-19 in the United States, although its utility was limited to a relatively brief window due to the rapid domestic spread of the virus. Such systems may aid future efforts to prevent and contain the spread of infectious diseases. read the study at https://publichealth.jmir.org/2021/3/e26719
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
As vaccination programmes are gradually launched by various jurisdictions, post-trial surveillance with real-world evidence is of utter importance for close monitoring of their safety and effectiveness. This paper introduces a vaccine passport concept implemented with blockchain technology. In the following, the methods of contact tracing and vaccine efficacy monitoring with intact personal privacy protection will be discussed. Vaccine passports with health records Data are an indispensable and valuable commodity in dealing with global health crises. The COVID-19 pandemic, a global public health emergency as declared by the WHO on 30 January 2020, has highlighted the importance of health data sharing. Data sharing at the early phase of an outbreak enabled healthcare professionals, researchers and policy makers in mastering information required for formulating strategies. Trusted dissemination channels are primarily government official records, peer-reviewed journals and authorised open online databases. Capitalising on these dissemination channels, governments and global scholars share important information for public health measures, from release of full viral genome sequences, pathological features and clinical phases of COVID-19 presentations, to development of diagnostic tests and potential medications, and potential therapeutic and prophylactic agents,to name but a few. Contact tracing is a vital strategy in finding out potential and hidden cases. A convincing showcase was made by Taiwan, where the authorities have used PCR alongside contact tracing in assessing the COVID-19’s transmission dynamics from the initial 100 confirmed cases This approach has much contributed to Taiwan’s success in keeping its health system intact with less than 900 cases even after a year into the pandemic. Aside from contact tracing for infected patients, daily monitoring among community dwellers could be useful in infection control and resumption of normal social activities. Vaccine passports and digital contact tracing applications (apps) could be widely adopted in recording personal health profiles, contacts, and more importantly vaccination status in later stages. Inevitably, the concept of a vaccine passport led to a heated debate among people from all walks of life over its scientific evidence and ethical concerns. Application of blockchain Data sharing as an infection control measure only works on wide acceptance and adoption among citizens. Invariably, data security and integrity would come to the spotlight regarding data access and sharing issues; apart from data storage infrastructure, non-functional requirements such as availability, confidentiality and integrity are also fundamental to data storage, communication and mobilisation. Availability refers to the organised input of required data. Confidentiality is tantamount to authentic data access and usage authorisation, while data integrity ensures data safety against breaches. Electronic health records and personal health records account for an immense portion of data in this digital era, with a 46% growth in 5 years. Nevertheless, solutions for data protection remain limited, primarily stored via content management system with encryption, in designated host servers. According to the Department of Health and Human Services of the USA, at least 3054 healthcare data infringements were observed from 2009 to 2019, involving leakage of 230 954 151 electronic medical records.A solution for data sharing with robust privacy protection is of paramount importance as well as urgently needed, and blockchain technology seems to be a qualified candidate. Vaccine passport, as a form of portable health data, with adoption of blockchain technology, can be a promising tool for health monitoring and alerts while protecting personal privacy. more at https://innovations.bmj.com/content/7/2/337
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Adherence to treatment is critical for successful treatment outcomes. Although factors influencing antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence vary, young adults are less likely to adhere owing to psychosocial issues such as stigma, ART-related side effects, and a lack of access to treatment. The Call for Life Uganda (CFLU) mobile health (mHealth) tool is a mobile phone–based technology that provides text messages or interactive voice response functionalities through a web interface and offers 4 modules of support.
Objective: This study aims to describe the acceptability and feasibility of a mobile phone support tool to promote adherence to ART among young adults in a randomized controlled trial.
Methods: An exploratory qualitative design with a phenomenological approach at 2 study sites was used. A total of 17 purposively selected young adults with HIV infection who had used the mHealth tool CFLU from 2 clinics were included. In total, 11 in-depth interviews and 1 focus group discussion were conducted to examine the following topics: experience with the CFLU tool (benefits and challenges), components of the tool, the efficiency of the system (level of comfort, ease, or difficulty in using the system), how CFLU resolved adherence challenges, and suggestions to improve CFLU. Participants belonged to 4 categories of interest: young adults on ART for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, young adults switching to or on the second-line ART, positive partners in an HIV-discordant relationship, and young adults initiating the first-line ART. All young adults had 12 months of daily experience using the tool. Data were analyzed using NVivo version 11 software (QSR International Limited) based on a thematic approach.
Results: The CFLU mHealth tool was perceived as an acceptable intervention;
young adults reported improvement in medication adherence, strengthened clinician-patient relationships, and increased health knowledge from health tips. Appointment reminders and symptom reporting were singled out as beneficial and helped to address the problems of forgetfulness and stigma-related issues. HIV-related stigma was reported by a few young people. Participants requested extra support for scaling up CFLU to make it more youth friendly. Improving the tool to reduce technical issues, including network outages and a period of software failure, was suggested. They suggested that in addition to digital solutions, other support, including the promotion of peer support meetings and the establishment of a designated space and staff members for youth, was also important.
Conclusions: This mHealth tool was an acceptable and feasible strategy for improving ART adherence and retention among young adults in resource-limited settings.
read the entire study at https://mhealth.jmir.org/2021/6/e17418/
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest public health crisis of the last 100 years. Countries have responded with various levels of lockdown to save lives and stop health systems from being overwhelmed. At the same time, lockdowns entail large socioeconomic costs. One exit strategy under consideration is a mobile phone app that traces the close contacts of those infected with COVID-19. Recent research has demonstrated the theoretical effectiveness of this solution in different disease settings. However, concerns have been raised about such apps because of the potential privacy implications. This could limit the acceptability of app-based contact tracing in the general population. As the effectiveness of this approach increases strongly with app uptake, it is crucial to understand public support for this intervention. Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the user acceptability of a contact-tracing app in five countries hit by the pandemic.
Methods: We conducted a largescale, multicountry study (N=5995) to measure public support for the digital contact tracing of COVID-19 infections.
We ran anonymous online surveys in France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States and measured intentions to use a contact-tracing app across different installation regimes (voluntary installation vs automatic installation by mobile phone providers) and studied how these intentions vary across individuals and countries.
Results: We found strong support for the app under both regimes, in all countries, across all subgroups of the population, and irrespective of regional-level COVID-19 mortality rates.
We investigated the main factors that may hinder or facilitate uptake and found that concerns about cybersecurity and privacy, together with a lack of trust in the government, are the main barriers to adoption.
Conclusions:
Epidemiological evidence shows that app-based contact tracing can suppress the spread of COVID-19 if a high enough proportion of the population uses the app and that it can still reduce the number of infections if uptake is moderate. Our findings show that the willingness to install the app is very high. The available evidence suggests that app-based contact tracing may be a viable approach to control the diffusion of COVID-19. read the study at https://mhealth.jmir.org/2020/8/e19857
|
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Women with hormone receptor-positive, early-stage breast cancer who adhere to adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET) reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and mortality. AET, however, is associated with adverse symptoms that often result in poor adherence. We applied participatory action research (PAR) principles to conduct focus groups and interviews to refine and enhance a web-enabled app intervention that facilitates patient-provider communication about AET-related symptoms and other barriers to adherence. THRIVE app content reflects researchers’ partnership with a racially diverse sample of breast cancer survivors and healthcare providers and adherence to participatory design by incorporating patient-requested app features, app aesthetics, and message content. The app has the potential to improve AET adherence and quality of life among breast cancer survivors and reduce disparities in mortality rates for Black women by facilitating communication with healthcare providers. read more at https://www.docwirenews.com/abstracts/journal-abstracts/thrive-intervention-development-using-participatory-action-research-principles-to-guide-a-mhealth-app-based-intervention-to-improve-oncology-care-2/
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
While the US debates the value of the modality, a South Korean survey finds that patients like to use audio-only telehealth platforms to connect with their care provider - but their providers aren’t so sure. While telehealth is not legally allowed in South Korea, the Ministry of Health and Welfare temporarily permitted its use due to hospital closures at the start of the pandemic. Between February 24 and March 7, 2020, 6,840 patients used audio-based telehealth. Researchers sent surveys to patients and providers alike to gauge their satisfaction with the telehealth platform, which includes landline telephones and online services without video. They asked questions about ease-of-use, interaction quality, reliability, satisfaction, and future use. Around 87 % of patients reported that they were satisfied with their provider interaction and felt they could effectively express their feelings during an audio-only telehealth visit. Most patients (87.1 %) also responded that their telehealth visit was just as reliable as an in-person visit would have been. Meanwhile, the providers’ opinions differed drastically. Less than 10 % of doctors and nurses were satisfied with their ability to interact with patients through an audio-only telehealth visit compared to in-person visits (7.3 % and 9 %, respectively). Only 14 % of providers felt that the visits were as reliable as an in-person visit. Patients and providers also had differing opinions on the convenience of telehealth. Nearly 80 % of patients were satisfied with the convenience of telehealth and found it easy to use. Providers were not as satisfied, with only 38.2 % of doctors and 30 percent of nurses reporting that they found telehealth convenient. Overall, providers felt the negatives outweighed the positives for audio-only telehealth. While 85.8 % of the doctors and nurses agreed that telehealth is appropriate for emergency situations such as a pandemic, only 27.7 said it would be appropriate at all times. In contrast, 40 % of the doctors and nurses surveyed said telehealth would be appropriate if it involved an audio-visual platform, saying it would be easier to fully examine and diagnose a patient’s condition. read more at https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/audio-only-telehealth-has-its-fans-patients-and-its-critics-providers
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Healthcare data is the number one target for cybercriminals and is 10 times more valuable than credit card data alone. During the "Are your Medical Devices Cybersecure?" webinar on 14 July, moderator Andrew Pearce, Senior Digital Health Strategist of Analytics at HIMSS spoke with two subject matter experts on cybersecurity trends in healthcare, as they shared their recommendations on identifying and addressing gaps. Contextualising the imminent threat of cybersecurity in healthcare, Richard Staynings, Chief Security Strategist of Cylera said, "These changes (in healthcare) have led to the emergence of a gap between advances in digital maturity and advances in security maturity, as digital transformation outpaces the industry’s ability to secure new technology." Staynings pointed out that most healthcare providers might have "at best a poor inventory of IoT assets'', with few understanding the associated risks. He said that this creates “massive gaps in security risk management just waiting to be exploited". Adding that providers cannot risk-assess what they do not know about, he shared that the industry needs better tools and processes to identify and assess growing IoT "connected" assets. read more at https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/apac/examining-cybersecurity-our-medical-health-devices
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
The COVID-19 outbreak exposed several problems faced by health systems worldwide, especially concerning the safe and rapid generation and sharing of health data. However, this pandemic scenario has also facilitated the rapid implementation and monitoring of technologies in the health field. In view of the occurrence of the public emergency caused by SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil, the Department of Informatics of the Brazilian Unified Health System created a contingency plan. In this paper, we aim to report the digital health strategies applied in Brazil and the first results obtained during the fight against COVID-19. Conecte SUS, a platform created to store all the health data of an individual throughout their life, is the center point of the Brazilian digital strategy. Access to the platform can be obtained through an app by the patient and the health professionals involved in the case. Health data sharing became possible due to the creation of the National Health Data Network (Rede Nacional de Dados em Saúde, RNDS). A mobile app was developed to guide citizens regarding the need to go to a health facility and to assist in disseminating official news about the virus. The mobile app can also alert the user if they have had contact with an infected person. The official numbers of cases and available hospital beds are updated and published daily on a website containing interactive graphs. These data are obtained due to creating a web-based notification system that uses the RNDS to share information about the cases. Preclinical care through telemedicine has become essential to prevent overload in health facilities. The exchange of experiences between medical teams from large centers and small hospitals was made possible using telehealth. Brazil took a giant step toward digital health adoption, creating and implementing important initiatives; however, these initiatives do not yet cover the entire health system. It is expected that the sharing of health data that are maintained and authorized by the patient will become a reality in the near future. The intention is to obtain better clinical outcomes, cost reduction, and faster and better services in the public health network. read more at https://publichealth.jmir.org/2021/6/e28643/
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
A new diagnostic technique that has the potential to identify opioid-addicted patients at risk for relapse could lead to better treatment and outcomes. Using an algorithm that looks for patterns in brain structure and functional connectivity, researchers were able to distinguish prescription opioid users from healthy participants. If treatment is successful, their brains will resemble the brain of someone not addicted to opioids. “People can say one thing, but brain patterns do not lie,” says lead researcher Suchismita Ray, an associate professor in the health informatics department at Rutgers School of Health Professions. “The brain patterns that the algorithm identified from brain volume and functional connectivity biomarkers from prescription opioid users hold great promise to improve over current diagnosis.” In the study in NeuroImage: Clinical, Ray and her colleagues used MRIs to look at the brain structure and function in people diagnosed with prescription opioid use disorder who were seeking treatment compared to individuals with no history of using opioids. The scans looked at the brain network believed to be responsible for drug cravings and compulsive drug use. At the completion of treatment, if this brain network remains unchanged, the patient needs more treatment. read the study at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102663 read the article at https://www.futurity.org/opioid-addiction-relapse-algorithm-2586182-2/
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Once, the prospect of manipulating the human mind with brain implants and radio beams ignited public fears that curtailed this line of research for decades. But now there is a resurgence using even more advanced technology. Laser beams, ultrasound, electromagnetic pulses, mild alternating and direct current stimulation and other methods now allow access to, and manipulation of, electrical activity in the brain with far more sophistication than the needlelike electrodes Manuel Rodriguez Delgado stabbed into brains. Billionaires Elon Musk of Tesla and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook are leading the charge, pouring millions of dollars into developing brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. Musk says he wants to provide a “superintelligence layer” in the human brain to help protect us from artificial intelligence, and Zuckerberg reportedly wants users to upload their thoughts and emotions over the internet without the bother of typing. But fact and fiction are easily blurred in these deliberations. How does this technology actually work, and what is it capable of? Today’s BCI devices work by analyzing data, in much the same way that Amazon tries to predict what book you might want next. Computers monitoring streams of electrical activity, picked up by a brain implant or a removable electrode cap, learn to recognize how the traffic pattern changes when a person makes an intended limb movement. Advances in brain-computer interface technology are impressive, but we’re not close to anything resembling mind control. read this excellent essay at https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-brain-computer-interface-technology-is-different-from-mind-control-20210517/
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
More than 100 million HIV tests are performed around the world annually, meaning even a small improvement in quality assurance could impact the lives of millions of people by reducing the risk of false positives and negatives. Academics from the London Center for Nanotechnology at UCL and AHRI used deep learning (artificial intelligence/AI) algorithms to improve health workers' ability to diagnose HIV using lateral flow tests in rural South Africa. Their findings, published today in Nature Medicine, involve the first and largest study of field-acquired HIV test results, which have applied machine learning (AI) to help classify them as positive or negative. By harnessing the potential of mobile phone sensors, cameras, processing power and data sharing capabilities, the team developed an app that can read test results from an image taken by end users on a mobile device. It may also be able to report results to public health systems for better data collection and ongoing care. read the study at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01384-9 read more at https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-06-ai-app-hiv-accurately.html
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
The IMPACT (vIrtual-first Medical PrActice CollaboraTion) initiative, developed by the American Telemedicine Association and the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe), has unveiled a formal definition for virtual first care (V1C), along with some vignettes from providers who are only using virtual platforms to deliver emergency, respiratory, cardiac and sleep care. As set forth on the IMPACT website, virtual first care is defined as “medical care for individuals or a community accessed through digital interactions where possible, guided by a clinician, and integrated into a person’s everyday life.” The Boston-based initiative was borne out of the massive shift to telehealth during the coronavirus pandemic, and a resulting transition to hybrid care as COVID-19 eases off. In that landscape, some providers are thinking of either launching virtual-only care or transitioning their in-person services to virtual platforms. “Virtual first care is digital health in practice,” IMPACT Co-Founder Don Jones, a former Qualcomm Life executive and former chief digital officer at the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said in the press release. “IMPACT uniquely convenes organizations from across the ecosystem that view virtual first care as their primary mission. Members of IMPACT are already demonstrating patient and provider satisfaction, as well as pathways to cost savings and improved outcomes.” “With a clear definition for the field, we have paved the way for more fit-for-purpose reimbursement models and opportunities to demonstrate the value of virtual first in practice,” he added. read more at https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/mhealth-collaborative-unveils-new-definition-resources-for-virtual-first-care
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Researchers have figured out a way to use images from a smartphone to identify potentially harmful bacteria on the skin and in the mouth. A new method that uses smartphone-derived images can identify potentially harmful bacteria on the skin and in the mouth, research shows. The approach can visually identify microbes on skin contributing to acne and slow wound healing, as well as bacteria in the oral cavity that can cause gingivitis and dental plaques. Researchers combined a smartphone-case modification with image-processing methods to illuminate bacteria on images taken by a conventional smartphone camera. This approach yielded a relatively low-cost and quick method that could be used at home. The team augmented a smartphone camera’s capabilities by attaching a small 3D-printed ring containing 10 LED black lights around a smartphone case’s camera opening. The researchers used the LED-augmented smartphone to take images of the oral cavity and skin on the face of two research subjects. The LED lights ‘excite’ a class of bacteria-derived molecules called porphyrins, causing them to emit a red fluorescent signal that the smartphone camera can then pick up Other components in the image—such as proteins or oily molecules our bodies produce, as well as skin, teeth, and gums—won’t glow red under LED. They’ll fluoresce in other colors. The LED illumination gave the team enough visual information to computationally “convert” the RGB colors from the smartphone-derived images into other wavelengths in the visual spectrum. This generates a “pseudo-multispectral” image consisting of 15 different sections of the visual spectrum—rather than the three in the original RGB image. Obtaining this visual information up front would have required expensive and cumbersome lights, rather than using the relatively inexpensive LED black lights With their greater degree of visual discrimination, the pseudo-multispectral images clearly resolved porphyrin clusters on the skin and within the oral cavity. In addition, though they tailored this method to show porphyrin, researchers could modify the image-analysis pipeline to detect other bacterial signatures that also fluoresce under LED. read the study at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlaseng.2021.106546 read the original unedited article at https://www.futurity.org/smartphone-images-skin-mouth-bacteria-2581642/
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Purdue University engineers have developed a method to transform existing cloth items into battery-free wearables resistant to laundry. These smart clothes are powered wirelessly through a flexible, silk-based coil sewn on the textile. In the near future, all your clothes will become smart. These smart clothes will outperform conventional passive garments, thanks to their miniaturized electronic circuits and sensors, which will allow you to seamlessly communicate with your phone, computer, car and other machines. This smart clothing will not only make you more productive but also check on your health status and even call for help if you suffer an accident. The reason why this smart clothing is not all over your closet yet is that the fabrication of this smart clothing is quite challenging, as clothes need to be periodically washed and electronics despise water. Purdue engineers have developed a new spray/sewing method to transform any conventional cloth items into battery-free wearables that can be cleaned in the washing machine. "By spray-coating smart clothes with highly hydrophobic molecules, we are able to render them repellent to water, oil and mud," said Ramses Martinez, an assistant professor in Purdue's School of Industrial Engineering and in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering in Purdue's College of Engineering. "These smart clothes are almost impossible to stain and can be used underwater and washed in conventional washing machines without damaging the electronic components sewn on their surface." read the study at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2021.106155 read the original and unedited version of the article at https://phys.org/news/2021-06-wearables-future-washable-smart-powered.html
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
Wearables that have weaved their way into everyday life include smart watches and wireless earphones, while in the healthcare setting, common devices include wearable injectors, electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring patches, listening aids, and more. A major pain point facing the use of these wearables is the issue of keeping these devices properly and conveniently powered. As the number of wearables one uses increases, the need to charge multiple batteries rises in tandem, consuming huge amounts of electricity. A research team, led by Associate Professor Jerald Yoo from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the N.1 Institute for Health at the National University of Singapore (NUS), has developed a technology that enables a single device, such as a mobile phone placed in the pocket, to wirelessly power other wearable devices on a user's body, using the human body as a medium for power transmission. The team's novel system has an added advantage—it can harvest unused energy from electronics in a typical home or office environment to power the wearables. The NUS team designed a receiver and transmitter system that uses the human body as a medium for power transmission and energy harvesting. Each receiver and transmitter contains a chip that is used as a springboard to extend coverage over the entire body. A user just needs to place the transmitter on a single power source, such as the smart watch on a user's wrist, while multiple receivers can be placed anywhere on the person's body. The system then harnesses energy from the source to power multiple wearables on the user's body via a process termed as body-coupled power transmission. In this way, the user will only need to charge one device, and the rest of the gadgets that are worn can simultaneously be powered up from that single source. The team's experiments showed that their system allows a single power source that is fully charged to power up to 10 wearable devices on the body, for a duration of over 10 hours. As a complementary source of power, the NUS team also looked into harvesting energy from the environment. Their research found that typical office and home environments have parasitic electromagnetic (EM) waves that people are exposed to all the time, for instance, from a running laptop. The team's novel receiver scavenges the EM waves from the ambient environment, and through a process referred to as body-coupled powering, the human body is able to harvest this energy to power the wearable devices, regardless of their locations around the body. This paves the way for smaller, battery-free wearables read the paper in Nature at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00592-y read the original unedited article https://techxplore.com/news/2021-06-approach-wirelessly-power-wearable-devices.html
|
|
Scooped by
nrip
|
We discuss the concept of a participatory digital contact notification approach to assist tracing of contacts who are exposed to confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19); The core functionality of our concept is to provide a usable, labor-saving tool for contact tracing by confirmed cases themselves the approach is simple and affordable for countries with limited access to health care resources and advanced technology. The proposed tool serves as a supplemental contract tracing approach to counteract the shortage of health care staff while providing privacy protection for both cases and contacts. - This tool can be deployed on the internet or as a plugin for a smartphone app.
- Confirmed cases with COVID-19 can use this tool to provide contact information (either email addresses or mobile phone numbers) of close contacts.
- The system will then automatically send a message to the contacts informing them of their contact status, what this status means, the actions that should follow (eg, self-quarantine, respiratory hygiene/cough etiquette), and advice for receiving early care if they develop symptoms.
- The name of the sender of the notification message by email or mobile phone can be anonymous or not.
- The message received by the contact contains no disease information but contains a security code for the contact to log on the platform to retrieve the information.
Conclusion The successful application of this tool relies heavily on public social responsibility and credibility, and it remains to be seen if the public would adopt such a tool and what mechanisms are required to prevent misuse. This is a simple tool that does not require complicated computer techniques despite strict user privacy protection design with respect to countries and regions. Additionally, this tool can help avoid coercive surveillance, facilitate the allocation of health resources, and prioritize clinical service for patients with COVID-19. Information obtained from the platform can also increase our understanding of the epidemiology of COVID-19. read this concept paper at https://mhealth.jmir.org/2020/6/e20369
|
