FDA Approves Bayer GBCA for Coronary Artery Disease
This week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the green light approval to Bayer AG ’s gadobutrol (Gadavist), a gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) used in cardiac MRI procedures for patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. It’s the first and only approved agent for this type of procedure. “We now have an approved contrast agent for use in cardiac MRI to assess perfusion and late gadolinium enhancement in less than 1 hour, ” saidScott Flamm, MD who co-authored a statement on using the GBCA in myocardial perfusion studies. Gadavist is also used to evaluate the blood supply to the heart...
Source: radRounds - July 19, 2019 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
New Nanoparticles to Stop Growth of HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) is a protein that is associated with some particularly aggressive forms of breast cancer. The presence of high concentrations of this protein seems to lead to the growth of tumors, so inactivating HER2 may help to stop the spread of certain strains of cancer in the body.
An existing technique involves introducing an antibody that can block HER2 from binding to other things, but now researchers at Nanjing University in China have developed a polymer nanoparticle that can bind to HER2 just as well as antibodies. These nanoparticles can halt the normal functionality of H...
Source: Medgadget - July 17, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Ob/Gyn Oncology Source Type: blogs
ProFound AI for 2D Mammography Cleared in Europe to Spot Potential Breast Tumors
iCAD, a company based in Nashua, New Hampshire, won European CE Mark approval for its ProFound AI for 2D Mammography software system.
The product relies on a “high-functioning, deep learning” artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze 2D mammography scans and point out potential areas of concern. The software package provides “Certainty of Finding” and “Case Scores” for each instance of a suspect lesion that it identifies, helping radiologists better focus on what’s important while quickening and improving the quality of diagnosis.
The system works by noticing slight c...
Source: Medgadget - July 16, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Ob/Gyn Radiology Surgery Source Type: blogs
Carbon Dioxide-Based Cancer Cryoablation Probe for Low-Resource Regions
Undergraduate
researchers at John Hopkins University have developed a cryoablation probe for
breast cancer, which uses carbon dioxide instead of argon, making it more
affordable and accessible for use in low resource regions.
Treatments for women with breast cancer are scarce in poorer places. In fact, survival rates can be as low as 12% for breast cancer patients in places such as The Gambia, compared with 90% in the United States. Treatments that are commonly used in wealthier countries, such as surgery or chemotherapy, are either too expensive or impractical in poorer and more remote regions, where women frequ...
Source: Medgadget - July 15, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Oncology Surgery Source Type: blogs
Scientists Develop New Probe to Light Up Cancer
A team of researchers in Ireland has collaborated on developing a new fluorescent molecular probe that can hone in on and light up cancer in an exciting new way. The technology will hopefully have important consequences for cancer resection surgeries, allowing physicians to remove tumors while sparing healthy tissues.
Previously developed fluorescent molecular probes are hampered by the fluorescence of some naturally-occuring molecules within our bodies. The signal-to-noise ratio is not very high and it takes a while for such probes to accumulate in and sufficiently illuminate a tumor. However, this team created what th...
Source: Medgadget - July 11, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Diagnostics Materials Oncology Pathology Surgery Source Type: blogs
Advancing Trainee Leaders and Scholars (ATLAS): A New Initiative From Academic Medicine
Academic
Medicine recently launched the Advancing Trainee Leaders and Scholars
(ATLAS) initiative, which I
will oversee as the journal’s inaugural Assistant Editor for Trainee
Engagement. So, you might be wondering, who am I and why ATLAS? I hope this
blog post will help answer those questions!
Who am I?
I’m a 3rd-year internal medicine resident at NYU Langone Health in
New York City, and am planning to pursue a career as an academic hospitalist. As
mentioned above, I
will serve as the inaugural Assistant Editor for Trainee Engagement, overseeing
the ATLAS initiative. My term will last until summer 2020, when we ...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - July 9, 2019 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Guest Author Tags: ATLAS Featured learners Source Type: blogs
MRI Could Be Better than Mammography at Detecting Breast Cancer
Magnetic Resonance Imaging detects breast cancer at earlier stages than mammography, according to a studyrecently published inOncology.Around 15 percent of women with breast cancer were diagnosed despite having no causative hereditary gene mutation but had a family history of breast cancer. To better understand diagnosis rates, researchers from Erasmus University in the Netherlands implemented a randomized controlled trial (FaMRIsc) throughout 12 hospitals in the Netherlands to compare the efficacy of MRI screening against mammography in women with a family history of breast cancer.The study took place between January 1,...
Source: radRounds - June 22, 2019 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Health Insurance 101 -- yet again
I just cannot understand why it is so difficult to get people to grasp what seems to me a simple idea. Let ' s try one more time.The purpose of insurance is to spread risk. That ' s the essence of the concept. Health insurance (or health care insurance as some prefer to say) is different from other kinds of insurance in some ways, so let ' s just talk about health insurance.Health care costs are unpredictable. It is true that there are risk factors associated with some conditions, most notably smoking tobacco. Nevertheless, no matter how healthful your lifestyle, you still just might need expensive health care. You might b...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 14, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Spasers: Nanoscale Lasers Small Enough to Destroy Cancer Cells from Within
Lasers are known to do remarkable things in medicine, but their use in targeting diseased tissue is not as widespread as everyone expected it to be decades ago. One issue is that lasers are pretty indiscriminate and traditionally have beams that are still too large for extremely fine work. Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences have developed a laser so small that it can fit inside a cell and shine from within. Being able to produce coherent, high power light from the interior of cells leads to all sorts of interesting applications, including up-close assessments of cells for disease and even select...
Source: Medgadget - June 14, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Nanomedicine Oncology Source Type: blogs
Does IVF cause cancer?
This is one of the common concerns which IVF patients have, because they know that hormonesare responsible for increasing the risk for cancers such as breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Since the IVF doctor is pumping your body full of all these reproductive hormones to help youto grow lots of eggs, won't IVF patientsbe at increased risk for these cancers later on ?Is it worth taking this risk justin order to have a baby?This is a very valid concern, but you need to remember that the hormones we use in IVF are natural hormones. They all get excreted promptly after the cycle is over , so they don't h...
Source: Dr.Malpani's Blog - June 8, 2019 Category: Reproduction Medicine Source Type: blogs
FDA Approvals For Smart Algorithms In Medicine In One Giant Infographic
Mental health algorithms
mimicking empathy? A.I. outsmarting human doctors? Simple big data analytical
software presented with clever marketing tactics? It’s difficult to assess the
actual state of play when it comes to artificial intelligence in healthcare. Moreover,
there’s no database that contains all the smart algorithms worth applying to
medical processes. That’s the reason why we decided to collect every artificial
intelligence-based algorithm that already received FDA approval – meaning that
they are proven, reliable, and accurate solutions enabled by an official
regulator for medical use. Let’s see the i...
Source: The Medical Futurist - June 6, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Future of Medicine AI approval cardiology digital solutions fda Health Healthcare Radiology smart smart algorithm smart health software Source Type: blogs
What Has A.I. In Medicine Ever Done For Us? At Least 45 Things!
Remember Monty Python’s
brilliant Life of Brian movie scene where the Palestinian insurgent commando,
planning the abduction of Pilate’s wife in return for all the horrors they had
to endure from the Roman Empire, asks the rhetorical question: what have the
Romans ever done for us? With the hype and overmarketing, not to speak about
the fears around A.I, we asked the same question. What has A.I. in medicine
ever done for us? Well, we found at least 45 things.
I have 45 responses to
the pressing question on everyone’s mind who is interested in healthcare but
tired of the hype or the doomsday
scenarios around A.I.: ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - May 28, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Future of Medicine administration AI cancer diagnostics digital health digital health technology Healthcare Innovation medical medical imaging Radiology treatment Source Type: blogs
MRI safety in breast cancer screening
The numbers are scary: The average woman has a 12 percent risk of developing breast cancer at some point in her life. For women with certain genetic mutations or risk factors, lifetime risk can climb to 85 percent. Even more terrifying than the numbers, however, are the rumors; rumors that the contrast dye used in […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 23, 2019 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/january-lopez" rel="tag" > January Lopez, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions Oncology/Hematology Radiology Source Type: blogs
Healthcare In Estonia: Where Grandmas Go For Genetic Data
Imagine a country where citizens will have their genetic profiles integrated into the digital health system with individual risk scores and pharmacogenomic information, so when they go to the doctor, they will get fully personalized, genetic risk-based diagnosis, medication, and preventive measures. That’s where healthcare in Estonia will arrive soon. They started to build their digital health system 20 years ago, and within the next years, the Baltic country will start to reap the benefits of a transparent, blockchain-based, digital health system hooked on genetic data. The first fully digitized republic certainly sets ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - May 16, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine Healthcare Policy analysis digital digital democracy digital health digital health strategy digital health system digital healthcare Estonia genetics genomics personalized Personalized medicine pharmacogenomi Source Type: blogs
System Separates, Sequences Circulating Tumor Cells from Whole Blood
Engineers at the University of Michigan have developed a high speed microfluidic chip that can separate circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from whole blood and analyze them. The technology, which may make biopsies and other diagnostic tests unnecessary in many cases, is impressive in that it is able to attract highly rare CTCs and to sequence their genetics within a single system.
Circulating tumor cells offer the possibility of “liquid biopsies” that only require a simple blood draw to screen for cancers. While CTCs are rare, most tumors tend to shed these cell which end up flowing through the body along with bloo...
Source: Medgadget - May 16, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Diagnostics Genetics Materials Medicine Oncology Pathology Source Type: blogs
