Level EX: The Future of Endoscopic Simulation Looks Bright
Level EX, a company founded by Sam Glassenberg, promises to deliver the excellence of video game development to the field of surgical simulation, and the result is impressive. Their first mobile application Airway EX (Android | iOS) is designed to teach the fundamentals of diagnostic and interventional endoscopy in the airway. The application seamlessly guides you first through tutorials and then cases, reportedly based on real cases submitted by clinicians. You can even earn continuing medical education (CME) credits as you explore various cases.
As a surgical resident, currently enrolled in Fundamentals of Laparos...
Source: Medgadget - December 5, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: William Kethman Tags: Exclusive GI Informatics Source Type: blogs
The uncertain diagnosis is difficult for everyone involved
It is frustrating for patients to have unanswered questions, and it is equally frustrating for doctors to not have answers to their questions. In the past month, I have cared for three patients who have stood out to me because they have all presented under personally dire situations.
“I have had crushing 10/10 chest pain since this morning,” Ms. A tells me at the urgent episodic appointment she scheduled in my evening primary care clinic as she is bent over in her chair, grimacing in pain.
Ms. A came to the hospital because of worsening, disabling chest pain that frequently woke her up while she slept and prevented her...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 4, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/michael-nguyen" rel="tag" > Michael Nguyen < /a > Tags: Education Medical school Source Type: blogs
Another Case of Vomiting
A 26-year-old man presented to the emergency department with nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. He said he had had the pain, which he said encompassed his entire abdomen, for three days.He had been unable to tolerate anything by mouth. His vitals on presentation included a heart rate of 115 bpm, blood pressure of 126/70 mm Hg, respiratory rate of 22 bpm, and pulse oximetry of 100% on room air.Physical examination revealed dry mucus membranes, dry skin, tachycardia without murmurs, and clear lungs. Abdominal examination demonstrates hyperactive bowel sounds without pain on palpation or hepatosplenomegaly. The patie...
Source: The Tox Cave - December 1, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
G-Tech Medical: Next-Generation Diagnostic for Gastrointestinal Disorders
Gastrointestinal disorders are the cause of significant morbidity in the United States, resulting in over $50B in healthcare expenditures by some estimates. Diagnosis of these disorders relies on largely anatomic evaluation with radiographic imaging and endoscopy. These tests poorly assess functional pathology. G-Tech Medical, a company based at the Fogarty Institute for Innovation and headed by Steve Axelrod, PhD, promises to deliver GutCheck, a non-invasive diagnostic patch that evaluates functional characteristics of the gastrointestinal system by measuring electrical activity.
The technology was first tested in...
Source: Medgadget - November 28, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: William Kethman Tags: GI Source Type: blogs
The Hidden Joys of Dementia Care
I ’ll never forget playing “Tangerine Poker,” a card game my niece Julie and I made up as we went along: I would pick a card, and put the tangerine next to the salt shaker. Julie would put a card on top of mine, and peel the tangerine. My mother would study her hand carefully, look down at the t able, and eat the tangerine.By Eliezer SobelAlzheimer's Reading RoomI first noticed that my mother ’s mind was beginning to lose its way 12 years ago:midway through a sentence, her intended communication would get derailed and head off in a different, illogical direction, her original thought misplaced forever.Then we found...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - November 10, 2016 Category: Neurology Tags: alzheimer's care caring for dementia patients at home communication dementia care dementia help for caregivers family caregiving grief health help alzheimer's help with dementia care Source Type: blogs
PENTAX Unveils HemoStat WideCup Bipolar Hot Hemostasis Forceps
PENTAX Medical, a part of HOYA Group, has unveiled its new HemoStat WideCup bipolar hot hemostasis forceps for use during endoscopies. Designed to stop bleeding in an efficient and safe manner, the device features an opening width considerably wider than the existing model from the firm (5.8 mm vs 4.0 mm). Additionally, opening and closing the forceps uses 30% to 40% less power, making it easier on the physician when aligning and placing the device over the bleeding point.
The device was unveiled last week at the JDDW 2016 Congress in Kobe, Japan.
Via: HOYA Group…
This post PENTAX Unveils HemoStat WideCup Bipolar H...
Source: Medgadget - November 8, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: GI Source Type: blogs
New Coating Allows for Self-Cleaning Endoscopes That Maintain a Clear View
While endoscopes give doctors a window into the human body, the view is usually less than crystal clear. Blood and other bodily fluids are sticky and muck up the viewing window on endoscope tips, requiring regular pauses during procedures to clean the lens end. This eats up expensive time and can be detrimental to the natural flow of a procedure, not to mention the associated cost of having the OR staff wait to clean the scope every time it gets fouled. At Harvard’s Wyss Institute, researchers have developed a new coating for endoscopes that keeps them a lot clearer while working inside the body.
The coating is a mo...
Source: Medgadget - October 4, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: Nanomedicine Source Type: blogs
From Competency to Entrustment in Medical Education
By: Neel Sharma, MBChB, MSc, National University Hospital Singapore and Harvard Macy Institute
Michael Whitcomb highlighted his concerns regarding an overemphasis on competency-based medical education in his commentary published earlier this year. We are now beginning to see a further shift in the paradigm of competency-based education to one of entrustment. Entrustment, or more precisely entrustable professional activities, highlights the importance of determining when a trainee can be entrusted to perform a particular task unsupervised.
As a trainee, I have two concerns with this notion. First, is it really something nov...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - September 27, 2016 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Guest Author Tags: Featured Guest Perspective competencies entrustable professional activities entrustment Source Type: blogs
Obalon Swallowable Balloon for Weight Loss FDA Approved
Gastric bypass surgery, just like any other surgery, hold potential for intraprocedural problems and follow-up complications. Less invasive means of reducing the volume of the stomach are coming to market. One particularly interesting system called Obalon just received FDA approval to help obese people to reduce weight who failed to do so through diet and exercise.
The system was developed by Obalon Therapeutics, a company out of Carlsbad, California. It revolves around a swallowable balloon that looks like a large pill that has a tube attached to it that is used to pump up the balloon once it’s in the stomach. Th...
Source: Medgadget - September 15, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: GI Medicine Source Type: blogs
Falling Upward and Embracing the Second Half of Your Life
There comes a moment in every person’s life when she realizes she has just entered the second half of her life.
With the average lifespan of a woman in the United States being 81, I technically crossed that line three years ago. Yes, that’s when my waist disappeared and the pregnancy questions started; my squiggly gray hair came in and I purchased my first pair of readers; I started doing things like placing ketchup in the freezer and cereal in the refrigerator; and the medical appointments on my calendar started to outnumber the social gatherings by a ratio of about 10 to 1.
A month ago, I went through the rite of pas...
Source: World of Psychology - August 24, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Therese J. Borchard Tags: Aging Depression Inspiration & Hope Mental Health and Wellness Personal Bipolar Disorder Source Type: blogs
How much thought do you give to health literacy?
It’s Friday afternoon at 4 p.m., and Mr. Anderson walks into my endoscopy suite as the last patient of the day. He’s a 65-year-old publicly-insured male who presents for a screening colonoscopy. He’s 20 minutes late, because he went to registration in the surgery department. He is convinced “looking for cancer” requires surgery.
In triage, the nurses learn that he has held his Coumadin for five days as personally instructed by his cardiologist, but that he did not follow instructions for adequate bowel preparation and hence is still passing light brown stool. Upon further questioning, the nurses also learn that h...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 21, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/darrell-m-gray-ii" rel="tag" > Darrell M. Gray, II, MD, MPH < /a > Tags: Physician GI Source Type: blogs
MGH marketers take on Boston Children ’ s
The doctor will see you now –and forever
I was driving along in Boston last weekend when I heard an intriguing radio advertisement for MassGeneral Hospital for Children, the pediatric division of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
MGH is a world famous hospital, but when it comes to pediatrics it’s much smaller, less well known, and lower ranked than Boston Children’s Hospital –the #1 rated children’s hospital by US News.
I thought MGH picked a clever angle for the ad: highlighting a patient with Crohn’s disease who was diagnosed at age 10 and is now an adult. The message: illnes...
Source: Health Business Blog - August 1, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Culture Hospitals Uncategorized boston children's hospital crohn's disease Massachusetts general hospital Source Type: blogs
Automatic Computer Vision System Detects Early Esophageal Cancer
At the Eidhoven University of Technology (TU Eindhoven) in The Netherlands, a research team has developed a computer vision system that has shown excellent results at identifying early neoplastic lesions, which develop into full blown esophageal cancer, in patients with Barrett’s esophagus. Such lesions are very difficult to spot, and not many physicians have the training or the eye necessary to do so accurately and consistently.
The collaboration involved a gastroenterologist from Catharina Hospital and computer scientists from the Video Coding and Architectures Research Group at TU Eindhoven. Their algorithm ana...
Source: Medgadget - July 6, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: GI Oncology Source Type: blogs
