XRHealth Secures $6 Million in Funding Led by Asabys Partners and Welcomes NOVA Prime as a New Investor
Funding will Support Development of AI Clinician, Using Spatial Computing XRHealth, the leading healthcare platform in Spatial computing, announced today that the company secured $6 million in funding led by Asabys Partners, with the participation of NOVA Prime Fund, a venture capital fund created by global innovator LG Electronics and Clearbrook, LLC., and XRHealth’s current investors. Marking the completion of the merger between XRHealth and Amelia Virtual Care, the funding supports the growth of the combined entities. The funding will also further the development of an AI-based clinician that can treat patients for m...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - January 19, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Healthcare IT News Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT Ali Diallo Amelia Virtual Care Asabys Partners Clearbrook LLC. Eran Orr Health IT Funding Health IT Fundings Health IT Investment LG Electronics NOVA Prime Fund XRHealth Source Type: blogs

Self-management skills we don ’ t often discuss
I’m back from my summer break (I’m in Aotearoa/New Zealand – we shut down over Christmas/New Year just like the US and UK do over July/August!), and I want to begin with a cracker of a topic: medication management! Now I am not a prescriber. I don’t hold any ability to write prescriptions of any kind, not even exercise ;-). Yet most of the people I’ve seen in clinical practice have started their journey living with pain by being prescribed medications. All medications have side effects, true effects (well… maybe), adverse effects, and the human factor: taking them in the way that o...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - January 14, 2024 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Chronic pain Coping strategies Research Science in practice pain management self-management Therapeutic approaches Source Type: blogs

Ginger Vieira – Exercise with Type 1 Diabetes
In conclusion, Ginger Vieira’s book, Exercise with Type 1 Diabetes (affiliate link), is a must-read for anyone with diabetes who wants to incorporate exercise into their daily routine. Ginger’s expertise and personal experiences make this book a valuable resource for understanding the impact of exercise on blood sugar levels and managing diabetes effectively. With practical tips and a supportive approach, Ginger empowers readers to take control of their health and enjoy the benefits of exercise. Don’t miss out on this concise and informative guide! ...
Source: Scott's Diabetes Blog - December 20, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Authors: Scott K. Johnson Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs

Self monitoring – focusing on pain too much? or an essential part of living with pain?
I was just a tiny bit surprised when I looked at the results of my self-management strategy survey: self monitoring was smack bang in the middle of the list! Take a look yourself – Self monitoring is not something we discuss much in pain management circles. It’s like ‘Oooh if you keep noticing your pain you’re fixating on it and that’s bad!’ and yet I suspect it forms part of the background interoceptive awareness that most of us do whether we live with pain or not. Let’s take a deeper look at it. The ‘definition’ I used was ‘noticing your pain i...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - December 17, 2023 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Coping Skills Coping strategies biopsychosocial Chronic pain interoception pain management Research Therapeutic approaches Source Type: blogs

The arrogance of expertise
Here is a thoughtful essay by NYT reporter Ed Yong. (Free Gift link! [as opposed to a not free gift]) It ' s long, but worth it. Yong was assigned the Long Covid beat and he found -- as I already knew -- that people who tell their doctors about long-term fatigue, pain, and cognitive difficulties, for which the physicians could find no specific biophysical explanation, commonly found their complaints dismissed or even ridiculed:Covering long Covid solidified my view that science is not the objective, neutral force it is often misconstrued as. It is instead a human endeavor, relentlessly buffeted by our culture, values an...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 11, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs

Self-management skills that are not top of the pops
When I carried out my informal survey of the pain self-management skills people had used in the past week, there were no real surprises. Movement, activity management (pacing – and I will have more to say about this in a couple of weeks!), sleep, attention management and doing something fun were all at the top of the list. Others were lower down and while they don’t get to shine as much, I’m not so sure they are as seldom used as this wee survey suggests. At the bottom of the list is having hands-on treatment for relaxation or to feel good. OK, perhaps understandable because the whole ongoing debat...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - December 10, 2023 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Chronic pain Coping strategies Occupational therapy Psychology Research Resilience/Health Science in practice assertiveness Clinical reasoning pain management Therapeutic approaches Source Type: blogs

What goes on in the brain matters
I am the first to say (quite loudly at times) that pain is a whole person experience. I say this because my experience of pain is mine and utterly unable to be shared in all its complexity. The only way other people know about my pain is through my actions – both involuntary and voluntary. And even then: the way I express myself differs depending on my social context, my mood, my goals, and what I think my pain represents. Yet when I’m asleep, I don’t have pain, when I have anaesthetic for my colonoscopy, I don’t have pain – so what goes on in my brain is kinda important. Now there have bee...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - June 25, 2023 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Chronic pain Pain conditions Research Therapeutic approaches Source Type: blogs

Can You Practice Tai Chi With Hypertension?
Conclusions To sum up, there’s compelling evidence and substantial anecdotal support suggesting that Tai Chi can be a beneficial and safe practice for people with hypertension. However, always remember to consult with your healthcare provider before starting any new exercise regimen. Tai Chi embodies a perfect blend of gentle physical movement, mental focus, and calming breathwork. While it may not replace traditional hypertension treatments, it can certainly be a serene, therapeutic addition to an overall health strategy. Read also: Impact of Increased Exercise (Or No Exercise) On Blood Pressure ...
Source: The EMT Spot - June 13, 2023 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Michael Rotman, MD, FRCPC, PhD Tags: Blood Pressure Source Type: blogs

The power of being present
I’ve been listening to Prof Kevin Vowles recently, as he presents his approach to pain using ACT. He made an important point about mindfulness that resonated with me: it’s that when learning to be fully present, it’s not how long we stray from our point of focus, nor even how many times we come back, the learning is that we can come back. Again and again and again. There are arguments about what mindfulness is, and I’m certain these will continue, but for the purposes of this post and for people just learning mindfulness, I’m defining it as the deliberate practice of attending to a focus (t...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - May 28, 2023 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: ACT - Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Chronic pain Coping strategies Professional topics Research hypnosis mindfulness Therapeutic approaches Source Type: blogs

Learning ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy)
Around 2001 I read what I believe is the first randomised controlled trial of ACT for people living with chronic pain (McCracken, 1998). I quickly dived into this ‘new’ therapy – it appealed to me because it resonated with my own experiences with psychological therapies for depression, and in the way I had learned to live alongside my own pain. For those who don’t know, I developed chronic pain around the age of 22ish (dates are hard to remember!) and after seeing a pain specialist was given those fateful words ‘I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do from a medical perspective.’...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - May 14, 2023 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: 'Pacing' or Quota ACT - Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Chronic pain Motivation Occupational therapy Pain conditions Physiotherapy Professional topics Psychology Research Science in practice acceptance and commitment therapy Therap Source Type: blogs

XRHealth and Amelia Virtual Care Announce Merger, Creating the Largest XR Therapeutics Platform in the World
Both Companies will Be merged Under the XRHealth Brand Name and By the End of the Year Are Forecasted to Have over 500K VR Treatments, Exceed 25K Patients Treated, and Be Deployed by Over 2500 Clinicians XRHealth, a Boston-based developer and operator of virtual treatment rooms, and Amelia Virtual Care, a global leading virtual reality platform for mental health professionals based in Barcelona, Spain, today announced their intention to merge into one company, which will remain called XRHealth. The union aims to create an XR therapeutic powerhouse, uniquely capable of addressing both physical and mental health issues. The...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - April 18, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Healthcare IT News Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT 2023 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition Amelia Virtual Care Amelia VR Asabys Asabys Partners Augmented Reality CBT Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Cognitive-Behavioral VR Therapy Eran Orr Guill Source Type: blogs

When life happens … .
Most of my writing comes from mulling over recent events as played out either in social media or research findings. Today’s post is a little different. It’s no secret that I live with persistent pain, fibromyalgia to be exact. I’ve found that being open about my diagnosis, and that all the strategies I advise to others are also strategies I employ, and that none of them are ‘the secret.’ I posted recently about a struggle I have dealing with reviewer’s comments on papers I submit for publication. Now peer review is a thing, I think it’s a good thing though somewhat exploitative ...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - April 16, 2023 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

Practicing Medicine without a License: When Patients and Politicians Play Doctor
BY MICHAEL KIRSCH We’ve all heard the adage, leave it to the professionals.  It’s typically used when an individual has wandered out of his lane.  How many folks go beyond their knowledge and skills with home projects, for example, who must then hire a real professional to mop up the mistakes?  Luckily for me, the only tools that I – a gastroenterologist – know how to use are a colonoscope and an endoscope, so there’s no chance that I will be tempted to perform any plumbing or electrical tasks at home.   Although patients are not medical professionals, they routinely bring me results...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 1, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Medical Marijuana Medical Practice medical professionals michael kirsch politicians Source Type: blogs

If a rose is a rose by any other name, how should we study treatment processes in pain management & rehabilitation?
A new instalment in my series about intensive longitudinal studies, aka ecological momentary assessment (and a host of other names for methods used to study daily life in real time in the real world). Daily life is the focus of occupational therapy – doing what needs to be done, or a person wants to do, in everyday life. It’s complex because unlike a laboratory (or a large, well-controlled randomised controlled trial) daily life is messy and there is no way to control all the interacting factors that influence why a person does what they do. A technical term for the processes involved is microtemporality, o...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - January 29, 2023 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Assessment Clinical reasoning Professional topics Research Science in practice intensive longitudinal research Occupational therapy Pain rehabilitation research methods single case experimental design Source Type: blogs

Persistent pain and movement practices
Here I go, stepping into “the bio” to write about movement. Oh dear, what am I doing? Movement practices of various kinds are part and parcel of pain management. In fact, to read some of the material in social media-land, exercise is the be-all and end-all of pain management, maybe with a dash of psychology. Can we please stop doing this? I’ve said it often, for many forms of persistent pain, especially the most common forms – nonspecific chronic low back pain, fibromyalgia, and osteoarthritic pain – movement is a good thing, but the effect sizes are small for both pain intensity and d...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - December 18, 2022 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Chronic pain Clinical reasoning Low back pain Occupational therapy Physiotherapy Psychology Resilience/Health Science in practice movement optimism movement practices pain management Research Therapeutic approaches Source Type: blogs