The Most Reliable COVID-19 Online Resources: Your Ultimate Guide
In the era of fake news, mask naysayers and, dare we say, covidiots, relevant news often gets lost under the rubble of conspiracy theories and what not. 2020 already feels like a lucid fever dream as it is and we would be better off being well-informed by trustworthy sources of information.
However, even leading authorities are lagging behind in this respect. The WHO only recently stopped releasing its daily PDF COVID reports in favour of an online dashboard. On the other hand, Johns Hopkins put one together in 3 days in January. It took the WHO 8 months since the first outbreak to have its own. The health authority als...
Source: The Medical Futurist - September 17, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Digital Health Research Healthcare Policy Security & Privacy testing online resources digital technology applications covid covid19 Good Judgement Project WHO sewage data vaccine who dashboard worldometer Johns Hopkins JHU Source Type: blogs
Which Human Experiences Are Universal?
By Emma Young
As everyone knows, American undergrads are not representative of all humanity — and the perils of drawing conclusions about people in general from WEIRD studies have been well-publicised. To really understand which human experiences are universal, and which are a product of our individual cultures, we need big, well-conducted studies of people from many different cultures. Fortunately, there are studies like this. Here are some of their most fascinating insights…
Personal space
How big is your “personal space”? As a Brit, I’d expect mine to be larger than that of th...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - September 15, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Cross-cultural Feature Source Type: blogs
Sewage Data As A Surprising Predictor For COVID-19 Cases
You might not think much of them, but bodily fluids offer a treasure trove of information for medical diagnoses. Indeed, scientists are now looking past the drain and directly into sewage to gather data about COVID-19.
You might not have heard about it, but it turns out it is possible to detect and measure the amount of virus DNA in sewage samples which can predict case number by about 7-10 days in advance. Several countries are already employing this method to predict infection cases; and it is yet another example of an unusual association between a data source and outcomes. Combining the information gathered fro...
Source: The Medical Futurist - September 7, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Healthcare Design Security & Privacy prediction rna epidemiology gastrointestinal covid sewage data covid-19 cdc wastewater Yale Source Type: blogs
Digital Health Makes Healthcare Globalised
Consider Atlas Biomed, the company behind the at-home microbiome test: it is based in the U.K. Some 1,900 kilometers away in Italy, Dante Labs offers direct-to-consumer whole genome sequencing kits. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in the U. S., is Fitbit, which ships its fitness trackers around the world. Despite being headquartered in different countries and even in different continents, patients now have access to quality digital health services wherever they are (save for some shipping restrictions).
This aspect of digital health heralds one of its lesser-explored advantages: it enables healthcare to be ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - August 18, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Future of Medicine Healthcare Design Healthcare Policy digital health Source Type: blogs
Can We Eliminate Waiting Times From Healthcare Forever?
Wake up early, get ready quickly, travel to the hospital while hoping to get there before others start lining up and wait till the doctor sees you. If you encountered any downtimes along the way to this “hospital journey maze”, you know you’ll be there for more time than planned. But you know the drill as it’s a quasi-global phenomenon and an expected component of the healthcare experience: waiting times.
This component is as “pleasant” as it sounds. A survey from Software Advice that involved over 5000 patients found that 97% of respondents were frustrated by wait times at the doctor’s office. Another rep...
Source: The Medical Futurist - August 13, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Artificial Intelligence Healthcare Design waiting time Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 10th 2020
This study aimed to characterize the role of BDNF in age-related microglial activation. Initially, we found that degrees of microglial activation were especially evident in the substantia nigra (SN) across different brain regions of aged mice. The levels of BDNF and TrkB in microglia decreased with age and negatively correlated with their activation statuses in mice during aging. Interestingly, aging-related microglial activation could be reversed by chronic, subcutaneous perfusion of BDNF. Peripheral lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection-induced microglial activation could be reduced by local supplement of BDNF, while shTrkB...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 9, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
The Death Of Democracy
Michael Cohen ’s book, the forward of which he just released, won’t change anything; won’t shake loose a single Trump voter. For all of Trump’s “presidency,” we’ve been given every reason to believe it. Plain observation has made clear who Trump is and has always been. Lying about Russia deals? No s urprise. Slimy sexual peccadillos? Of course. He’s bragged about it. Tax evasion, mob deals, threats, hush money. It ’s his lifelong modus operandi. It’s why those of us who voted against him, voted against him. Clearly, it’s why those who voted for him did what they did. No one was unaware. In Cohen...
Source: Surgeonsblog - August 8, 2020 Category: Surgery Authors: Sid Schwab Source Type: blogs
2020: Jumanji Or Dystopia
“There’s No Going Back to ‘Normal’”, crudely proclaims the headline of a June piece from The Atlantic. “The Terrible Consequences of Australia’s Uber-Bushfires” reads a recent Wired article. One of our own April articles was titled “Will Medical Workers Deal With PTSD After COVID-19?”. If it wasn’t clear, an article published earlier this year in The Conversation rightly asks: “Are we living in a dystopia?”.
Indeed, what was once relegated to the fertile minds of fiction novelists has become daily occurrences. Many are drawing similarities to “prophetic” works of fiction such as the c...
Source: The Medical Futurist - July 28, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Artificial Intelligence Future of Medicine Future of Pharma Science Fiction Security & Privacy Telemedicine & Smartphones Virtual Reality black mirror dystopia coronavirus covid19 jumanji Death Stranding video games bushfires Source Type: blogs
How PTSD Can Cause Learning Disabilities
Conclusion
Researchers are still exploring potential links between PTSD and learning disabilities, but further studies will likely expand on what we know. Understanding how PTSD affects our ability to learn will help treat people with both conditions and lead to better outcomes for these patients. (Source: World of Psychology)
Source: World of Psychology - July 27, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Amanda Levison, M.S., LMHC, LPC, CCBT Tags: Children and Teens Psychology PTSD Trauma associative learning learning disability Neuroscience Stress Hormones Source Type: blogs
The Unlikely Rise Of Science And Digital Health During COVID-19
Over the past weeks, we have covered many aspects of coronavirus. From symptoms and digital health technologies, artificial intelligence, the rise of telemedicine and investigating why some countries have managed to keep the pandemic under control, through issues of privacy and mental challenges of healthcare professionals. We analyzed the possible outcomes of what will, what can and what should change in our lives after COVID-19 and even created a Handbook on the fight against the pandemic.
But one of the most important aspects in all this is how different leaders around the world have responded to this pandemic. Were ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - May 5, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Judit Kuszkó Tags: Artificial Intelligence Digital Health Research Future of Medicine science covid19 leadership coron Thunberg Fauci Trump Topol Barabasi Brilliant Harari Queen Source Type: blogs
On World Health Day 2020, let ’s discuss the stress response and the General Adaptation Syndrome (2/3)
The hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis acts to release cortisol into the blood stream, as cortisol calls the body into action to combat stress. When high amounts of cortisol interact with the hypothalamus, the HPA axis will slow down its activity. The amygdala detects stress, while the prefrontal cortex regulates our reactions to stress. Source: Bezdek K and Telzer E (2017) Have No Fear, the Brain is Here! How Your Brain Responds to Stress. Front. Young Minds. 5:71. doi: 10.3389/frym.2017.00071
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[Editor’s note: Continued from yesterday’s Exploring the human brain and how it responds to stress (1/3)]
S...
Source: SharpBrains - April 7, 2020 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Jerome Schultz Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning Health & Wellness #WorldHealthDay brain burnout cognition Cortisol GAS General Adaptation Syndrome homeostasis memory neurobiology neurological exhaustion Stress Source Type: blogs
Do Great Leaders Create Peace and Prosperity?
David BoazWith the latest news about Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban ’s drive for autocratic power, I was just looking up this quote from Hayek ’sThe Road to Serfdom–…dissatisfaction with the slow and cumbersome course of democratic procedure which makes action for action’s sake the goal. It is then the man or the party who seems strong and resolute enough “to get things done” who exercises the greatest appeal. “Strong” in this sense means not merely a numerical majority – it is the ineffectiveness of parliamentary majorities with which people are dissatisfied. What they will seek is som...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 3, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs
Do Crises Foster Authoritarianism?
Jeffrey Miron andErin PartinTimes of uncertainty and fear often provide the opportunities for authoritarian governments to consolidate their powers. From theNew York Times:“As the coronavirus pandemic brings the world to a juddering halt and anxious citizens demand action, leaders across the globe are invoking executive powers and seizing virtually dictatorial authority with scant resistance.Governments and rights groups agree that these extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. States need new powers to shut their borders, enforce quarantines and track infected people. Many of these actions are protected...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 31, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey Miron, Erin Partin Source Type: blogs
Immigrant Shares of the Prison Population Across 20 OECD Countries
Alex NowrastehIt ’s important to understand how immigrants affect crime in their new countries. However, crime data across countries are hard to come by and even harder to compare as laws vary significantly between jurisdictions, different countries have radically different criminal justice systems, and many count ries don’t systematically publish incarceration data that identify the foreign‐born population.Fortunately, a wonderful new book entitledDoes Immigration Increase Crime?By Francesco Fasani, Giovanni Mastrobuoni, Emily G. Owens, and Paolo Pinotti includes a figure that helps tremendously. Figure...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 5, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
The Precise Meaning Of Emotion Words Is Different Around The World
By Emily Reynolds
When you can’t quite put your finger on how you’re feeling, don’t worry — there may be a non-English word that can help you out. There are hundreds of words across the world for emotional states and concepts, from the Spanish word for the desire to eat simply for the taste (gula) to the Sanskrit for revelling in someone else’s joy (mudita).
But what about those words that exist across many languages — “anger”, for example, or “happiness”? Do they mean the same thing in every language, or do we experience emotions differently based on the culture we are brought up in? Is the ex...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - February 5, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Cross-cultural Emotion Language Source Type: blogs
