New Antimicrobial Surface for Implantable Devices
Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles have created a zwitterion polymer coating for in-dwelling medical devices, such as urinary catheters, that prevents microbes from adhering and creating troublesome biofilms. Recurrent infection and biofouling are a serious problem for such devices, leading to the overuse of antibiotics and the consequent rise of drug-resistant microbes. The new coating is antibiotic free and works by binding water tightly, creating a thin hydration barrier that deters microbes from binding and proliferating.
In-dwelling catheters are a constant worry for patients and healthcare sta...
Source: Medgadget - May 26, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Materials Public Health Surgery Urology ucla Source Type: blogs
From MARC Student to MacArthur Fellow
Dr. Víctor J. Torres. Credit: Keenan Lacey, Ph.D.
“I study the dance between a bacterium and its host. If we can decode the secrets of that dance—how the pathogen causes disease, and how the host fights back—we might be able to take advantage of vulnerabilities to improve our ability to combat infections,” says Víctor J. Torres, Ph.D., the C. V. Starr Professor of Microbiology at the New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine in New York City.
Discovering and Pursuing a Passion for Science
Growing up, Dr. Torres never would have imagined his highly successful scientific career, especially sinc...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - May 25, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Injury and Illness Bacteria Infectious Diseases Profiles Source Type: blogs
Reflecting on my experience as a teenage health care worker during the COVID-19 pandemic
During the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2021), I became a high-school pharmacy technician. My senior year of high school ended in gray scrubs, gloves, and a mask. While I knew I was signing up for long hours of selling medication and administering COVID tests, I was not prepared for what else I wouldRead more …Reflecting on my experience as a teenage health care worker during the COVID-19 pandemic originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 24, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/ananya-raghavan" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Ananya Raghavan < /a > < /span > Tags: Education COVID Infectious Disease Source Type: blogs
Naming the anti-Asian racism of U.S. COVID-19 policy
It started as the “Chinese virus.” Then the “kung flu.” Then came the boycotts of Chinatowns, the rise in harassment, assaults, and murders. The recognition of hate and discrimination against Asian Americans was long overdue. However, anti-Asian racism doesn’t just manifest in hate speech or violence; it has undermined the U.S. COVID-19 policy response. InRead more …Naming the anti-Asian racism of U.S. COVID-19 policy originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 14, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/michelle-ko" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Michelle Ko, MD, PhD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions COVID Infectious Disease Source Type: blogs
Political Science
First all the people who write on the op-ed page and yack on TV were experts on immigration policy. Then they suddenly became experts on infectious disease epidemiology, and now they ' re all experts on war strategy. It ' s amazing. This happens instantly, they don ' t even need to go back to school.Anyhow, I ' m not a real doctor, I ' m a doctor of philosophy, but to gain the letters after my name I had to pass qualifying examinations in political science. Back then, however, we did not pay a lot of attention to dictatorial or totalitarian regimes, partly because at the time the Soviet Union was collapsing and China appea...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 10, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The connection between oral health and overall health
Guess what? The mouth is attached to the rest of the body. And though dentistry and medicine are typically separated from the very beginning of professional training, they are irrevocably linked for patients and have an impact on each other. Here ’s some foundational knowledge that will help set the stage for discussing the connection betweenRead more …The connection between oral health and overall health originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 7, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/cindy-roark" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Cindy Roark, DMD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions Infectious Disease Source Type: blogs
What does living with COVID really mean?
It’s a standard instruction during safety demonstrations on airplanes:“In the event of a sudden loss in cabin pressure, an oxygen mask will drop down in front of you. Put your mask on before helping others.” But why is that? Wouldn’t it make more sense to help those who are most vulnerable? The answer hasRead more …What does living with COVID really mean? originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 7, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/tomi-mitchell" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Tomi Mitchell, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions COVID Infectious Disease Source Type: blogs
A matter of trust: Bill Maher loses trust in medical professionals
I was at my gym last night. Billy Joel ’s ballad about trust was the metronome to my squats. Though vaccinated and boosted, I was wearing my mask. I know the latest evidence about vaccines and natural immunity, the dramatic transmissibility but mild virulence of the latest Omicron variant. So my mask was only for optics.Read more …A matter of trust: Bill Maher loses trust in medical professionals originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 5, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/michael-brant-zawadzki" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Michael Brant-Zawadzki, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions COVID Infectious Disease Source Type: blogs
Shame, guilt, perfectionism and ego: a terrible combination
The levels of physician burnout which are a constellation of symptoms including feeling apathy, fatigue, depersonalization, and detachment are a group of feelings that have plagued health care. But within the last two years, burnout has exploded to upwards of 65 percent in specialties like emergency, critical care, and infectious disease. It is not surprising,Read more …Shame, guilt, perfectionism and ego: a terrible combination originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 29, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/diana-londono" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Diana Londo ño, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Physician Psychiatry Source Type: blogs
Reversing the impact of the pandemic on childhood obesity
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and communities had to take rapid and decisive action to protect their citizens against this novel virus. While it was yet unclear how dangerous the COVID-19 infection may be to children, their teachers, and their families, governments quickly shut down schools and activities to slow theRead more …Reversing the impact of the pandemic on childhood obesity originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 28, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/teresa-fuller" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Teresa Fuller, MD, PhD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions COVID Infectious Disease Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
This doctor got COVID. Here ’s what it taught him.
Tuesday night, March 29 into March 30, I started to feel that sensation I associate with the start of a cold. It was a feeling in the back of my throat that ’s almost hard to describe. I haven’t had that sensation in years. Because I have been wearing an N95 mask every time I comeRead more …This doctor got COVID. Here ’s what it taught him. originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 21, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/matthew-hahn" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Matthew Hahn, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions COVID Infectious Disease Source Type: blogs
Done with COVID? Not so fast.
Moving into the pandemic’s third year, as many settle into the notorious“new normal” of COVID, the challenge now is avoiding complacency and keeping attention and vaccination rates high enough to maintain protection against the still-evolving virus. Six months after approving a first vaccine booster, the FDA has now authorized a second booster dose forRead more …Done with COVID? Not so fast. originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 20, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/stefanie-demetriades" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Stefanie Demetriades, PhD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions COVID Infectious Disease Source Type: blogs
How Bacteria-Infecting Viruses Could Save Lives
Dr. Ry Young. Credit: Texas A&M University.
“My parents told me that I already wanted to be a scientist when I was 7 or 8 years old. I don’t remember ever considering anything else,” says Ry Young, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry, biophysics, and biology at Texas A&M University, College Station.
Dr. Young has been a researcher for more than 45 years and is a leading expert on bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria. He and other scientists have shown that phages, as bacteriophages are often called, could help us fight bacteria that have developed resistance to antibiotics. Antibiotic-resistant ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - April 20, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Injury and Illness Bacteria Infectious Diseases Profiles Scientific Process Viruses Source Type: blogs
Pfizer and Moderna must share vaccine technology [PODCAST]
“Pfizer has a particular onus to help intervene globally as one of the largest and most profitable pharmaceutical companies in the world. With its immense capital power, Pfizer should shift some of their spending from national ads promoting their vaccine product in a country that has large booster vaccine availability to sharing the technology thatRead more …Pfizer and Moderna must share vaccine technology [PODCAST] originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 18, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/the-podcast-by-kevinmd" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > The Podcast by KevinMD < /a > < /span > Tags: Podcast COVID Infectious Disease Source Type: blogs
Looking across the glass door: a COVID-19 vigil
A small piece of lint is tickling my nose as I am desperately trying not to sneeze into the tight-fitting mask on my face. I know that I will not be able to adjust the mask as my gloves are sterile, and I am standing suspended over a patient’s body with my gloves patinaed withRead more …Looking across the glass door: a COVID-19 vigil originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 18, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/katarine-egressy" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Katarine Egressy, MD, MPH < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions COVID Critical Care Infectious Disease Source Type: blogs
