Xavant ’s NMS 460 Peripheral Nerve Stimulator for Pain Relief Cleared by FDA
Xavant Technology, a company based in Pretoria, South Africa, won FDA clearance for its NMS 460 peripheral nerve stimulation system. The device is used to address chronic intractable pain, post-surgical pain, post-traumatic acute pain, and for pain control arising from rehab routines.
The device delivers a hybrid pulsed radio frequency (PRF) waveform, developed by Xavant, through the skin via an accompanying stylus. The company claims that the resulting electromagnetic effects are similar to the ones that implanted neurostimulators generate, delivering some of the benefits of such devices without their invasive nature....
Source: Medgadget - August 2, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Anesthesiology Pain Management Rehab Source Type: blogs
Mastering Intensive Care 009 with John Myburgh
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
John Myburgh – The importance of the intensive care clinical ward round
How important is the main daily ward round we do each day in the Intensive Care Unit? Is the ward round in your ICU focused and concise? Do you adequately communicate the plans you generate on the ward round to the whole ICU team?
John Myburgh AO (@JAMyburgh), an experienced Australian intensivist, who began his life and career in South Africa, is Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at St George ...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - July 4, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Chris Nickson Tags: Mastering Intensive Care Andrew Davies john myburgh ward round Source Type: blogs
Being queer in the jungle: The unique challenges of LGBTQ scientists working in the field
The Stonewall Riots occurred on June 28, 1969. It was this summer evening that sparked the Gay Rights Movement. Now, forty-eight years later, the world celebrates Pride Month every June to celebrate, honor, support, and fight for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.
The queer community is resilient. No matter what obstacles they encounter, their battle to live, pursue their passions, and contribute to society endures. For many queer people that passion is science. Queer scientists such as Alan Turing who was crucial in ending World War II, and Sara Josephine Baker who made unprecedented br...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - June 28, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: Ben Ragen Tags: Uncategorized field research LGBTQ Source Type: blogs
Which came first: Words or Syllables?
Back when this blog was starting out Ireported on a paper given by Judy Kegl (nowJudy Shepard-Kegl) at a conference in South Africa. Kegl is an expert on sign language and had observed a new sign language emerge at a school for the deaf in Nicaragua. She listed four innate qualities that lead to language: (1) love of rhythm or prosody, (2) a taste for mirroring (imitation), (3) an appetite for linguistic competence, and (4) the wish to be like one ’s peers. I found this an interesting and plausible list and have wondered why I don’t see more references to it. Rereading that old post has made the silence more comprehens...
Source: Babel's Dawn - May 24, 2017 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Blair Source Type: blogs
Are Micellar Water makeup removers the real deal? Episode 150
What’s the deal with micellar water make up removers?
Taylor asks…I’m a new listener and enjoy your show so much. (Gets me through the work day) I want to know the hype about micellar water and is this something new or just a mild makeup remover with a “fancy name.”
Micellar waters are named after the technical term, micelle, so before we talk about the products we should explain what that is.
Micelles are structures that are formed when surfactant are dissolved in water. Remember that surfactants, short for surface active agents, are used in beauty products as cleansers and emulsifiers that help mix oil ...
Source: thebeautybrains.com - September 13, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Perry Romanowski Tags: Podcast Source Type: blogs
A Century of Forest Coverage Change on South Africa’s Cape Peninsula
The world’s forests provide a number of vital ecosystem services that benefit both society and nature alike. However, in recent years many have opined that the future of forests is in doubt. Deforestation, drought, fire, insect outbreaks and global warming represent only a handful of the many challenges that are claimed to be causing a near-term demise in forest health that is predicted to become only worse in the years and decades to come. But how valid are these fears? Are Earth’s forests truly on the eve of destruction?
Though there are indeed some locations that are suffering from a variety of maladies, there are m...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 10, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Craig D. Idso Source Type: blogs
In South Africa, Bold Investments Turn Trash into Treasure
South Africa’s landfills are reportedly rapidly reaching capacity—as are those in many developing countries. Surveys show that only about 3 percent of urban South Africans sort and recycle their household waste frequently. Until recycling becomes more widespread, the nation will have to keep building landfills. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - December 3, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: RAND Corporation Source Type: blogs
Big pharma in the dock over patent law plot in South Africa
Attempts to reform South Africa's patents laws have been marred with controversy over an alleged campaign by big pharma to derail the process. Adele Baleta reports from Cape Town.A heated row between the South African Government and the country's umbrella organisation for drug companies over a proposed publicity campaign to fight draft patent reforms has gained momentum with Danish company Novo Nordisk quitting the group in protest.The company is one of 26 research-based pharmaceutical companies who are members of the Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa (IPASA), which recently sent an email to members see...
Source: PharmaGossip - February 7, 2014 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
The Op-Ed: What Patent Reform In Brazil And South Africa Can Mean
In recent months, two countries with large economies and large populations both took steps to rework their patent laws, in part, to expand access to medicines. The moves come amid increasing concerns that treatments for certain ailments, such as AIDS and cancer, are out of reach for many people. Their actions also underscore growing tension with the pharmaceutical industry over pricing policies and an increasing willingness among some governments to rely on international trade agreements to consider compulsory licenses as a work-around solution. Brook Baker, a professor in the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy...
Source: Pharmalot - November 12, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Global Diabetes: Naked in South Africa
We continue roaming the planet to bring you accounts of living with diabetes in various countries for our Global Diabetes series. This month, we're happy to introduce a young South African who wants to become a force of diabetes advocacy in his ho... (Source: Diabetes Mine)
Source: Diabetes Mine - October 25, 2013 Category: Endocrinology Authors: Amy Tenderich Source Type: blogs
South Africa Releases Proposal To Overhaul Pharma Patents
For months, the South African government was signaling its intent to draft a new policy for governing intellectual property. Now, the draft is out and, if implemented, may allow for greater production of lower-cost generics and limit what is derisively known as evergreening, a reference to patent extensions that are based on minor changes in a drug.
The effort comes after years in which patient advocates have argued the South African government has been lax in reviewing patent applications to determine their validity, which has allowed global drugmakers to maintain high prices. In 2008, for instance, South Africa granted 2...
Source: Pharmalot - September 11, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
South Africa Urged To Overhaul Patent Laws To Boost Access To Meds
As South African governmenbt officials hold a meeting today with officials from the World Health Organization and World Trade Organization to review intellectual property protection, a pair of patient advocacy groups has issued a memo criticizing the country for failing to change its patent laws to make needed medicines more affordable.
In their memo, Doctors Without Borders and Treatment Action Campaign charge that South Africa has not amended its patent laws to incorporate or implement the 2001 WTO agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS, which offers compulsory licensing as an option...
Source: Pharmalot - August 7, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Emergency Medicine Kwa-Zulu Natal Style
aka Postcards from the Edge 010
Each time we feature a ‘postcard from the edge’ from the somewhat infamous New Zealand-trained emergency physician Dr Sandy Inglis he is somewhere new — we last heard from him as a patient in Italy, now he is back in ancestral lands in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
Only 2 months have past in this, the wild west of Emergency Medicine, and yet the drama, the excitement, the frustration and the chaos make it feel like we have been here for years. I am employed here as the Head of Department for Emergency Medicine, plucked from the comfort of Australasian Emergency Medicine (EM) to come to this ...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - April 24, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Chris Nickson Tags: Emergency Medicine Featured kwa-zulu natal postcard from the edge sandy inglis South Africa Source Type: blogs
