Medical City, U.S.A.: Medgadget Visits Texas Medical Center
There’s a saying that “everything is bigger than Texas,” and healthcare is no exception. Located just south of downtown Houston in between the historic Hermann Park and Rice University, Texas Medical Center (TMC) consists of 54 medical institutions spread throughout its expansive campus, making it the largest medical complex and the 8th largest business district in the world. It is, quite practically, a medical city.
Medgadget had the opportunity to spend a few days last month visiting TMC as well as a couple Houston universities. We were well aware that TMC pioneered many medical innovations, such as ...
Source: Medgadget - April 28, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Scott Jung Tags: Exclusive Source Type: blogs
Lessons from Zika in the Era of COVID-19
By CHADI NABHAN, MD, MBA, FACP
If you are a soccer fan, watching the FIFA World Cup is a
ritual that you don’t ever violate. Brazilians, arguably more than any other
fans in the world, live and breathe soccer—and they are always expected to be a
legitimate contender to win it all. Their expectations are magnified when they are
the host country, which was the case in 2014. Not only did the Germans destroy
Brazilian World Cup dreams, but less than a year after a humiliating loss
on their turf, Brazilians began dealing with another devastating blow: a viral
epidemic. Zika left the country scrambling to understand how t...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 23, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy Chadi Nabhan epidemic Pandemic Zika Source Type: blogs
Nursing Students and Educators Must Be Part of a National Public Health Surveillance Strategy
By KAREN JOHNSON PhD, RN
Shortly before our
world was turned upside down by COVID-19, I visited Space Center Houston with
my family. We marveled at the collective ambition and investment it took to
move from space travel being an aspirational dream to setting foot on the moon.
I thought about my favorite scene from the movie Apollo 13, when Gene Kranz
overhears the NASA Director saying “This could be the worst disaster NASA has
ever experienced,” and candidly replies, “With all due respect, sir, I believe
this is going to be our finest hour.”
Just months later, our entire planet is on a mission to turn trag...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 20, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Medical Practice Karen Johnson Nursing Source Type: blogs
Artificial Intelligence Discovers Unusual Associations in Medicine
Artificial intelligence does wonders in healthcare. The technology helped issue the first COVID-19 warning before the WHO and CDC did so. It can slash the phenomenon of alarm fatigue. IBM’s Watson Health leverages the power of A.I. to bring drugs to the market faster. And it does so while cutting costs by over 50%.
Speaking of IBM Watson, while the algorithm got its name from the company’s founder Thomas J. Watson, there’s another pop culture figure attached to that name. It’s elementary; we’re talking about none other than Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick, Dr. Watson. It seems like real-world A. I. is taking after...
Source: The Medical Futurist - March 26, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Artificial Intelligence AI digital health Healthcare Medicine technology Source Type: blogs
Pathways: The Circadian Rhythms Issue
Cover of Pathways student magazine.
NIGMS and Scholastic, Inc., bring you the third edition of Pathways, a collection of free resources that teaches students about basic science and its importance to health, and exciting research careers.
Pathways is designed for grades 6 through 12. The topic of this unit is circadian rhythms, the “schedules” our bodies follow over the course of a day. These rhythms influence processes like hunger and the sleep-wake cycle.
You’ll find information about:
How the brain’s “master clock” and other bodily “clocks” drive circadian rhythm...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - March 4, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Biological Clocks Source Type: blogs
New study compares long-term side effects from different prostate cancer treatments
Prostate cancer therapies are improving over time. But how do the long-term side effects from the various options available today compare? Results from a newly published study are providing some valuable insights.
Investigators at Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center spent five years tracking the sexual, bowel, urinary, and hormonal status of nearly 2,000 men after they had been treated for prostate cancer, or monitored with active surveillance (which entails checking the tumor periodically and treating it only if it begins to grow). Cancers in all the men were still confined to the p...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 27, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Health Prostate Knowledge Treatments HPK Source Type: blogs
Using a Plant Virus to Create a Contrast Medium
Researchers at the University of Texas Dallas (UTD) are playing with alchemy by transforming a virus into an organic radical contrast agent (ORCA), an alternative to gadolinium-based contrast agents to be used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedures. ORCA molecules had been previously considered too dim for scanning and were easily eradicated by vitamin C in the body. UTD researchers found that by connecting the molecules to a tobacco mosaic virus, a virus that attacks plant cells and disrupts cell activity, they were able to eliminate those issues and make the ORCA an effective agent. Once the ORCA was attached...
Source: radRounds - February 21, 2020 Category: Radiology Authors: Julie Morse Source Type: blogs
Analysis of the Failure of IBM's Watson; Vertical Integration Backfires
I have blogged periodically about IBM's Watson which has never lived up to its early expectations (see:Scandal at M.D. Anderson -- Operating Loss and Then Watson Deep-Sixed).Forbes recently published a piece about Watson with an analysis of this failure (see:IBM Watson And The Value Of Open) and below is an excerpt from it:...[W]ith the passage of more time, it must be said that IBM Watson has not delivered the results that IBM expected. One particular moment was the decision of MD Anderson ’s Cancer Center to withdraw from its partnership with IBM in 2017. An internal audit by the University of Texas fou...
Source: Lab Soft News - February 18, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: AI Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Research Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
U.S. Army develops novel way to analyze brain imaging data and shape emerging neurotechnology
We present the results of a large-scale analysis of event-related responses based on raw EEG data from 17 studies performed at six experimental sites associated with four different institutions. The analysis corpus represents 1,155 recordings containing approximately 7.8 million event instances acquired under several different experimental paradigms. Such large-scale analysis is predicated on consistent data organization and event annotation as well as an effective automated preprocessing pipeline to transform raw EEG into a form suitable for comparative analysis…This work demonstrates that EEG mega-analysis (pooling of ...
Source: SharpBrains - February 5, 2020 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness Technology big data brain imaging data brain-activity brain-performance cognitive state cognitive-performance EEG NeuroImage Neurotechnology U.S. Army Source Type: blogs
U.S. Army develops novel way to analyze brain imaging data and shape emerging non-invasive neurotechnology
We present the results of a large-scale analysis of event-related responses based on raw EEG data from 17 studies performed at six experimental sites associated with four different institutions. The analysis corpus represents 1,155 recordings containing approximately 7.8 million event instances acquired under several different experimental paradigms. Such large-scale analysis is predicated on consistent data organization and event annotation as well as an effective automated preprocessing pipeline to transform raw EEG into a form suitable for comparative analysis…This work demonstrates that EEG mega-analysis (pooling of ...
Source: SharpBrains - February 5, 2020 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness Technology big data brain imaging data brain-activity brain-performance cognitive state cognitive-performance EEG NeuroImage Neurotechnology non-invasive neurotechnology U.S. Army Source Type: blogs
TBI Leaders Respond to Comments Dismissive of Traumatic Brain Injury
Reporters recently asked President Trump about news that U.S. troops had sustained various degrees of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in an Iranian missile strike. He responded, “I heard they had headaches and a couple of other things, but I would say, and I can report, it’s not very serious.”
An outcry followed these remarks, with military leaders and others noting that TBI has been called a “signature injury” among U.S. troops in the recent conflicts in the Middle East. Fifty U.S. troops are reported to have TBI resulting from the Iranian strike. Research has tied mild TBI (mTBI, the predominant form) to...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - January 29, 2020 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Bridget Murray Law Tags: Audiology Slider Speech-Language Pathology blast injuries Cognitive Rehabilitation cognitive-communication disorder hearing loss TBI tinnitus Traumatic Brain Injury Source Type: blogs
From Lifespan to Healthspan: Brain Scientists Tap Into The Secrets Of Living Well Longer
Yolanda Esparza (right) and Mary Lyons (left) continue their 2‑mile group trail ride originating from the Conley-Guerrero Senior Activity Center in Austin, Texas, on Dec. 3, 2019. (Julia Robinson for KHN)
_____
AUSTIN, Texas — Retired state employees Vickey Benford, 63, and Joan Caldwell, 61, are Golden Rollers, a group of the over-50 set that gets out on assorted bikes — including trikes for adults they call “three wheels of awesome” — for an hour of trail riding and camaraderie.
“I love to exercise, and I like to stay fit,” said Caldwell, who tried out a recumbent bike, a low-impact option that can be eas...
Source: SharpBrains - January 8, 2020 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Sharon Jayson at KHN Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning Health & Wellness behavioral neuroscientists brain brain-body connection brain-training-exercises cognitive decline Golden Rollers healthspan keep-brain-sharp lifespan nutritioni Source Type: blogs
Illness Scripts 101: The Medical Student ’s Guide to Quickly Creating a Differential Diagnosis
When I started medical school three years ago, I did not know that I was entering a profession in which I would constantly race the clock. However, in the era of expanding patient volumes, it has become imperative for health professionals to use their time efficiently. So, what is a young, energetic, and eager medical student to do when the attending physician assigns 20 minutes to see a patient and present a differential diagnosis with a plan? Use illness scripts!
Illness scripts are mental cue cards that health professionals use to represent a certain disease, like they’re described in a recent Academic Medicine La...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - December 17, 2019 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Guest Author Tags: Featured Trainee Perspective clerkship diagnostic reasoning medical education medical students Source Type: blogs
Study challenges the “seductive” amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
Conclusions and Relevance: Higher vascular risk is associated with smaller whole-brain volume and greater white matter–hyperintensity volume at age 69 to 71 years, with the strongest association seen with early adulthood vascular risk. There was no evidence that higher vascular risk influences amyloid deposition, at least up to age 71 years. Reducing vascular risk with appropriate interventions should be considered from early adulthood to maximize late-life brain health.
The Study in Context:
Cognitive training, diet, exercise, and vascular management seen to improve cognition even in people with genetic pre...
Source: SharpBrains - November 11, 2019 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness amyloid hypothesis beta-amyloid beta-amyloid status brain health brain pathology cardiovascular risk dementia risk Framingham midlife preventive vascular health Source Type: blogs
Galveston National Laboratory
Recently I had the good fortune to visit Galveston National Laboratory (GNL, pictured), a high containment laboratory located on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch. Rich Condit and I were the guests of Dennis Bente, who had been asking us to visit since 2011 (see his original email below). I have previously […] (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - October 10, 2019 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information BSL-4 Galveston UTMB viral virology virus viruses Source Type: blogs
