No surgery!!!
Yesterday I went to the hospital to see an orthopedic surgeon who told me to use my left hand as much as possible from now on, so this morning I thought I’d give typing with two hands a try, even though my arm is still in a sling, of course, and I’m not supposed to move my left shoulder at all.
Yep, yep, yep, this works…for a short post, anyway…
The orthopedist told me that my fracture is borderline for surgery. I’d actually been told the same thing last Monday, so I knew surgery might be in the picture. Aggghhhh!!! For a moment, yesterday, I froze…
When I told her about my smoldering my...
Source: Margaret's Corner - May 29, 2019 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
I Reckon This Approach Is A Highhanded Outrage - What Do You Think?
This appeared a little while ago.My Health RecordWhat is My Health Record?My Health Record is an online summary of your key health information. When you have a My Health Record, your health information can be viewed securely online, from anywhere at any time and it includes information such as:AllergiesMedical conditionsTreatmentsMedicinesTest and scan results (such as blood tests and x-rays).Perth Children ’s Hospital contributes to Australia’s My Health Record system and is currently uploading information from five clinical applications: Patient Administration System (webPAS)Notifications and Clinical Summari...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - May 28, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
Can Digital Health Go Off-Grid And Still Save Lives?
What would you do without your smartphone or laptop for a week? Some cannot even imagine putting them down for a second, not thinking much of the vulnerability of our entire digital existence. What if a hurricane destroys the electric grid? What if power supplies will get cut off by unstoppable rain? What about a future dystopic scenario with our traditional energy sources depleted due to overconsumption? And what if we just look at less fortunate parts of the world where stable electricity service is a rare treasure? We collected some examples of how medicine could become more independent from the traditional electricity ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - May 25, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine Africa asia Caribbean development digital digital health Healthcare smartphone solar sustainability technology Source Type: blogs
Fracture!
This will be a quick post because I can type only with one hand. Reason: on Saturday, during a weekend trip with Stefano and friends in Maremma, a lovely area in southern Tuscany, I lost my balance while exploring an archaeological site and fell.
Hard.
On my left shoulder.
Bam!
We didn’t go to the local hospital because nothing seemed to be broken. I was in pain but could move my hand and even my shoulder a bit. I couldn’t lift my arm but we figured it was just because the muscles had taken a hit. We went to a pharmacy to get a painkiller and a sling for my arm, and that was that.
We kept on sightseeing, a bi...
Source: Margaret's Corner - May 21, 2019 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
FDA Clears Software to Spot Collapsed Lung in Chest X-rays
Zebra Medical Vision, an Israeli firm, landed FDA clearance for the HealthPNX automated chest X-ray analysis software that can independently spot signs of pneumothorax (PNX), colloquially known as collapsed lung. The software can help radiologists quickly and confidently identify the cause of a patient’s symptoms, allowing for emergency treatment to begin ASAP.
Due to a gas buildup within the pleural space, there’s a slight contrast gradient that appears on chest X-rays. This is hard to spot and requires a trained, keen eye. The HealthPNX system processes the digital X-ray image immediately after exposure and ...
Source: Medgadget - May 20, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Emergency Medicine Informatics Military Medicine Radiology Thoracic Surgery Source Type: blogs
Surgical Robot Autonomously Navigates Inside Heart
Transcatheter heart surgeries, particularly to repair failing valves, are now common in many high-end hospitals. Though the actual replacement procedure is not easy, navigating to the valve site through narrow vasculature and inside the heart is in itself a challenging task. Moreover, pushing guidewires and catheters through the vessels requires fluoroscope imaging, exposing patients and clinicians to X-ray radiation.
Now doctors and engineers at Boston Children’s Hospital have pulled off a remarkable feat, developing a robot that can consistently navigate a catheter to the site of a leaky heart valve, all on its own...
Source: Medgadget - May 2, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Cardiac Surgery Cardiology Source Type: blogs
We Went To A NATO Military Medical Exercise. Here ’ s What We Learned.
In Afghanistan, when we went out for a mission, the
thought always calmed me down that no matter what happens the medical team has
our back, says Lieutenant Colonel Dirk Mathes, currently Desk Officer at NATO’s
Headquarters to The Medical Futurist in the middle of a field somewhere close
to Craiova, Romania. We’re sipping coffee from white plastic cups, while some
military vehicles fire at imaginary enemies in the distance. A live firing
exercise is underway on the first day of the NATO Vigorous Warrior
Multinational Joint Medical Exercise. How did we end up there? Sometimes our
Editor-in-Chief was asking herself the s...
Source: The Medical Futurist - April 25, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine army exercise field medical military military medical NATO review technology telemedicine virtual reality Source Type: blogs
A New Way to Gain Additional Diagnostic Information from Radiology Images
I had previously thought that I had a good grasp of the term biomarkerwhen I posted a note about it more than thirteen years ago (see:Use of Term Biomarker vs. Analyte). The definition that I used at that time was:any molecular species found to provide correlation to a particular phenotype or perturbation of a biological system.Unstated at that time was that the molecular species was found in a biologic fluids like blood, serum, or urine. Now comes an article that upsets this definition but that makes a persuasive argument for doing so (see:U-M startup analyzes data from patient imaging files ...
Source: Lab Soft News - April 21, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Diagnostics Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Research Radiology Source Type: blogs
Electronic Vindication
Dilbert by Scott Adams, courtesy www.dilbert.comMy very first blog post as Doctor Dalai went online on 1/29/2005, beginning with a rant about ScImage lifted from one of my early AuntMinnie.com entries. In the subsequent fourteen years, my writing has become slightly more sophisticated (emphasizeslightly), but my basic premise has not wavered: PACS interfaces by and large are not as user-friendly as they could be, in other words, theySUCK. Forgive the epithet, but that is a very accurate statement, and most would agree.Most, but not the vendors. In browsing through my years of navel-gazing, I came across several entries whe...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - April 15, 2019 Category: Radiology Source Type: blogs
Combining Radiology & Physics in a Single Photograph
"The recent photograph of a black hole captured using various telescopes, complicated algorithms and data from NASA ’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, I was intrigued that how X-rays can be used to see inside our bodies as well as to visualize celestial marvels. This made me think that how sometimes the things which we don ’t know yet or the things which came into notice accidentally can help unravel so many more mysteries in the future. So, I thought of combining the two most iconic pictures in radiology and physics."Submitted by Aditya Saini, medical student from AIIMS Raipur.Famous Radiology Blog http://www.sumerdo...
Source: Sumer's Radiology Site - April 11, 2019 Category: Radiology Authors: Sumer Sethi Source Type: blogs
Data Annotators: The Unsung Heroes Of Artificial Intelligence Development
How do you create a smart algorithm? Where and how do you get the data for it? What do you need for a pattern recognizing program to work well and what are the challenges? Nowadays, everyone seems to be building artificial intelligence-based software, also in healthcare, but no one talks about one of the most important aspects of the work: data annotation and the people who are undertaking this time-consuming, rather monotonous task without the flare that usually encircles A.I. Without their dedicated work, it is impossible to develop algorithms, so we thought it is time to sing an ode to the superheroes of algorithm devel...
Source: The Medical Futurist - April 9, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Future of Medicine AI algorithm annotation data data annotation doctor Health Healthcare physician smart algorithm technology Source Type: blogs
Trocar during Times of Trauma
Seventy-five percent of trauma injuries involve some kind of thoracic insult, a quarter of which need a procedural intervention like a chest tube. (Surg Clin North Am 2007;87[1]:95; http://bit.ly/2HaoX90.) Long-term illness, lung disease, and post-operative complications may cause pleural effusions or a pneumothorax, so treating these conditions quickly can significantly decrease patient morbidity and mortality. Other indications for chest tube placement include:Trauma: Pneumothorax, hemopneumothorax, or tension pneumothoraxLong-term illness: Pleural effusion (cancer, pneumonia)Infection: Em...
Source: The Procedural Pause - April 1, 2019 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Understanding the hidden costs of Medicare Advantage plans
This article is part of an ongoing series of informative Medicare guest posts written by MedicareFAQ. - Carol
Saving month each month on a low premium plan can be great until serious health issues arise so it's important to know this: Medicare Advantage plans are seductive; there is little to no premium and most plans include ancillary benefits. It makes sense that beneficiaries would choose to enroll in a Medicare Part C option.
However, with a $0 premium on many plans across the nation, beneficiaries have asked: "What's the catch"?
Here's the catch: The out of pocket fee...
Source: Minding Our Elders - March 21, 2019 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
