10. Our broken healthcare system defeats even the most empowered patients
Jess Jacobs and Donna Cryer are experts on the healthcare system — professionally and personally.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Jacobs has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, and describes it best in her own words:
I have an idiopathic condition. It lies somewhere between the heart, autonomic nervous system, and mind. It’s a veritable no-mans land of drugs and specialists where there’s no cure and very little understanding.
I’m healthy enough to have a day job advising the people that chart the course of American health policy.
Cryer was diagnosed with IBD as a teen-ager and received a liver transplant in her twenties. She has a law degree and has worked with the FDA, PCORI, and the NIH. She runs her own consulting company to help pharmaceutical, biotech, and diagnostic firms work with patients and physicians.
Both women spoke in June at the XXinHealth event in Washington, D.C., and both told absolutely awful stories of hospital stays and completely uncoordinated care. Click here to continue reading this story.
9. Four types of data analytics that providers are using to improve population health
At the same time healthcare IT vendors are expanding their big data armories to help providers, particularly accountable care organizations, mine claims and clinical data to get a better sense of patient outcomes, performance and how and where they can reduce costs. As more providers convert from paper to electronic records, they are working with health IT vendors that can help them produce a more accurate assessment of their patient populations to mine patient data to help predict outcomes. Click here to continue reading this story.
8. Croatian company launches teddy bear that can take your blood pressure
Teddy the Guardian, the first smart toy with built-in medical sensors, is a stuffed animal made of organic materials that can measure a child’s vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and temperature, then send it to a mobile device. According to the product site, the founders’ visionary goal is “to create a platform that would enable parents to communicate with their children when they are not old enough to have a cell phone.”
Kiddos and mommies can even order custom-designed bears, offering a unique design element to this already unique smart toy. Click here to continue reading this story.
7. Stethoscope gets some cool design innovations
Although there have been a few design tweaks since then, like adding some flexible tubing and creating the means for both ears to hear heart sounds, they have been relatively conservative. But this week saw two interesting design additions that could make the stethoscope an even more efficient and cost saving device — one cleared by the FDA.
A medical device startup called Rijuven Corp in Wexford, Pa., received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the first stethoscope accessory. MobiHealthNews reported the CardioSleeve is a clinical decision support tool to help doctors evaluate heart murmurs. It can record, display and analyze electrical and acoustical footprints of the heart in real time. Users can transmit the recording to and from a wirelessly connected portable device, according to a company statement. Its description suggests that it could amplify subtle heart sounds that might be missed either because of a lack of experience or subjective hearing.
Click here to continue reading this story.
6. A potential breakthrough toward a cure for type 1 diabetes?
On its Vector blog, the hospital called attention to a study published earlier this year in the journal Diabetes that identified a certain pathway in the body as the cause of type 1 diabetes. A team led by Dr. Paolo Fiorina from the hospital’s nephrology department studied hundreds of pathways in animals with diabetes and isolated one, ATP/P2X7R, as a trigger of T-cell attacks on the pancreas that inhibit its ability to produce insulin. Click here to continue reading this story.
5. Your rash – via the iPhone. A teledermatology business goes mobile
Teledermatology is one telemedicine segment that’s been growing, helped by store-and-forward technology that allows users to take a picture of a rash or skin irregularity, upload it and sending it to a dermatologist
In a nod to the growth of mobile apps for dermatology, Iagnosis has developed a mobile platform for its DermatologistOnCall platform with help from Newton Consulting, according to a company statement. Instead of uploading and forwarding images from computers, users can do the same thing from their mobile devices. It’s also improved the user interface. Dermatologists and patients can send direct messages back and forth as a follow-up to diagnosis, treatment and consulting. Click here to continue reading this story.
4. 3 things that must happen for patient-centered care to become the standard
But there are some key things that need to happen before patients will really be able to sit at the center of their healthcare experiences.
On this week’s TEDMED Great Challenges live chat, panelists from various corners of care weighed in on how to shift the paradigm from one that asks, “What is this disease?” to, “Who is this person?” Click here to continue reading this story.
3. Could a 3-D printed cast become a disruptive medical device?
But after fracturing his arm, one industrial design graduate used a 3-D printer to produce an exoskeletal brace. The result is an innovative concept for fixing broken bones that, if nothing else, has presented an interesting case for rethinking the traditional cast.
Victoria University graduate Jake Evill created the brace prototype with a homemade 3-D printer and nylon plastic.
In an interview with Wired magazine, Evill said the inspiration for his Cortex design came from the trabecular, a structure that forms the inner tissue of a bone.
Click here to continue reading this story.
2. Swapping the ER for an e-visit: ‘Modern-day house call’ startup gets $3 million investment
In fact, a company called Stat Health Services estimates that two of three ER visits are for minor medical conditions that could be treated via telemedicine.
Aimed at relieving crowded ERs, saving time and reducing the cost of emergency care, Stat Health Services created a virtual ER portal where patients can go for on-demand attention from a doctor without leaving their home.
Click here to continue reading this story.
1. Read the handwritten ER doctor’s note that’s gone viral on Reddit
In February, Reddit user mcharb13 posted a photo of a handwritten note from a doctor that he said has changed his life. It’s a condolence note that was sent to his father by an emergency room physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital who had treated his mother, he told the Huffington Post. His mother had breast cancer and died several hours after being taken to the ER.
In the note, the doctor explains that this is the first such note she’s written in 20 years of ER work (the name of the doctor was omitted from the photo, but Redditors seemed to think it was a female, based on the handwriting.) Click here to continue reading this story.
