Nov 27, 2010

Not Your Type?.... Don't Sweat It

          A new technique can convert type A and type B red blood cells into type O, the "universal donor" blood type that can be transfused into all patients. The advance could help avoid blood shortages.
The four primary human blood types--A, B, AB, and O--arise from differences in molecules called antigens that dot the surface of red blood cells and provoke responses from the body's immune system. Individuals with the type A antigens make antibodies to type B antigen, which causes their bodies to attack and reject transfused type B blood as foreign. The same grim scenario unfolds for type B individuals who get type A blood. Blood from type O individuals lacks both antigens and can be safely transfused into people with all four blood types. Type O individuals can receive only type O blood, however, which means that during blood shortages, they may want for blood that’s been donated to patients with other blood types.

Nov 24, 2010

The PlayStation Purpura

           A 16-year-old boy presented with a number of asymptomatic pigmented macules on the volar aspect of his index fingers. Dermoscopy of each macule revealed a parallel ridge pattern of homogenous reddish-brown pigment.
  • We propose that these lesions were induced by repetitive trauma from a Sony PlayStation 3 (Sony Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) vibration feedback controller. 
  •  The lesions completely resolved following abstinence from gaming over a number of weeks. Although the parallel ridge pattern is typically the hallmark for early acral lentiginous melanoma, it may be observed in a limited number of benign entities, including subcorneal haematoma.

Reference:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20695869

Nov 20, 2010

Licia Ronzulli brings her baby to EU Parliament

           Licia Ronzulli, an Italian member of the European Parliament, embraces motherhood while voting on proposals to improve women's employment rights. But she had a 7-week-old infant that, presumably, she didn’t want to leave for long in case she had to nurse.


women_parliament_1
   So she did what I would do in a heartbeat: strapped the kid to her in a Moby and went to work. She claims she didn’t expect so much attention. (Do I believe that? No. Do I care? Double no. I’m on Team Licia!)
The 35-year-old member of the People of Freedom party (a conservative party) was a nurse, then a hospital director, before running for office. She won her seat last year, and now that she’s heard from so many people regarding her baby-toting adventure, she says she’s going to get together with other members of the European parliament to see if they can create legislation to improve the lives of working mothers.

Nov 16, 2010

Yale Univ. Study finds Video/Computer Games Not so Bad for Teens

Objective 
Video game playing may negatively impact youth. However, the existing literature on gaming is inconsistent and often has focused on aggression rather than the health correlates of gaming and the prevalence and correlates of problematic gaming.


Methods  
We anonymously surveyed 4028 adolescents about gaming and reported problems with gaming and other health behaviors.  
  • A total of 51.2% of the sample reported gaming (76.3% of boys and 29.2% of girls).


Results 
There were no negative health correlates of gaming in boys and lower odds of smoking regularly; however, girls who reported gaming were less likely to report depression and more likely to report getting into serious fights and carrying a weapon to school.

Nov 13, 2010

"This is How Medical Patients of the Present Should Look Like " the Warrel Co Says

           [To me, the most enthralling idea presented in the following massively important project you’re about to experience is this: “I don’t think of myself as the Patient of the Future – it is the perspective of the providers that puts me in this box of the Patient of the Future – I’m a patient of the present!” This project / video presentation is called “Design We Can All Live With” and it is about how a Minneapolis-based design firm is aiming toward a better patient-based healthcare system through technology right this moment.]
         This firm goes by the name “Worrell” and this solution session aims at a situation based in a technological world, but a world that intimately connects doctors with their patients. This presentation shows an epic talk between design professionals working with Worrell and one doctor and one patient. They of course represent the greater whole, expressing the wants and needs of the entire community.
This talk represents the past few years of Worrell talking with patients in their homes and at the medical office and hospitals about their needs, the needs of what Worrell knows are stakeholders in the medical world.           
          Worrell is an industrial design firm that works in interactive and medical technologies and has been for the past 35 years – they’ve been working on this particular project for the past four or five.
The images you see below in the gallery and later in the movie are of a set of technologies called “Pathway.” These web powered devices will not only store and keep current your medical records, they’ll aid in providing you, the patient, with helpful information like articles on your condition sent directly from your doctor.
Take a look at this video “Design We Can All Live With” and be completely inspired and excited for not the future of medical care, but the soon-to-be present!

Air Jordan Prosthetics

             3D printing has become an incredibly powerful tool to customize one-off products for differing applications. This project was based on using this technology to design a customized prosthetic leg for a specific user- a young, urban, male athlete. Nike was chosen as an appropriate brand to bring form to the leg. It also required familiarizing oneself with the emotional, medical, lifestyle, and physical changes the user would encounter.






Source: http://yankodesign.com
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Friendship Paradox

  • The friendship paradox is the phenomenon first observed by the sociologist Scott L. Feld in 1991 that, for almost every person, that person's friends have more friends than they do.  In spite of its apparently paradoxical nature, the phenomenon is real, and can be explained as a consequence of the general mathematical properties of social network graphs. However, it may also be the cause of a number of social misconceptions.
  • The paradox is explained by the fact that one is more likely to be friends with someone who has more friends and less likely to be friends with someone who has fewer friends.
  • This observation has been used as a way to forecast the course of epidemics.
Source: wikipedia.com
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Nov 11, 2010

Who Can Benefit from PinHole Glasses?

  •  Pinhole glasses, also known as stenopeic glasses, are eyeglasses with a series of pinhole-sized perforations filling an opaque sheet of plastic in place of each lens.
  • Similar to the workings of a pinhole camera, each perforation allows only a very narrow beam of light to enter the eye which reduces the size of the circle of confusion on the retina and increases depth of field. In eyes with refractive error, the result is often a clearer image.
  • Unlike conventional prescription glasses, pinhole glasses produce a clear image without the pincushion effect around the edges (which makes straight lines appear curved). While pinhole glasses are useful for people who are both near- and far-sighted, they are not recommended for people with over 6 diopters of myopia. 

Sleep Well - Wireless Blood Glucose Monitoring Device

         Sleep Well is a wireless blood glucose monitoring device concept, designed aiming to eliminate the sleepless nights of parents with the tension of getting their kids glucose level down to the extreme level. The system comprises a portable and lightweight monitor with an ability to take wireless signal that parents keep with them and a wearable bracelet monitor that remains fastened on the child’s hand to transmit the health condition to the monitor. This monitor allows the parents to check their kid’s health without even leaving her bed and can be set to trigger an alarm when the blood sugar level of the child crosses a particular height.         
          Moreover, parents can easily review their child’s nightly activities during the middle of the night at their bedside convenient. If an emergency situation takes place, they can rush to their child’s room with the monitor to perform the aid that has to be taken based on the information displayed on the monitor.
sleep well


sleep well

Futuristic ICU Beds

icu bed conceptThe aim of ICU Bed is to assist in improving the quality of intensive care of patients in very critical condition thanks to its innovative design solution for Intensive Care Units and Anesthesiology and Resuscitation Units. Design of ICU Bed was developed by Daniel Pavlik as project in cooperation with Linet company. Main intention was to create modern, almost futuristic, unified design which matches all strict safety standards. Combination of white and light gray color is chosen not only because of its aesthetic harmony but also because of its hygienics qualities (dirt could be better seen on white surface). Well the result is indeed a futuristic ICU bed, hopefully this doesn’t make the patients afraid to lay there or feel trapped inside those transparent frame.

Nov 3, 2010

International holidays and observances - November 2010

  • November retained its name (from the Latin novem meaning "nine"
  • November is a month of spring in the Southern Hemisphere and autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Therefore November in the Southern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of May in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa.

Home vs. Hospital Birth

           A constant small, but clinically important, number of American women choose to deliver at home. Contradictory professional and public policies reflect the polarization and politicization of the controversy surrounding this birth option. Women opting for home birth seek and often attain their goals of a nonmedicalized experience in comfortable, familiar surroundings wherein they maintain situational control. However, home deliveries in developed Western nations are often associated with excess perinatal and neonatal mortality, particularly among nonanomalous term infants.
          A home birth in developed countries is an attended or an unattended childbirth in a non-clinical setting, typically using natural childbirth methods, that takes place in a residence rather than in a hospital or a birth centre, and usually attended by a midwife or lay attendant with expertise in managing home births.
  • Women with access to high-quality medical care may choose home birth because they prefer the intimacy of a home and family-centered experience or desire to avoid a medically-centered experience typical of a hospital or clinical setting.
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