Posted in biotech/medical, health
With the Monsoon rains comes many infectious diseases that can pose health risks, such as mosquito-borne malaria and dengue.
Early suggestion for a likely diagnosis can save lives. However, many infections share the same symptoms and clinical findings. The combination of a detailed patient anamnesis, physical examination, and laboratory data is therefore a prerequisite for identification of the likely cause.
In a paper published in Science Advances, an international team led by deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen, reveals the discovery of sequence variants in the gene ABCC9 that influence the pitch of voices.
Speaking is one of the most characteristic human behaviors, and yet the genetic underpinnings of voice and speech are largely unknown. In the first study of its kind, the scientists combined speech recordings from almost 13,000 Icelanders with data, in the sequence of the genome, to search for common variants in ABCC9 that are associated with a higher-pitched voice.
The scientists found that ABCC9 variants associate with higher voice pitch in both men and women. The same sequence variants are also linked to higher pulse pressure, a cardiovascular risk factor, highlighting links between voice pitch and health-related traits.
Visits with a 24/7, co-payment-free telemedicine program established by Penn Medicine for its employees were 23% less expensive than in-person visits for the same conditions, according to a new analysis published in the American Journal of Managed Care.
Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that the per-visit costs for the telemedicine program, called Penn Medicine OnDemand, averaged $380 while in-person encounters in primary care offices, emergency departments, or urgent care clinics during the same timeframe cost $493 to conduct, a $113 difference per patient.
“The conditions most often handled by OnDemand are low acuity—non-urgent or semi-urgent issues like respiratory infections, sinus infections, and allergies—but incredibly common, so any kind of cost reduction can make a huge difference for controlling employee benefit costs,” said the study’s lead researcher, Krisda Chaiyachati, MD, an adjunct assistant professor of Medicine at Penn Medicine, who previously served as medical director of Penn Medicine OnDemand and now is the physician lead for Value-based Care and Innovation at Verily. “This research shows the clear financial benefits when hospitals and health systems offer telemedicine services directly to their own employees.”
Dr. Moss and his son Ben discuss the most important cancer and general health-related topic of all, SUGAR, and the problems it has caused in their lives as well as for more than 50% of adults in the United States and other industrialized countries. They share their personal experiences and the science that clearly connects sugar to cancer, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.
Program Notes:
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Artificial intelligence has entered our daily lives. First, it was ChatGPT. Now, it’s AI-generated pizza and beer commercials. While we can’t trust AI to be perfect, it turns out that sometimes we can’t trust ourselves with AI either.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Peter Koo has found that scientists using popular computational tools to interpret AI predictions are picking up too much “noise,” or extra information, when analyzing DNA. And he’s found a way to fix this. Now, with just a couple new lines of code, scientists can get more reliable explanations out of powerful AIs known as deep neural networks. That means they can continue chasing down genuine DNA features. Those features might just signal the next breakthrough in health and medicine. But scientists won’t see the signals if they’re drowned out by too much noise.
So, what causes the meddlesome noise? It’s a mysterious and invisible source like digital “dark matter.” Physicists and astronomers believe most of the universe is filled with dark matter, a material that exerts gravitational effects but that no one has yet seen. Similarly, Koo and his team discovered the data that AI is being trained on lacks critical information, leading to significant blind spots. Even worse, those blind spots get factored in when interpreting AI predictions of DNA function. The study is published in the journal Genome Biology.
Artificial intelligence has proven itself useful in reading medical imaging and even shown it can pass doctors’ licensing exams.
Now, a new AI tool has demonstrated the ability to read physicians’ notes and accurately anticipate patients’ risk of death, readmission to hospital, and other outcomes important to their care.
Designed by a team at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the software is currently in use at the university’s affiliated hospitals throughout New York, with the hope that it will become a standard part of health care.
Posted in biotech/medical, health
To learn more about nose and sinus cancers, we spoke with head and neck surgeon Ehab Hanna, M.D.
What are the symptoms of nose and sinus cancers?
Early symptoms often mimic those of more common conditions, such as sinus infections and allergies. As a result, these cancers are often misdiagnosed.
A team of researchers have created a 3D reconstruction that reveals the face of Egyptian King Tutankhamun.
In 1922, British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered the almost intact tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings. This find received worldwide media coverage and sparked a resurgence of interest in ancient Egypt.
Tutankhamun’s reign has been the subject of much speculation. While the abundance of artifacts found in his tomb has provided a wealth of information about the boy king, a number of mysteries regarding his life and death persist, including the state of his physical health.
According to 81% of hospital CIOs surveyed by my company, security vulnerability is the leading pain point driving legacy data management decisions. That’s no surprise as healthcare continues to rank as one of the most cyber-attacked industries year over year. In a study by the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), 80% of healthcare organizations reported having legacy operating systems in place. Cybersecurity in healthcare is increasingly becoming a chronic condition.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which measures risk to critical national infrastructure, says legacy software ranks as a dangerous “bad practice.” That’s because the use of unsupported or end-of-life legacy systems offers some of the easiest entry points for bad actors to gain access and cause havoc within a medical environment. With the average price tag for a healthcare data breach at an all-time high of $10.1 million, the overall cost to a breached organization is high in terms of economic loss and reputation repair.
To fortify defenses against cyberattacks, here are some tips for addressing out-of-production software in healthcare facilities.
Fluoridated water at recommended levels reduces dental cavities by 25%, emphasizing the importance of maintaining fluoride levels for effective caries prevention. Most water systems comply with safety standards, providing the full benefits of fluoridation.
