Monitoring brain injury biomarkers and glucose variation in patients who have suffered an acute cranial injury during the entire first week of hospitalisation can provide a more accurate picture of the pathological process. This is according to a paper by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in The Lancet Neurology. It is hoped that… Read More »

A special kind of genetic test that helps determine the best antidepressant for patients with moderate-to-severe depression could generate substantive health system savings and greatly improve patient outcomes, according to new research from the University of British Columbia. The study, published today in CMAJ, shows that in B.C. alone, implementing pharmacogenomic testing could save the… Read More »

If anesthesiologists had a rigorous means to manage dosing, they could deliver less medicine, maintaining exactly the right depth of unconsciousness while reducing postoperative cognitive side effects in vulnerable groups like the elderly. But with myriad responsibilities for keeping anesthetized patients alive and stable, as well as maintaining their profoundly unconscious state, anesthesiologists don’t have… Read More »

Receiving a clot-busting drug in an ambulance-based mobile stroke unit (MSU) increases the likelihood of averting strokes and complete recovery compared with standard hospital emergency care, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, UTHealth Houston, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and five other medical centers across the United States. The study, published online in the… Read More »

Artificial intelligence (AI) — of ChatGPT fame — is increasingly used in medicine to improve diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and to avoid unnecessary screening for patients. But AI medical devices could also harm patients and worsen health inequities if they are not designed, tested, and used with care, according to an international task force… Read More »

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers conducted a statewide survey of all patients on breathing machines in hospitals and long-term care facilities and found that a significant percentage of them harbored two pathogens known to be life-threatening in those with compromised immune systems. One pathogen, Acinetobacter baumannii, was identified in nearly 31 percent… Read More »

A UCSF telecare program that improves outcomes for patients with dementia and lightens the load for unpaid caregivers also has the surprising bonus of cutting Medicare costs, according to UC San Francisco research. In the study, publishing in JAMA Internal Medicine on Sept. 18, 2023, researchers, led by UCSF, compared the Medicare costs of 780… Read More »

Up to an hour after their hearts had stopped, some patients revived by cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) had clear memories afterward of experiencing death and had brain patterns while unconscious linked to thought and memory, report investigators in the journal Resuscitation, published by Elsevier. In a study led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine,… Read More »

An international study led by the Coma Science Group of the University of Liège (BE) and involving more than ten institutions has tested transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on a large number of patients suffering from consciousness disorders following severe brain injury. These results represent a significant advance in how we care for these patients… Read More »

What initiates chemical intolerance (CI)? In a newly released survey of thousands of U.S. adults, respondents most frequently cited exposures to biological sources, such as mold and algae “blooms,” and/or fossil fuels, their combustion products and synthetic chemical derivatives such as pesticides, plastics and persistent organic pollutants. It’s an issue in the news, as toxic… Read More »

For many patients, the internet serves as a powerful tool for self-education on medical topics. With ChatGPT now at patients’ fingertips, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, assessed how consistently the artificial intelligence chatbot provides recommendations for cancer treatment that align with National Comprehensive Cancer… Read More »

Constant monitoring of vital health signs is needed in a variety of clinical environments such as intensive care units, for patients with critical health conditions, health monitoring in aged care facilities and prisons, or in safety monitoring situations where drowsiness can cause accidents. This is now mostly achieved via wired or invasive contact systems. However,… Read More »

In the future, artificial intelligence will play an important role in medicine. In diagnostics, successful tests have already been performed: for example, the computer can learn to categorise images with great accuracy according to whether they show pathological changes or not. However, it is more difficult to train an artificial intelligence to examine the time-varying… Read More »

A new test revealed that FDA-approved antibiotics — available at your neighborhood pharmacy — can effectively treat superbugs. They are not prescribed, however, because the gold-standard test predicts they will not work. The new test may improve the way antibiotics are developed, tested and prescribed — and it is openly available to all. The research… Read More »