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MIT experts develop AI models that can detect pancreatic cancer early
Researchers at MIT’s CSAIL division built two machine learning algorithms that can detect pancreatic cancer at a higher threshold than current diagnostic standards.
FDA approves AI-powered software to detect diabetic retinopathy
30.3 million Americans have diabetes according to a 2015 CDC study. An additional 84.1 million have prediabetes, which often leads to the full disease within five years. It's important to detect diabetes early to avoid health complications like heart disease, stroke, amputation of extremities and vision loss. Technology increasingly plays an important role in early detection, too. In that vein, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved an AI-powered device that can be used by non-specialists to detect diabetic retinopathy in adults with diabetes.
Apple will open its own medical clinics for employees
Apple is launching its own medical clinics called "AC Wellness," in a move that will allow it to take employee healthcare into its own hands. Following similar news about Amazon's venture with Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, Apple plans to offer what it calls the "world's best health care experience" to workers. It quietly published a website for the venture with a careers page seeking a primary care doctors, nurses, an exercise coach, "care navigator," and on-site lab test personnel.
New York prescriptions go digital to combat opioid abuse
On March 27th, New York State residents will no longer need to decipher their doctor's terrible handwriting, thanks to a switch from paper to electronic prescriptions. The new phase is part of a 2012 law called I-Stop aimed at slowing the massive prescription medication addition problem. According to the state officials, the number of deaths related to Oxycodone, Hydrocodone and other opioid meds nearly quadrupled to 1,227 between 2004 and 2013.
Researchers battle a deadly lung problem with meds, computer models
It doesn't take a whole lot to stop the tiny air sacs in your lungs from doing their jobs -- trauma, a nasty case of pneumonia or sepsis could lead to what's called Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a situation in which your blood doesn't get all the oxygen it should. ARDS can be tricky to treat even on a good day, but that's where the big brains at the University of Michigan come in. Researchers there have cooked up a way to model how liquid medication surges and diffuses throughout the lungs, and breathed new life into a treatment that others had all but given up on in the process.
Google trial lets you chat with doctors when you search for symptoms
Searching the web for symptoms of illness can be dangerous -- you could identify a real condition, but you also risk scaring yourself for no reason through a misdiagnosis. Google might have a solution that puts your mind at ease, though. The company has confirmed to Engadget that it's testing a Helpouts-style feature which offers video chats with doctors when you search for symptoms. While there aren't many details of how this works in practice, the search card mentions that Google is covering the costs of any chats during the trial phase. You'll likely have to pay for virtual appointments if and when the service is ever ready for prime time, then. That's not ideal, but it could be much cheaper than seeing a physician in person. [Top image credit: AP Photo/Craig Moore]
Boston Children's Hospital preps surgeons with custom 3D-printed models
Undoubtedly, 3D printing has taken root in a variety of disciplines, and medicine is no stranger to leveraging its tool kit. At Boston Children's Hospital, surgeons are using printed models to prep for the operating room. "With 3D printing, we're taking a step that allows experienced doctors to simulate the specific anatomy of their patients and allows the best of the best to become even better," says Peter Weinstock, MD, PhD. Dr. Weinstock is working on an in-house service that's capable of constructing the models in short order. Using scans from the hospital's radiology department and a 3D printer capable of super high-resolution output (16 microns, to be exact), the models allow doctors to examine details of a baby's skull or brain. What's more, the machine can use multiple materials to sculpt the final result, simulating the unique facets of bone, skin and blood vessels individually. For surgeons-in-training, the custom-made prints can illustrate the details of a medical condition rather than an average look.
HealthTap Prime lets you video call a Doctor whatever the hour
Unless you're rich, run a hospital or have medical professionals in the family, it's not likely that you have instant access to a doctor whenever you need. That's why HealthTap is joining the growing field of telemedicine apps that, for a monthly fee, will let you video chat with specialists as and when you require. HealthTap Prime will cost you $100 per month for the first person, with each additional person in the family requiring a $10 monthly surcharge. There doesn't appear to be any limits on how many times you can contact a doctor with the service, but if you didn't stop calling to ask if something looked infected, then expect to land on some sort of blacklist.
IBM's Watson uses Jeopardy skills to become House-like medical diagnostician
IBM's Watson hasn't been in medical school long, but he already has two jobs. Teaming with the Cleveland Clinic, Big Blue researchers have developed WatsonPaths, a diagnosis and education project, and Watson EMR Assistant, a tool for delving deep into medical records. WatsonPaths is the more ambitious of the two, drawing on question-answering skills acquired from its Jeopardy days to examine medical cases from all angles. It'll gather data from journals, texts and on-the-job training, helping doctors improve differential diagnoses and create better treatments. When first deployed, WatsonPaths will be used as a classroom training tool after physicians have decided what's wrong with a patient, but doctors can already see its real-world potential as a clinician. Researchers are also taking advantage of Watson's natural language talents to scour medical records with the Watson EMR Assistant project. The goal is to analyze unstructured patient records -- which can easily pass 100MB over a patient's lifetime -- with "a deep semantic understanding of the content." That'll take a lot of the grunt work out of parsing such data, letting physicians more easily see the relationship between clinical concerns, lab results and medications in order to provide better care. Despite all that prowess, Watson will mostly remain a learning tool and research project pending further development at the clinic. If the researchers are thinking primary care, however, they may want to bump its people skills.
Physicians who use mobile apps prefer iPhones and iPads
A recent survey conducted by Black Book Rankings reveals that physicians are increasingly relying on mobile apps in their daily practice. The trend is somewhat attributable to the Affordable Care Act which provides incentives to doctors and hospitals to digitize Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and make them available via mobile devices. As a result, physicians are now using mobile applications in their practice more than ever before. Some functions of medical-based mobile apps include the ability to remotely view and update charts, coordinate schedules and appointments, place lab orders, access patient records and even prescribe medication. The study found that amongst physicians who use medical mobile apps on smartphones, 68 percent use iPhones while 31 percent use Android-based devices. Perhaps not surprisingly, this preference for iOS extends beyond the smartphone realm and includes tablets as well. The survey found that 59 percent of physicians who use mobile apps do so on a tablet device, and from within that group, most prefer the iPad. That the iPhone and iPad are the preferred devices amongst physicians isn't all that surprising given the number of hospitals that are increasingly incorporating iOS devices into the work place. Back in April, for example, we reported on a hospital in Los Angeles which began deploying FaceTime-equipped iPads in its neonatal intensive care unit as a means to facilitate communication between mothers and newborns when face-to-face interaction isn't yet possible. Such scenarios can arise when a new mother has post-operative complications or an infection which may put the newborn infant at risk. Just yesterday, we also reported on how one hospital was able to recoup its investment in iPads in just nine days. Lastly, it's worth pointing out that Apple has a special page on its website highlighting how a prominent Canadian hospital has successfully deployed iPads as a means to help doctors and nurses perform important tasks and increase the overall level and efficiency of care. Physicians at The Ottawa Hospital have started using iPad in innovative new ways. They can use the built-in iPad camera to photograph a patient's wound during treatment, and store the image in the patient's electronic medical record for future reference. Using iPad, physicians can show patients the progress of their recovery right at the bedside, Dr. Geiger notes. "I can say, 'Here's what your wound looked like three weeks ago.' I'm showing them what it looked like then and what it looks like today." iPad fits physicians' workflows in many ways, Potter says: "The form factor of iPad is very attractive. The screen size is optimal. There's almost instant access to information. Battery life exceeds the length of a shift. It's critically important for a physician to be able to know that they can rely on that device, work for an entire shift, and provide the same level of care to all their patients." The video below highlights how The Ottawa Hospital has been using iPads to improve patient care. It's well worth watching.
Daily Update for April 29, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
How Apple's mobile devices are re-defining medicine
The New York Times examines how Apple's iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad are changing the way the health industry works. Of course, a light, powerful, and simple touchscreen computer can be handy almost anywhere, but that's especially true in the field of medicine. Much of the work involves reference materials and careful measurements, and Apple's little devices are quickly becoming many doctors' first step in helping patients. From huge reference books slimmed down into easy-to-access apps and websites, to special accessories designed to measure specific patient conditions. In fact, the Times notes, some professors of medicine are cautioning their students to remember that they have more tools at their disposal than just that iPhone in their pocket. Examining and dealing directly with the patient is always a priority, obviously, and some doctors in the piece say certain tasks just call for a good old fashioned pen and paper. But Apple's iOS devices are certainly great tools to be used in the medical field, as we've seen before. Apps and accessories both, in conjunction with Apple's great computers, are just adding more and more weapons to doctors' growing arsenal of tools to do their jobs.
Sony unveils first medical-grade OLED monitor, surgery gets rendered in all-too-vivid color
OLED screens are virtually everywhere, and they're steadily getting bigger, but it was tough to find any in hospitals until now. While Sony's 25-inch PVM-2551MD might not have the most glamorous name, it's the first and only OLED monitor with FDA approval for use in surgery. No, it's not just to give the doctor something more pleasing (or disgusting) to look at while she's removing a gallstone -- the organic display can be a genuine help for surgery through the higher contrast, virtually non-existent blur and more faithful color reproduction versus the LCDs it's meant to replace. Us patients likely won't see the now-shipping 2551MD for much longer than it takes to go unconscious, so it might be hard to appreciate; if it helps surgeons finish operations faster and with fewer mistakes, however, we could all reap the rewards.
McGill University student plan provides healthcare to rural areas with Windows Phone and Win 8
Those of us living in metropolitan areas don't think twice about our ease of access to medical care, but those in rural areas don't enjoy such easy access to a doctor. Abhijeet Kalyan and Shravan Narayan from McGill University in Canada are aware of this problem, and came up with a way for doctors to diagnose and treat patients from afar. Called Project Neem, it's got a hub and spoke organizational structure that puts a healthcare worker in every village and leverages the power of Windows Phone to connect them with medical staff in distant cities. Participating healthcare workers are given basic medical training and a handheld loaded up with a custom app that identifies patients by scanning their national ID card and stores their pertinent medical info -- from temperature and blood pressure readings to a variety of symptoms. The app has a virtual human body on board that lets users tap parts of the anatomy to bring up a series of symptoms that can be selected to provide treating physicians with the info they need. That information is stored in the cloud and accessed by doctors through a Windows 8 app, who then can relay appropriate treatments to the local healthcare worker. Now all we need is someone to make a real-world tricorder, and we'll truly be able to bring medical care to the masses, wherever they may be.
New medical iPad platform reduces patient check-in time
NIIT Healthcare Technologies of Orlando, Florida introduced a mobile platform that'll speed up check-in times, improve communication and help process payments for hospitals, physician offices, clinics and laboratories. Called MASH for manage, analyze, sustain and harness, the product lets patients and doctors use mobile devices that tie into the facility's backend infrastructure. Patients can check-in autonomously using a tablet and describe their injury or illness, enter health insurance details or even navigate the halls of the facility. This information is then sent to the appropriate medical department which is alerted to the patient's arrival and to the business office for payment processing. This system is already installed in Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster California. "MASH's ability to reduce the waiting time and paperwork in our ER will provide our hospital with life-saving and cost-saving technologies," said Humberto Quintanar, CIO of Antelope Valley Hospital. [Via mobihealthnews]
MacPractice introduces an iPad app to go with its healthcare software
We've mentioned MacPractice a couple of times before -- professional software for the Mac designed to be used by doctors and dentists to do things like track patients' appointments, keep and share health information, and do all the things a small-to-mid-sized health clinic needs to do. We were able to meet up with MacPractice's CEO Mark Hollis this week at Macworld | iWorld 2012 here in San Francisco, and he chatted with us about the company's latest venture: A new iPad app called Clipboard that's designed to work directly with the MacPractice software to help doctors get and log their information remotely. Hollis says developing for the iPad has been an interesting task for his company. Traditionally, he says, most doctors want bigger screens on their desktop computers. The MacPractice software is full of information (about scheduling, patients, charts, and so on), and so the desktop software has been designed to show as much of that information as possible. Most desktops it's used on also have bigger screens, which means anyone using the software can easily view or find whatever they need, clearly and quickly. The iPad, however, while more portable, is a relatively small screen. So while many, many doctors, says Hollis, have asked for access to MacPractice through the iPad, the company has has to think carefully about how to provide the best experience. There is already an interface app that allows doctors to access information, and there are a few other apps for various purposes and specialties. But the Clipboard app is designed to take on the much-requested feature of allowing patients to enter and approve their information, so it was a tough one for Hollis and his company to get right. Another obstacle to implementing iPad apps as quickly as doctors can use them is simply all of the various security and privacy protocols that MacPractice needs to follow. Patient and medical information is obviously very sensitive, and there are a whole host of guidelines and standards, required by law in many cases, that MacPractice needs to follow to make sure its apps are certified and can be used by medical professionals. Hollis says that most of the issue there is that MacPractice has to build in those standards by itself -- Apple doesn't have an official part of the iOS API, for example, designed to deal with medical certification. "It would be helpful," says Hollis, if Apple did provide some official code to help deal with those issues. But for now, MacPractice has to make sure its own apps are valid, and that takes time and effort, obviously. Finally, Hollis mentioned Parallels Mobile as another option. Parallels is a completely separate virtualization app from a completely separate company, but the iPad version of the software, which lets you control and interact with apps remotely running on a separate desktop computer, allows doctors to really get into everything MacPractice can do for them, even when they're not at the desk. If you do want to run the app locally on your iPad, however, the Clipboard app will be available for $9.99. It's currently in beta, and will be available for MacPractice users soon. Obviously, if you download the app itself, it won't do much without the MacPractice system set up around it, but Hollis does say that it will at least have some sample data included, so anyone who downloads the app can at least see what the functionality is like. MacPractice has been an excellent tool for doctors and physicians for a long time, and the company is making a big drive to make sure that tool is available on iOS as well.
BioWare's docs: Free-to-play can't invest and create at our level
If BioWare's not in a war against the free-to-play business model, it certainly is skirmishing with the notion that F2P is the only way to go. In speaking with our sister site Joystiq, BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk defended the traditional subscription model by saying that it not only works but allows dev teams to achieve games on a larger scale. Zeschuk mentioned that it was simply a case of the right business model for the right game: "I'm not saying it's better or worse. It just doesn't supplant the other things. 'Cause we can do some things no one else can. The free-to-play people can't invest to the level we can invest, and can't create something of the size and scale of something we can create." Even with its love of the subscription model for Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare is open to free-to-play where it sees fit. Muzyka dropped a tantalizing hint as to the company's F2P aspirations: "We have some other stuff we haven't announced yet coming from our play-for-free team that I'm really excited about. It's gonna bring back some IP that people have a lot of fond memories around."
Doctors list why they love Apple products, and miss Steve
It's no secret that the iPad is a hit in the healthcare industry, but doctors love more than just the sleek tablet. A study earlier this year showed that a full 75 percent of US physicians owned some sort of Apple device. In a post Wednesday on MedPage Today, blogger Iltifat Husain tabulated the reasons that doctors love their Apple products, and why they mourn the passing of Steve Jobs. Husain listed three main reasons: Simplicity, solid build quality and uniformity. In terms of simplicity, Husain mentions that so many medical devices and systems are functional, but poorly designed and often difficult to use. Having Apple devices in their lives gives them something to appreciate, not only because doctors are working around complex devices the rest of the time, but because their profession is so complex as well. When it comes to solid build quality, Husain said Apple devices extend the solidity of well-built medical equipment into the personal devices carried by physicians. Husain's word about Apple products sound like a love letter: "The feeling of a Macbook Pro confers this; just compare the aluminum unibody hardware build to the majority of plastic casing laptops -- it's a completely different experience. This type of comparison extends into the smartphone and tablet arena as well. The iPad and iPhone 4 have a clearly superior build quality compared to their competitors." The third reason, uniformity, deals with the user experience -- if you know how to use an iPhone, you immediately know how to work with an iPad. Husain notes that physicians don't have a lot of free time to sit around and figure out how to use new devices and "We don't want to root a mobile phone (Android), just so we can take off the silly skins that a manufacturer throws on so that we can get a better user experience." Doctors want something that just works, and that's something that late Apple CEO Steve Jobs intuitively understood.
New high-precision eye surgery robot helps doctors stay sharp
A researcher at the Netherland's Eindhoven University of Technology has invented a new type of eye surgery robot designed to steady the ophthalmologist's hands and minimize error -- always a good thing when it comes to having needles and knives near your peepers. Kind of like an Igor to a mad scientist, the robot is considered a "slave" to its "master" doctor, who controls the automaton's arms using two joysticks. The doctor is still in charge of the cuts, but the technology makes sure the MD jabs that needle in at the exact same entry point each time without shaking to minimize ocular marring. Another notable feature is the robot's ability to switch between tools quickly, ensuring that if this whole doctor thing doesn't work out, it'll at least have a job at Hibachi waiting. Jump past the break to check out the full PR.
Researchers say nanorockets could deliver medicine quickly within the blood
Faster delivery is always better when it comes to pizza, Thai food and now... drugs? Doctors seem to think so as they're experimenting with a new method of delivering medicine to the bloodstream via tiny nanotubes powered by rocket fuel. By storing healing meds within the platinum-coated metal tubes, doctors have been able to propel the tiny vessels up to 200 times their own length per second -- faster than swimming bacteria. It works as such: by introducing a hydrogen peroxide/water solution, the platinum reacts, sending it zipping forward and catalyzing the peroxide into water and oxygen. The downside? Even though the fuel is only .25 percent peroxide, it's still slightly toxic -- so it looks like it's back to the drawing board until they can develop a safer alternative. Spiders, perhaps? Check out the video demonstration after the break.
