Information that contradicts our firmly held beliefs makes us so uncomfortable that we may even try to avoid it. The psychological term for this is cognitive dissonance. So, I was not surprised by my skepticism when I read that the COVID-19 pandemic (the plague of the 21st century) may turn out to have a silver lining.
Several forums designed to promote community health in the region will bring people together to address public needs.
The first series of several in-person forums will include a presentation by Baystate Health, Health New England, the Public Health Institute of Western MA and other local voices.
Every three years, nonprofit hospitals across the country conduct Community Health Needs Assessments. Results are released at the end of the year.
Baystate Franklin Medical Center and Health New England will hold a forum Wednesday from 1-3 p.m., at the John W. Olver Transit Center, 12 Olive St., in Greenfield. Baystate Noble Hospital and Health New England will hold a forum Thursday from 1-3 p.m., at Westfield State University’s Scanlon Hall.
And Baystate Medical Center and Health New England will host another forum on Sept. 26, from 1-3 p.m., at Educare Springfield, 100 Hickory St.
Registration for each forum is required.
The forums have to purposes, said Brittney Rosario, senior community benefit specialist at Baystate Medical Center.
The forums will introduce the 2022 assessment results and highlight resources and organizations within the community that benefit public health, she said.
One purpose of the assessments is to identify and highlight inequities in social and emotional health in local communities, said Rosario. The latest assessment was completed at the end of 2022.
A common theme is the state of youth mental health and services, due to the impact of COVID-19, in addition to increases in gun violence, Rosario said.
During the forums, information will be presented from youth organizations and mental health coalitions around the region.
Information sharing is important, Rosario told The Republican.
Rosario said organizations like Baystate work to devise community-based solutions to issues like youth mental health and gun violence.
Annamarie Golden, director of community relations and community benefits at Baystate Health, wrote in a statement that Baystate seeks to ensure that its services and resources meet community needs.
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MILWAUKEE, Aug. 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- MediCardia Health Inc., the pioneering platform for data driven connected health has announced new state of the art analytics and data management capabilities to further enhance their intelligent digital medicine platform. "In an era marked by exponential technological growth, the healthcare industry is making significant strides in harnessing data-driven insights to revolutionize patient care and population health management as the industry transitions to value based care," said CTO David Geddam.
With the escalating volume of healthcare data generated daily, especially in cardiac care, the team saw the opportunity to leverage analytics to drive precision medicine through remote monitoring and virtual care. "This latest capability allows hospitals to triage patients based on risk and medical necessity and provides insights that help healthcare systems Boost quality according to value-based care measures, and scale remote monitoring and virtual care services to meet the demand of the growing population with chronic conditions that account for 2/3 of the US total healthcare expenditure," added CEO Indrajit Choudhuri, MD.
MediCardia is partnering with local and national clients to test and demonstrate the value of their unique analytics model and data driven insights that identifies risk and medical necessity in populations, as well as recommendations to Boost quality of care, acuity and cost.
About MediCardia Health
MediCardia is a technology convergence platform for connected precision health that maximizes quality and efficiencies while increasing revenue to drive the transition to value-based care. Leveraging cloud APIs, data from multiple disparate clinical sources is retrieved and integrated in real-time with EHR data. Advanced statistical methods and machine learning guide the user towards specific actions that are more likely to deliver the best outcomes and lower costs, all at the point of care.
Tel: 884-30-HEART
View original content to get multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/medicardia-health-inc-advanced-health-analytics-for-population-health-and-virtual-care-301908252.html
SOURCE MediCardia Health Inc.
There is no doubt that the pandemic has taken a huge toll on us over the past 3.5 years. Most experts estimate worldwide deaths at about 7 million. But the World Health Organization recently stated that the number of “excess deaths” is closer to 15 million. They argue that poor communication and record-keeping in many countries, and outright deception in others, including Russia, Brazil, India and especially China, resulted in inaccurately low figures. Their total also includes estimates of how fear, lockdowns and overwhelmed medical facilities resulted in deaths from other causes that remained untreated, as well as increased suicides and drug overdoses from the disruptions, isolation and stress of the pandemic.
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Then there are the more than 1 million people in the United States alone struggling with “long COVID.” These lingering and recurring symptoms are now being compared to those devastating conditions that emerged as long as a decade after the 1918-1919 pandemic. Some were left in a stupor, as depicted in the 1990 movie "Awakenings." Studies reveal that powerful viruses from then and now can wreak long-lasting damage far away from the original site of infection. This can include life-threatening effects on the brain, pancreas, liver and heart.
The pandemic took a toll on our lives in many other ways. It interrupted professional and academic careers, and isolated us at a time when we most needed each other. The pandemic also magnified our already intense political divisions as disputes arose around vaccinations, masks and shutdowns. But it turns out that it also triggered advances in biomedicine and related fields that are indeed impressive. A exact New York Times article was titled, “Suddenly, It Looks Like We Are in a Golden Age for Medicine.”
Breakthroughs in understanding ribonucleic acid (RNA) set the stage for the acceleration of innovations caused by the urgency to develop vaccines for COVID. It had taken decades to develop vaccines for killers like smallpox and polio, and even longer for childhood diseases such as measles and mumps. But new technologies enabled scientists to find ways of stimulating immune responses within weeks of identifying the virus. Then expenditures of work and money yielded unprecedentedly fast results that some calculate may have saved more lives than the number taken by the pandemic itself.
The breakthroughs resulting from this urgency and these large expenditures go beyond COVID itself. Vaccines will soon be available for such historically stubborn diseases as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Perhaps even more revolutionary is how these technologies are, for the first time, fostering hope in the war against cancer. There are already vaccines being tested for certain cancers, as well as other methods of enhancing the immune system to fight cancer’s ravages.
And COVID-enhanced research on the baffling complexities of our body’s immune system is leading to breakthroughs in dealing with the large array of life-threatening autoimmune disorders that result when it runs amok. When our body attacks itself, the results are painful, debilitating and life-threatening. The list of these disorders includes: multiple sclerosis, lupus, Type 1 diabetes, myasthenia gravis and certain forms of dementia. There are over 100 such diseases affecting more than 20 million Americans. Breakthroughs are also happening in regard to less life-threatening, but still serious autoimmune disorders like some forms of arthritis, eczema, anemia and stomach ulcers.
A related area of accelerated research has been the follow-up of the Human Genome Project. The project was an international scientific collaboration of unprecedented scope. It began in 1990 and its ambitious goal was to map out the more than three billion reference nucleotides contained in our human genetic heritage. Declared complete in 2003, there were still some codes to be sorted out. COVID-related breakthroughs have finished the job. Some applications will be game-changers. Genetic causes of such conditions as coronary heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, strokes, obesity and some forms of mental illness may soon be neutralized with genetic manipulations.
Many of us will never recover from the losses and wounds inflicted by the pandemic. The grief and trauma persist. Yet it is also true that we and those coming after us will reap the benefits of the medical breakthroughs engendered by our collective efforts to combat it.
Dr. Victor Garlock, a retired psychology professor at Cayuga Community College, is the author of “The Gift of Psychology,” a recently published collection of monthly articles originally published in The Citizen during the past six years. He is also author of the earlier book “Your Genius Within: Sleep, Dreams, and Hypnosis.” Dr. Garlock offers a limited number of personal counseling sessions at The Center, a holistic health center in Auburn. For information, call (315) 704-0319 or visit thecenter4wellness.com.
Medicine is a conservative field that approaches innovations related to artificial intelligence algorithms with great caution.
GenWorks
Modern technology has infiltrated clinical practices extensively by providing state-of-the-art solutions that help in healing serious medical problems. The FemTech devices generate a vast amount of data related to women’s health which helps in studying trends, patterns, and potential health risks that can eventually help healthcare professionals make informed decisions. Doctors use medical technology for advanced treatments so that diagnostic accuracy can be improved and medical procedures can be streamlined.
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GenWorks, one of the leading digital healthcare solution providers in India works to make healthcare affordable and accessible. Amongst many other services, the company also sensitizes an increasing number of women about the importance of FemTech by spreading the knowledge of diagnostics, products, and services to focus on women’s health. The company promotes devices for minimally invasive and non-invasive procedures such as The New Eva Pro (Digital Colposcope Powered by Al), Thermo Glide (Treating precancerous lesions with thermocoagulation), Braster Pro (AI-Enabled Breast Health Screening Device), TruClear Mechanical Hysteroscopic Tissue Removal System, Voluson Series Products (GE Ultrasound System decreasing maternal mortality rate) and many more.
On using The New Eva Pro, Dr. Leela, Gynecologist, and GyneOncologist said “The New Eva Pro is a portable device and it is easier to carry to camps as it helps extensively in saving images. The device is able to pick up pre-cancer for early treatment with this technology.” On the other hand, Braster Pro is an AI-Enabled breast health screening device that helps clinicians to detect breast cancer timely. Dr. Priya Ganesh Kumar shared how the device helps in case management and said, “A patient aged 46 years old had h/o pain in the left breast and axillary area. On examination, a small mass 2*1cm in size, nonadherent, mobile felt in the left lower lateral quadrant, provisional diagnosis made on CBE fibroadenoma. On visiting Sainiwas Healthcare, a Braster examination was done, with an AI Report showing Benign with no temperature difference. The process saved her life.”
Medicine is a conservative field that approaches innovations related to artificial intelligence algorithms with great caution. The FemTech devices help in fighting diseases that affect the majority of the world's female population. Dr. Artur Drobniak said “For me, the most important thing is growing awareness of patients about breast cancer prevention. In Poland, only 40% of the population of women over 50 perform mammography examinations. New solutions do not emit radiation and are painless. Braster is the so-called "good enough method" and is sensitive enough and cheap to test large groups of the population. It helps in detecting breast cancer earlier and treating it fully in those cases.”
Sharing her views on Braster Pro and Eva, Dr. Uma Maheshwari said “We use Braster for screening women extensively in our clinics as we do not have Mammo within 100 KM of our hospital. Early detection reverses the symptoms and also allows patients to become normal (No thermal changes) during follow-up scans. We also use Eva for cervical screening and Thermoglide to treat precancerous lesions. We have treated many women with precancerous lesions and this has prevented these from becoming cervical cancer.”
In IVF the key to improving first-time success is to ensure a proper diagnosis is done before assisted fertility. Dr. Chithra, a leading IVF expert in Rajapalayam says “Hysteroscopy is examining the inside of the cervix and uterus using a thin, lighted, flexible tube called a hysteroscope. With the new Truclear mechanical hysteroscope technology you can see and treat as against the conventional blind treatment methods, there is no need for anaesthesia and glycine, and more importantly, with the mechanical hysteroscope, you can see the uterine adhesions (fibroid or polyp) that affect conception, and also to treat immediately in the same sitting by removing such without affecting the uterine walls as in the other techniques that are harmful to the endometrium and end up burning or destroying the endometrial structure.
Dr. Malaraj, a senior IVF expert from Chennai says that “The procedure is very convenient and the key in IVF is to identify the problem in the uterus which can be anything from a polyp or a fibroid or infection or separated uterus, if we are able to identify early and accurately treatment is easy and in TruClear the significant advantage is it can be done in the same sitting as an OPD procedure without creating any complications. Identifying and treating this problem before the IVF procedure is the key to improving success rates and outcomes.”
Dr Madhubala, a senior IVF expert from Tirunelveli says that “TruClear is a true innovation that has a shorter learning curve and can be used by young experts. This technology while improving success rates in IVF also plays a significant role in saving the uterus in postmenopausal women by identifying and treating noncancerous lesions without having to remove the uterus which causes major hormonal and lifestyle complications.”
Dr. Samar Gupte, a consultant Gynaecologist and a Cancer Surgeon says “A digital colposcope helps with respect to many other traditional methods. It is compact, small, portable, and extremely easy to use as it helps to screen remote and far away areas. The biggest support this colposcope provides is that it’s completely paperless and works best with the Urban Elite group which expects their reports to be sent digitally and immediately. The colposcope also helps in picking extremely small lesions at an extremely early stage. Recently we saved a 28-year-old uterus and the credit goes to the promptness of the device.”
Promoting these FemTech devices, GenWorks aspires to make an increasing number of women aware of and embrace the importance of these devices. Women’s health has been overlooked for a long time and FemTech has the power to provide safe and early treatment options that help save their life. Mr. S Ganesh Prasad, Founder, MD & CEO, GenWorks said, “At GenWorks, we aim to ensure that women embrace self-care by offering them a wide range of healthcare accessibility and the FemTech devices we promote help in offering seamless healthcare care to women.”
For more information, please visit: https://www.genworkshealth.com
Smartwatches provide an easy way to keep tabs on your heart rate, get alerts on unusual cardiac activity, and even take electrocardiograms (ECGs). While you may be familiar with the fitness tracking features available on popular smartwatch models, you may not realize that these wearables include even more advanced health monitoring tools, including ways to notify emergency services during a major health event.
If your doctor has advised you to monitor your heart health or you're aiming for increased activity and health insights, it could be a great idea to invest in a new smartwatch. All smartwatches are not the same. We've found customer-loved smartwatches from Apple, Samsung, Garmin, Fitbit and more that offer the best heart health monitoring features.
Why a smartwatch with heart monitoring is important
Keeping a close eye on your heart rate is useful for a number of reasons. It can help you track how hard you're working out, help you manage chronic conditions and possibly even let you know when something is wrong.
If you're shopping for a smartwatch for heart health monitoring, it can be hard to know where to start. There are a ton of new features that can sound a bit complicated if you're new to heart monitoring. To help, we've compiled this guide to help you understand what to look for and which smartwatch will be right for you.
Best smartwatches for heart health monitoring
These smartwatches have the features you need to monitor your heart rate, take ECGs and more.
Apple Watch Series 8
The Apple Watch Series 8 is a durable smartwatch that is swim-proof, dust-proof and crack-resistant with advanced heart monitoring features. It has a number of health-tracking features, including an optical heart sensor, an electrical heart sensor for ECG, a blood oxygen sensor and a new body temperature sensor.
The watch offers continuous heart rate tracking and can provide notifications when your heart rate goes above and below a set range. Users can also take an ECG practicing by placing their finger on the Apple Watch crown and using the ECG app to check for irregular sinus rhythm. These readings are then saved in the Apple Health app.
The Apple Watch is equipped with an Emergency SOS feature. When enabled, the feature can detect falls and call and send your location to local emergency services. It can also be deployed by holding the side button. It also comes with a new crash detection feature, which detects where the wearer is in a severe car crash and alerts emergency services.
You can tap into yoga, meditation and other workout programs via Apple Fitness+. (Apple Fitness+ is a subscription service. It costs $9.99 a month; Apple Watch buyers get the first month free.)
Why we like the Apple Watch 8:
- Heart rate readings and ECG records are stored in the Apple Health app for easy access.
- It can sync with iPhones and other Apple products to share health data, messages and more.
- It comes with a built-in blood oxygen sensor and application.
- It can scan your health data to provide personalized heart rate zones for workouts.
- It continuously monitors your heart rhythm, whereas most other smartwatches require the user to manually begin an ECG reading.
- It can connect seamlessly with Samsung smartphones.
- Includes Fitbit health tracking features integrated into the smartwatch.
- It can be used to assess your heart rhythm for A-Fib with an ECG function.
- The Google Pixel Watch can detect falls and won't just notify you, but will sound an alarm alerting others around you.
- It can call emergency services.
- It includes a built-in Pulse Ox oxygen monitor, plus heart monitoring and stress-tracking features.
- It offers a wide variety of fitness features that many smartwatches don't have.
- It includes an up to a seven-day battery life.
- It offers high and low heart rate notifications.
- It allows users to take ECG readings with the Fitbit ECG app.
- It can provide a daily readiness score advising whether you're ready for exercise or should focus on recovery.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 offers ECG functionality when paired with a compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphone. You can take the ECG on your watch and then open the ECG report on your smartphone to dive into your data.
The Galaxy Watch 6 features an advanced bioactive sensor that collects more accurate data compared to prior generations. This data can be managed and tracked in the Samsung Health app. It also offers an advanced workout algorithm, heart rate monitoring and sleep-tracking technology.
The always-on heart monitoring features continually scan your heart rate and alerts you with a notification when it's detected an irregular rhythm that could be atrial fibrillation.
The Galaxy Watch 6 is available in 40mm and 44mm display sizes.
Why we like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6:
Google Pixel Watch
The Google Pixel Watch features a round face with customizable watch faces and tons of band options. It offers an all-day battery life, with up to 24 hours on a single charge. The wearable includes access to the Google Home App, so you can adjust your thermostat or connect to your smart home devices remotely. Users can play music, track fitness activity and receive notifications from their connected phone.
The Google Pixel Watch is the first Android smartwatch to include integrated Fitbit features. The watch's health features include heart-rate monitoring, workout tracking, sleep tracking and more. The watch includes fall detection. If a fall is detected, the watch uses sensors and machine learning to assess the impact. If no movement is detected after around 30 seconds, it alerts you with vibration, sound, and an on-screen message. Failing to respond with 'I'm ok' or 'I need help' prompts the watch to call emergency services, playing a message requesting assistance at your location.
The watch comes with a free six-month subscription to Fitbit premium and three months of YouTube Premium. The Watch comes in black, silver and gold.
Why we like the Google Pixel Watch:
Garmin Vivoactive 4S
The Garmin Vivoactive 4S uses Garmin's Pulse Ox technology to track your energy levels, respiration, menstrual cycle, stress, sleep, heart rate, hydration levels and more. It can stream downloaded music from Spotify and Amazon Music. When paired with your smartphone, the watch can receive notifications.
This is a great option for people who want to track just the basics. The smartwatch offers a wrist-based heart rate monitor and is also compatible with chest heart rate monitors (sold separately). You can view heart rate data on the heart rate widget.
This Garmin smartwatch features more than 20 preloaded GPS and indoor sports apps. Want a personal trainer on your wrist? This watch can show you animated workouts via your watch screen.
"It's the fitness [features] where Garmin really shines, and it tracks damn near every bodily function you have. Steps is just the beginning. Lots of pre-programmed workouts along with heart rate and Pulse Ox monitoring. Garmin just buries the competition in the fitness arena." wrote one Verified buyer on Amazon.
Available in a variety of colors.
Why we like the Garmin Vivoactive 4S:
Fitbit Charge 5
The latest in the Charge line from Fitbit, this well-equipped activity and health tracker packs advanced technology into a slender device and features a color touchscreen. The smartphone-enabled smartwatch can help you manage stress and stay on top of heart health and sleep.
When this Fitbit device detects your heart rate above or below your personal heart rate threshold, you can receive a notification on your compatible device. Tap Open, and then tap the notification in the Fitbit app to learn more about your data and complete a survey where you log any potential factors, medications and symptoms. You can use the information you log in the survey to then track your heart health trends and share it with your healthcare provider.
"The Fitbit was a method of keeping myself accountable for my actions, movements, and goals. Did I walk today? How am I sleeping? Am I moving enough to raise my heart levels? How is my stress? Was I active this week?" shared one Amazon reviewer. The Fitbit Charge 5 does a great job of answering these questions while also telling the time."
The Fitbit Charge 5 boasts a 7-day battery life on a single charge.
Why we like the Fitbit Charge 5:
Top features to look for in a smartwatch for heart monitoring
Here are some features to look for when evaluating smartwatch options for heart monitoring. These features can be useful for athletes, those with chronic health conditions or anyone that wants to track their heart metrics. None of these features or readings is a substitute for medical care or formal cardiological tests.
Heart rate monitoring
The most basic function to look for is heart rate monitoring. Almost all smartwatches and activity tracker include heart rate monitoring, but some include more advanced monitoring options like heart rate variability monitoring, stress tracking or heart rate alerts. Heart rate alerts can be adjusted based on your own normal resting and active heart rate (what is normal varies from person to person), to provide an alert if your heart is beating outside of it's normal range for a sustained period of time.
When combined with activity tracking, heart rate practicing can help you assess how hard you are working during a workout and how many calories you are burning. This is one of the more popular uses of smartwatch heart monitoring.
ECG capabilities
Many people aren't aware that smartwatches can take ECGs, but the Apple Watch has had ECG functionality for several generations and both Samsung and Google have started offering the feature as well. ECG stands for electrocardiogram (also called an EKG). It is a test that measures the frequency and strength of the electrical signals generated by your heart while it is beating and contracting. The purpose of this test is to check for abnormal cardiac activity such as atrial fibrillation (a type of irregular heart rhythm that occurs when the upper chambers of the heart are out of sync with the lower chambers).
This is a helpful monitoring tool for those with a history of or who are at risk for irregular sinus rhythm. However, it's worth noting that smartwatches does not check for heart attacks, so you should still always go to the ER if you experience unusual chest pain, as there are many cardiac events that will not be detected by any smartwatch. Those that get a practicing of atrial fibrillation should also seek appropriate medical care, as the watch is meant as a helpful monitoring tool and not a diagnostic test or replacement for traditional hospital ECGs/EKGs.
Fall Detection
Fall detection turns your smartwatch into a trendy, more high-tech Life Alert device. If the watch detects a fall it will give you the option to call 911 or a designated emergency contact or report that you are alright. If you don't clear the notification within a set period of time it will then automatically send an alert to emergency services or your emergency contact.
Fall detection isn't technically a heart health feature. However, if you or the person that you are shopping for need a heart monitoring smartwatch due to a cardiological condition that can lead to falls or fainting, it may help
Phone pairing and Health Tracking
You'll want a smartwatch that can either pair with your phone or provides a compatible mobile app to view data. This allows you to view reports on your heart rate, exercise activity, ECG readings, blood oxygen, stress levels and other recorded metrics. If you have an iPhone, you may prefer an Apple Watch 8 for easy pairing. Similarly, Samsung Galaxy smartphone users may get more out of a Samsung Galaxy Watch 6.
Related content from CBS Essentials:
The worlds of pop culture and advanced imaging technology intersected recently when Kim Kardashian promoted a commercial whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) service on social media as a tool to detect cancer and aneurysms.
The post attracted criticism from members of the medical community, who expressed concern about the lack of evidence for widespread use of this technology in people who are disease free.
Despite these concerns, the information provided by whole-body MRI scanning for mapping anatomy and function has great potential for helping us understand how changes in the brain and body are associated with health outcomes over the human lifespan.
Not new, but improved
Whole-body MRI scanning has been available for a decade or more. MRI uses strong magnetic fields to coax a signal from water molecules. Given our body is approximately 60% water by volume, MRI scans can be used to generate images over the length of our body. In a clinical setting, scans are then studied by radiologists who look for potential abnormalities.
Recent technical improvements mean detailed images of the body from head to toe can now be obtained in less than half an hour. This technique has been primarily used for cancer detection.
In Australia, whole-body MRI was recently added to the Medicare Benefits Schedule for people with a high genetic risk of cancer.
Despite the usefulness of whole-body MRI for cancer detection for high-risk people, there are concerns around widespread use of this technology in the general population without appropriate oversight by trained medical practitioners.
The risk of overdiagnosis
If an abnormality is detected in an otherwise healthy person, the significance of the abnormality is often unclear and treatment options may be limited. Anatomy can vary significantly between people and there is no ensure an unusual imaging finding has negative implications for an individual, particularly if the person does not have any symptoms of poor health.
The anxiety and potentially invasive investigations triggered by an MRI finding may have a negative effect on the person's overall well-being. In many cases, the stress may outweigh the health value of the discovery.
The scans are not cheap either. The whole-body MRI offered by Prenuvo in the United States and promoted by Kardashian costs almost A$4,000.
Despite these concerns, it is highly likely whole-body imaging will add to our understanding of how changes in the body contribute to healthy aging and the development of disease.
How parts of the body talk to each other
One potential application of whole-body MRI is to inform our understanding of the interactions between the brain and the rest of the body.
A multitude of studies demonstrate how the health of our brain and other organs are intimately linked. Body systems that interact with the brain include the gut and heart. The brain also partners with our musculoskeletal system and fat distribution in the body.
A number of Australian studies have used MRI to investigate brain-body connections, including work from the Personality and Total Health (PATH) Through Life study that shows optimal blood pressure is linked with healthy brain aging.
University of Melbourne research published earlier this year shows a number of chronic diseases are associated with accelerated aging of the brain and other organs. The study used artificial intelligence to predict the age of participants based on assessments of brain and body structure and function, and found an increased gap between a subject's brain or body age and their chronological age was associated with a range of poor health outcomes. They further identified networks of advanced aging patterns that spread from affected organs into other body systems.
The latter study is notable because it used data from the UK Biobank, a large-scale population study collecting health information from half a million participants aged 40 and over, including MRI scans of the brain, heart and abdomen in 100,000 subjects.
Studying healthy people to track changes
Other large prospective imaging studies include the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study which uses brain imaging and other assessments to track the development of more than 10,000 children in the United States beginning at age nine, and the German Rhineland study with a planned enrollment of 30,000 participants aged 30 or older.
A substantial number of people who will participate in these studies are healthy. Over time, some of the study participants will develop health issues. So these studies offer a unique opportunity to use imaging to identify markers for poor health outcomes. Investigation could lead to ways to prevent these issues.
One of the key challenges in these large-scale imaging studies is how to identify relevant changes on MRI scans. The standard approach of using a radiologist to visually review scans does not scale when studies recruit thousands of participants. Artificial intelligence methods are very well suited to the task of tagging brain and body structures on MRI scans, and one important use of these large studies is to develop AI-based image labeling.
An Australian-based study of similar scale would have the potential to deliver similar benefits for our population. And such large-scale research could help develop an evidence base to support or debunk the use of advanced technologies such as whole-body MRI scans for helping people maintain good health and identifying health issues as early as possible.
For the time being, more research is needed to fully explore the potential of whole-body MRI scanning. Meanwhile, there is a growing demand for a personalized approach to health care. And once something shows up in our social media feed it can be surprising how soon it's widely available.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Citation: Keeping up with advanced MRI: Kim Kardashian promotes whole-body scans. Could they be worth the hype? (2023, August 23) retrieved 24 August 2023 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-advanced-mri-kim-kardashian-whole-body.html
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Research proves that biases contribute to disparities in health care—leading to worse outcomes in pregnancy, cancer, and mental health for Black and Latino patients, for example. Elena Mendez-Escobar, MBA ’15, is on the front lines of fighting such inequities as co–executive director of the Health Equity Accelerator at Boston Medical Center (BMC) Health System.
The goal of the accelerator, she says, is to achieve racial health equity at BMC and establish a model that other institutions can replicate. “We are focused on improving outcomes,” says Mendez-Escobar, who is also BMC’s executive director of strategy.
A native of Spain, Mendez-Escobar earned her PhD in physics from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and then took a job as a consultant at McKinsey. There she found she enjoyed working on health-care issues, and McKinsey offered to sponsor her MBA. She was drawn to MIT by its mission of improving the world but says she got even more than she expected out of the Institute. “When you are at MIT, you can really pursue any passion in a low-risk way, and it can go much farther than you initially may have thought,” she says.
Mendez-Escobar’s passion was justice, given that she had experienced an uneven playing field herself as a woman working in theoretical physics and as an immigrant to the United States. At MIT, she shared her concerns about bias, and others in the community urged her to take a leadership role. That led her to help organize a conference on unconscious bias that is today known as the Hack for Inclusion at Sloan.
After MIT, Mendez-Escobar continued at McKinsey until the BMC opportunity arose in 2020. “This role really puts all my passions together. It’s about public health but also about addressing unfairness,” she says.
To root out bias, Mendez-Escobar and her team are diving into the data at BMC. Already, their research has linked many Black patients’ poor pregnancy outcomes (such as hemorrhage and renal failure) to racial disparities in the management of preeclampsia. “We found that the main way bias influences care is by contributing to delays in diagnosis or initiation of treatment for certain groups,” she says.
Now BMC is instituting new guidelines, providing workers with bias training, and educating patients. It’s an uphill battle, but Mendez-Escobar is happy to take it on. “Maximizing social impact is something I always knew I wanted to do, but I didn’t know it was possible,” she says. “At MIT, so many people made it feel possible.”
Numerous internal systems have been taken down by major Mississippi health system Singing River Health System following a cyberattack last week, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Despite the shutdown of certain internal systems following the detection of unusual network activity, SRHS disclosed that workarounds have been implemented to ensure the partial continuation of business operations amid ongoing efforts to restore offline systems. "Our IT security team is working around the clock, but due to the nature of this matter, this will take some time," said SRHS. However, no further details regarding the attack have been provided by a health system spokesperson, who only noted that all of the systems of SRHS have been taken offline. Such an incident comes amid ever-increasing attacks against the healthcare sector, which has prompted the Department of Health and Human Services to recently unveil the new Digiheals project aimed at bolstering cybersecurity technologies in healthcare. "Currently, off-the-shelf software tools fall short in detecting emerging cyber threats and protecting our medical facilities, resulting in a technical gap we seek to bridge with this initiative," said Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health Director Dr. Renee Wegrzyn.
