A new study by Western Sydney University researchers has found that a short 15–20 minute discussion between a local endocrinologist and general practitioner (GP) in Sydney's south west is improving the care of people with complex type 2 diabetes.

Published in the International Journal of Integrated Care, the three-year study is the first evaluation of "patient-free" diabetes case conferencing—a model where, with the patient's consent, an endocrinologist visits a GP practice, alongside a practice nurse or diabetes educator, to collaborate on the care of patients to develop a joint management plan for the patient.

The study found blood glucose (HbA1c), blood pressure, weight, as well as other cardiovascular risk factors all improved following the three-year trial involving more than 600 patients with type 2 diabetes from 40 general practices across south western Sydney.

Blood glucose results substantially improved between 2017 and 2020, with more than a third (37%) of patients within the target range compared with just one in five (20%) before the program.

In addition, more than three quarters (77%) of patients were recording systolic blood pressure within the target range on follow-up, compared with less than half of patients (47%) in 2017.

Co-author Professor David Simmons, Head of Endocrinology at Campbelltown Hospital and from the University's School of Medicine said the study found the model made a significant contribution to diabetes management in primary care settings.

"Diabetes is a significant health issue in south western Sydney and it is critical we work together to find more effective, integrated and streamlined ways to manage patients and Excellerate outcomes," said Professor Simmons.

"The findings from this study show how a collaborative discussion between a GP and endocrinologist where the patient is not present, can be one of the most effective integrated diabetes care interventions.

"This can allow the GP to continue to care for the patient in the practice, avoiding the need to see an endocrinologist in person. The collaboration also helps build the GP's expertise in managing their other complex patients and the endocrinologist learns more about the patient from the GP which facilitates truly patient-centered care."

The findings add to the evidence suggesting that case conferencing programs can help close the gaps in service provision such as barriers between different settings, Excellerate the patient experience by accommodating more complex cases in primary care and reduce duplication of care.

Co-author Ms. Reetu Zarora, a Ph.D. student at Western Sydney University, highlighted how the model of care doesn't just save time and resources in primary care settings but also has a positive impact more broadly on the health system.

"This is a real win-win-win for patients, GPs and the health system: patients get specialist input into their care without any extra time or cost, GPs can continue to manage their patients using their extra knowledge, and the health system has less demand on hospital clinics, potentially reducing and preventing hospitalizations in people with complex diabetes compared with usual care. This should reduce diabetes-related health issues," said Ms. Zarora.

"In addition, the case conferencing model through the study was shown to be suitable in both urban and rural settings where a number of participating practices support large multi-ethnic populations with varying socioeconomic status.

"This points to the potential for broader applications of the model of care including in regions with resource restraints and diverse populations."

Keeping employees safe and healthy at work is the foundation of our profession. When someone is injured at work, the impact may create a ripple effect on their life. It can be difficult to quantify or understand the impact of an injury on workplace culture and on the injured person’s life outside of work.

Perhaps they can no longer do the things they love to do outside of work. Maybe they can no longer perform their job as well as they used to. It’s quite possible that a workplace injury can put an employee’s life on hold while they heal, recover and try to bounce back. Sadly, injuries sometimes have permanent ramifications.

In 2021, more than 2.6 million recordable injuries were reported by private industry in the United States alone. Nearly a third of those were due to overexertion. Manual ergonomic assessments are our traditional tool to reduce overexertion injuries. These are, unfortunately, time consuming and limited in scope. The inherent limitations make injury prevention challenging and cost prohibitive to deploy at scale.

Thankfully, technology has advanced in the coaching and assessment realms to the extent that new horizons for safety improvement are within reach.

The Problem with Traditional Ergonomic Assessments

When was the last time you had someone closely watch the work you were doing? What if they were taking notes on a tablet, making measurements of your movements and even taking photos or videos of your work? Do you think that you might try a bit harder or do things “the right way?”

Let’s say we conduct an ergonomic assessment on the first shift operator who happens to be a 5’10” male. Our calculations and hazard assessment is based on his interaction with the workstation, tools and process. What if the second shift operator is a 5’2” female? How might the operation present different risks for these two individuals?

These two basic illustrations highlight some of the challenges that we have faced since the beginnings of our profession:

• How might the risks change if we used a bigger data set instead of a moment in time?
• How might we efficiently understand the way multiple employees within a job role are performing the tasks?

Up until now, the best solutions to these challenges require significant time and effort. This means that ergonomic assessments are cost prohibitive for most organizations to leverage at scale.

But what if there’s another way?

Technology as a Tool for Proactive Injury Prevention

One new solution harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and quantify ergonomic risks in near real time. It automates measurement of an employee’s movements, the frequency at which they occur and identifies hazards exceeding preset thresholds. Imagine a visual, second-by-second angle of movement evaluation without having to use a protractor or make an educated guess. Videos from app-based AI technology allow safety professionals to gather big picture data over a longer period of time.

This solution enables safety professionals to scale their efforts across multiple facilities and locations without requiring as much travel and time away from home. We can cost-effectively collect ergonomic data from a group of employees for two weeks. We can also easily assess different employees performing the same job. Once this data is collected, it can be used in other ways as well—identifying trainers, best practices and improving standards of work.

What about Overexertion Injuries?

Imagine having an athletic trainer at an employee’s side coaching them into better body mechanics consistently over the course of several weeks. Do you think they would learn safer ways to perform their job duties?

While this type of on-the-job coaching might be an ideal way to reduce injuries, it is not a feasible solution for most companies to deploy at scale. There is no substitute for human interaction, but wearable devices are a game changer in this space! They can measure movements and provide real-time feedback to employees when high-risk movements such as bending, twisting, overhead reaching, or open arm push and pull are performed.

For safety professionals, the data collected from wearable devices provides a great opportunity to make our interactions with employees and supervisors more effective by the insights it can provide. A dashboard displays data for each employee wearing a device. Employees and managers can view the frequency of each type of hazard, where these hazards are happening (e.g., department, job roles) and pinpoint quickly where the risks of injuries are the greatest.

The Root Cause

While technology is opening new horizons of possibility to Excellerate the safety of our operations at greater scale and lower cost, it is, ultimately, just another tool in the safety arsenal. Technology alone is not going to solve problems. People need to identify and address the root cause of the problem. We all have a role to play, from safety professionals and managers to employees and executives with the power to approve spending and investment in engineering controls.

There is only so much time in a day, and safety professionals never have a shortage of priorities. The use of technology can be invaluable, making ergonomic assessments much less time-consuming, more interactive with employees and truly a proactive measure.

Envision a future where we routinely Excellerate culture and employee perception by giving employees the power to change the way they work for the better. How might a more collaborative approach impact morale and retention? Well, that’s a conversation for next time!

Heather Chapman is principal of Paradigm Safety and U.S. account manager of Soter Analytics. Her presentation on “Advancing Injury Prevention through AI and Wearable Technology” was delivered at EHS Today’s Safety Leadership Conference 2022.

The protein STAT5 has long been an appealing target against cancer, but after decades of research it was consigned to the "undruggable" category. Now, University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers have found success with a new approach.

By tapping into a cellular garbage disposal function, researchers found they could eliminate STAT5 from cell cultures and mice, setting the stage for potential development as a cancer treatment.

STAT5 plays a key role in how some blood cancers develop and progress. But efforts to identify a small molecule inhibitor to block STAT5 have been stymied. Previous research efforts have found it challenging to design a drug to bind to STAT5 with a high-affinity, a measure of how well they fit together. Even when a compound was found to bind with the protein, it may not make its way into cell and tissue. It's also difficult to find a compound that inhibits STAT5 only without affecting any of the other STAT proteins.

Shaomeng Wang, Ph.D., Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor in Medicine and professor of medicine, pharmacology and medicinal chemistry at the University of Michigan, had another idea.

His lab has been working on a new drug development approach targeting protein degradation. This is a naturally occurring function within cells to get rid of unwanted protein. Think of it as the garbage disposal: When a protein is no longer needed to keep a body healthy, this mechanism removes the unwanted or damaged protein from the cell.

Using this approach, Wang's lab identified a protein degrader, AK-2292, that targets and removes STAT5. The compound was highly specific to STAT5 with no effect on other STAT proteins. It was effectively taken up by both cell lines and mouse models and was found to stop cell growth in cell lines of human chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and to induce tumor regression in mouse models of CML. Results are published in Nature Chemical Biology.

The protein degrader works by eliminating STAT5 proteins from tumor cells and tissues, unlike a small molecule inhibitor that would traditionally be designed to bind with the protein and interfere with its function.

"We've overcome some of the major issues that were barriers for scientists to target STAT5," Wang said. "People have worked in this field for the last 20 years, and there are no small molecules targeting STAT5 going into clinical development. This study shows us STAT5 can be targeted through a protein degradation approach. It's a new, exciting direction for developing a potential drug molecule targeting STAT5 for the treatment of cancers in which this protein plays a major role."

"This compound gives us a very solid foundation to do further optimization to identify a compound that we eventually can advance into clinical development," Wang added.

Wang's lab has been investigating protein degraders for several years and has a number of degraders in advanced preclinical development studies, which they hope will lead to clinical trials for the treatment of cancer in people.

To say that Sydney Sweeney is a busy woman would be a gross understatement. For the past few years, the actor has booked and filmed projects at a breakneck pace. From the HBO TV shows that led to her being double Emmy nominated in 2022 to highly-anticipated upcoming films like Madame Web, Sweeney remains booked and busy. If acting wasn’t enough, Sweeney also ventured into producing in 2020 by launching her production company, Fifty-Fifty Films. But how does someone with such a hectic schedule approach self-care?

What is Sydney Sweeney’s approach to self-care?

Sweeney may be a Hollywood star, but her self-care routine is pretty simplistic. She admits to being a bit of a homebody and loves curling up with a good book on a rare day off. A native of the Pacific Northwest, the Euphoria star has a true affinity for nature and is quick to take a hike or simply get outdoors when she needs to connect with herself.