All Blog Posts (1,644)

Colleagues,

Please find below a press release announcing the contribution of the JANUS graphical user interface  to the OSEHRA (Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent) code repository, OSEHRA Janus Announcement.  

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) funded OSEHRA was launched last fall and now has over 900 software developers, programmers and researchers using…

Colleagues,

Thank you to MedTechIQ member Neal Neuberger for bringing this important article to our…

Have you ever thought that the doctor wasn’t listening to you? Didn’t seem to understand what was important to you? Was talking in medical speak but not in a language you could understand? That he or she gave bad news to you and left you hanging as to what to do next? Unfortunately, these are all too common. 

Medical advances such as new drugs, imaging devices, operating room technology and others are coming rapidly and greatly expanding what can be done for patients. But concurrently…

Is it possible that health care can become more effective, more personalized, more attuned to real health and wellness in a manner that truly benefits you the customer? 

At the recent health and wellness conference celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine there was a panel discussion moderated by Center director Brian Berman, MD on the topic of health care of the future. Here are some excerpts from the comments made by…

Can integrative medicine add value to standard western practices? Some would say absolutely not; others point to new scientific evidence that demonstrates the value of specific modalities in specific situations.

Health care is complex, expensive and often depersonalizing. It shouldn’t be. At the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine, the staff focuses on evaluating and involving complementary medicine into traditional…

Genomics Part 4 -- Medical Megatrends

Are you concerned about a family history of heart disease? Or cancer? Worried that you genes will be your fate? We know that good dietary habits are generally good for us but can foods affect our genes? The new science of nutrigenomics suggests that they can.

Nutrigenomics is about using what you eat to change your gene expression (meaning how your genes function) to optimize your health.

Nutrigenomics is the science of how bioactive…

Medical Megatrends – Genomics Part III

Genomics promises to fundamentally change much of medical care as described in the two prior posts on this subject.  But the ultimate value of this new understanding of basic human biology will in many cases come with fits and starts. The saga of belimumab (Benlysta) and Human Genome Sciences is illustrative.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) occurs in somewhere between 300,000 and 4 million Americans according to the…

In the previous post I discussed the field of pharmacogenomics. Today I will focus on

            Disease classification

            Disease prognostication

            Early and rapid diagnosis

            Prediction of diseases to develop later in life

Genomics is proving to be very valuable in disease classification, especially with cancer. A pathologist’s evaluation looking at a microscopic slide has been the basis for most cancer…

A new daily blog on diet-food-lifestyle-therapeutics, diagnostics, exercises and services to elevate the human condition provide  better healthcare, preventions and outcomes

There are a series of medical megatrends outlined in my book The Future of Medicine – Megatrends in Healthcare that will profoundly affect health care in the coming five to fifteen years and beyond. Some are due to the explosion of basic understandings of cellular and molecular biology. Others are related to advances in engineering and computer science. Here is a very brief overview. 

These are the megatrends in medical care that are…

Colleagues,

Do you need a good incentive to exercise? Check out this set of pictures. They may well surprise you.

Tis is not a typical topic for MedTechIQ but it is relevant to all of us. I just turned 70 so I am going to the gym after I post this.

We all know we should exercise. It feels good during and we feel even better after. We know it burns calories and that our bodies were meant to be used. But all too many of us are sedentary; it just the result of modern life.…

Colleagues,

Without a doubt, MedTech-IQ member, Dr Bertalan Mesko (Berci for short) is one of our leading lights in charting the course of social media and medicine, internationally.  He is now making available his online curriculum for training in social media, medicine and healthcare - for free ... Bravo!

Thank you Berci! 

Please see his announcement and links to the course below, and…

For a parent of a child with cystic fibrosis, a new drug that could eradicate symptoms could be a God send. The same could be said of a parent of child with Angelman’s syndrome. For a patient with lung cancer, a drug that is more than marginally effective would be wonderful. And for a person with early Alzheimer’s or their loved ones, a drug that might actually reverse the disease would be incredible.

New drugs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regularly.…

Many harbor the concept that the recently passed reform legislation – The Patient Access and Affordable Care Act – will mean even greater advances in medical science.  This is a misconception.

The reform bill is all about access to care – getting those without insurance to get insurance either through the commercial market place or through Medicaid. This will create at least 31 million more individuals with Medicaid, will keep young adults on their parent’s insurance for a…

Colleagues,

For your information, and in the continuing quest to capture the 3C's of Content, Community and Collaboration, please find the following on the Open Source Electronic Health Record effort to which I have devoted substantial effort to in recent months.

ENJOY!

Conrad "CC" Clyburn…

There are many misconceptions about health care and medical care. This includes the discussions over the last few years about healthcare reform but is not limited to those discussions. I plan to write about these over the coming days and weeks in some detail. Here is the first one. “American has the best healthcare system in the world.”

One of the first problems with this statement is that we really have a medical system in America not a healthcare system. We focus on…

Some 80% of healthcare costs go to just a few very serious complex chronic diseases including the likes of diabetes and heart failure. But these are all largely preventable with lifestyle adjustments. Unfortunately, we Americans are an over fed (on non-nutritious diets), under exercised, chronically stressed population with 20% of us still smoking. One third of us are frankly obese and another one third are overweight. 

Health care costs could plummet if we could only become a health…

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Advanced Study Institute

Invisible Wounds

New Tools to Enhance Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Diagnosis and Treatment

June 18 – 28, 2012 | Ankara, Turkey

http://www.interactivemediainstitute.com/IW2012

The Interactive Media Institute and the Virtual Reality Medical Institute…

A decade ago there was much hope and hype for gene therapy. Then came the death of Jesse Gelsinger , an 18 year old, as a result of uncontrolled infection from the viral vector used to insert the gene change. That led to a near total stop of gene therapy clinical trials and the development of multiple new regulations, especially multiple levels of extensive reviews. 

Now some new developments are coming to fruition and there is some legitimate reason for enthusiasm that gene therapy…