Healthcare

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 04 oct 2013

A company is building on the research done by Dr. David Baltimore and his team at California Institute of Technology to engineer immune cells to cure diseases from inside. They have currently tested the process on mice. Challenge is to control and stabilize inner manufacturing to produce correct amount of cells for the right period of time depending on the treatment requirement. According to the company there is a possibility to recreate biochemical environment of youth. Read on...

New Scientist: Mini drug factory churns out drugs from inside bone
Author: Linda Geddes

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 04 oct 2013

Advancements in mobile communication technologies like mobile phones, smartphones, tablets, PDA's etc are creating new dynamics in the healthcare delivery processes. MOVINGLIFE project is the European Union's effort towards research and understanding of the issues related to Mobile eHealth that would benefit healthcare providers and consumers. The project developed roadmaps for technological research, implementation practice and policy support. The project also studied and assessed the best practices and standards in developed and developing countries and even consulted experts from Brazil and India. Read on...

CORDIS: New mobile health provision services that could change your life
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 sep 2013

Scientists are combining two existing technologies - spray based coating of nanoparticles developed by the team led by Dr. Paula Hammond of MIT and nanoparticle manufacturing technology called PRINT (Particle Replication In Non-wetting Templates) platform developed by researchers led by Dr. Joseph DeSimone of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Dr. William R. Kenan Jr. of North Carolina State University - to mass produce uniform nanoparticles with customized layers of material that can carry drugs or other molecule for variety of uses in drug delivery, vaccines, wound healing etc. According to Dr. Paula Hammond creating highly reproducible batches of precisely engineered coated nanoparticles is important for the safe manufacture of drugs and regulatory approval, specifically in case of cancer therapies. This combination of two technologies shows great promise for the future of nanomanufacturing. Read on...

Nanotechnology Now: Nanoparticles, made to order - inside and out: New research enables high-speed customization of novel nanoparticles for drug delivery and other uses
URL: http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=47767
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 05 aug 2013

Team of researchers from Northumbria University led by Dr. Stuart English, a specialist in design-driven innovation, in collaboration with a private firm have come up with world's first home-based and non-invasive treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy (diabetes related eyesight problems) in the form of a 'Sleep Mask'. The prototype is undergoing clinical trials. The global diabetic population is estimated at 320 million and its growth is considered as epidemic. The Sleep Mask will have a significant impact on the care method of macular eye disease due to its low cost and non-invasive nature. Most available treatments for the disease are very expensive, highly invasive and hospital-based like laser and injections into the eye. Read on...

News-Medical: 'Sleep Mask' prototype - The world's first non-invasive treatment for sight loss
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 jul 2013

Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is a patient focused group of healthcare providers that uses a payment and care delivery model that is accountable for quality, cost, efficiency and overall care of the assigned community of patients. This new trend in the healthcare industry has created opportunities for innovation in some sectors and challenges for others. On one side are the payers and providers where the financial and care delivery models have initiated innovations with visibile benefits while on the other are biopharmaceutical and medical technology companies where demonstrating value of their innovations is becoming challenging. Some of the ways in which ACOs are catalyzing a shift in the healthcare innovations are - Transitions from broad-based innovations to targeted and customized patient-centric solutions; Emerging patient engagement technologies like tele-health, mobile-health, health information & coaching tools etc; Increasing use of evidence based medicine and clinical guidelines that leads to efficient and cost effective utilization of therapies and technologies and initiates collaboration and partnerships between manufacturers, providers and payers. Some challenges for healthcare innovators include - Concern that ACO might prefer a less costly therapy over an expensive innovative therapy that is new in the market where long term benefits are unclear; Expected decrease in funding for academic research as it would be difficult for academic medical centers to compete on cost with other providers; Incentivization mechanism applied by ACOs to prefer certain therapies over others and how it effects access of innovative and appropriate therapies to patients. For the long term success of ACOs and their potential benefit to consumers all the stakeholders of the healthcare industry have to overcome the various challenges with a collaborative approach to finding innovative healthcare solutions. Read on...

Health Affairs: Accountable Care Organizations And Innovation - A Changing Landscape
Author: Erin Bartolini

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 24 jul 2013

Healthcare IT firms from US have global opportunities but there are number of challenges and issues that have to be addressed through agreements with different nations. According to Vickie Yates Brown of University of Louisville Foundation, health information privacy is one of the main challenge that US health IT firms face while operating globally. She says that US Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is inapplicable outside of US and that adversely affects US companies that perform medical research internationally. President Barack Obama's current administration is pursuing policy to increase exports through National Export Initiative. Read on...

Business First: Health IT firms have global opportunities
Author: David A. Mann

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 17 jul 2013

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology is finding numerous applications in the healthcare industry that have potential to improve health outcomes and assist to reduce ever increasing healthcare costs. The technology found initial applications in retail industry to track and manage products, people and assets automatically. In healthcare industry RFID is currently used - to track staff and improve efficiency; to track patients; for medication authentication and control; for medical asset management and prescription; for facilities management and document tracking; to control drug counterfeiting; for maintaining hand washing protocols; for surgical asset management particularly while performing operating procedures. Although costs to acquire and implement RFID technology are high but its overall long term benefits for healthcare providers are substantial. Moreover its encouraging that RFID in healthcare is estimated to be a US$ 2.1 industry by 2016. Read on...

Healthcare Global: Enhancing The Healthcare Supply Chain With RFID
Author: Abigail Phillips, Pooja Thakkar

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 16 jul 2013

Team of scientists led by Dr. Takashi Imai at Japanese research institute RIKEN, have developed an innovative technique to remove the opacity of the mouse brain and make it transparent. They use a special mixture of fructose (sugar) and other harmless chemicals to achieve this. Earlier research by Dr. Kwanghun Chung of Stanford University has created a solution to make the preserved mouse brain transparent but it required highly dangerous chemical substances, had more complications in the process and took longer time to get brain invisible. The transparent brain provides better and more clear way to study and examine the brain architecture and will assist scientists in exploring the causes of various mental disorders like Alzheimer's disease and depression. Read on...

Medical Daily: Scientists Make Brains Transparent, Version 2.0: Faster and Safer For Research
Author: Nsikan Akpan

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 16 jul 2013

Dr. Michael Woodley of Umea University in Sweden, Dr. Jan te Nijenhuis of University of Amsterdam and Dr. Raegan Murphy of University College Cork, in their study on human intelligence suggest that since the Victorian Era human IQ is on a decline and may have reduced by 14 IQ points among westerners. They used the data of visual reaction time (RT) obtained from the experiments conducted between 1800 and 2004. According to them higher RT indicates slow mental processing and therefore less intelligence (1800: RT 194 milliseconds, 2004: RT 275 milliseconds). Researchers also suggest a negative link between IQ levels and fertility in women, infering that women with less children have higher intelligence. Read on...

PC Advisor: Graphene battery tech - charge your smartphone in 20 seconds
Author: Enozia Vakil

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 15 jul 2013

A healthcare entrepreneur provides innovations and technologies that will transform the future of healthcare. He predicts - (1) Democratization of medical knowledge for both providers and consumers (2) Transparent meritocracy amongst doctors with peer assessments and ratings on various parameters (3) Consolidated and standardized patient's health information (4) Cost savings and efficiencies with system-wide implementation of technology innovations (5) Speed of advancement in medical knowledge and limitless possibilities of 'big data' (6) Technology enabled care interactions and improved doctor-patient relationships (7) Healthcare technology innovations will give rise to industry transformational business models with large monetization potential. Read on...

Venture Beat: 7 predictions for the future of health care technology
Author: Sean Mehra

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