Archive for month: August, 2020

Physicists from the University of Sydney have devised a way to use diamonds to identify cancerous tumours before they become life threatening.
Their reveal how a nano-scale, synthetic version of the precious gem can light up early-stage cancers in non-toxic, non-invasive Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans.
Targeting cancers with tailored chemicals is not new but scientists struggle to detect where these chemicals go since, short of a biopsy, there are few ways to see if a treatment has been taken-up by a cancer.
Led by Professor David Reilly from the School of Physics, researchers from the University investigated how nanoscale diamonds could help identify cancers in their earliest stages.
‘We knew nano diamonds were of interest for delivering drugs during chemotherapy because they are largely non-toxic and non-reactive,’ says Professor Reilly.
‘We thought we could build on these non-toxic properties realizing that diamonds have magnetic characteristics enabling them to act as beacons in MRIs. We effectively turned a pharmaceutical problem into a physics problem.’
Professor Reilly’s team turned its attention to hyperpolarizing nano-diamonds, a process of aligning atoms inside a diamond so they create a signal detectable by an MRI scanner.
‘By attaching hyperpolarized diamonds to molecules targeting cancers the technique can allow tracking of the molecules’ movement in the body,’ says Ewa Rej, the paper’s lead author.
‘This is a great example of how quantum physics research tackles real-world problems, in this case opening the way for us to image and target cancers long before they become life-threatening,’ says Professor Reilly.
The next stage of the team’s work involves working with medical researchers to test the new technology on animals. Also on the horizon is research using scorpion venom to target brain tumours with MRI scanning.

University of Sydneyhttp://tinyurl.com/h8qj2ah

Singapore will once again play host to MEDICAL FAIR ASIA as it makes a much-anticipated return from 31 August to 2 September 2016 at a new venue

Older people are particularly at risk of water-loss dehydration – which is caused by not drinking enough fluid. It can lead to poor health outcomes such as disability and even death.
The best test for diagnosing dehydration, known as a serum osmolality test, is expensive and not currently viable for wide-scale NHS screening.
But new research published recently reveals how routine blood tests for sodium, potassium, urea and glucose could be used to screen for dehydration.
By putting the results of these tests through an osmolarity equation’, health professionals can tell whether an older person is drinking enough fluid.
Lead researcher Dr Lee Hooper from UEA’s Norwich Medical School said: ‘Around 20 per cent of older people living in residential care are dehydrated, and that figure rises to around 40 per cent among those admitted to hospital.
‘Older people often drink less than younger people for a variety of reasons. Loss of routine and fewer social contacts can reduce drinking. In some cases older people choose to drink less as getting to the toilet can be more difficult and take longer. It can be physically difficult to make, carry and drink a cup of tea when you get older – especially if you need a zimmer frame to walk about. And older people tend not to feel thirsty when they drink too little so their bodies don’t warn them to start drinking.
‘On top of all that – as our kidneys get older we are less able to concentrate our urine to preserve fluid, so the body’s ability to regulate its fluid balance slowly reduces.
‘Dehydration often goes unnoticed by carers, but it can lead to increased risk of hospital admission, urinary tract infections, disability and even death.
‘A serum osmolality test measures the freezing point of blood serum to show how concentrated a sample of blood is. People’s blood becomes more concentrated as they become dehydrated.
‘But it is an expensive and time consuming procedure – and clinical laboratories would not be able to handle routine screening. Simpler tests such as urine measurements, which appear to work well in children and young adults, do not work in older adults.
‘When our blood becomes more concentrated, as we become dehydrated, concentrations of serum sodium, potassium, urea and glucose rise. Many blood tests routinely measured in older people already check for all of these, and assess them independently.
‘We wanted to test whether results from routine tests for sodium, potassium, urea and glucose could be used together to accurately screen for dehydration by using a simple mathematical equation.
‘There are a number of different equations already being used, but they vary considerably from each other, and it wasn’t known which were most useful for elderly people. We wanted to find a universal equation which would be accurate for a broad range of elderly people including people with conditions such as diabetes.’
The research team studied 595 people over age 65 – including those who were healthy and lived independently, frail people living in residential care, and those in hospital. The group also spanned several European countries and took into account those with poor renal function and diabetes.
They assessed the diagnostic accuracy of 39 different equations, and compared the results to directly measured serum osmolality.
They found that an osmolarity equation described by Khajuria and Krahn had greatest universal accuracy – across healthy and frail older people, those in and out of hospital, with and without diabetes, with and without poor renal function, at all levels of dehydration and in men and women.
Dr Hooper said: ‘We propose that clinical laboratories use this equation to report on hydration status of older people when reporting blood test results that include sodium, potassium, urea and glucose. We hope our findings will lead to pragmatic screening in older people to allow early identification of dehydration. This would help doctors, nurses and carers support older people to increase their fluid intake.’

University of East Angliahttp://tinyurl.com/hmefojk

Market opportunities in the women’s healthcare imaging and nutrition segment are ripe, especially in developing nations where awareness of preventive medicine is rising. Issues afflicting women include breast cancer, urinary tract infections, anemia, cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis. In response, the healthcare industry is progressively employing early diagnosis through screening and prescribing preventive solutions in the form of nutrients supplemented through diet.
Analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Technology Trends in Women’s Health, explores developments in the fields of health nutrients and health imaging for women. Manufacturers are trying to customize nutrients according to a woman’s lifecycle since the needs of prenatal, postnatal and menopausal women are different. The main health nutrients women consume are calcium, iron and vitamin D.
In imaging, technological advancements will focus on platforms that:

• Reduce the ionizing radiation dose;
• Provide physiological image data to highlight cellular activities indicative of cancer, rather than only using anatomical data;
• Allow image acquisition and viewing in more than two spatial dimensions;

‘Customized innovation is essential in the women’s health sector,’ said Technical Insights Industry Analyst Darshana De. ‘In addition to age-related nutritional requirements, a woman’s health needs vary according to geographic and consumer preferences. Demand is high for natural supplements, strong scientific evidence of health claims and minimal side effects. For instance, the constipation and gastrointestinal symptoms caused by available calcium tablets are driving innovations within the industry to provide a more natural form of calcium.’
In the women’s imaging segment, digitization is a sweeping trend. Hospitals and screening centres worldwide are digitizing systems to optimize workflows and enhance image clarity. Government initiatives are pushing several advances. A U.S. federal bill (HR 3102) mandates breast density reporting on a national level to generate interest in newer technologies improving image screening accuracy.
‘Tomosynthesis will become the primary screening modality; it offers the ability to view slices of the breast to better differentiate actual lesions from areas of overlapping dense tissue,’ noted De.
Similarly, government-initiated screening programs, designed to diagnose osteoporosis in developed countries, are encouraging bone density scans and boosting the sales of densitometry systems. However, the high initial investment for scanning systems and reimbursement issues can bring challenges to the market.

Frost & Sullivanhttp://tinyurl.com/jkgj7xz

About a quarter of healthcare providers said their virtual care programmes – telemedicine and telehealth – are financially sustainable and are improving efficiency, patient volumes and loyalty by filling gaps in medical specialties or helping chronically ill patients, according to a poll conducted by KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm.
Telehealth, which uses technology to connect clinicians with patients, is gaining credence in urgent care settings from mobile devices, ‘primary care plus’ from retail clinics or for psychiatric assessments in an emergency department. Telemedicine – clinician-to-clinician consults – has a long history in radiology and for remote, underserved patient populations where specialists are needed for their clinical expertise, but it is gaining greater use. For example, telemedicine is used for neurology consults for stroke patients and also for referring nursing home patients to hospitals if they need more acute care.
‘Healthcare providers need to think of virtual care as a means to improve patient access and provider efficiency, especially as value-based contracts and other reimbursement incentives gain a greater share of revenue, while meeting patient care needs by filling gaps for key medical specialties,’ said Dr. Richard Bakalar, managing director at KPMG and a member of the firm’s Global Healthcare Center of Excellence. ‘Telehealth is rapidly evolving beyond urgent care and is increasingly used for follow up visits and helping chronically ill patients connect with their doctor online. Health plans and government payers are seeing the value from the technology and enhancing reimbursement for virtual care.’
Yet, approximately 35 percent of respondents in the poll said they have not yet started a programme incorporating virtual care, and the remaining 40 percent are in early stages.

• KPMG’s poll found that the biggest drivers for expediting adoption of virtual care were:
• Increase patient volumes and loyalty (29 percent)
• Care coordination of high risk patients (17 percent)
• Reduce costs for access to medical specialists (17 percent)
• Meaningful use and payer incentives for adoption (13 percent)
• Patient requests/consumer demand (13 percent).

Implementing a virtual care programme is not without challenges, however. Healthcare providers cited several, including:

• Too many other technological priorities (19 percent)
• Maintaining a sustainable business model (18 percent)
• Organizational readiness to implement new services/technology (18 percent)
• Regulatory compliance and risk concerns (15 percent).

KPMG LLPhttp://tinyurl.com/hlgwoyk