The results of a Phase 3 clinical trial involving UCL researchers, called REMoxTB, has found that replacing one of the drugs with the antibiotic moxifloxacin in the standard six-month treatment regimen did not allow the treatment time for tuberculosis (TB) patients to be shortened to four months.

The trial confirmed the safety of daily moxifloxacin over four months of therapy. Researchers concluded that the safety of moxifloxacin, combined with its activity against TB, supports the continued clinical testing of moxifloxacin as a component of other novel regimens.

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have created a way to develop personalized gene therapies for patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a leading cause of vision loss. The approach, the first of its kind, takes advantage of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology to transform skin cells into retinal cells, which are then used as a patient-specific model for disease study and preclinical testing.

Using this approach, researchers led by Stephen H. Tsang, MD, PhD, showed that a form of RP caused by mutations to the gene MFRP (membrane frizzled-related protein) disrupts the protein that gives retinal cells their structural integrity. They also showed that the effects of these mutations can be reversed with gene therapy. The approach could potentially be used to create personalized therapies for other forms of RP, as well as other genetic diseases.

MIT chemical engineers have devised a new implantable tissue scaffold coated with bone growth factors that are released slowly over a few weeks. When applied to bone injuries or defects, this coated scaffold induces the body to rapidly form new bone that looks and behaves just like the original tissue.

This type of coated scaffold could offer a dramatic improvement over the current standard for treating bone injuries, which involves transplanting bone from another part of the patient

An app which enables healthcare professionals to share photos is to be rolled out across western Europe by the end of the year.  The app was designed to enable doctors to share pictures of their patients, both with each other and with medical students.

So far, more than 150,000 doctors have uploaded case photos with the patient’s identity obscured.  However, some experts have expressed concern about patient confidentiality.  Patients’ faces are automatically obscured by the app but users must manually block identifying marks like tattoos.

Each photo is reviewed by moderators before it is added to the database.

Founder Dr Josh Landy told the BBC that the Figure 1 service did not access any patient records. ‘We do not possess any personal medical data at all. The best way to keep a secret is not to have it. We are not an organisation that delivers healthcare,’ he told the BBC.

But doctors must provide identifying credentials and are also advised to notify their employees and patients to find out about consent policies.

‘Legally, we found that identifying the doctor does not identify the patient,’ said Dr Landy.

‘However some [medical] conditions are so rare that they can’t be posted. One user wanted to post something but there are only seven cases of it in the US and they had all been reportable because they are rare, so the patient could have been identified.’

Anybody can download the app for free, but only verified healthcare professionals can upload photos or comment on them, he added.

‘Everything is there for educational purposes. That said, there are very colourful images – things medics see every day. It’s a transparent view into a world you rarely get to see.’

The app is already available in North America, the UK and Ireland.

While digital services such as UpToDate and DynaMed – both requiring a subscription – are already widely used within the healthcare community as clinical knowledge databases, they are not rivals to Figure 1, said Dr Landy. BBC