From September 6 – 8, 2017, the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok will again host MEDICAL FAIR THAILAND, 8th International Exhibition on Hospital, Diagnostic, Pharmaceutical, Medical & Rehabilitation Equipment & Supplies.

This year’s edition is set to be its largest, with more than 700 international exhibitors expected. A total of 17 national and country pavilions will present more than 5,000 state-of-the-art medical and healthcare products, equipment and solutions to a targeted audience of 10,000 medical and healthcare professionals. For the first time, Russia, India and the European Union will have country group exhibits at MEDICAL FAIR THAILAND.
 
Organized by Messe Düsseldorf Asia, the subsidiary of Messe Düsseldorf in Germany, MEDICAL FAIR THAILAND 2017 is part of the company’s “World of Medica” portfolio. 
The trade fair is the ideal platform for the dynamic marketplace of Thailand and Southeast Asia. Since its start in 2003, MEDICAL FAIR THAILAND has developed into the region’s No. 1 medical and healthcare event. With every event, the international participation is increasing, reflecting the growth of Thailand and the Southeast Asian region’s medical and healthcare industry.  Leading the first participation at the exhibition with an official Indian national pavilion, Mr. Rajiv Nath from the Forum Coordinator for the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMED) commented: “MEDICAL FAIR THAILAND 2017 provides Indian companies with an unparalleled opportunity to leverage on the potential of Southeast Asia’s booming medical and healthcare industry. We are excited to be leading our members to this biggest regional platform, to connect and create strong bonds with businesses from around the region and all over the world.” Also debuting at MEDICAL FAIR THAILAND 2017 will be the European Union pavilion. Dr. Michael Pulch, Ambassador, European Union Delegation to Singapore, stated: “This presents an excellent opportunity for European companies specializing in healthcare and medical technologies. As Thailand is one of the leading Southeast Asian countries in the medical technologies industry, the participation of companies from the European Union at MEDICAL FAIR THAILAND 2017 will allow them to reach, connect and network with the right audience.”

Gernot Ringling, Managing Director of Messe Düsseldorf Asia, added: “With Thailand’s dynamic positioning as a leading medical and healthcare hub, which is being further enhanced as the country goes into full gear with Thailand 4.0, value creation and innovation will take centre stage. MEDICAL FAIR THAILAND 2017 will focus on rehabilitative care and connected healthcare, such as digital healthcare equipment and solutions as well as wearable technologies that are rapidly transforming the market. The technologies and innovations on display will contribute to the exhibition’s success as the most important resource and business platform for both international and regional suppliers from the medical and healthcare sectors, bringing together a truly global showcase of the best medical and healthcare devices, services and innovative solutions for both in-and out-patient and rehabilitative care.”

Thailand 4.0, as an economic model, is aiming to transform Thailand into an innovation-driven economy achieving upper-income status – with an emphasis on promoting technology, creativity and innovation in focused industries and changing from a production-based to a service-based economy. The medical and healthcare sectors have been selected alongside ten target industries as growth engines where additional policies will encourage further investment and development in the near future.
 
The exhibits will be complemented by an informative ancillary programme. The Advanced Rehab Technology Conference (ARTeC) 2017 on September 6 & 7 will focus on the theme of “Robotics for Mobility: Quality of Life for the Ageing World.” The conference will explore a series of topics on robotic rehabilitation from analysis to design and intervention, robots for balance and gait training and a symposium on locomotion robotic training for neurorehabilitation. Renowned leaders and industry experts from the U.S., Japan, Singapore and Thailand will participate, including Hermano Igo Krebs, Principal Research Scientist from the Mechanical Engineering Department at MIT. The two-day conference is jointly organized by the Royal College of Physiatrists of Thailand, the Thai Rehabilitation Medicine Association and Messe Düsseldorf Asia. The Dysphagia workshop on September 7 will address difficulties in swallowing – particularly for the elderly and offer evaluation and management programmes, indirect therapies and future rehabilitation treatments.

In addition, comprehensive and user-friendly business matching services dedicated to helping businesses identify and screen potential partners will be available for all exhibitors and visitors to find new partners and suppliers. This free service is particularly useful for companies looking to expand their business in the Southeast Asian region or to connect with international companies.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) hasissued a clinical practice guideline on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for the prevention of cervical cancer. This is the first guideline on primary prevention of cervical cancer that is tailored to multiple regions of the world with different levels of socio-economic and structural resource settings, offering evidence-based guidance to health care providers worldwide.

The guideline includes specific recommendations according to four levels of resource settings: basic, limited, enhanced and maximal. The levels pertain to financial resources of a country or region, as well as the development of its health system – including personnel, infrastructure and access to services. The guideline complements ASCO’s two other global, resource-stratified guidelines on cervical cancer, also stratified to these four levels of resources.

Key guideline recommendations:

• In all environments and independent of the resource settings, two doses of human papillomavirus vaccine are recommended for girls ages 9 to 14 years, with an interval of at least 6 months and up to 12 to 15 months between doses.
• Girls who are HIV positive should receive three doses.
• For maximal and enhanced resource settings:
  • If girls are 15 years or older and have received their first dose before age 15, they may complete the two-dose series;
  • If they have not received the first dose before age 15, they should receive three doses;
  • In both scenarios vaccination may be given through age 26 years.
• For limited and basic resource settings: if sufficient resources remain after vaccinating girls 9 to 14 years, girls who received one dose may receive additional doses between ages 15 and 26 years.
• Vaccination of boys: in all settings, boys may be vaccinated, if there is at least a 50percent coverage in priority female target population, sufficient resources, and such vaccination is cost effective.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women worldwide, with less developed regions suffering a disproportionate burden from the disease. In fact, 85percent of cervical cancer diagnoses and 87percent of cervical cancer deaths occur in less developed regions, including parts of Africa and Latin America.

‘Because resource availability varies widely, both among and within countries, we need to adjust strategies to improve access to HPV vaccination everywhere,’ said Silvia de Sanjose, MD, PhD, co-chair of the Expert Panel that developed the guideline and head of the Cancer Epidemiology Research Program at Institut Catala d’Oncologia in Barcelona, Spain. ‘This guideline is unique in offering cervical cancer vaccination recommendations that can be adapted to different resource levels and we expect it to have a major impact on the global health community.’

ASCO www.asco.org/about-asco/press-center/news-releases/first-global-guidance-hpv-vaccination-cervical-cancer

The standard of care for treating strokes caused by blood clots involves the therapeutic infusion of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which can help to dissolve the clots and restore blood flow. This “thrombolytic” treatment carries the risk of bleeding and swelling in the brain, and it must be administered within three hours after the start of the stroke, which sharply limits its clinical benefits.
Edward Feener, Ph.D., colleagues in the Feener lab demonstrated that tPA boosts the activity of plasma kallikrein
Working with animal models, researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center now have demonstrated the potential of giving a drug in combination with tPA that might improve stroke outcomes and increase the window of opportunity for the therapy.
Drugs that target a protein called plasma kallikrein, as well as an activator protein called factor XII, “may provide the opportunity to make tPA safer by reducing these complications and increasing its efficacy in opening blood vessels,” says Edward Feener, Ph.D.
The Joslin scientists next experimented with mouse models in which blood clots were induced in the brain and then treated with tPA. Animals that were also given a plasma kallikrein inhibitor, and animals that were genetically modified to produce lower amounts of the protein, showed significantly less bleeding, brain swelling and damaged brain areas than control animals without plasma kallikrein blockade.
The researchers traced the biological mechanisms by which tPA activates plasma kallikren, via the Factor XII protein, which promotes coagulation. Plasma kallikrein is known to activate the kallikrein kinin system, a pathway that has been implicated in stroke complications including brain swelling and breakdown of the blood-brain barrier. (Previous studies by other investigators have shown that administration of tPA therapy to stroke patients activates the kallikrein kinin system in their blood.)
The Food & Drug Administration has approved a plasma kallikrein inhibitor for the treatment of hereditary angioedema. Additional inhibitors targeting this pathway are under development by multiple pharmaceutical companies for this genetic disease and other conditions, including diabetic macular edema. These new findings suggest additional potential therapeutic opportunities for plasma kallikrein inhibitors in thrombolytic therapy.

Joslin Institutehttp://tinyurl.com/ya3nyyqv

Embryo quality has long been considered the main determinant of implantation and pregnancy in IVF. Morphology – a visual assessment of an embryo’s shape and development – has since the very first days of IVF been the key to measuring this embryo quality, and only in recent years has this morphological grading been made somewhat more scientific with the introduction of time-lapse imaging. Yet the fact remains that many morphologically "good quality" embryos in IVF – between 30 and 60% in various studies – fail to implant in the uterus and make a pregnancy. What’s going wrong?
There is a strong case that chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo, which are not detectable by morphological assessment, carry some responsibility. Studies over several years have confirmed that the rate of chromosomal anomalies (aneuploidy) in embryos increases with patient age, which may explain a higher rate of implantation failure and miscarriage in older IVF patients. But even with embryo testing for chromosomal anomalies, embryos destined for transfer are still assessed morphological.
"The issue is that morphological grading by humans leads to wide inter- and intra-operator variation," said investigator Professor José Celso Rocha from São Paulo State University, Brazil. A study presented today at the 33rd Annual Meeting of ESHRE in Geneva will suggest that these long-standing difficulties may now be improved by using advances in artificial intelligence. Thus, mathematical variables derived from time-lapse images of embryo development may now be used such that an algorithm can classify images of an embryo’s development automatically – and so remove the human variable from the crucial task of morphological assessment. "To classify images automatically will increase the predictive value of our embryo assessment," said Professor Rocha. "By increasing objectivity and repeatability in embryo assessment, we can improve the accuracy of diagnosing embryo viability. Clinics can use this information as ‘artificial intelligence’ to customise treatment strategies and better predict a patient’s chance of pregnancy."
Behind the claims lies an analysis of images taken from the development of 482 seven-day-old bovine embryos, which were used to "train" the artificial intelligence system. This analysis identified 36 assessment variables, 24 of which formed the input of the artificial network architecture. It was notable that during this initial set-up phase only “serious errors” occurred in only 6% of the assessments. Overall, the artificial intelligence system had a 76% accuracy.
Moreover, says Professor Rocha, artificial intelligence demonstrated an improved inter-operator variation (embryologist accuracy score lower than the artificial intelligence score) and improved consistency and overall accuracy of results.
Professor Rocha notes that this work has now moved on to its early stages of development in human embryos, which is being carried out at the São Paulo State University (Dr Marcelo Nogueira) in collaboration with the Boston Place Clinic in London (Dr Cristina Hickman).
Professor Rocha described the main sources of error in morphological assessment by embryologists as their degree of professional experience, emotional stress, physical fatigue, and laboratory routine. "Those features will cause subjectivity in classification of the embryo," he said.
However, because the artificial intelligence system is a technique which analyses the embryo through mathematical variables, it offers low subjectivity and high repeatability, making embryo classification more consistent. "Nevertheless," said Professor Rocha, "the artificial intelligence system must be based on learning from a human being – that is, the experienced embryologists who set the standards of assessment to train the system."

The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
www.eshre2017.eu/Media/ESHRE-2017-Press-releases/Hickman.aspx

The range of options for medicating emergency patients intranasally has greatly expanded in recent years and can even be preferable for certain patients, including children, according to the results of a paper published online.

‘For patients who are combative or having seizures, intranasal administration of certain medications can be really helpful,’ said lead study author Megan Rech, PharmD, MS, BCPS, BCCP of Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill. ‘These formulations can be especially useful for children, as they are not as painful and frightening as using intravenous or intramuscular routes. This route can also be an effective option for treating opioid overdoses.’

Common medications that can be administered via an atomizer that sprays the surface of the nasal cavity include midazolam, fentanyl, naloxone, ketamine and dexmedetomidine.

Midazolam, administered intranasally, can tranquilize and sedate children who are undergoing numerous emergency procedures. It can also be used to treat seizures in both adults and children. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, can be administered to adults and children intranasally for pain relief. Naloxone administered intranasally can be a first-line therapy in suspected opioid overdoses where there is no intravenous access because it can be simply and rapidly administered by lay persons and out-of-hospital personnel. Ketamine, an analgesic, can be administered intranasally for adults and children who have orthopaedic injuries or who are undergoing nasogastric tube placement. Intranasal dexmedetomidine works well to sedate and relieve pain for surgical and dental procedures in children.

‘Administering medications intranasally in the pre-hospital or emergency setting can be easy, fast and non-invasive,’ said Dr. Rech. ‘It is a welcome option for emergency physicians treating a wide variety of patients, sometimes in difficult situations.’

American College of Emergency Physiciansnewsroom.acep.org/news_releases?item=122826