September 10th, 2011 by Medgadget in Research
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Packing hearts on ice destined for transplantation may eventually become a thing of the past. The Organ Care System from TransMedics, which delivers a still-beating heart to a transplant patient, continues to show promise in clinical trials. UCLA recently reported that Rob Evans, a 61-year-old patient suffering from cardiomyopathy, is the most recent recipient of a heart delivered by the device.
We’ve actually covered the Organ Care System (OCS) several times before (we first caught wind of it in 2006). The device, however, is still classified as an investigational device by the FDA; it is undergoing phase II clinical trials in the United States at three sites: the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the Cleveland Clinic, and New York-Presbyterian, Columbia University Medical Center.
Check out the UCLA press release explaining the technology and its use in the university’s Heart Transplant Program: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
September 10th, 2011 by Berci in Uncategorized
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One of the best initiatives in social media and healthcare I’ve recently seen is definitely the Radboud REshape Academy.
Finding for our path to migrate into real participatory healthcare we come across a lot of interesting people, information, innovations and most of all questions.
Right from the beginning we started to share, with our network. We have been doing this with our conferences, our research, our lectures and through field trips made to our Radboud REshape & Innovation Centre for HC institutions, insurers, government and other people interested in changing healthcare. And of course our Innovation Centre.
In setting up The Radboud REshape Academy (@REshapeAcademy on twitter) we would like to create Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
September 9th, 2011 by John Di Saia, M.D. in Opinion
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When things are done properly, infection is pretty uncommon in a plastic surgery practice. Surgery and infection are unfortunately related however and will co-exist at least occasionally even when everything is done correctly. This is just a fact of life.
People interestingly enough seem to believe that an infection is evidence of malpractice. Infection can be present when malpractice has occurred but by itself is not evidence of anything.
Minor infections can often can be treated and cause no long term problems. More serious infections can Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*
September 9th, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion
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In The Innovator’s Prescription Clayton Christensen details how technology is disrupting health care. He describes the provision of medical care as occurring on a spectrum ranging from intuitive medicine to precision medicine. Intuitive medicine is care for conditions loosely diagnosed by symptoms and treated with therapies of unclear efficacy. Precision medicine is the delivery of care for diseases that can be precisely diagnosed and with predictable, evidence-based treatments. Intuitive medicine is almost entirely dependent upon clinical judgment. Precision medicine not as much. 19th century medicine was intuitive; the 21st century will prove precise.
When we think about our role as doctors, we like to see ourselves as providers of intuitive medicine. It’s how we were all trained – products of 20th century mentoring. And so we see of ourselves just as indispensable as we were 100 years ago. But as medicine makes its march toward predictive care all of this will change.
There’s an endemic insecurity among the 21st century doctors: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
