October 17th, 2011 by PeterWehrwein in Health Tips
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Barbara Moscowitz, coordinator of geriatric social work for the Geriatric Medicine Unit at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital, spoke to me and about a dozen other Harvard Medical School employees yesterday as part of series of seminars on family life and other issues offered by the school’s human resources department.
Moscowitz’s talk was titled “Dementia and Cognitive Decline (Aging Gracefully).” I was there mainly out of professional interest because I’ve written a couple of articles for the Harvard Health Letter recently about Alzheimer’s and dementia, including a piece in the September 2011 issue about mild cognitive impairment and another in July 2011 about new Alzheimer’s guidelines.
But I also wonder about how my own aging brain is faring (not well, it seems, on some days) and I have an older parent (age 81).
So my curiosity wasn’t entirely work related.
A disease of behaviors
Moscowitz covered Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Harvard Health Blog*
October 17th, 2011 by Medgadget in News, Research
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Cell cultures form the basis of many types of lab research, however growing these cell cultures has always been a time-consuming, laborious job that is largely done by hand.
That is about to change, with the Fraunhofer Institute and Max Planck Institute having developed a machine that completely automates the process of cultivating cells.
From the press release:
The device consists of an array of modules: One of these is a robot that transports the vessels containing the cell cultures, known as multititer plates, from one place to the next. Dr. Albrecht Brandenburg, group manager at IPM describes another module: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
October 15th, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion
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I woke up this morning, tapped my digital signal, and found this from Brian McGowan on Twitter: “What happens when complexity races ahead of the mind’s ability to adapt? When progress outpaces evolution? We need new solutions.”
Like a slow hunch, a version of this idea has been rattling around in my head for some weeks. Specifically: Is there a new kind of human intelligence evolving? Will our ability to work with knowledge in the face of limitless information select for a new kind of thinker in the 21st century? I suspect it will. Thinking and the creation of new ideas will require Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
October 15th, 2011 by RamonaBatesMD in True Stories
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I have meet several amazing people at my new job. Here is one of them: Richard Vaughn (photo credit). The poster isn’t accurate any longer, the 12 should read 20.
Richard is the IT guy at my work place. He broke his back at age 17. This hasn’t kept him from having a full life.
……Shortly after graduation as a 17 year old, a severe accident – a fall of roughly 85 feet from a scaffolding – left me paralyzed and in a wheelchair. This was in the early 1970s. It was suggested that I enter one of several “special schools” for the handicapped. There, I was told, I might learn a vocation and become a “contributing member of society.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
October 14th, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Opinion, Research
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The news wires for atrial fibrillation were abuzz this last week. The vigor and speed with which health news travels is striking.
Since 2.6 million Americans live with AF, my guess is that many are looking at the release of the Medtronic-sponsored TTOP-AF trial with anticipation. Here is a link to the press release. The trial purported to show benefits of Medtronic’s novel phased RF ablation system in treating persistent AF.
The study was small and released at a relatively small symposium in Venice, Italy. The TTOP-AF trial randomized 210 patients with persistent AF (including flutter) to either ablation with Medtronic’s ablation system or conventional therapy with drugs and cardioversions.
They found, not surprisingly, that AF ablation reduced AF burden. AF ablation significantly reduced AF burden in 55.8% percent of patients versus only 26% of those treated with conventional medical treatment. Editorial comment: That kind of data is pretty typical.
The problem with the study Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
