Friday, April 17, 2015

UV Robots for Sterilization

Medical News Technology published an article "UV light robot to clean hospital rooms could help stop spread of super-bugs". In this article Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine conducted a study on the effectiveness  of a germ-zapping robot to clean hospital rooms, which could possibly hold the key for preventing the spread of "super-bugs"- in turn, saving countless dollars and most importantly lives. It is imperative to keep hospital rooms clean to prevent the spread of infections. The existence of nosocomial infections can be difficult to treat and sometimes fatal. Dr. Chetan Jinadatha, M.D., M.P.H. who conducted the study states that "A typical 100-bed hospital sees about 10-20 hospital -acquired infections (HAI) a year, The goal is to get zero infections." Another major factor for reduction is financial, in 2017 the federal government will dramatically reduce Medicare payments to hospitals that exceed incidences of HAI's. The current situations of sanitizing relies heavily on housekeeping staff which has a high turn over rate. This research was focused on the effectiveness of a pulsed xenon ultraviolet (UV) and its effectiveness at eliminating HAI's. This is one of the first studies since the system was introduced in 2011. This system is based on xenon gas and high voltage electricity that releases UV light that binds to DNA of organisms and kills them.

Last year, Dr. Jinadatha conducted a study that compared manual cleaning vs manual cleaning & UV light that kills the organism by binding to the DNA, it was 99 percent effective aganist bacteria that causes MRSA. The study was published  earlier this year in the American journal of Infection Control which looked at the effectiveness of UV light disinfection and proved that 12 minutes in the UV light system cut the amount of bacteria in the room by 70 percent, this is about the same as the manual disinfection's. Jinadatha, also stated that he never recommends UV light alone but with manual cleaning. The system is currently used by some VA hospitals and and about 200 private hospital and he predicts this will eventually become standard equipment.

I personally feel that there is no replacement to the human factor of any environmental service that is performed in a healthcare facility. However, I agree that with the combination of humans and technology, the existence of infections can be minimized or possibly eliminate. More research needs to be performed to identify UV sensitive bacteria and how the light spectrum can be used.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Google and Disease Targeting

I was reading the Telegraph newspaper from the UK about some of the technologies that Google is creating in the war on cancer. They recently filed for a patent in what they call "Nano-particle Phoresis", which is a wearable device that can automatically target modify or destroy blood cells that have adverse health effects. The targeted blood could include enzymes, hormones, proteins, cells or other molecules that when present in the blood may affect a medical condition or the health of the person wearing the device. The wearable device can me modified to target cells and destroy them through transmitting energy into the blood vessels. The various energies could be radio frequency pulse, time-varying magnetic field, acoustic pulse, infrared or visible light signal. The energy creates a physical or chemical change in the targeted cells with the intent of reducing or possible eliminating  adverse side effects. A good example is Parkinson's disease, it creates certain proteins. This wearable device could be used to target these proteins thus slowing the development of the disease. According to the patent information filed by Google this could also be used to target the growth of some cancer cells.

This is not the first indication that Google is investing in the fight on cancer. In October 2014, it was in the process of developing a pill that could detect cancer and other diseases. This pill which is comprised of iron-oxide nano-particles that enter the bloodstream and can identify cancer tumor cells which give off biochemical signals when they (iron) comes in contact with the cells. It in essence paints the infected cells which travel around the body. The wearable device that is worn on the wrist creates a magnetic field and draws the the particles to be detected and counted.Google states that this technology is in the near future.

In my opinion this research of nanotechnology is constantly evolving and targeted therapy is the future. The development of nano-diagnosis to internally diagnose patients is a definite possibility. Only the imagination can limit the developments.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

The best in 3D dental care at Imagina in Monaco | euronews, hi-tech

The ability to produce low dose technology to obtain maximum results.



The best in 3D dental care at Imagina in Monaco | euronews, hi-tech


Innovative smart device tells you when you’ve had enough sun | euronews, hi-tech

Innovative smart device tells you when you’ve had enough sun | euronews, hi-tech




Healthcare and Climate Change

In the Fierce Healthcare April 9 issue, there was an article where Obama addressed the issue addressing the impact of climate change on healthcare. This was a meeting that was held at Howard University. The main issue addressed was the rising climate changes and its effects on the poor, elderly, sick and children. The "Rising temperatures can lead to more smog, longer allergy seasons and an increased incidence of extreme -weather-related injuries." It is a good possibilities that all families will be affected. Obama charged healthcare professionals with developing new measures to prepare for this. The Department of Health and Human services and the CDC have teamed up to develop a "Health Care Facilities Toolkit" which is comprised of fact sheets and checklist and case studies that illustrates best practices. These issues come on the heels of guidelines that came from the White House in December. The main purpose is to create an infrastructure that would be resilient to the threat to climate change.  In my opinion the threat of not only climate change but the overall problem of addressing Healthcare practices in general and Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI). The roaming through the hospital as an employee to different departments will always pose a threat to internal infections and the possible spread of HAI's to patients that have compromised immune systems. There are still hidden threats that are not addressed one is  Medical Equipment Acquired Infections (MEAI) are growing. Infectious control departments for the most part do not address this or have data on it.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Interactive Healthcare

The rise of interactive healthcare is growing. Some experts estimate that by 2020 this new world of virtual, augmented reality and haptic devices will increase not only in use, but in revenue. Some estimates give the upwards of $20 billion. The interesting thing is that no matter how advanced technology in healthcare becomes there is going to be a learning curve for end users. Until a new generation of tech savvy medical staff is developed more intensive training will be needed. Companies like Google, Microsoft, IBM, Dell are developing new ways of making healthcare more interactive some areas from virtual training using CPR to Robotic surgery these are just to name a few. So get ready healthcare, new advancements are at hand.