Jump to content
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,271

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Sam

Administrators

 Content Type 

News posted by Sam

  1. Sam
    Heart attack, stroke and burns victims are among the seriously ill and injured patients waiting over an hour for an ambulance to arrive in England and Wales, a BBC investigation shows.
    The delays for these 999 calls - meant to be reached in 18 minutes on average - put lives at risk, experts say.
    The problems affect one in 16 "emergency" cases in England - with significant delays reported in Wales.
    NHS bosses blamed rising demand and delays handing over patients at A&E.
    Rachel Power, Chief Executive of the Patients Association, said patients were being "let down badly at their moment of greatest need" and getting a quick response could be "a matter of life or death".
    She said the delays were "undoubtedly" related to the sustained underfunding of the NHS.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 29 January 2020
     
  2. Sam
    Health products powered by artificial intelligence, or AI, are streaming into our lives, from virtual doctor apps to wearable sensors and drugstore chatbots.

    IBM boasted that its AI could “outthink cancer.” Others say computer systems that read X-rays will make radiologists obsolete.
    Yet many health industry experts fear AI-based products won’t be able to match the hype. Many doctors and consumer advocates fear that the tech industry, which lives by the mantra “fail fast and fix it later,” is putting patients at risk and that regulators aren’t doing enough to keep consumers safe.
    Early experiments in AI provide reason for caution, said Mildred Cho, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford’s Center for Biomedical Ethics.

    Systems developed in one hospital often flop when deployed in a different facility, Cho said. Software used in the care of millions of Americans has been shown to discriminate against minorities. And AI systems sometimes learn to make predictions based on factors that have less to do with disease than the brand of MRI machine used, the time a blood test is taken or whether a patient was visited by a chaplain. In one case, AI software incorrectly concluded that people with pneumonia were less likely to die if they had asthma an error that could have led doctors to deprive asthma patients of the extra care they need.

    “It’s only a matter of time before something like this leads to a serious health problem,” said Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic.
    Read full story
    Source: Scientific American, 24 December 2019
  3. Sam
    China has introduced a new law with the aim of preventing violence against medical workers.
    The announcement comes days after a female doctor was stabbed to death at a Beijing hospital.
    The law bans any organisation or individual from threatening or harming the personal safety or dignity of medical workers, according to state media.
    It will take effect on 1 June next year.
    Under the new law, those "disturbing the medical environment, or harming medical workers' safety and dignity" will be given administrative punishments such as detention or a fine. It will also punish people found illegally obtaining, using or disclosing people's private healthcare information.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 29 December 2019
  5. Sam
    Machine learning algorithms can accurately assess the capabilities of neurosurgeons during virtual surgery before they step into an actual operating room, a new study shows.
    Researchers recruited 50 participants from four stages of neurosurgical training: neurosurgeons, fellows and senior residents, junior residents and medical students. The participants performed 250 complex tumour resections using NeuroVR, a virtual reality surgical simulator. Using the raw data, the machine learning algorithm developed performance measures that could predict the level of expertise of each participant with 90% accuracy. The top performing algorithm could classify participants using just six performance measures.
    As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the findings show that the fusion of artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality neurosurgical simulators can accurately and efficiently assess the performance of surgeon trainees. This means that scientists can develop AI-assisted mentoring systems that focus on improving patient safety by guiding trainees through complex surgical procedures. These systems can determine areas that need improvement and how the trainee can develop these important skills before they operate on real patients.
    “Our study proves that we can design systems that deliver on-demand surgical assessments at the convenience of the learner and with less input from instructors. It may also lead to better patient safety by reducing the chance for human error both while assessing surgeons and in the operating room,” said leading author, Rolando Del Maestro of McGill University.
    Read full story
    Source: FUTURITY, 5 August 2019
     
  7. Sam
    Latest National Medical Examiner update on national and regional infrastructure, funding the medical examiner system, medical examiners and referrals to coroners, working with registrars, and face to face training.
    Read update
     
     
     
  9. Sam
    Health leaders have written to Boris Johnson issuing new warnings on the impact of a no-deal Brexit. In a letter to the Prime Minister, the heads of 17 royal colleges and health charities across the UK say clinicians are "unable to reassure patients" their health and care will not be affected. 
    They go on to say they have "significant concerns about shortages of medical supplies". Government said it was working with the health sector on "robust preparations". 
    The letter, co-ordinated by the Royal College of Physicians, is signed by the heads of organisations including the British Dental Association, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Kidney Care UK and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. It calls for the Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock to be put on the EU exit strategy committee chaired by Michael Gove, who is in charge of no-deal planning.
    The signatories argue that - given the scale of the NHS - without sufficient planning, even the smallest of problems could have "huge consequences on the lives of millions of people".
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 21 August 2019
  10. Sam
    Two million pensioners are taking at least seven types of prescription drugs - putting them at risk of potentially lethal side-effects, a major report warns. 
    Age UK said the rise of “polypharmacy” was putting lives at risk, with three quarters likely to suffer adverse reactions to at least one of their drugs. The research found that the number of emergency hospital admissions linked to such side-effects has risen by 53 per cent in seven years, with some cases proving fatal.
    Experts said GPs were doling out too many drugs because they were too busy to properly consider complex health problems, and the risk of side-effects, and interactions between different drugs. 
    Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, said: "We are incredibly fortunate to live at a time when there are so many effective drugs available to treat older people’s health conditions, but it’s a big potential problem if singly or in combination these drugs produce side effects that ultimately do an older person more harm than good.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Telegraph, 22 August 2019
  11. Sam
    After two decades of keeping the public in the dark about millions of medical device malfunctions and injuries, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published the once hidden database online, revealing 5.7 million incidents publicly for the first time.
    The newfound transparency follows a Kaiser Health News investigation that revealed device manufacturers, for the past two decades, had been sending reports of injuries or malfunctions to the little-known database, bypassing the public FDA database that’s pored over by doctors, researchers and patients. Millions of reports, related to everything from breast implants to surgical staplers, were sent to the agency as “alternative summary” reports instead.
    Read full story
    Source: Kaiser Health News, June 27 2019
  12. Sam
    Registrars at an Australian hospital have launched legal action against its management amid claims that they are being worked beyond exhaustion while being denied their mandatory clinical training.
    The alleged plight of the doctors at Melbourne’s Sunshine Hospital has become the latest instalment in a growing list of complaints among doctors in training over excessive workload pressures, exploitation, harassment, and bullying across the country’s public hospital system.
    Read full story
    Source: BMJ, 12 August 2019
  13. Sam
    NHS England has declared a national emergency over shortage of feed for babies and disabled patients, with some patients being told to go to Accident & Emergency (A&E) departments.  Hundreds of NHS patients, including children, who depend on intravenous (IV) nutrition, have been experiencing delays in deliveries.
    It follows an inspection by watchdogs which found manufacturers were failing to meet safety standards, and the presence of potentially fatal bacteria. The NHS National Patient Safety Director, Aiden Fowler, has written to all NHS hospital trusts, and affected patients, warning that the incident has been designated as an emergency incident, under the Civil Contingencies Act, at the highest level. 
    British manufacturer Calea had already said the shortages could last up to four weeks. But the letter warns that the crisis could last far longer, outlining plans to ration the product to those most in need. 
    Parents said the situation was “terrifying” with some told to go to A&E if vulnerable children were left too long without being fed. 
    Hospitals have now been asked to review all patients receiving such IV feed to ensure only those deemed at high-risk are allocated the supplies, which are tailored to meet specific individual needs. Others will be allocated standard bags of nutrition, with extra supplements. 
    In the letters from Dr Fowler, disclosed by the Health Service Journal, he warns that the NHS is facing a “difficult balance” between the risks caused by the shortages, and the dangers of allowing production to continue, without safety improvements. 
    Read full story
    Source: The Telegraph, 13 August 2019
  15. Sam
    Nearly 2 million NHS patients are to be given access to video consultations with doctors employed by a digital healthcare supplier as a result of a series of deals signed with NHS commissioners.Nearly 2 million NHS patients are to be given access to video consultations with doctors employed by a digital healthcare supplier as a result of a series of deals signed with NHS commissioners.
    Read full story (paywalled)
    Source: HSJ, 12 August 2019
  16. Sam
    Whitehall investigators have launched an inquiry into allegations of serious misconduct during the official review of the Gosport hospital scandal. They are examining claims that civil servants working on the £13m inquiry bullied staff, buried evidence and went on taxpayer-funded “working retreats” to Spain.
    An independent panel last year linked Dr Jane Barton to the premature deaths of up to 656 elderly people given opiate overdoses at Gosport War Memorial Hospital between 1989 and 2000.
    Whistleblowers have alleged that the panel ignored concerns about the hospital’s culture and use of faulty medical equipment to deliver a “clean hit” and “draw a line under it all”.
    The Department of Health said last night: “We take all and any allegations of wrongdoing very seriously. An investigation is being undertaken and it would be inappropriate to comment further until it is concluded.”
    Read full story
    Source: The Sunday Times, 11 August 2019
  17. Sam
    Documents released in an Ohio court case last month, in a landmark, multi-district opioid lawsuit, gave new insight into an unparalleled opioid epidemic in the United States. It revealed that between 2006 and 2012, some 76 billion opioid pills were distributed in the United States — more than 200 pills for every man, woman and child.
    It paints a damning picture of the tension between drug company profits and patient safety during the time opioid sales were climbing dramatically. In one 2009 exchange, a pharmaceutical company representative emailed a colleague at another company to alert him to a pill shipment. “Keep ’em comin’!” was the response. “Flyin’ out of there. It’s like people are addicted to these things or something. Oh, wait, people are.”
    According to Charles L. Bennett et al. in an editorial published in the Los Angeles Times, the failings are at every point in the system, starting with drug approvals. But the authors believe there is a particularly serious problem with the mechanisms for identifying, monitoring and disseminating information about issues with a drug after its release.
    They suggest a good starting point for reforming the system would be increased transparency about drugs already recognised as particularly dangerous. These drugs, currently numbering about 70 (including opioids), carry the FDA’s so-called 'black box warning,' intended to alert patients and their doctors to the high risks associated with the drugs. But that is not enough. The authors propose a 'black box' database or 'registry,' publicly available and simple to use, that would contain extensive information about where, by whom and for what purpose black box drugs are prescribed, as well as where and in what quantities such drugs are being distributed and sold. Information about adverse side effects, culled from the myriad of government databases that now collect them, would also be consolidated in an open form and format.
    Read full story
    Source: Los Angeles Times, 8 August 2019
  18. Sam
    Appropriate methods and standards around artificial intelligence (AI) need to be created to protect patient safety, experts have said. Responding to the Government’s pledge of £250 million for a National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab, Matthew Honeyman, researcher at The Kings Fund, said the NHS workforce needs to be equipped with digital skills for the benefits of new technologies to be realised.
    “AI applications are in development for many different use cases – from screening, to treatment, to admin work – there needs to be appropriate methods and standards developed for safe deployment and evaluation of these solutions as they enter the health system,” he told Digital Health.
    Adam Steventon, Director of Data Analytics at the Health Foundation, said the commitment was a “positive step” but that technology needs to be driven by patient need and “not just for technology’s sake”. “Robust evaluation therefore needs to be at the heart of any drive towards greater use of technology in the NHS, so that technologies that are shown to be effective can be spread further, and patients protected from any potential harm,” he said.
    Read full story
    Source: Digital Health, 9 August 2019
     
  20. Sam
    The past year has seen wide concern about the safety of medical implants. Some of the worst scandals have involved devices for women, such as textured breast implants with links to cancer, and transvaginal mesh implants, which were the subject of the asenate inquiry. But women are harmed not only by 'women's devices' such as breast implants and vaginal mesh. Women are also more likely to be harmed by apparently gender-neutral devices, like joint replacements and heart implants according to Katrina Hutchison in a recent MENAFN article.
    Bias starts with design and then lab testing: biological and social factors can affect how women present when injured or ill, and how well treatments work. Often, device designers do not take these differences into account. The lab tests used to make sure implants are safe often ignore the possibility women could have different reactions to materials, or their activities could place different loads on implants.
    Bias continues with clinical trials. And then there's the doctor-patient relationship; the gender of the doctor and patient can make a difference to what women learn about their implant. 
    Read full story
    Source: MENAFN, 11 August 2019
  21. Sam
    Researchers at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham carried out a study on 8,585 patients and staff using the Lifelight app. Using a selfie taken on a smartphone, and the ambient light that bounces off the skin, the app carries out calculations and tells the user the resulting rates. Among the hundreds of people who took part in the Vision-D project, 1,295 were diagnosed with previously unidentified high blood pressure during what was the largest digital physiological study in history.
    Developer Xim has brought the technology’s accuracy in line with current NHS equipment. It also measures a person’s respiratory rate. Hopes are high it will win approval from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) - paving the way for it to be used by health care providers and patients.
    Read full story
    Source: Portsmouth News, 30 July 2019
  22. Sam
    Palliative and end-of-life care must become a priority in healthcare, a cancer charity has said. Macmillan Cancer Support said emergency departments were not the right places to care for terminally ill people. Their comments come after new research conducted by Macmillan and the NI Cancer Registry at Queen's University.
    The report highlights the need for planning and communication around end-of-life care. It also found late diagnosis of cancer to be a problem. Among the research's findings is that three quarters of cancer patients who died in Northern Ireland in 2015 were admitted to A&E at least once in the last year of their lives.
    "Emergency departments cannot provide the very specialist care needed by cancer patients", said Heather Monteverde, Macmillan's Head of Service.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 8 August 2019
  24. Sam
    New research released by Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust has revealed the extent to which women who have physical disabilities are discriminated against when attempting to undergo cervical screenings. The charity surveyed 335 women for the investigation who have health conditions including spinal muscular atrophy, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, paraplegia and cerebral palsy. According to the study's findings, 88% of the participants felt that it is more difficult for a women with a physical disability to attend a cervical screening and just under half of the participants said that they had purposely chosen not to attend a smear test because of a negative, past experience they'd had due to their disability.
    Robert Music, Chief Executive of Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust, said: ""It is not acceptable that women with a physical disability are often faced with additional hurdles or even being denied access to this potentially lifesaving test."
    Read full story
    Source: Independent, 8 August 2019
  25. Sam
    The NHS in England is setting up a national artificial intelligence (AI) laboratory to enhance care of patients and research. The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, said AI had "enormous power" to improve care, save lives and ensure doctors had more time to spend with patients. He has announced £250m will be spent on boosting the role of AI within the health service. 
    Clinical trials have proven AIs are as good as leading doctors at spotting lung cancer, skin cancer, and more than 50 eye conditions from scans. This has the potential to let doctors focus on the most urgent cases and rule out those that do not need treatment. Other tools have been developed that can predict ovarian cancer survival rates and help choose which treatment should be given. However, AI will pose new challenges, including protecting patient data.
    Read full story
    Source: BBC News, 8 August 2019
×
×
  • Create New...