March 28, 2007
Nanotechnology in the Spotlight
According to a new study released by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, nanotechnology promises to bring sweeping technological advances in coming years. The report entitled "Nanotechnology: The Future is Coming Sooner Than You Think" (pdf download, 232 KB), states that nanotechnology will lead to dramatic breakthroughs in many areas including medicine, communications, computing, energy, and robotics. The study describes that nanotechnology offers the potential for important advances in many fields, for example, the ability to engineer even smaller circuits, switches, and components for memory storage has important applications for computer science and information technology. In medicine, nanotechnology offers the possibility of designing treatments for cancers using nanoparticles that seek out cancer cells and release an attached drug.
The Next Industrial Revolution?
With nanotechnology being described by business and government leaders as "The Next Industrial Revolution," the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The Pew Charitable Trusts have established a project called "The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies" to study the potential environmental, health, and social impacts of nanotechnology. This project is in its third year with a goal of producing objective, in-depth analysis of nanotechnology's potential impact. It is providing sound principles and policy recommendations for coping with and reaping the benefits that nanotechnology promises, and it is bringing together stakeholders from every sector for informed, productive and creative discussion and collaborations. The Project also is fostering a better understanding of how institutions need to change to accommodate this new technology and will expand their efforts to help industry, governments and the public reap nanotechnology's benefits by better anticipating and managing possible environmental and health implications.
According to the Wilson Center President and Director Lee Hamilton, "the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is engaged in something very rare in our rapidly changing, technology-driven world. It is working to look over the horizon at one of the most critical technologies of the day and help the nation to stay ahead of the technology curve."
Upcoming Conference
A conference is scheduled April 16, 2007 in Washington, DC called "Nanotechnology's Past, Present & Future: A Congressional Perspective" which will introduce the program and discuss its scope and implications. There will also be a live Webcast.
More information on the conference or the live webcast
http://www.nanotechproject.org/
Link to A Nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory
(compiled by the project)
March 22, 2007
Minimizing the Stress of Medical Emergencies
Minimizing red tape in an emergency room can go a long way in reducing the stress that patients and families experience in these situations. Starting this week, the Einstein at Elkins Park division of the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia is offering Emergency Room Pre-registration to residents of Elkins Park, Northeast Philadelphia and the surrounding Philadelphia communities. The Einstein ER Pre-registration program is one of the only such programs in the nation, and the only program in the eight-county Philadelphia region.
To register for this program, area residents simply call 1-800-EINSTEIN or visit http://www.einstein.edu/prereg where they will voluntarily provide as much relevant information (name, primary care physician, insurance information, etc.) as they want about themselves and any family members they wish to enroll. Einstein logs this information and sends them special ID tags that can be carried in their wallet or on a key chain. If they ever have a need to visit the Elkins Park ER, the card is scanned and their information automatically entered, saving the patient valuable time and avoiding extra paperwork in an actual emergency.
Patient information is 100 percent secure, because the ID cards contain no personal information and can only be scanned at the Einstein at Elkins Park Emergency Department. If the ID tag is ever lost, the participant need only call Einstein for a replacement.
Einstein is piloting this program at Elkins Park. If the community responds, it will be extended to the other emergency rooms and physician practices in the Einstein Network.
March 16, 2007
Google Partners to Offer Free EMR
Google plans on partnering with Practice Fusion, a San Francisco company, to offer a free Web-based electronic health record system to physicians and medical groups.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "electronic medical records systems generally cost doctors upward of $20,000 to install. But Practice Fusion offers the service at a price that's hard to beat -- free."
In addition to a medical records system, Practice Fusion offers practice-management tools, such as billing systems. It says that by partnering with Google's AdSense network, the company can cover the cost of its services. Practice Fusion's deal with Google is what makes a free medical records system possible. Google's AdSense program will generate ads that will be displayed as the records system is used.
When a doctor using the service calls up a patient's health record, AdSense will recognize certain keywords -- such as "diabetes" -- and ads related to that condition will appear on the page. Advertising will be discreet -- no pop-ups -- and keywords are limited to a patient's condition, diagnosis or treatment. Practice Fusion says it complies with all federal privacy laws and will protect patient data.
Doctors will have the option of paying a $250 monthly fee to use the system without advertisements.
March 05, 2007
Virtual Reality Game Links Depression to Hippocampus
A brief report in the March 2007 American Journal of Psychiatry, describes using 3D virtual reality video games to advance our understanding of neuroanatomy and its association with clinical depression. Scientists from University College in London have been using a virtual-reality, three-dimensional video game that challenges spatial memory as a new tool for assessing the link between depression and the hippocampus, the brain's memory hub. Spatial memory is the memory of how things are oriented in space and how to get to them. Researchers found that depressed people performed poorly on the video game compared with nondepressed people, suggesting that their hippocampi were not functioning properly.
Earlier studies have shown that individuals with mood disorders tend to have memory problems and smaller hippocampi than non-depressed people. When the scientists tried a traditionally used, two-dimensional version memory test, it was not able to detect differences in spatial memory that the new video game could. The authors suggest that it is the three-dimensional aspects that engage areas of the hippocampus that the two-dimensional test does not.
Thus, the video game appers to be a more revealing measure of spatial memory and a more sensitive measure of hippocampal dysfunction and possiblly a more powerful tool for exploring the link between the hippocampus and depression. It may one day be a tool for detecting hippocampus deficits in depressed patients.
American Journal of Psychiatry Abstract