Medical Thought Leaders

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News Medical's "Thought Leaders" series is a selection of articles written by national and international experts and trusted advisers in health and medicine. All the articles are written by experts who have been invited as recognised leaders in their fields to provide a "state of the art" contribution.

Using AFM to study cell mechanics and function

My lab, broadly speaking, is interested in trying to understand interactions between cells and materials. Those could be materials that are present within living tissue or materials that we use for engineering purposes to try to do something of technological or therapeutic interest.

From Bruker Nano Surfaces 17 Oct 2017

Benefits of Biomarkers in Colorectal Cancer Treatment

Biomarkers fall into different categories: diagnostic biomarkers, are used to identify a disease; prognostic biomarkers, help clinicians to determine, for example, whether you're more likely to die or have problems with a disease; and there are some that can be used to inform treatment, to determine whether one therapy would be more successful than another.

2 Oct 2017

Could smart vital sign monitoring provide an early warning system for hospitals?

Vital signs have been around for a long period of time. Taking the pulse is probably one of the oldest examinations that doctors have made to assess patients.

21 Sep 2017

Analytical Science in Precision Medicine

Pittcon is an analytical conference, so naturally my talk will be about analytical chemistry and how analytical chemistry will become increasingly important in delivering healthcare solutions, not only for rich people, but also, hopefully, for poor people across the world.

From Pittcon 19 Sep 2017

Tackling misdiagnosis of asthma in primary care

There are three kinds of problem – though we do not have any reliable quantitative data to know how common they are. Firstly, there is sometimes a delay in making an asthma diagnosis in people who have asthma – this is less common than in the past, but it still happens.

13 Sep 2017

Optical microscopy resolution revolution

I will talk about the simple but fundamental idea that allowed breaking the diffraction barrier in fluorescence microscopy as well as about MINFLUX nanoscopy, the latest development in the field that for the first time provides true molecular resolution with visible light and standard objective lenses.

From Pittcon 12 Sep 2017

Testing Service Members for Heat Related Illnesses Before Combat

It is common to think that combat deployment is the most dangerous part of being a warfighter, and in many ways this is correct. However, warfighters need to do many things before they are cleared to deploy to combat zones. Most cases of exertional heat illness (EHI) reported in the U.S. military occur during non-combat activities, such as training regimens, ruck marches, and operational exercises.

From Physitemp Instruments, Inc. 6 Sep 2017

Gout patient hospitalizations: what’s causing the increase?

We looked at all hospitalizations in patients with gout. The concern is that gout is often considered as a disease of just the joints, specifically of the big toe. Yet, there have been quite a lot of studies that have talked about the many other comorbidities that occur because of hyperuricemia and gout. The idea is that it's not just the crystal deposits in the joint, but other consequences that are happening because of this disease in the rest of the body.

31 Aug 2017

Intensive Care Medicine

Intensive care medicine is a young specialty that deals with the medical treatment of the sickest patients in the hospital. Intensive care medicine doctors are called intensivists and are expert physicians with special skills in the management of organ failure.

29 Aug 2017

Preclinical research using 1 Tesla desktop MRI

I'm an MR imaging scientist in the preclinical field. I'm a team leader of the functional and molecular imaging team at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) in QST.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 17 Aug 2017

Understanding the rise in NTM infections

It is important to keep in mind that nontuberculous mycobacteria are environmental, and so unlike mycobacterial tuberculosis, generally this is not a person to person transmitted disease. The organisms are found universally in water and soil and so most people are exposed on a daily basis.

16 Aug 2017

Counteracting premature aging

Aging is the continuing process of such stress exposures, and with advancing age (normal aging), we must carry lots of senescent cells within our bodies. Senescent cells also often provide some ‘bad influences’ to surrounding healthy cells; such as chronic inflammation and tumorigenesis

14 Aug 2017

Tackling food allergies: is immunotherapy the answer?

Food allergies affect approximately 8% of school children in the United States and the United Kingdom. The highest prevalence of food allergies is in Australia affecting approximately 10% of young children. It is lower in the developing world.

7 Aug 2017

Specialist Training in Perioperative Practice

Perioperative practice is quite a specialised area focused on patients who are undergoing surgery. Patients come to theatre for a reason, usually to have an operation or procedure that will correct a condition or perhaps alleviate discomfort.

From University of Derby Online Learning 31 Jul 2017

Genetic test to predict IBD severity in children

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic relapsing inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract with abdominal pain and diarrhea being the most common symptoms. It can be challenging to diagnose as gastrointestinal complaints mimicking IBD are common.

26 Jul 2017

Zika: costs of prevention and control

They undertook a modelling study based on six states in the US in areas that are at risk of Zika emergence. The main finding of this study was that the total cost of Zika in these sates had a range that went from approximately 183.4 million dollars to 1.2 billion dollars.

6 Jul 2017

Schistosomiasis: the biggest killer you’ve never heard of?

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease, sometimes called bilharzia or snail fever. The disease impacts a huge number of people around the world, over 230 million people are infected with one of the schistosome species, the parasitic worms that causes the disease.

4 Jul 2017

Identifying overactive bladder syndrome

Unfortunately, studies show that only about 5 million people living with OAB seek care from a doctor, and only half of those patients seek a specialist like a urologist or urogynecologist for treatment. It’s time to see a doctor if you’re using multiple leakage pads per day, not doing things you like because of the fear of leakage, planning all your travel around bathroom locations, or are worried about the problem every day.

28 Jun 2017

Antibiotic resistance: a healthcare emergency?

Antibiotic resistance is happening in hospitals quite frequently. Probably the main place where resistant organisms and pathogens are acquired is in intensive care units (ICUs).

26 Jun 2017

Could the mTOR pathway be used to protect against cancer?

The mTOR pathway is probably the main pathway in humans and other animals that drives growth. That is, the accumulation of mass and adding mass to make an organism bigger by both making more cells, and making cells grow and become bigger.

22 Jun 2017