Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Genetic Research, Personalized Medicine, Technology / 06.01.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Bissan Al-Lazikani Team leader in computational biology The Institute of Cancer Research London Medical Research: What is the background for the canSAR database? What are the main uses for the tool? Dr. Al-Lazikani: Drug discovery is a difficult, time consuming and expensive venture that frequently ends in late stage drug failures - especially in oncology. As with any complex venture, decisions throughout the drug discovery pipeline can be empowered by having access to the right information at the right time. But for drug discovery this means bringing together billions of experimental data from very diverse areas of science spanning genomics, proteomics, chemistry and more. We developed canSAR to help guide our own drug discovery efforts by integrating these huge, diverse data and by analysing the data and deriving hidden links and knowledge from them. This means that we can answer questions in minutes that would have taken weeks using previously available public resources. But, more importantly, canSAR analyses and links these data in a way that allows us  to derive knowledge that was hidden before. For example, one of the main ways canSAR is used is to help select the best druggable targets for drug discovery. Using canSAR we were able to uncover many druggable cancer proteins that were previously overlooked, and we are delighted to see that several of these proteins are now the subjects of drug discovery and development projects both by us and by others. We took the decision to make canSAR publicly and freely available because we believe that cancer drug discovery is a vast challenge that requires openness and data sharing worldwide. It has been embraced by the community is being used by tens of thousands of cancer scientists worldwide, both in academia and industry, to generate hypotheses for experiments and select targets for drug discovery. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Technology / 27.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Deirdre Murray Senior Lecturer/Consultant Paediatrician Dept of Paediatrics and Child Health University College Cork Clinical Investigations Unit Cork University Hospital Principal Investigator Irish Centre for Fetal and Neonatal Translational Research  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Murray: Everyday in clinic, and in waiting rooms and in restaurants we see parents are handing over their smart phones and iPads to occupy young children. The nature of childhood play is changing rapidly. The exact frequency and the effect of this change in unknown. We wanted to first measure how young children 12-36 months are using touchscreen devices. We asked parents who attended our paediatric unit, both outpatients and short stay inpatients to answer a study specific questionnaire. We found that of the 82 parents surveyed, 82% of parents owned a touchscreen device, and of these 87% gave their device to their toddler to play with. Thus 71% of toddlers had access to a touchscreen device. This rate was similar across the age range studied (12-36 months). By parental report, 24 months was the median age of ability to swipe (IQR: 19.5–30.5), unlock (IQR: 20.5–31.5) and active looking for touch-screen features (IQR: 22–30.5), while 25 months (IQR: 21–31.25) was the median age of ability to identify and use specific touch-screen features. Overall, 32.8% of toddlers could perform all four skills. Touchscreen usage was common at a very young age and from 2 years of age toddlers have the ability to interact purposefully with touch-screen technology.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology, Technology / 21.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christie Riemer MD Candidate-Class of 2016 Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Online physician rating sites allow patients to recommend, grade, and publicly comment on physician performance. Despite increases in physician rating website popularity, little information exists regarding the online footprint of dermatologists. Many physicians also remain wary of these websites for fear of malicious reviews. Our study aimed to investigate the patterns of dermatologist online ratings. We found the average ratings for dermatologists were high, >3.5 stars, on the top 5 websites (ZocDoc, Healthgrades, Yelp, RateMDs, and Vitals.com), we also searched for more specific geographic criteria such as including a location in our search for example a dermatologist in columbia sc, by doing this we found that the online ratings were not only national and but state wide too allowing us to look for local and national patterns of ratings. Most importantly, these ratings were consistently high across the 3 sites with the most dermatologist profiles. There were no differences in rating based on gender or subspecialty training. Four of the sites offer the option to write comments. ZocDoc had significantly fewer negative comments, and also had the most comments per dermatologist, there are also dermatologists in different areas of the United States, for example, there is a dermatologist in nyc that those who live in that area can look into. (more…)
Author Interviews, Epilepsy, Technology / 11.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Frances Hutchings Interdisciplinary Computing and Complex BioSystems School of Computing Science, Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Response: Temporal lobe epilepsy is a prevalent and disruptive disorder, which is often treated with surgical removal of epileptic tissue when medication fails to repress seizures. In around a third of cases surgery is unsuccessful at preventing seizures. The aim of this study is to seek ways to improve surgery success rates by giving a better prediction of where seizures are starting and spreading on an individual patient basis, using an individual’s brain imaging data. Surgery is simulated in the model to provide a prediction of a procedures effectiveness at reducing seizures. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Response: Using patient Diffusion Tensor Imaging data to reconstruct the brain as a network, locations commonly implicated in temporal lobe epilepsy were found by the model to be most vulnerable to seizures. Simulations of surgery (following a commonly used surgery procedure) in patient models predicted a surgery success rate close to 70%, matching clinical observations. Subject specific surgery simulations were also tried, following individual predictions from the model of which regions to remove for which person. These showed far greater improvements in seizure likelihood than regular surgery. This is a preliminary study and there is much to be done to improve the predictive success, and also to ensure that model predicted subject specific surgery regions are safe to remove. Nonetheless it is a significant move towards computer aided patient specific surgery planning to improve outcomes. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Infections, PLoS, Technology / 10.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Leo McHugh, Ph.D. Director, Bioinformatics Immunexpress Seattle, Washington  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. McHugh: Sepsis is the leading cause of child mortality in the world, and in developing countries kills more adults than breast cancer, prostate cancer and HIV combined. Approximately 30% of people admitted to ICU have sepsis, and up to 50% of these patients die. It’s a major cost burden also, costing the US health system $17 billion per year. The best way to reduce costs and improve patient outcomes is to detect sepsis early and with confidence, so that appropriate treatments can be applied. Each hour delay in the detection of sepsis has been reported to correspond to an 8% increase in mortality. So the need for a rapid and accurate diagnostic is recognized. Traditional methods rely on detection of the specific pathogen causing the infection, and these methods often take more than 24 hours, and find a pathogen in only 30% of clinically confirmed cases because they’re trying to detect a minuscule amount of pathogen or pathogenic product in the blood. Our approach was to use the host’s own immune system, which is highly tuned to respond to the presence of pathogens. Around 30% of all genes are dysregulated in sepsis, so there is a huge signal base to draw from. The trick with using multi marker host response is to pick out the specific combination of gene expression patterns that cover the broad range of patients that present with sepsis and who may present either early or late in the episode, thus with different gene activation patterns. This paper describes a simple combination of such genes that can be used to detect sepsis and performs over the full range of patients irrespective of stage of infection or severity of infection. In it’s current format, the test is manual and takes 4-6 hours, and is a great advance on the current tools, however the methods we’ve used are specifically designed to meet requirements to port this assay onto a fully automated Point of Care platform that could deliver a result in under 90 minutes. (more…)
Annals Thoracic Surgery, Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Technology / 24.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Neeraj Shah, MD, MPH Cardiology Fellow Department of Cardiology Lehigh Valley Health Network Allentown, PA. Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Shah:  Congestive heart failure (CHF) affects 5.8 million Americans, with prevalence as high as 10% in individuals aged 65 years or more. There are long wait times for heart transplants. Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have been shown to significantly improve outcomes in end stage CHF patients. In the current situation of limited donor hearts, the utilization of LVAD technology is likely to increase over time. Moreover, the LVAD technology has improved considerably over time. The first generation devices were bulky and pulsatile in nature and of limited durability, whereas the second and third generation devices are smaller, longer lasting and exhibit “continuous flow”. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved continuous flow devices in 2008. Presently, continuous flow devices account for over 95% of LVAD implants. Our aim was to examine the trends in utilization, in-hospital mortality, procedure related complications and cost of care after LVAD implantation from 2005 to 2011, and to study any differences in the pulsatile flow era from 2005-2007, compared to continuous flow era from 2008-2011. We used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), which the largest all-payer US national hospitalization database, for our study. We identified LVAD implants using International Classification of Disease, 9th edition (ICD-9) procedure code 37.66. NIS data showed that there were 2,038 LVAD implantations from 2005 to 2011. LVAD utilization increased from 127 procedures in 2005 to 506 procedures in 2011, with a sharp increase after the year 2008 (from 149 procedures in 2007 to 257 procedures in 2008). In-hospital mortality associated with LVAD implantation decreased considerably from 47.2% in 2005 to 12.7% in 2011 (p<0.001), with a sharp decline in mortality after the year 2008 (from 38.9% in 2007 to 19.5% in 2008). Average length of stay (LOS) decreased from 44 days in the pulsatile-flow era to 36 days in the continuous-flow era. Cost of hospitalization increased from $194,380 in 2005 to $234,808 in 2011 but remained steady from 2008 to 2011. There was a trend of increased incidence of major bleeding and thromboembolism and decreased incidence of infectious and iatrogenic cardiac complications in the continuous-flow era. Thus, there has been a considerable increase in utilization of LVADs and decline in in-hospital mortality and LOS after LVAD implantation. These changes strongly coincide with US FDA approval of continuous flow devices in 2008. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Fertility, OBGYNE, Technology / 19.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kutluk Oktay, MD, PhD. Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Medicine, and Cell Biology & Anatomy Director, Division of Reproductive Medicine & Institute for Fertility Preservation Innovation Institute for Fertility and In Vitro Fertilization New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Oktay: Cancer treatments cause infertility and early menopause in a growing number of young women around the world and US. One of the strategies to preserve fertility, which was developed by our team, is to cryopreserve ovarian tissue before chemotherapy and later transplant it back to the patient when they are cured of the cancer and ready to have children. However, success of ovarian transplantation has been limited due to limitation in blood flow to grafts. In this study we described a new approach which seems to improve graft function. The utility of an extracellular tissue matrix and robotic surgery seems to enhance graft function. With this approach both patients conceived with frozen embryos to spare and one has already delivered. (more…)
Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, Technology / 18.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Daniel Niven MD, MSc, FRCPC Department of Critical Care Medicine Department of Community Health Sciences O'Brien Institute for Public Health Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Niven: Fever (temperature 38.0 degrees Celsius or higher) and hypothermia (temperature less than 36.0 degrees Celsius) are commonly included in diagnostic criteria for certain disorders, influence clinical decision making, and are associated with an increased risk for death in select patient populations. Therefore, accurately measuring body temperature is important. Unfortunately, the accuracy of many commonly employed thermometers is not well defined.  Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Niven: This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the accuracy of thermometers measuring temperature from peripheral sites (for example, forehead measurement devices) relative to central sites (for example, the bladder) in adults and children. From 75 studies and 8,682 patients, this meta-analysis found that the majority of commonly used peripheral thermometers do not have clinically acceptable accuracy among adults and children. This was especially the case for patients with fever and hypothermia, where peripheral temperature measurements may be as much as 1 to 2 degrees higher or lower than actual body temperature. Sensitivity for detection of fever was low (64%), whereas specificity was high (96%). (more…)
Author Interviews, Ovarian Cancer, Technology / 18.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor John McDonald PhD Director of its Integrated Cancer Research Center School of Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Ovarian cancer is a deadly disease because it cannot be diagnosed at early stages when it can be most effectively effectively treated. It has long been recognized that there is a great need for an accurate diagnostic test for early stage ovarian cancer. Until now, efforts to develop a highly accurate way to detect early stage ovarian cancer have been unsuccessful. We have used a novel approach that integrates advanced methods in analytical chemistry with advanced machine learning algorithms to identify 16 metabolites that collectively can detect ovarian cancer with extremely high accuracy (100% in the samples tested in our study) (more…)
Author Interviews, NYU, Technology / 05.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dustin T. Duncan, ScD Assistant Professor Department of Population Health and Dr. Paul Krebs PhD Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health New York University School of Medicine  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr.  Krebs: Everyone seems to be talking about health apps, but there was no quality research on what was actually happening in the US with regard to these apps. Knowing why people use and don’t use health-related apps is critical for advancing this area of healthcare. In terms of main findings, we found that a little over half of Americans are using a health-related app, primarily in the domains of fitness and nutrition. We also found greater use among minority populations, younger persons, among people who were obese, and those with higher incomes. Surprisingly we found that about 40% of people would not pay anything for a health app. Hidden costs and difficulty of data entry were main reasons people stopped using them. Dr. Duncan: Little is know about health app use, which was surprising to us—especially because many people have smartphones so downloading a health app can easy. We wanted to understand the landscape of health app use and patterns in the US to ultimately improve the population’s health. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Technology / 31.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Anuradha Godavarty PhD and Dr. Sarah J Erickson-Bhatt PhD Dept of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University Miami, FL Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: It is well known that early detection and staging of breast cancer is crucial in order to save lives. While the current gold standard for breast cancer screening is x-ray mammography, this method still misses many cancers especially in younger women with denser tissue. Our group and others have explored diffuse optical tomography using near-infrared light to image breast tumors. We have developed a unique optical imager with a hand-held probe that can contour to breast curvature in order to image the tissue without painful compression and without ionizing radiation (like x-rays). This study demonstrated the ability of the device to detect lesions in breast cancer patients due to elevated levels of total hemoglobin concentration in tumor vasculature. The hand-held has a potential to not only image the breast contours, but the probe was flexible to image the surrounding chest wall regions, thus expanding its application to image lymphatic spread as well. (more…)
Author Interviews, Surgical Research, Technology / 28.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Carmine Simone MD, FRCSC  Chief, Department of Surgery, Toronto East General Hospital Co-Program Medical Director, Surgery HealthService, Toronto East General Hospital Lecturer, University of Toronto, Division of Thoracic Surgery Courtesy Staff, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre & Royal Victoria Hospital, Barrie Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Simone: Patients preparing for surgery are often overwhelmed with information. Most of the time patients are given written instructions regarding preoperative preparation as well as written information at discharge. Our own institutional experience is that only 2/3 of patients read the information we provide and less than half of these patients can understand or retain the information they read. We have found that providing patients SMS alerts or reminders leading up to their surgery increases the likelihood that they will follow instructions and keep their appointments. Furthermore having patients log their progress after discharged from hospital allows patients to track their progress and report complications earlier and avoid coming to the ER. Educational modules enable patients to better gauge their symptoms and make more informed decisions about calling the surgeon’s office or proceeding to the emergency department. We found a significant reduction in the number of ER visits and cancelled procedures after implementing the mobile device reminders and post-discharge daily log. (more…)
Author Interviews, Surgical Research, Technology / 23.10.2015

[wysija_form id="5"]MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Philip Breedon Professor of smart technologies Nottingham Trent University Design for Health and Wellbeing Research Group  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Prof. Breedon: This report presented an innovative approach of enhancing the efficiency of spinal surgery by utilizing the technological capabilities and design functionalities of wearable headsets, in this case Google Glass. The overall aim was to improve the efficiency of the Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy ( SDR) neurosurgical procedure through the use of Google Glass via an innovative approach to information design for the intraoperative monitoring display. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Melanoma, Technology / 15.10.2015

Ashley K. Day, Ph.D., M. Psych (Hlth) Post-Doctoral Associate Rutgers Cancer Institute of New JerseyMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ashley K. Day, Ph.D., M. Psych (Hlth) Post-Doctoral Associate Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Day: Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the US, and it is estimated that more than 9,000 Americans will die of melanoma this year. Melanoma patients have a 9-times greater risk for a diagnosis of another melanoma compared to the general population. Because of this, it is important that melanoma patients practice regular sun protection and skin self-examination behaviors. There is potential opportunity to use the Internet to deliver information and interventions to help melanoma patients engage in these behaviors. However, it is important to understand patients’ preferences. Our research explored factors associated with the receptivity of patients with melanoma to such Internet-delivered behavioral interventions. We found that, in a sample of 176 melanoma patients, the vast majority (84.1%) had Internet access and had previously sought melanoma information online (77.7%). More than two-thirds of patients (68.4%) reported being at least moderately interested in participating in an Internet-based intervention to promote engagement in sun protection and skin self-examination behaviors. Receptivity to such an intervention was higher among patients who were younger, had greater knowledge of the ABCDE signs of melanoma (looking at the asymmetry, border irregularity, color, diameter, and evolution of the mole or affected area), and were more comfortable using the Internet. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Technology / 05.10.2015

Ichiro Morioka, M.D. Professor of Pediatrics, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine Chuo-ku, Kobe, JapanMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ichiro Morioka, M.D. Professor of Pediatrics, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine Chuo-ku, Kobe, Japan  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Morioka: Japan has the highest survival rate for preterm infants due to recent advanced medical treatment and the availability of Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). Despite this, cases of cerebral palsy and hearing loss caused by neonatal jaundice continue (kernicterus) to occur, with cases reported for at least 2 in every 1000 infants born before the 30th week of gestation. It has also been established that cases of jaundice can worsen even two weeks after birth and thereafter, meaning that there is a need for continuous long-term jaundice monitoring of infants in the NICU. However, jaundice in preterm infants is difficult to detect through physical observations, and monitoring through a daily blood test is not a realistic option. We focused on transcutaneous jaundice monitoring used in daily health tests for full term infants. The bilirubin levels of 85 infants with a birth weight of under 1500 grams were monitored in NICUs at Kobe University, Kakogawa City Hospital, Hyogo Prefectural Kobe Children’s Hospital, Japanese Red Cross Society Himeji Hospital, and Takatsuki General Hospital, and were taken a total of 383 transcutaneous and blood bilirubin measurements at the same time. Through our results we were able to ascertain that the chest and back areas of preterm infants have the highest levels of sensitivity, and transcutaneous bilirubin levels in those areas were close to bilirubin levels in the blood. In addition to expanding the possibilities for transcutaneous monitoring of jaundice in preterm infants, we discovered the optimum area of skin to monitor it. (more…)
Author Interviews, Neurological Disorders, Technology / 24.09.2015

An Do, MD Assistant Professor Department of Neurology University of California, IrvineMedicalResearch.com Interview with: An Do, MD Assistant Professor Department of Neurology University of California, Irvine Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. An Do: In this study, we demonstrated that it is possible for a person with paraplegia due to spinal cord injury to regain brain-controlled walking through the use of a brain-computer interface. This system records EEG signals as a person is thinking about walking. While the person is thinking about walking, EEG signals change in a manner which can be detected by a computer algorithm. Upon detecting that a person is thinking about walking from the EEG signals, the computer sends a command signal to an electrical stimulation system to stimulate the nerves in the legs to continuously generate alternating right and left stepping movements. This stepping stimulation stops when he stops thinking about walking. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Outcomes & Safety, Technology / 21.09.2015

Wencui Han PhD Assistant Professor Business Administration University of Illinois at Urbana ChampaignMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Wencui Han PhD Assistant Professor Business Administration University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Han: Well-designed disease registries integrate a variety of information, including patient demographics, laboratory results, pharmacy data, and comorbidity data, to serve a variety of functions outside the clinical encounter. However, the adoption of disease registries by healthcare organizations is associated with significant direct and indirect costs. The impacts of using disease registries that meet meaningful use (MU) requirements in improving health outcomes and creating cost savings are understudied. This study examines the impact of using a registry for patient reminders and for improvement of the quality of care, hospital utilization, and cost saving. The results suggest that the use of diabetes registries meeting Meaningful Use core objectives is associated with higher completion or recommended lab tests and a lower hospital utilization rate for patients with type 2 diabetes. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Technology / 18.09.2015

Dr. Xiaohu Xia Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Chemistry Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI 49931MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Xiaohu Xia Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Chemistry Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI 49931 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Xiaohu Xia, Jingtuo Zhang, Ning Lu, Moon J. Kim, Kushal Ghale, Ye Xu, Erin McKenzie, Jiabin Liu, Haihang Ye. Pd–Ir Core–Shell Nanocubes: A Type of Highly Efficient and Versatile Peroxidase Mimic. ACS Nano, 2015; 150910154147007 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b03525Dr. Xia: Peroxidases, a family of enzymes that catalyze the oxidation of certain compounds with peroxides, have found widespread use in areas such as biomedicine and environmental protection. Over the past several years, researchers have found that certain inorganic nanomaterials (such as nanoparticles made of metal, metal oxides, and carbon) possess intrinsic peroxidase-like activities. As the major advantage over their natural counterparts, these peroxidase mimics are much more stable because they are less vulnerable to denaturation and protease digestion. In spite of the superior stability of the mimics, improvement in their catalytic efficiency has been met with limited success. The catalytic efficiencies for most of the previously reported peroxidase mimics with sizes 1-100 nm are limited to the range of 101-104 s-1 in terms of catalytic constant (Kcat, which measures the maximum number of chemical conversions of substrate molecules per second per enzyme/mimic). Our research team have recently developed a new type of peroxidase mimic with a record high efficiency that was engineered by coating ~18 nm palladium (Pd) nanocubes with ultrathin iridium (Ir) skins of a few atomic layers (i.e., Pd-Ir core-shell cubes, see Figure). The catalytic efficiency of our Pd-Ir cubes could reach a level of Kcat = 106 s-1. In view of the substantially enhanced efficiency, we applied our Pd-Ir cubes to the colorimetric enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) of human prostate surface antigen (PSA) by functionalizing their surface with antibodies. The detection limit of the Pd-Ir cubes-based ELISA of PSA was determined to be 0.67 pg/mL, which is over 100-fold lower than that of the conventional horseradish peroxidase(HRP)-based ELISA using the same set of antibodies and the same procedure (see Figure). (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Sleep Disorders, Technology / 27.08.2015

Stephanie J. Crowley, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Biological Rhythms Research Laboratory Department of Behavioral Sciences Rush University Medical Center Chicago, IL 60612MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stephanie J. Crowley, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Biological Rhythms Research Laboratory Department of Behavioral Sciences Rush University Medical Center Chicago, IL 60612 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Crowley: Your readers may have seen recent reports by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC about problems with early morning school bells for teens and the need to push school start times later.  These recent calls for later school start times come from data showing that biological processes make it challenging for a teen to get enough sleep and be rested for school when they have to wake up very early for school.  One of these biological processes is the circadian timing system, which is the approximate 24-hour brain clock that regulates the timing of sleep and wake.  During the teen years, the brain clock is shifted later making it more difficult for many teens to fall asleep early enough to get sufficient sleep on school nights. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Crowley: Melatonin suppression, as tested in this new study, is a good indication of how light affects the circadian system.  Our findings show that even a very small amount of light (similar to “romantic mood lighting”) in the evening suppressed melatonin levels in the middle-school-aged adolescents.  Because evening light “seen” by the brain clock shifts the clock later in time, the message is that biologically-driven later sleep times starts at this early age and needs to be considered when managing school and sleep schedules. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Gastrointestinal Disease, Technology / 16.08.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Jeff Karp Ph.D Associate Professor of Medicine Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School Cambridge, MA 02139 Dr. Jeff Karp Ph.D Associate Professor of Medicine Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School Cambridge, MA  02139 and Giovanni Traverso M.B., B.Ch., Ph.DDr-Giovanni-Traverso The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA   Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings Dr. Karp: Almost all patients with ulcerative colitis will require enema-based therapy at some point in their treatment.  Enema therapy has 3 major issues.
  • It is difficult to retain
  • There is high systemic absorption of the drug (that can lead to toxic side effects), and
  • Compliance is low as patients must take enemas every day.
Our approach can potentially address all three.  The engineered gel that we designed has dual targeting capability. It rapidly attaches to ulcers within seconds to minutes (we have 5-10x less systemic absorption as the gel only attaches to ulcers) and selectively releases drug in the presence of ulcers, and we showed that we could reduce the dosing frequency. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, PLoS, Technology / 29.07.2015

Conrad Earnest, PhD, FACSM Texas A&M University College Station, TXMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Conrad Earnest, PhD, FACSM Texas A&M University College Station, TX Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Earnest: The study presented here is a thesis project performed by Robbyne Smith and Sammy Licence, under the direction of Professor Conrad Earnest. We were curious to about the effects of walking, texting and doing both while simultaneously being cognitively distracted by common tasks - in our case a maths test. Much of our curiosity was born from watching a YouTube video and reading an article on inattentional blindness where people did not notice a unicycling clown while using their mobile phones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysbk_28F068 Several reports suggest that this type of pedestrian behavior leads to more pedestrian accidents, possibly increases the risk of tripping and increases riskier road crossing behavior due to a lack of attention. While much of the literature has examined this question using a “straight line” model to look at walking characteristics and deviations within ones walking path, we elected to build an obstacle course that imitated common barriers that we measured in the city of Bath, England, that pedestrians might encounter during their walking day. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Earnest: Our main findings were that people slowed their walking speed, took more steps in their approach to common obstacles, and increased the height of their step to go up steps and over curbs. Interestingly, we did not see an increase in what we called barrier contacts, which were used as a surrogate measure for tripping. (more…)
Author Interviews, Technology / 17.07.2015

Adam Friedman, MD, FAADAssociate Professor of Dermatology Residency Program Director Director of Translational Research Department of Dermatology George Washington School of Medicine and Health ScienceMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Adam Friedman, MD, FAAD Associate Professor of Dermatology Residency Program Director Director of Translational Research Department of Dermatology George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Friedman: Acne vulgaris is one of the most  common skin disease that affects approximately 40-50 million people in the United States.    Acne’s multifactorial etiology, resulting from a mix of androgen-induced elevations in sebum production, abnormal follicular epithelial desquamation and proliferation, hypercolonization of Propionibacterium acnes and host inflammatory reactions, make treatment often times challenging. In looking at the topical therapeutic armament for Acne Vulgaris, which includes benzoyl peroxide, salicyclic acid, topical antibiotics such as clindamycin, and retinoids, all suffer from various related side effects including irritation, erythema, dryness, peeling and scaling, bacterial resistance, and resulting dyschromia from the associated irritation in patients of darker skin types. These adverse events often serve as major limiting factors influencing patient compliance and ultimately impacting efficacy. Therefore new treatments which target all of the complexities of acne are needed, especially given we have not had anything really new brought to market in years. Here, we looked to biology for the answer. Our bodies generate Nitric Oxide, a diatomic lipid loving gaseous molecule, to perform a broad range of biological activities, including but not limited to killing bacteria/fungi/viruses  and inhibiting inflammation - key elements in Acne. Its action however is very short lived and therefore using Nitric Oxide as a treatment is difficult as one would need a delivery system that would allow for continued and controlled release. Enter nanotechnology. We designed exceedingly small particles (of note, 1 nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter) which allow for the generation of nitric oxide gas from nitrite salt, and will only release the gas when exposed to moisture over time. The size of the particles also enables them to better interact with their environment, i.e. cells, pathogens, improving their activity as compared to large sized treatments In this study, we showed that the nitric oxide generating/releasing nano particles effectively killed the organism, P. acnes but was not toxic to both human skin cells and a live vertebrae model (embryonic zebra fish). More importantly, we found that the nano particles inhibits the activation of a newly recognized but exceedingly important inflammatory pathway that is directly tied to the formation of an acne lesion, called the NLRP3 inflammasome. Research has shown that our bodies already regulate this pathway with nitric oxide, and therefore once again, we are looking to biology for answers. As opposed to a drug that may only have one target, the nanoparticles inhibited multiple components/elements of the inflammasome pathway, giving some insight into its potential as a treatment for acne as well as other inflammatory diseases. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Technology / 26.06.2015

Dr. Carsten Lennerz Deutsches Herzzentrum München MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Carsten Lennerz Deutsches Herzzentrum München Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The number of cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) is increasing. Worldwide more than 4 million people rely on an implanted pacemaker (PM) or implantable cardioverter defibrillator ICD. Sensing intrinsic cardiac electrical activity is the core principle of all CIED devices, however in case of electromagnetic interference (EMI) exogenous electric and magnetic fields can be picked up by the sensing circuit and mistakenly interpreted as a cardiac signal by the CIED. PM can respond to EMI with pacing-inhibition, leading to bradycardia or asystole and resulting in syncope. In ICDs EMI may be detected as a life threatening ventricular arrhythmia with the subsequent delivery of inappropriate shocks. Early studies on EMI, run more than 10 years ago, have identified mobile phones as a source of EMI with pacemakers. Based on these pacemaker studies the CIED manufacturer and the regulatory authorities (e.g. Food and Drug Administration [FDA]) currently recommend a safety distance, i.e. hold the phone to the contra-lateral ear and avoid placing a turned-on phone next to the generator pocket. In the meantime telecommunication and the CIED techniques have dramatically evolved. The classic mobile phone has been replaced by modern smartphones, furthermore the network standards have changed from GSM to UMTS (3G) and LTE (4G). New cardiac devices are now in use including more devices for cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) or for the protection from sudden cardiac death (ICD); some of them are even compatible for MRI diagnostics. With the use of a hemertic titanium shell, new filtering properties of the feed-throughs, sense amplifiers and noise protection algorhythms as well as the predominant use of bipolar leads the CIED may be better shielded against external influences and adverse effects of EMI. In light of the above, the purpose of our study was to evaluate if previous precautions recommended to cardiovascular implantable electronic devices recipients are still up-to-date or if they can be abandoned. By today there are neither studies focusing on EMI between modern smartphones and modern CIEDs nor on newer mobile network standards (UMTS or LTE). In a cross-sectional study we enrolled 308 patients and exposed them to the electromagnetic field of three smartphones (Samsung Galaxy 3, Nokia Lumia, HTC One XL) by placing the handhelds directly over the pulse generator. Installing an own base mobile network station we ensured that each smartphone went through a standardized protocol that included the entire calling process (connecting, ringing, talking), the handovers between all current network standards (GSM, UMTS, LTE where applicable) and operation at maximal transmission power. More than 3.400 tests on electromagnetic interference were performed. One out of 308 patients (0.3%) was repeatedly affected by EMI caused by smartphones. The patient’s MRI compatible CRT-defibrillator malfunctioned with short-term ventricular and atrial oversensing when exposed to Nokia or HTC smartphones operating at GSM and UMTS. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Surgical Research, Technology / 25.06.2015

Vanita Ahuja, MD, MPH Department of General Surgery York Hospital, York, PennsylvaniaMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Vanita Ahuja, MD, MPH  Department of General Surgery York Hospital, York, Pennsylvania MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Ahuja: Robotic-assisted surgery has been slowly accepted within the medical community. Felger et al. (1999), Falk et al. (2000), and Loumet et al. (2000) state that specific to cardiac surgery, the advantages of the robot in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and valvular operations were demonstrated with increased visualization, ease of harvest, and quality of vascular anastomoses as early as 1999. However, Giulianotti, et al. (2003), Morgan et al. (2005), and Barbash et al. (2010) suggest that although safety and efficacy are supported, it is not conclusive yet that robot-assisted surgery is cost-effective, given the high cost of the robot itself, longer operating times, and the short life of the robotic instruments. The purpose of our paper was to compare outcomes of complications, length of stay (LOS), actual cost, and mortality between non-robotic and robotic-assisted cardiac surgery. In general surgery and subspecialties, the use of the robot has increased significantly over the past few years. It has been noted that robotic surgery improves on laparoscopic surgery by providing increased intra-cavity articulation, increased degrees of freedom, and downscaling of motion amplitude that may reduce the strain on the surgeon. The biggest growth in robotic surgery has been seen in the fields of gynecology and urology. Recently, Wright et al. reported an increase in robotic assisted hysterectomy from 0.5 percent of the procedures in 2007 compared to 9.5 percent in 2010 for benign disease. In their study, robotic assisted surgery had similar outcomes to laparoscopic surgery but higher total cost of $2,189 more per case. In urologic surgery, Leddy et al. reported in 2010 that radical prostatectomy remains the biggest utilization of robotic assisted surgery in urology with 1% in 2001 to 40% of all cases in 2006 performed in the United States. Utilizing a nationwide database from 2008-2011, subjects were propensity matched by 14 patient characteristics to reduce selection bias in a retrospective study. The patients were then divided into three groups by operation types: valves, vessels and other type. Univariate analysis revealed that robotic-assisted surgery, compared to non-robotic surgery, had higher cost ($39,030 vs. $36,340), but lower LOS (5 vs. 6 days) and mortality (1% vs. 1.9%, all p<0.001). For those who had one or more complications, robotic-assisted cardiac surgery had fewer complications (27.2%) to non-robotic cardiac surgery (30.3%, p < .001). (more…)
Author Interviews, OBGYNE, Technology, University of Pennsylvania / 24.06.2015

Dan Dongeun Huh, Ph.D. Wilf Family Term Chair & Assistant Professor Department of Bioengineering University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dan Dongeun Huh, Ph.D. Wilf Family Term Chair & Assistant Professor Department of Bioengineering University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The placenta is a temporary organ central to pregnancy and serves as a major interface that tightly regulates transport of various endogenous and exogenous materials between mother and fetus.  The placental barrier consisting of the closely apposed trophoblast epithelium and fetal capillary endothelium is responsible for maintaining this critical physiological function, and its dysfunction leads to adverse pregnancy outcomes.  Despite its importance, barrier function of the placenta has been extremely challenging to study due to a lack of surrogate models that faithfully recapitulate the key features of the placental barrier in humans.  Our study aims to directly address this long-standing technical challenge by providing a microengineered in vitro system that replicates architecture, microenvironment, and physiological function of the human placenta barrier.  This “placenta-on-a-chip” device consists of microfabricated upper and lower cell culture chambers separated by a thin semipermeable membrane, and the placental barrier is generated by culturing human trophoblasts and fetal endothelial cells on either side of the membrane with steady flows of culture media in both chambers.  This microfluidic cell culture condition allowed the cells to form confluent monolayers on the membrane surface and to create a bi-layer tissue that resembled the placental barrier in vivo.  Moreover, the microengineered barrier enabled transport of glucose from the maternal chamber to the fetal compartment at physiological rates. (more…)
Author Interviews, Technology / 21.06.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mehdi Ardavan Concordia University/Université Concordia Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Response: That thousands patients die each year in US hospitals due to ​medical errors that could be prevented if medical staff were provided with instant access to patient records. Wireless technology (such as portable tablets) is one way of providing this instant access. But using such devices can cause electromagnetic interference ​(EMI) ​ with electronic medical devices and can lead to dangerous consequences for patients. Hospitals may have a policy of minimum separation distance (MSD) which means that the staff members carrying wireless devices cannot approach sensitive medical devices closer than the specified MSD. The problem was that the recommend values of the minimum separation distance were not based on a quantitative and thorough analysis of the problem. We wanted to see what is the correct value of MSD, and how it's determined. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Response: We developed new and fast methods for estimating the electromagnetic field distribution. We also mathematically modeled the roaming nature of the staff members carrying the wireless transmitters. Then we modeled the minimum separation distance policy and added an option to account for a possibility of non-compliance with the policy. First, we assumed a full compliance with MSD policy and found that the risk of interference decreased constantly as the minimum separation distance was increased. Quantitative recommendations are made for the value of the MSD. But once we considered a small non-compliance probability, an interesting ​and unexpected ​ phenomenon was observed: the EMI risk does not decrease beyond a certain value and remains almost constant for all ​MSDs bigger than a value we call the optimal MSD. If we increase the minimum separation distance beyond its optimal value, the risk of EMI does not decrease but more restrictions and thus more inconvenience is put on the staff members. So larger values of MSD are not necessarily safer and are not recommended. ​We also find that the risk and the optimal minimum separation distance are both sensitive to the rate of compliance with the MSD policy.​ (more…)
Author Interviews, Beth Israel Deaconess, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Technology / 14.06.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Neetika Garg, MD Fellow in Nephrology Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine Boston, MA 02215 MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Garg: One in every three Americans suffers from hypertension. Since high blood pressure (BP) frequently does not cause any symptoms, self-blood pressure monitoring at home and patient education are critical components of patient management. With more than 58% of the US adults owning a smartphone, mobile-based health technologies (most commonly in the form of applications or “apps”) can serve as useful adjuncts in diagnosis and management of hypertension. At the same time, several smartphone-based applications are advertised as having blood pressure measurement functionality, which have not been validated against a gold standard. In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed the top 107 hypertension related apps available on the most popular smartphone platforms (Google Android and Apple iPhone) to analyze the functional characteristics and consumer interaction metrics of various hypertension related apps. Nearly three-quarters of the apps record and track blood pressure, heart rate, salt intake, caloric intake and weight/body mass index. These app features can facilitate patient participation in hypertension management, medication adherence and patient-physician communication. However, it was concerning to find that 6.5% of the apps analyzed could transform the smartphone into a cuffless BP measuring device. None of these had any documentations of validation against a gold standard. Furthermore, number of downloads and favorable user ratings were significantly higher for these apps compared to apps without blood pressure measurement function. This highlights the need for greater oversight and regulation in medical device development. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Karolinski Institute, NEJM, Technology / 11.06.2015

Jacob Hollenberg M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Cardiologist Head of Research, Centre for Resuscitation Science Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, SwedenMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jacob Hollenberg M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Cardiologist Head of Research, Centre for Resuscitation Science Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Editor’s note: Dr. Hollenberg and colleagues published two articles in the NEJM this week discussing CPR performed by bystanders in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. MedicalResearch: What is the background for the first study? Dr. Hollenberg: There are 10,000 cases of cardiac arrest annually in Sweden. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) has been taught to almost a third of Sweden’s population of 9.7 million. In recent years the value of bystander CPR has been debated, largely due to a lack of a randomized trial demonstrating that bystander CPR is lifesaving. In this study, which included all cases of emergency medical services (EMS) treated and bystander-witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests recorded in the Swedish Cardiac Arrest Registry from January 1, 1990, through December 31, 2011, our primary aim was to assess whether CPR initiated before the arrival of EMS was associated with an increase in the 30-day survival rate. MedicalResearch: What were the main findings? Dr. Hollenberg: Early CPR prior to arrival of an ambulance more than doubled the chance of survival. (30-day survival rate was 10.5% among patients who underwent CPR before EMS arrival, as compared with 4.0% among those who did not (P<0.001).) This association held up in all subgroups regardless of sex, age, cause of cardiac arrest, place of arrest, EKG findings or time period (year analyzed). MedicalResearch: How did the patients who survived cardiac arrest do from a disability standpoint? Dr. Hollenberg: We had cerebral performance scores from 474 patients who survived for 30 days after cardiac arrest. (higher scores indicate greater disability). At the time of discharge from the hospital, 81% of these patients had a score of category of 1. Less than 2% had category scores of 4 or 5. MedicalResearch: What should patients and providers take away from this report? Dr. Hollenberg:
  • For patients with an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, CPR performed by bystanders before the arrival of emergency medical personnel, saves lives. This has been validated by both the size of this study and the consistency of the results over three decades.
  • CPR education needs to continue and to increase. In Sweden about one-third of the population has been taught CPR.       Legislation has recently been passed that mandates CPR be taught to all teenagers in school which should allow an entire generation to become familiar with this lifesaving technique.
  • The willingness of the public to become involved also needs to increase. We need new ways of educating lay people to recognize cardiac arrest and to motivate them to perform it. The knowledge that bystander CPR saves lives may enhance that motivation.
(more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Ophthalmology, Technology / 02.06.2015

Andrew Bastawrous, MRCOphth International Centre for Eye Health, Clinical Research Department London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), London, EnglandMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Andrew Bastawrous, MRCOphth International Centre for Eye Health, Clinical Research Department London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), London, England Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Bastawrous: As part of my PhD with the International Centre for Eye Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, I led the follow-up of a major cohort study of eye disease [http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2415/14/60] following up 5,000 people in 100 different locations across the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. It was really challenging, two-thirds of the locations had no road access or electricity and we were carrying over £100,000 worth of fragile eye equipment and a team of 15 people in two vans to be able to carry out high quality measures of eye disease and answer some important questions for planning eye services. What we found was that in the most difficult to reach locations we would find lots of people waiting to see us who had been unnecessarily blind from preventable/treatable diseases. Despite the locations having no roads, electricity and often no water, nearly all the locations had good phone signal. Together with a brilliant team of developers, engineers and ophthalmologists we developed a suite of smartphone based tests to see if we could replace some of the standard equipment being used, in the hope that we could make it more portable and easier for non-specialists to perform so that ultimately the most high-risk individuals could be reached and treated. This paper describes one of those tests, the visual acuity test - Peek Acuity. Our field workers tested patients in their own homes using a standard card based Snellen chart (the type of vision test most non-ophthalmic healthcare workers are familiar with and has been the most commonly used acuity test for several decades now) and Peek Acuity. The same tests were repeated by the same healthcare worker in the clinic the following day as well as a reference standard vision test (LogMAR ETDRS) performed by an eye trained clinical officer. This allowed us to perform "test re-test", a measure of a tests repeatability. i.e. if you have the same test at two separate time points we would expect the the measures to be very close. We found that for both Peek Acuity and Snellen they were highly repeatable. An advantage of Snellen is the speed of the test, Peek Acuity came out slightly quicker overall. We also found when compared to the reference standard test, Peek Acuity was highly comparable and within a clinically acceptable limit of difference. (more…)