Technology

16 Jan

Posted at 20:36h in Author Interviews, Technology
Moe Alsumidaie MBA MSF President & Chief Scientific Officer Annex ClinicalMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Moe Alsumidaie MBA MSF President & Chief Scientific Officer Annex Clinical   MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? Response: SUMMARY: A real-world case study measuring the impact of Short Messaging System (SMS) or “Text Messaging” on clinical trial patient recruitment using an interactive two-way patient engagement platform by Mosio, Inc., which provides clinical research services designed to increase patient recruitment, engagement and retention, found that use of text messaging alone can be an effective means of patient engagement that results in clinical trial patient enrollment. Patient recruitment, retention and medication adherence continue to be challenges in conducting effective clinical trials. While clinical trials often rely on email recruitment, recent studies suggest that only 22% of emails are read.1 Alternatively, 98% of text messages are read1 and 90% of text messages are read within the first three minutes of receipt.2 Recent research has evaluated the impact of Short Messaging System (SMS) or “Text Messaging” in healthcare settings, such as appointment reminders and medication adherence. Results have demonstrated that SMS intervention significantly improved patient behavioral outcomes: patients who received SMS reminders were more likely to show up to appointments on time,3 and patients who received SMS reminders were more adherent to medications.4 However, only limited research is available on the effect of SMS on clinical trial subject enrollment. Johnson County Clin-Trials (JCCT), a clinical research facility that specializes in executing 10-15 vaccine clinical trials per year, was facing issues with enrolling patients rapidly in a tight time frame using email. To access a more effective strategy to better engage patients, JCCT employed two-way SMS/text messaging solutions, and this study assessed the impact of SMS/text messaging on patient recruitment and enrollment.

12 Jan

Posted at 22:47h in Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Technology
Oleh Taratula, Ph. D. Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences College of Pharmacy Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331-3507MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Oleh Taratula, Ph. D. Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences College of Pharmacy Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331-3507 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Taratula: Our research group is focused on the development of novel nanotechnology-based approaches to treat different cancers, including ovarian cancer. For many cancers, surgery is a first choice of treatment. For example, only optimal surgical resection of most abdominal metastases can significantly reduce ovarian cancer recurrence and, therefore, improve patient survival. However, it is challenging to remove most of the cancer tumors and residual cancer cells eventually may lead to cancer relapse. Therefore, our aim is to develop a nanomedicine platform, which could help surgeons achieve maximal tumor resection, using the intraoperative guidance with real-time near infrared (NIR) fluorescence signal. Moreover, we expect that the same nanoplatform could further enhance surgical outcomes by combinatorial phototherapy to be performed intraoperatively after tumor resection to eradicate unresected cancer cells. Our data published in Nanoscale is the first step towards our main goal. At this point, by utilizing naphthalocyanine, we have developed a single-agent-based nanomedicine platform capable of both NIR fluorescence imaging and combinatorial phototherapy. Naphthalocyanine is a commercially available compound, but its potential clinical application is limited by low water solubility and aggregation. Especially, aggregation diminishes the imaging ability and phototherapeutic efficacy of this compound. To address these shortcomings, we discovered that the loading of naphthalocyanine into the dendrimers significantly enhances water solubility, prevents aggregation and preserves imaging and therapeutic abilities. Our data demonstrated that naphthalocyanine-based nanoplatform can generate a NIR fluorescence signal in the cancer tumors, required for elimination of autofluorescence from healthy tissue and body fluids. Furthermore, our results also indicated that the developed nanoplatform is an efficient therapeutic agent which, upon exposure to NIR light, destroys chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer tumors by producing both heat and toxic reactive oxygen species. Finally, many organic fluorophores, including naphthalocyanine, can undergo photobleaching under exposure to light, which could be misinterpreted as a lack of fluorescence signal during the surgery. We demonstrated that the dendrimer encapsulated naphthalocyanine exhibits extremely high photostability and could overcome the above mentioned issue.

12 Jan

Posted at 17:41h in Author Interviews, Education, Technology
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Živa Cotič Research Assistant & PhD Student,Global eHealth Unit Imperial College London and A/Prof Josip Car Director of Health Services and Outcomes Research Programme Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Director of Global eHealth Unit School of Public Health, Imperial College London Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The Department of Health Workforce in collaboration with the Department of Knowledge, Ethics and Research at the World Health Organization commissioned the report to provide countries with evidence to inform and guide the adoption of innovative, technology enabled models into health professional education. The report aims to address complex challenges of 21st century global workforce development through eLearning, which has been recognised as key to building more effective health education and a stronger, better qualified workforce. Global workforce development is one of the most pressing global health issues. The World Health Organization estimates the shortage of the health workforce at approximately 7.2 million health workers, with an expected increase to 12.9 million by 2035. The magnitude of the health workforce challenges the health care systems are facing require both greater investment and more effective and strategic use of available resources. The findings of the report suggest that eLearning could be equivalent to traditional forms of learning in regard to knowledge and skill acquisition in health education. This information is crucial for policy makers and educators who are forming future education.

15 Dec

Posted at 13:29h in Author Interviews, Stroke, Technology
Dr. Emmanuel Tsekleves Senior Lecturer in Design Interactions ImaginationLancaster LICA |Lancaster UniversityMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Emmanuel Tsekleves Senior Lecturer in Design Interactions ImaginationLancaster LICA |Lancaster University Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings Dr. Tsekleves: The study was influenced by the anecdotal use of the Nintendo Wii in therapy in NHS physiotherapy clinics back in 2010/11. This led to the need for conducting a study with therapists and patients (33 questionnaires and 10 interviews were completed) to explore the current use of the Nintendo Wii console technology in physical rehabilitation programmes across four NHS Trusts in London. The study revealed that although respondents felt the Wii helped with rehabilitation, over half of them  reported difficulty using equipment (such as using the hand-held remote controls). Therapists believed use of standard Wii was limited due to the high level of dexterity, movement and coordination necessary to operate the system. Adapting Nintendo Wii To Enhance Stroke Rehabilitation The results of the aforementioned study informed the development of a personalised stroke treatment, using adapted Wii technology, for arm re-education post-stroke (that is reported in the article http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/17483107.2014.981874). The developed system was tested for acceptability with three stroke survivors with differing levels of disability. Participants reported an overwhelming connection with the system and avatar. A two-week, single case study with a long-term stroke survivor showed positive changes in all four outcome measures employed (Fugl-Meyer Assessment, Nine Hole Peg Test, Motor Activity Log – Amount of Use  sub-scale] and the Modified Ashworth Scale), with the participant reporting better wrist control and greater functional use. Activities, which were deemed too challenging or too easy were associated with lower scores of enjoyment/motivation, highlighting the need for activities to be individually calibrated.

15 Nov

Posted at 13:56h in Author Interviews, Compliance, Technology

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Frederick Kaskel: MD PhD Chief, Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Department of Pediatrics Albert Einstein College of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Frederick Kaskel: Non-adherence to medication and medical regimens is a serious and common problem in adolescents with various kidney disorders,...

04 Sep

Posted at 00:36h in Author Interviews, PLoS, Technology
Giulio Ruffini PhD Starlab Barcelona Neuroelectrics Barcelona Barcelona, Spain.MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Giulio Ruffini PhD Starlab Barcelona Neuroelectrics Barcelona Barcelona, Spain. Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Ruffini: We demonstrated that it is possible to transmit information directly from a brain to another one, without intervention of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) - e.g., the senses. By hyperinteraction we mean this: the technologically mediated transmission of information directly from one brain to another, bypassing our senses or effectors (all which require the intervention of the PNS).