Lead researcher Vikramaditya Yadav, a professor of chemical and biological engineering, and biomedical engineering at UBC. Credit: Clare Kiernan, University of British Columbia Eye drops developed by UBC researchers could one day treat glaucoma while you sleep – helping to heal a condition that is one of the leading causes of blindness around the world....
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DPP-4I not tied to increased risk of acute pancreatitis in seniors
(HealthDay)—For older adults, dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors (DPP-4Is) are not associated with increased risk of acute pancreatitis, according to a study published online April 4 in Diabetes Care. Jin-Liern Hong, Ph.D., from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues examined the risks of acute pancreatitis among U.S. Medicare beneficiaries, aged 66+ years, initiating DDP-4Is versus...
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Brain activity can predict success of depression treatment
McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers believe they have uncovered a method that could be useful in predicting a depressed patient’s treatment prognosis, prior to starting treatment. In the paper “Pretreatment Rostral Anterior Cingulate Cortex Activity in Relation to Symptom Improvement in Depression: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” currently available online and scheduled to appear...
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Gamified augmented reality against ADHD
The preliminary study found that measures of hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity dropped by 56.4 percent in the patient group with high scores of ADHD, while by 66.3 percent in the group with low symptomatic signs 48 hours after the session with Empowered Brain. In the framework of the clinical trial, children, adolescents and young adults with...
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How can digital health impact primary care?
Healthcare is on the verge of a paradigm shift due to digital technologies, as our Digital Health Manifesto points out. Trends and research suggest that in the next years, medicine will shift from a reactive to a proactive discipline. Moreover, to stay at the letter P, it is said to become personalized, preventive and participatory. With the...
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Virtual Reality Is Used in Clinical Practice
Dr. Brennan M. Spiegel and his research team at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have been experimenting with virtual reality (VR) for years. I had a fruitful and very exciting correspondence with him about moments of immersion, virtual pharmacies or how to travel to Iceland without leaving your hospital bed. Read on! VR is an area of...
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Cancer surgery can awaken tumor cells, but in mice a cheap pill stops metastasis
Drugs like Aspirin can prevent the immune system from letting down its anti-cancer guard, according to a study in mice.JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES Bottles of aspirin and ibuprofen won’t soon be carrying labels saying they reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence after surgery, but that kind of cheap drugstore remedy stemmed metastasis in a startling...
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FDA approves first AI software that can identify disease, no specialists needed
Imaging of the retina is used to diagnose diabetic retinopathy. WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first artificial intelligence software that can decide, without a clinician’s involvement, whether a patient might have a certain disease, the agency announced Wednesday. The software, called IDx-DR, looks for diabetic retinopathy, an eye disease that afflicts individuals...
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Nucleic Acids Research
Researchers from China and the US introduce an online tool for taking a look at transcription factor-DNA binding intensities in different cell types, along with the variants that affect them. The approach — known as “deep learning-based functional impact of non-coding variants evaluator,” or DeFine — uses deep learning models to tease out transcription factor binding intensities...
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How to treat a crick in the neck
A crick in the neck makes the neck feel stiff and less mobile than usual. Some people report that a crick also feels like something in the neck needs to pop into place. A crick in the neck can be temporary or chronic. It is often painless but may be connected to the chronic neck...