Advanced Medical Techniques

Biomimicry in Wound Care: The Fish Scale Bandage 🐟🩹 In healthcare, innovations inspired by nature are gaining traction. One such example is the fish scale bandage, which mimics the protective and regenerative properties of fish scales to promote wound healing. The fish scale bandage offers several potential benefits: ✅ Enhanced healing through improved tissue regeneration and reduced infection risk ✅ Versatility in application, from minor cuts to post-operative care ✅ Usability in both human and veterinary medicine However, as with any medical innovation, the fish scale bandage faces challenges: ❗ Ensuring biocompatibility and sustainable, cost-effective production ❗ Undergoing rigorous clinical trials and obtaining regulatory approval ❗ Achieving widespread adoption through education and awareness Compared to traditional bandages, which primarily protect wounds, the fish scale bandage actively promotes healing by creating an environment that mimics natural healing processes. I'm curious to hear your thoughts: 1. Can you envision the fish scale bandage being used in your healthcare setting? 2. What potential benefits or challenges do you foresee with this innovation? 3. How do you think biomimetic solutions like this could transform wound care and other healthcare practices? Share your insights in the comments below! #Biomimicry #WoundCare #HealthcareInnovation #FishScaleBandage #MedTwitter #SurgeryTwitter #AiInHealthcare

The future of health is Personal. Enlightening talk Michael Snyder Stanford Genetics chair, Noosheen Hashemi, January AI CEO, & Alborz Mahdavi of Protomer Technologies & Eli Lilly and Company. Mike emphasized healthcare system should focus on proactively keeping people healthy. “Medicine should be individualized based on each person's unique baseline”. Average body temp is 97.5°F, not 98.6°F. Normal range varies widely, so what's healthy for one may not be for another. January uses personal baselines to track people's health and identify problems early on. It relies on new technologies such as #wearables, #AI, & #CGM & measures various factors affecting health, #genetics, #environment, #exercise, etc. Of 5,300 enrolled in his studies, 32 ended up with a diagnosis. Noosheen: “Putting together the entire picture of someone's health instead of individual biomarkers is important.” They can detect illness from a smartwatch with 80% accuracy. People react differently to glucose. It suggests that personalized approaches to managing metabolic health are needed. Wearables have gotten smaller, cheaper, & smarter since 1971 the first digital watch, Fitbit (now part of Google) measures steps & 2017 sleep, Apple Watch in 2018 added ECG, Aktiia in 2021 measures blood pressure, and Masimo in 2023 measures H20. #CGMs take fitness to health. They are getting smaller: #Dexom, Abbott #Libre, and Medtronic Diabetes. Implantable sensors will last 900 days & can read 20 different outlets. Interesting points:  - People react differently to the same glucose type  - Resting heart rate is a better health measurement than temperature  - January AI has helped people to identify precancerous conditions, heart defects, and other health problems before they had any symptoms. Dr. Snyder discovered his Lyme disease due to a faster heart rate before any systems.  - Workplace stress increases your resting heart rate  - 9% of people are diabetic, and 33% are #prediabetes in the US - The #Diabetes #endemic is worse than the #COVID Pandemic - #Microbiome explains only 20% of our reactions to food - 70% of people with #diabetes have #depression - 22% and 90% of diabetes and prediabetes people in the US don’t know it - 20% of the US population uses wearables Noosheen shared three categories of user-generated data companies: - #Food Logging: MyFitnessPal, Noom, WeightWatchers - #Emotion Tracking: Moodkie Interactive Apple, Daylio, How We Feel - #Health + #Fitness: Strava, Nike NRC, Lifesum The goal is to help people get a more complete picture of their health using deep data, making better health decisions, and living healthier lives. An incredible #innovation presented by Alborz Mahdavi silenced the audience. its next-gen #protein can sense molecular activators in the body with a tunable activity that can be controlled. e.g., #insulins that can sense sugar levels in the blood and automatically activate as needed throughout the day! WOW!

A recent study published in JAMA Open Network demonstrates the potential of AI chatbots, like Google’s Bard and OpenAI’s GPT-4, to simplify complex pathology reports, making them more comprehensible for patients. These AI-driven tools are able to interpret medical jargon and present the information in a more patient-friendly manner while maintaining high levels of accuracy. The study found that these chatbots significantly improved the readability of pathology reports, with GPT-4 achieving an impressive 97.44% accuracy rate. This advancement could transform patient engagement and understanding, ensuring that individuals are better informed about their health conditions. Key Insights: Improved Readability 📖 - AI chatbots enhance the readability of pathology reports, making them accessible to patients. High Accuracy 🎯 - GPT-4 demonstrated 97.44% accuracy in simplifying medical reports. Enhanced Patient Engagement 🤝 - Simplified reports help patients understand their health conditions better. Error Reduction 🛡️ - Ensures that medical information is accurately conveyed, reducing misunderstandings. Future Potential 🚀 - Paves the way for broader applications of AI in patient education and communication. https://buff.ly/4eiTAXh

If you're interested in the world of imaging this report from Vizient, Inc covers several interesting trends to watch in 2025. Here are two that I am most excited about: The site of care shift beyond hospitals - about 40% of all radiology imaging is now performed in outpatient imaging centers or clinics. For patients this translates into typically lower cost services with easier access closer to their home in a less chaotic environment in comparison to a hospital. Even more exciting is the deployment of mobile diagnostic imaging units that can travel to rural or underserved areas. This can bring critical services such as breast cancer screening or stroke evaluations directly to patients and improve accessibility. A maturing pipeline with new developments in radiopharmaceuticals that can diagnose AND treat patients. For example, in prostate cancer there is a radiopharmaceutical that can both identify and treat the disease during a PET scan. It is targeted only to the prostate cancer and does not harm the normal or healthy tissue in the body. This marks an exciting shift towards more personalized cancer care with theranostics and an increased focus on expanding nuclear medicine capabilities. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/dDE6kfWY #enterpriseimaging #nuclearmedicine #healthcareIT #imagingtrends2025

Our new paper shows that the microbes in your mouth create measurable biochemical pathways, which are clearly associated with health issues like gingivitis, acid reflux, and nicotine addition. Using RNA and AI analysis from simple saliva samples, we can quantify your oral pro-inflammatory activities, cariogenic activity, mucin degradation, and many other biochemical pathways. As an example, we describe the details of the microbial urease pathway in the oral cavity, which measures acid-stress and pH balancing activities that protect against an acidic environment and related pathogenic activity. To develop these microbial pathway scores, we go through a systematic method of domain exploration, metadata curation, signal definition, feature selection, and pathway activity quantification. What you'd expect would be interesting to a #computationalbiology journal like the Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal (CSBJ). Viome's microbial pathway scores are designed to provide molecular health insights from saliva samples collected at home, and available in our #OralHealthIntelligence and #FullBodyIntelligence products TODAY! Read the full paper here --> https://lnkd.in/eU4S7XF8

The hospital-at-home model is gaining momentum, supported by various types of health technologies, including #remotepatientmonitoring, #telehealth, and #analytics. Healthcare is moving increasingly outside the walls of hospitals, spurred by the popularity of outpatient and virtual care modalities. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) underpins most hospital-at-home programs. Under these programs, patients receive care outside the hospital, meaning clinical decision-making relies on access to real-time patient data. RPM tools can record and transmit continuous or intermittent patient data to care teams, according to a 2023 article in npj Digital Medicine. Hospital-at-home programs employ a wide array of RPM tools. These can include wearable devices such as blood pressure cuffs, pulse oximeters, and biosensors. They typically collect vital signs, which are measurements of the body's most basic functions. For example, pulse oximeters measure the saturation of oxygen carried in red blood cells, while blood pressure cuffs measure blood pressure — which isn't technically a vital sign but is often measured along with them. Biosensors are devices that measure "biological or chemical reactions by generating signals proportional to the concentration of an analyte in the reaction," an article published in Essays in Biochemistry states. Within the RPM arena, these tools can be used to measure heart rate, temperature, respiratory rate, and activity levels. Most of these devices are Bluetooth-enabled, transmitting data directly to clinicians in healthcare settings. Telehealth technologies connect patients and clinicians in various ways, including synchronous and asynchronous methods. Synchronous telehealth modalities include videoconferencing, audio-only conversations, and real-time messaging between patient and clinician. Asynchronous telehealth modalities connect patients and clinicians but not in real time. These include platforms that allow patients to send messages, videos, and pictures to their clinician, which the clinician then views and responds to at a later time. Most at-home hospital programs employ a hybrid telehealth and in-person care model. The telehealth aspect of this model allows clinicians to observe patients remotely and engage with them regarding the treatment plan and potential changes. Hospital-at-home programs require data analytics to be successful. The large amounts of structured and unstructured data generated from the RPM tools and telehealth solutions must be analyzed to allow clinicians to track patients' progress and make clinical decisions. Machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence, refers to models and tools that can make accurate predictions about future outcomes through pattern recognition, rule-based logic, and reinforcement techniques. #remotepatientmonitoring #virtualhealth #healthai #machinelearning https://lnkd.in/gd-HFNkr

When treating patients with #potent agents like #chemotherapy, a significant challenge is the timely identification of individuals who may exhibit poor #resilience to the #toxicity. Leveraging technology, particularly remote patient monitoring, offers a promising solution to bridge this gap. In our recent study, published in Nature Scientific Reports, we showcased that by remotely tracking patterns of daily physical activities and digital #biomarkers indicative of #frailty—such as changes in #slowness, #weakness, and #exhaustion—we could predict, as early as six days after therapy initiation, which patients would likely exhibit poor resilience. Our findings were quite specific: although all patients experienced a marked decline in cadence following the initiation of therapy, the resilient ones returned to their pre-treatment activity levels about six days after the first dose. In contrast, those with poor resilience demonstrated a more gradual recovery, extending beyond the initial six-day period. This approach has proven effective in forecasting significant adverse effects, including unplanned hospitalizations and mortality, up to six months after the initial chemotherapy dose. It also helps predict other negative outcomes such as dose reductions and discontinuation of therapy. Implementing such remote monitoring solutions could revolutionize clinical trials by offering new ways to monitor and manage the impact of toxicity on patients' functional performance, potentially leading to more personalized and effective treatment strategies. This study was a collaborative study between U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Baylor College of Medicine with support from BioSensics and National Institute on Aging (NIA) #RPM #digitalhealth #careinplace #cancer #cancertherapy #wearables #decentralizedclinicaltrials #c2ship #DiHAC Gözde Çay, PhD Mohammad Dehghan Rouzi Moin Atique Naima Rodriguez Mehrnaz Azarian Graci Finco, PhD, CPO Ashkan Vaziri David Armstrong Mills Joseph Janet Roveda Kouhyar Tavakolian Marjorie Skubic Chiara Daraio https://lnkd.in/gHtvmeyj

University of Washington- developed dental lozenge could provide permanent treatment for tooth sensitivity. Published: July 10, 2023. Excerpt: Over 30 years of dentistry, Sami Dogan has treated just about every kind of tooth ailment. Cavities are simple to fill. Dental implants have become routine. But there’s one problem, he said, that annoys even the most experienced dentists: hypersensitivity, the painful sensation sparked by contact with hot, cold or acidic food.  A few years ago, Dogan began working with a team of UW materials engineers who had set out to develop a natural protocol to rebuild lost tooth minerals, which they believed could also become permanent fix to this painful condition. Their solution, unveiled this winter in the ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, builds new mineral microlayers that penetrate deep into the tooth to create effective, long-lasting natural protection.  #Note: The body has no way to repair or regrow worn enamel, which is the only non-living tissue in the human body. To reverse that loss, UW researchers designed their solution to be #molecularly #biomimetic, meaning it closely resembles the molecular processes by which the body develops teeth.  At the heart of the process is a #peptide — a short chain of amino acids — #derived from the larger protein #amelogenin, which is key in the biological development of #human #teeth. Named #sADP5, the specifically tailored peptide grabs onto calcium and phosphate ions — the main components of tooth mineral — and uses them to build #new #mineral #microlayers. “Our technology forms the same minerals found in the tooth, including enamel, cementum, and dentin alike, which had dissolved previously through demineralization and caused the sensitivity,” said lead author Deniz T. Yücesoy, who began this work as a postdoctoral researcher at UW and is now an assistant professor at the Izmir Institute of Technology in Türkiye. “The newly formed mineral microlayers close the communication channels with the tooth nerves, and then hypersensitivity shouldn’t be an issue for you.” This research was conducted in the Genetically Engineered Materials Sciences & Engineering Center at the UW under the direction of Mehmet Sarikaya, a professor of materials science and engineering. Other authors include John Hamann and Eric Hall from the UW Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Washington State Life Sciences Discovery Fund, UW CoMotion Gap Funds, and the UW Department of Restorative Dentistry’s Spencer Funds.  Publication: ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering. 2023, 9, 3, 1486–1495 Biomimetic Dentin Repair: Amelogenin-Derived Peptide Guides Occlusion and Peritubular Mineralization of Human Teeth https://lnkd.in/eaDVSjKw https://lnkd.in/eHncGPsu

🩹 I believe this new innovation can drastically reduce medical costs and enhance patient care. Smart bandages are poised to revolutionize wound care. These advanced bandages monitor healing and deliver treatments like electrotherapy and antibiotics remotely, transforming traditional wound management. As someone with over 30 years in healthcare, I’m excited about the integration of flexible electronics and real-time data transmission, which can significantly improve patient outcomes, especially for chronic wound sufferers. Researchers are making big strides, from lab tests to early human trials, with applications that extend from the hospital to the battlefield. How do you think these smart bandages could impact the future of wound care in your practice or experience? #IndustryInsights #SmartBandages