Dr. Dhruv Khullar of the Massachusetts General Hospital writes in the New York Times this week about the surprisingly bad design flaws that plague hospitals and in turn, their patients. Dr. Khullar cites various studies that detail how around 30% of intensive care patients acquire infections originating in hospitals and how housing patients in private rooms can reduce the risk of both airborne and surface contact infections. You’d might think that private rooms will greatly increase construction costs, but it’s possible that the price of “single-occupancy rooms is more than offset by the money saved because of fewer infections.”
Category Archives: Do You Know?
Could Wearable Sensors Help Detect Illnesses Early?
A recent NIH-supported study by the Stanford University School of Medicine, shows that wearable biosensors (for example, a fitness monitor) can play an important role in early detection of abnormalities in the body and perhaps serious medical conditions. The report in PLoS Biology, describes how these biosensors monitor heart rate and other vital signs, such as skin temperature and blood oxygen levels. This could reveal information that possibly shows the onset of infection, insulin resistance, or inflammation.
The Stanford research team collected nearly 2 billion measurements from 60 participants in the study. Data collected from various sensors and periodic medical tests included information on weight, sleep, daily steps and exercise, caloric intake, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, skin temperature, and even exposure to gamma rays and X-rays.
The study compared the individual’s baseline data with deviations throughout the project. If algorithms are developed to pick up on these deviations, then the data could possibly be used for clinical diagnostics, research, and treatments. Specific deviations and patterns from normal baselines seem to correlate with particular health problems. The researchers hope that these tests could identify inflammations before individuals get sick from infections, cardiovascular issues, Type 2 diabetes, autoimmune diseases and even cancer.
Why Are Minorities Often Left Out of Clinical Trials?
The New York Times recently detailed the lack of minority representation in a majority of clinical trials to fight cancer. Immunotherapy studies, such as with nivolumab, use patients that are overwhelming white. Participation of minorities was “out of proportion with the groups’ numbers in the general population and their cancer rates.” Research funded by The National Institutes of Health is required by law to include minorities and women to see if they react to treatment differently than others. Unfortunately, very few clinical trials are being paid for by the NIH.
