News • Epidemics
Text messages quickly track health care use during Ebola outbreak
Text messages aren't just a way to chat with family and friends—they are a viable method for rapidly gathering information during a public health crisis.
News • Experts warn
Smart pills: Experts caution against rapid adoption
Enthusiasm for an emerging digital health tool, the smart pill, is on the rise but researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have published a paper in the American Journal of Bioethics that cautions health care providers and policymakers to slow down when it comes to allowing this technology in patient care settings.
Article • A valuable assistant
AI will transform radiologists into data scientists
Machine learning is increasingly helping radiologists to acquire faster and better quality images, and measure heart function. This is just the tip of the iceberg; artificial intelligence has far more to bring to the heart, explained Daniel Rueckert, Head of the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, during CMR 2018. Machine learning (ML) is becoming a valuable assistant for…
Article • A challenger arrives
AI – just a tool or the future of healthcare?
Neuroscientist Lynda Chin MD, Founder and CEO of Real-world Education Detection and Intervention, has little doubt: ‘Artificial intelligence to the rescue,’ she proclaimed in her keynote address at the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Summit, held in Las Vegas this spring. ‘We need a system and analytics to interpret data!’ she urged, despite being well aware that building a…
Article • 3D & CHD
The changing face of imaging in cardiology
While the question is still debated as to whether MRI is the better CT, along comes a potential game changer – a new data based 3-D reconstruction method of heart anatomy and function that aims to replace diagnostic coronary angiography. In the near future not only adult patients with coronary heart disease could benefit from this new technique but also children with complex congenital heart…
News • Reinforced learning
AI masters tightrope walk of cancer treatment dosage
Using a new approach called 'reinforced learning', researchers have taught an artificial intelligence (AI) to responsibly choose the right amount of chemo- and radiotherapy for glioblastoma patients. The technique, which is insprired by behavioural psychology, has given the AI the ability to master the tightrope walk between effective tumor shrinkage and the medications' severe side effects.
News • Personalised drug treatment
AI approach to help myeloma patients
A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) technology platform that could potentially change the way drug combinations are being designed, hence enabling doctors to determine the most effective drug combination for a patient quickly. Applying the platform towards drug resistant multiple myeloma, a type of…
News • Wearables
Smart wristband could monitor personal health
Rutgers University–New Brunswick engineers have created a smart wristband with a wireless connection to smartphones that will enable a new wave of personal health and environmental monitoring devices. Their technology could be added to watches and other wearable devices that monitor heart rates and physical activity.
News • Interventional radiology in oncology
Augmented reality sees right through the patient
A new augmented reality system to guide procedures in interventional oncology is currently taking its first steps. A three-step experiment proves this system to be precise and reliable enough to facilitate image guidance critical to the success of interventional oncology procedures. Using a back-face camera and a tablet PC to visualise the patient, the system projects 3D images of body structures…
Article • Transformation
The USA’s digital healthcare revolution
The digital revolution in healthcare in the United States is marching steadily forward, spurred by federal government regulations and financial incentives, by technological innovations, and by the necessities of increasing healthcare treatment efficiency, of lowering its cost and economic impact, and of elevating communications among providers, patients and payers to the norms of the 21st…
News • Rhabdomyosarcoma
New tools used to identify childhood cancer genes
Using a new computational strategy, researchers have identified 29 genetic changes that can contribute to an aggressive childhood cancer. Their work helps to explain “the engine” driving formation of rhabdomyosarcoma and suggests potential treatments.
News • AI & Deep Learning
How to escape from data silos
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning are poised to transform healthcare, potentially freeing practitioners across many disciplines from routine tasks and saving lives through efficient early detection. Offering insight into the health of both individuals and populations, these ’deep learning‘ algorithms have the potential to process vast amounts of data and identify warning…
Article • Data management
Healthcare organisations explore the potential of Blockchain and patient engagement
The emergence of Blockchain technology is set to play an ever-increasing role within healthcare settings within the next two years, according to industry experts. One organisation focusing on its potential is global consultancy and software development company DataArt, which sees more healthcare organisations embracing its applications in the not too distant future. Blockchain is a continuously…
Article • A new kind of therapy
VR goggles on prescription? Virtual reality gains a foothold in medical care
For many years, Virtual Reality (VR) has been part of the gaming sector with eye goggles for players to interact with certain scenarios. However, more recently VR has shown it can deliver specific treatments in healthcare. It is already being applied, for example, to treat phobias and as a distraction therapy for pain.
News • Man against machine
AI is better than dermatologists at diagnosing skin cancer
Researchers have shown for the first time that a form of artificial intelligence or machine learning known as a deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) is better than experienced dermatologists at detecting skin cancer. In a study published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology, researchers in Germany, the USA and France trained a CNN to identify skin cancer by showing it more…
News • Experts discuss
Digital health – help or hype? A bit of both, probably
ISPOR, the professional society for health economics and outcomes research, held its second plenary session, “Digital Health—Help or Hype?,” this morning at ISPOR 2018 in Baltimore, MD, USA. As digital technologies such as smart phones, social media, and wearables have increasingly become available, the potential opportunities for tracking health metrics and enhancing participation in…
Sponsored • Machine Learning
Finding the right algorithms to tackle big data
Tracy Accardi, Hologic’s Vice President (Global R&D), spoke of the importance of innovation, tomosynthesis, artificial intelligence/deep learning and open dialogue with the radiology community. Hologic addresses a broad spectrum of gynaecological, perinatal, aesthetic, skeletal and breast women’s health issues. To enhance this approach, Accardi, explained the importance of working closely…
News • Clinical guide app
Sepsis app continues through sponsoring
Beckman Coulter announced its exclusive sponsorship of the ESCAVO Sepsis Clinical Guide (Sepsis app), a point-of-care medical reference mobile application for healthcare professionals who manage septic patients in acute-care settings. Beckman Coulter’s sponsorship of the Sepsis app ensures that the tool will remain free for all users and that content will continue to be maintained and updated…
Article • Big data in the lab
The benefits of tackling acute kidney injury at the earliest opportunity
Steps taken by a New York health system to identify and tackle acute kidney injury (AKI) at an early stage are having a significant impact on improving intervention and patient outcomes. Key to the turnaround has lay in pathologists accessing big data from the laboratory, and working more closely with administrative personnel to identify early AKI and then responding to it more quickly. Speaking…
Article • Hospital tracking system
Embracing technology to improve patient flow
Digital bed management systems being trialled in NHS hospitals to improve patient flow are showing early signs of success. Innovations such as patient tracking and real-time location of equipment and staff to help make hospital stays more efficient are being tested at 10 sites. Project leader Bernard Quinn is particularly optimistic about technology that monitors bed availability and patient flow.
News • Memory-Driven Computing
Time lapse for dementia research
The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) is just starting the operation of a new high-performance computer in Bonn. It should significantly accelerate the evaluation of biomedical data and thus lead to faster progress in dementia research. For this the computer uses the principles of the novel computer architecture "Memory-Driven Computing". Time is running out: Dementias…
Interview • Digital pioneering
eHealth in Nordic countries
For the quality of medical care, Europe is increasingly relying on digitization and telemedicine. The Nordic countries are considered pioneers in the digitization of the health care system. European Hospital spoke with Professor Arild Faxvaag, Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Trondheim, Norway, about his presentation “Nordic…
News • Innovation
Villa Sistemi presents Augmented Reality app
Villa Sistemi Medicali, characterized by its strong propensity for innovation, has decided to invest in the use of the latest augmented reality technologies first in its industry, to promote its products in an unprecedented and effective way. In collaboration with Realmore (business unit of Equent Media Group) and MCommunication, Villa Sistemi Medicali has developed "RAD/AR", an…
News • Digital Ecosystem
Siemens Healthineers offers new way to manage care gaps with AI
At the 2018 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, Siemens Healthineers showcases the Proactive Follow-up solution as part of its Siemens Healthineers Digital Ecosystem. The application prompts the appropriate physician to initiate a medically necessary response based on care gaps identified. For example, an incidental finding, an abnormality that appears in a radiology report intended for a…
Article • Ein aktueller Versuch
Could telemedicine cure Germany’s health system?
The term telemedicine has been around since the 1980s. Ten years later Deutsche Telekom demonstrated the first applications designed to provide medical services to people living remotely such as (based on American ideas) astronauts in space, workers on oilrigs or injured personnel in field hospitals. Since then, the concept of medical care across long distances via telecommunication has not…