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showing posts for 'health'

WHO's Ryan says some countries didn't hear early COVID-19 warning

Some countries should have listened more carefully when the World Health Organisation declared a global health emergency in January 2020, Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergency expert, said on Monday.
Source: reuters.com

Singapore 'bubble' business hotel welcomes first guests

Singapore has launched a travel "bubble" business hotel that allows executives to do face-to-face meetings without a risk of exposure to the coronavirus, in one of the world's first such facilities.
Source: reuters.com

UK COVID cases will surge again even with vaccines, medical officer says

Britain will see a resurgence in coronavirus cases at some point and can't bring deaths from COVID-19 down to zero even with a successful vaccine rollout, England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on Tuesday.
Source: reuters.com

COVID-19 has transformed education – here are the 5 innovations we should keep

"Five changes made to higher education during COVID-19 will be beneficial afterwards, according to an expert, including more creative assessment methods." Whilst this is written from the perspective of university education this authentic, rich, and active learning approach can and should be applied to...
Source: weforum.org

Ghana kicks off coronavirus vaccination campaign with COVAX shots

"Ghana began its coronavirus vaccination drive on Tuesday with 600,000 AstraZeneca doses it received from the global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility aimed at providing shots to developing nations to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic." Great to see Ghana in the news and reading about the ITU nurses getting...
Source: reuters.com

UK rollout data on AstraZeneca shot should guide other countries: vaccine chief

Natural experiments can be a really useful source of data. "Data from Britain's vaccine rollout on the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University COVID-19 shot in older people should help other countries reassess their use of it, the head of the university's vaccine research group said on Tuesday."
Source: reuters.com

Covid vaccines cut risk of serious illness by 80% in over-80s

"The UK will soon be in a "very different world", government scientists promise after the success of the jabs."
Source: bbc.com

A Psychologist's Journey to Treating Phobias with VR - VR for Health

VRforHealth invites you to learn about the work of Howard Gurr, licensed psychologist in New York State, and his journey toward the use of Virtual Reality Therapy in helping patients overcome phobias and anxieties and assist in the enhancement of mindfulness. Since the pandemic, Howard practices VR therapy...
Source: vrforhealth.com

Is the UK destined to be the next life science hub?

Jason Shafrin explores the question in The Economist about the role of British science in the pandemic and the future of the UK life sciences activity. "With good data, efficient regulation, an international collection of talent, R&D funds focused on the health care, the UK could see big gains...
Source: healthcare-economist.com

Private equity investment in nursing home increase mortality.

Does Private Equity Investment in Healthcare Benefit Patients? Evidence from Nursing Homes Atul Gupta. Sabrina T. Howell. Constantine Yannelis. Abhinav Gupta.
Source: nber.org

NHS sets up mental health hubs for staff traumatised by Covid

Forty hubs in England will field calls from frontline staff and contact those at higher risk directly
Source: theguardian.com

AI uses "ugly duckling" technique to spot melanoma with high accuracy

"Artificial intelligence is starting to combine with smartphone technology in ways that could have profound impacts on the way we monitor health, from tracking blood volume changes in diabetics to detecting concussions by filming the eyes." "Using the technology to spot melanoma in its early stages is...
Source: newatlas.com

Preventing critical failure

Can routinely collected data be repurposed to predict avoidable patient harm? A quantitative descriptive study Objectives To determine whether sharing of routinely collected health service performance data could have predicted a critical safety failure at an Australian maternity service. Design Observational...
Source: bmj.com

IBM Explores Sale of IBM Watson Health

IBM is studying alternatives for the unit that could include a sale to a private-equity firm or industry player, or a merger with a blank-check company, as the technology giant moves to streamline and become more competitive in cloud computing.
Source: wsj.com

Declining Life Expectancy in the United States

This Viewpoint reviews the social and economic drivers of declines in longevity in the US, especially among lower socioeconomic status groups, and proposes policy options for the Biden-Harris administration to mitigate the trend, including an increase in the federally mandated minimum wage. Atheendar...
Source: jamanetwork.com

Guinea declares new Ebola outbreak

Guinea declared a new Ebola outbreak on Sunday when tests came back positive for the virus after three people died and four fell ill in the southeast - the first resurgence of the disease there since the world's worst outbreak in 2013-2016.
Source: reuters.com

Opinion: It

Hopefully that openness is here to stay: The pandemic has created greater understanding of the importance of good communication, particularly around health issues.
Source: independent.co.uk

Frontline workers left "risking lives to provide treatment and care"

"The Department for Health and Social Care's decision to prioritise hospitals at the beginning of the pandemic meant social care providers were left exposed by lack of PPE, says the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee in its first report on PPE procurement published today." "While government...
Source: parliament.uk

MMR, smoking, and 'in-vitro' models in COVID-19

Good summary of current science news topics for coronavirus in Reuters. Strong responders to MMR II vaccine (since 1979) have less severe disease with COVID-19, cigarette smoke increases risk, and a useful 'in-vivo' model for further study of how SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses might be treated.
Source: reuters.com

France and Germany thrust into lockdown as second COVID-19 wave sweeps Europe: French President Emmanuel Macron and German

France and Germany thrust into lockdown as second COVID-19 wave sweeps Europe: French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered their countries back into lockdown on Wednesday, as a massive second wave of coronavirus infections threatened to overwhelm Europe before the winter.
Source: reuters.com