Researchers are developing computational models to predict the behaviour of nanomaterials in biological systems. Such predictions will allow researchers to streamline and prioritise the toxicological testing of nanomaterials.
Covaris Introduces Bench-top, AFA-based Process Technology
Ground-breaking, enabling tool for both formulation of poorly soluble medias and new drug delivery systems.
Abakan Acquires Interest in Powdermet and its Advanced Material Technologies
The acquisition brings substantial value to Abakan's existing investment portfolio which includes a direct and indirect 61.04% interest, with the contractual right to acquire up to 85.24%, of MesoCoat, Inc.
Major advance in understanding how nanowires form
New insights into why and how nanowires take the form they do will have profound implications for the development of future electronic components. PhD student Peter Krogstrup from the Nano-Science Center at the University of Copenhagen is behind the sensational new theoretical model, which is developed in collaboration with researchers from CINAM-CNRS in Marseille.
New series of commercialization charts on nanotechnology and nanomaterials – #1: Aerospace
Future Markets, Inc., a technology consultancy firm, presents the first in a new series of commercialization charts on nanotechnology and nanomaterials.
Graphene mass production comes closer with bulk wet chemical exfoliation of graphite
There are already several technologies that potentially allow mass production of graphene sheets; several of them are processing graphene in solution by exfoliating graphite. The general problem with this approach is however that is has been so far impossible to regenerate the undisturbed graphene lattice which was present prior to oxidation as decarboxylation inevitable takes place in the reduction step. In new work, researchers have now demonstrated the first bulk wet chemical exfoliation of graphite in association with an in situ covalent functionalization of intermediately generated graphene. With this novel chemical method, it is now possible to achieve covalently bonded functionalities without mechanical or sonochemical treatment. The covalent functionalization also protects the single-layer graphene from reaggregation and substrate-induced doping.
Solar technology scientists meet in Abu Dhabi to identify research directions for energy breakthroughs
The March 27-28 event is designed to explore the route for development of cost-effective systems capable of achieving 25 percent energy conversion from solar resources in Abu Dhabi by the year 2020.
Nanotechnology points the way to greener pastures
Solar-powered 'nanoalloys' can convert polluting nitrates into ammonia fertilizer without releasing carbon dioxide.
Non-Clinician Misinterpretation of DTC Genetic testing
Ok,
In case you haven't all figured it out. Blogs are dead. Mine is too, sorta. I have less and less time to blog as my practice explodes. But there are some things that just merit a blog post.
I am on twitter, you can follow me there @genesherpas
But now I am on the Sherpa. Yes, the blog that nearly got me on 60 Minutes and definitely won me the hearts of USA Today to be interviewed...BTW the practice got super busy after that......
Today I want to talk about something more serious.
The FDA hearings have laid the course clear. Direct To Consumer Genetic testing will be regulated.
Why?
1 part potential harm
2 parts irreverence for laws and medical regulation
3 parts flagrant misrepresentation of what genetic tests can do.......
Today on twitter Shirely Wu @shwu retweeted something that was the picked up by @dgmacarthur..... great geneticist, but not a medical geneticist........
That was:
A thoughtful and eloquent case-study petition to keep genetic testing DTC:http://bit.ly/dL3qar from @celticcurse#FDADTC
The problem?
I respect Shirley a lot, but this article is not thoughtful, nor is it eloquent.
Instead it is full of misinterpretation and IMHO an ignorance of the role of genetic testing in hereditary hemochromatosis.....
In no way is HFE genetic testing required or indicated to pick up a person with hereditary hemochromatosis.
There are multiple genes involved in hereditary hemochromatosis only testing HFE and thinking you are "off the hook" is stupid.....
There are also modifier genes likely too.....
In other words, perhaps the cheerleaders for DTCG are misinformed about the true utility of this type of testing. Further, if they knew the literature, perhaps they would be less angry that the FDA(who know the data BTW) want to regulate against these types of misinformed claims that could lead to misinterpretation by consumers and end up fleecing their pockets for fools gold.
Let's take this little gem from @celticcurse
"A simple genetic test is all it takes to know if hereditary hemochromatosis, the most common genetic killer in America, is in your genes."
Bull$h!t buddy.....less than 30% of HFE variant persons ever develop the disease. Do me a favor, partner with a doctor to hack your health next time please......
In case you wondered, iron studies are the key to screening. I get them in every northern european or any family history of liver disease, gonadal failure, arthritis, etc......
But, the lab heads wouldn't know that. Which is why lab heads shouldn't release discoveries into the wild......
The Sherpa Says: This retweet blog post by CelticCurse is an eloquent reason WHY DTC genetic testing should be regulated for claims and use......regulate the medical as a medical test, let the ancestry buffs do their thing sans FDA. End of story guys.....
Salt increases heart attack and stroke risk, even if blood pressure is normal
Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
Excess dietary salt is notorious for increasing blood pressure – blood volume increases, placing more stress on blood vessel walls. This forces the heart to pump harder against the pressure, and also structural changes that harden the vessel wall (this hardening is called stenosis) occur in response to these high pressures.
About one-third of all American adults and over 50% of those over the age of 55 have hypertension, and hypertension carries significant risks. Elevated blood pressure accounts for 62% of strokes and 49% of coronary heart disease. [1] Notably, the risk for heart attack and stroke begins climbing with systolic pressures (first number in the blood pressure reading) above 115 mm Hg – considered “normal” by most standards.[2] Also, dietary salt is not only dangerous to the cardiovascular system, but also contributes to kidney disease, osteoporosis , ulcers, and stomach cancer. [3] Read more...
Cardiofy Heart Care Supplement
Tips and Tricks for Scanning and Viewing Digital Slides – Aperio Webinar April 27th
This should be a good one. Ole Eichhorn is a good speaker who has a way of making technical issues simple and user friendly
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
7:00 am Pacific Time, 10:00 am Eastern Time
(3:00 pm London GMT / 9:00 am Mexico City Standard Time)
OR
4:00 pm Pacific Time, 7:00 pm Eastern Time
(8:00 am Japan Time / 9:00 am Australia EST April 28)
Presenter:
Ole Eichhorn, Chief Technology Officer, Aperio
In this 60-minute, complimentary webinar, we will present simple tips for getting the most out of your digital pathology system, including ScanScope scanners, Spectrum Plus, the latest Spectrum Plus release, and the ImageScope and WebScope viewing tools.
Topics include:
- Ways to improve your scan quality
- Mouse and keyboard shortcuts
- Viewing navigation: panning and zooming through digital slides
- Saving and bookmarking specific views of slides
- Annotation tips and techniques
- Interfacing to third-party image tools
- A look at Spectrum Release 11
This webinar will cover many of the tips we’ve posted online at blog.aperio.com/chalk-tip-index.html. Please visit blog.aperio.com often for Pathology News and ongoing tips and techniques.
To register for the 7am PDT session, click here.https://aperio.webex.com/aperio/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=489644732
To register for the 4pm PDT session, click here.
https://aperio.webex.com/aperio/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=481795953
You may also register by visiting the Aperio Events page.
You will receive a confirmation email upon registration with a web link that will lead you to the online event. Simply visit the link at the assigned time. The session is secure and easy to access. If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact the Aperio Events Team at events@aperio.com or 760.539.1192.
CAP ’11 Abstracts Submission Deadline Coming Soon
Be sure to submit your abstracts and case studies for CAP ’11. The deadline is Friday, April 1, 2011. Remember, Junior Members are eligible for awards up to $1,500.
To submit an abstract or case study, visit cap.org/cap11 and choose “Abstract Submissions at CAP ’11”
Thoughts on CAP Companion Society Meeting at USCAP 2011
A couple of weeks have passed and enough time has passed to digest what I thought about the CAP Companion Society I was fortunate enough to speak at the recent USCAP meeting. Unfortunately, this was the only part of the meeting I was able to attend this year. For a more complete review of the exhibits and exhibit floor check out Ole Eichorn's The Daily Scan and Amanda Lowe's DPC Blog. Both have excellent summaries of the vendors, their booths and recent updates to product offerings.
The CAP Companion Society Meeting this year was dedicated to whole slide imaging. I think this says a lot for the College and the field in general. Timely topics are usually chosen for this companion meeting and topics are generally those that are suggested by the membership in terms of current issues that may be of interest to the general practicing pathologist.
The session is generally well attended by CAP members and as most of the companion meetings take place over the weekend and there are quite a few, attendees have a wide range of meetings to attend. This particularly society meeting generally does well but this year the number seemed larger than most.
I was able to view the speaker presentations on the USCAP website without log in.
As you will see from the presentations the topics covered regulatory issues, educational applications, clinical applications, lessons learned from the speakers, business models and challenges to overcome.
Paul Valenstein's talk on the issue of validation presented the real challenges that face the FDA to tackle the problem. Be sure to check out his talk if this is of interest to you for a thorough review of the regulatory issues.
Liron Pantanowitz reviewed educational applications in part using Pathology 2.0 and other application models.
Andrew Evans and myself covered clinical applications with Andrew reviewing now multiple years and thousands of cases reviewed with telepathology with multiple platforms and expansion of their practice model into remote areas of Ontario. Still one of the best examples of a successful telemedicine program with many deliverables, efficiencies and continued successes that anyone should review if you are setting up any telepathology program.
As for my talk, it was largely a review of my recent CAP meeting session on telepathology and whole slide imaging. Fortunately, I don't think there was much redundancy among the attendees and my bad jokes were just as ineffective. TIme for some new material, new slides and new jokes.
The session concluded with John Pfeifer and David Wilbur discussing their experiences in large, sub-specialty oriented academic practices. John discussed issues associated with volume scanning in a large organization, the issues with large academic practices and their success with a CoPath interface. David Wilbur discussed their projects with Corista and proposed consultation models for MGH.
At the end of the session there was a short panel Q&A and it was quickly and clearly evident from the questions asked and the follow up points made by the panelists that digital pathology is no longer a matter of "if" but "how".
This is my problem in my lab, my hospital, my group, with my colleagues, I know we need to adopt this technology, but how? Where do I start? And how do I validate? I need to read cases instead of traveling to the cases. But what about resolution? Legal issues? Image storage, bandwidth and documentation of digital rather than glass review.
The answers will come as they have in the past from shared experience and collective lessons learned that facilitate innovation and adoption.
HistoRx Receives Fundamental Patent on Standardization of Results In Digital Pathology
Information contained on this page is provided by companies via press release distributed through PR Newswire, an independent third-party content provider. PR Newswire, WorldNow and this Station make no warranties or representations in connection therewith.
SOURCE HistoRx, Inc.
HistoRx, Inc., recently announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted a patent protecting the company's methods for standardization of digital microscopy instruments in order to go beyond imaging to generating high-quality reproducible data that precisely relates to biomarker concentrations in tissue sections.
Digital pathology involves taking digital pictures of an anatomic pathology specimen, a slide with cells or a thinly-sliced piece of tissue, and managing the interpretation and storage of the resulting images. While most companies involved in digital pathology emphasize generation and storage of images for interpretation, HistoRx is the only company to bring reproducibility, or standardization, to those images, to quantify protein in tissue for accurate biomarker measurement.
"This patent covers HistoRx's unique ability to ensure that multiple instruments performing the same test, whether in one or many locations, can give the same result for a patient's slide," said Jason Christiansen, Senior Director of Operations at HistoRx and the lead inventor. "We don't make digital microscopy systems, we make digital microscopy systems better."
Quantitative IHC (qIHC) is only as good as the image from which the data is derived. Robust quantitative data can only be achieved from reproducible images, generated with information from standardized digital microscopy instruments. HistoRx is the first company to address standardization of digital microscopy instruments to deliver high quality reproducible data that precisely relates to biomarker concentrations in tissue sections -- data that is essential to the development and delivery of personalized cancer care.
The patented approach applies to qIHC, as well as all uses of digital microscopy and establishes the definition for standardization and reproducibility in both brightfield and fluorescent digital pathology.
U.S. Patent No. 7,907,271 is the first assigned to HistoRx and is entitled "Method and System for Standardizing Microscope Instruments." Inventors Jason Christiansen,Robert Pinard, Maciej Zerkowski and Greg Tedeschi are all current or former employees of the company.
AQUA technology is an automated, quantitative IHC testing method that enables measurement of protein biomarkers in tissue as an aid to a pathologist's diagnosis. Such precise determination of first, the location within the tumor cell and second, the amount in each location is not possible with any other method, digital or otherwise. AQUA analysis is used in cancer research by twenty leading academic centers worldwide, is part of the clinical development plans for more than ten drug candidates from major pharma companies, and has been cited in more than 90 peer-reviewed publications. The first use of AQUA technology in the clinical diagnostic setting occurred in 2010 with the launch by Genoptix Inc. (a subsidiary of Novartis) of diagnostic tests based on AQUA technology licensed from HistoRx. AQUA technology is currently available on the ScanScope FL™ from Aperio and will be available later this year on the Nuance™ and Vectra™ systems from Caliper Life Sciences.
About HistoRx, Inc.
HistoRx, Inc. is a leading developer of tissue-based diagnostic solutions to advance individualized patient care. The company's products and services are based on proprietary analysis of tissue biomarkers using AQUA® technology. AQUA® technology is the only platform capable of precisely measuring protein biomarker concentration with sub-cellular resolution in tissue sections, enabling fully objective, standardized, reproducible, and automated analysis to guide drug development and therapeutic decision-making. HistoRx is commercializing a pipeline of proprietary diagnostic products targeting improved treatment decision-making and patient outcomes in cancer care. For more information, please visit http://www.historx.com.
©2011 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved.
Review of Methods in Medical Informatics by Dr. Jules Berman
I recently had a chance to look at Methods in Medical Informatics, the latest of several books by Jules Berman, PhD, MD, published last year.
One of Dr. Berman's colleagues wrote this, "This list, enumerated by Dr. Berman and many others, should be chiseled in granite, published everywhere, and yelled from the rooftops. Greater compliance with this list would clear out much of the clutter in the chaotic world of biomedical informatics."
This book is a no-nonsense "how to" for programming in medical informatics written in a similar style to Dr. Berman's previous works on the topic with the exception that these languages are freely available and take advantage of public databases. The book is short on history, background and significant explanation, rather Dr. Berman quickly and easily takes the reader into short scripts of code with accompanying algorithms to rapidly illustrate simplicity yet thoroughness to the program being written. For more substantive background and discussion I suggest you look at his prior works.
The book contains 27 chapters that are parceled into 4 parts -- fundamental algorithms and methods of medical informatics; medical data resources; primary tasks of medical informatics and medical discovery. The parts and chapters allow a flow to the book that makes it both easy to pick up where you left off and hard to put down when you need to. Despite the subject matter and largely a collection of short scripts, like any good book, there is a story and one can find themself asking "What if?" when a scenario is presented and others are built upon it to ask or answer a particular question.
A must have for any healthcare professional with informatics needs or interests. Retails for around $50.
Jules J. Berman, studied mathematics at M.I.T., earned a Ph.D. in pathology and an M.D., practiced general pathology for over a decade, and served as Program Director for the Pathology Informatics program at the U. S. National Cancer Institute. He has published over one hundred first-author papers in peer-reviewed journals in this field. He brings together this varied background in a flowing no-nonsense writing style.
New Free White Paper – Tissue Contamination
Risk of Misdiagnosis Due to Tissue Contamination May be Higher for Certain Specimen Types:
Changes to Laboratory Staining Techniques Offer Opportunity to Reduce Contamination Events
FREE Special Edition White Paper
Download Your FREE Special Report Today!
Simply Complete the Form Below
Tissue contamination in the anatomic pathology lab has long been accepted as a part of the working environment. While laboratories strive to reduce contamination as much as possible, it has been viewed more as an inconvenience than as a serious issue.
But that view is changing. As this white paper demonstrates, the risk of misinterpretation may be greater than most pathologists currently realize, especially in certain tissue types. Also, this paper illuminates a source of significant contamination that has largely been overlooked—staining baths.
Patient safety demands that laboratories take every precaution against misinterpretation. But even in instances where the risk of misinterpretation is unlikely, loss of productivity as a result of contamination is a serious issue.
As the author of this white paper notes, determining if an artifact on a slide is a contaminant or patient tissue can require minutes, or even hours, of extra time in analysis. With a critical shortage of pathologists, productivity is an issue that laboratories cannot ignore. With the average age of pathologists over 50, this shortage will grow more critical as baby boomers retire.
The Dark Report is happy to offer our readers a chance to download our recently published FREE White Paper “Risk of Misdiagnosis Due to Tissue Contamination May be Higher for Certain Specimen Types: Changes to Laboratory Staining Techniques Offer Opportunity to Reduce Contamination Events” at absolutely no charge. This free download will provide readers with a detailed overview of current legal challenges that your lab may encounter in the near future.
Here is just some of what you will take away…
- The three main specimen types that are considered high-risk for misdiagnosis.
- The most important factors enabling a pathologist to recognize contamination.
- Some ways to avoid contamination during the staining process.
- For more about changes to laboratory staining techniques, please CLICK HERE
Table of Contents
Disclosure — Page 2
Preface — Page 4
Chapter 1. Background — Page 5
Chapter 2. Sources of Contamination of Patient Slides — Page 6
Chapter 3. Specimen Types With Additional Risk — Page 8
Chapter 4. Elevated Risks for Specialty Labs — Page 15
Chapter 5. Cost of Contamination — Page 16
Chapter 6. Protecting Against Contamination — Page 18
Chapter 7. Conclusion— Page 20
References — Page 21
Appendices
A-1 About John B. Carpenter, M.D. — Page 23
A-2 About Ventana Medical Systems, Inc.— Page 24
A-3 About DARK DAILY— Page 25
A-4 About The Dark Intelligence Group, Inc., and The Dark Report— Page 26
A-5 About Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management— Page 27
A-6 About Karen Branz— Page 29
Terms of Use — Page 32
Race is on for iPhone-lik?e health IT apps
BOSTON – A new platform created specifically to boost healthcare IT innovation is now available to the public, kicking off a $5,000 competition that challenges developers to create Web applications for patients, physicians and public health.
Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School created SMArt (Substitutable Medical Applications, reusable technologies) platform architecture to support a flexible health information technology environment and promote innovation. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology awarded $15 million for the project in April 2010 through the Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) program.
[See also: Some SHARP ideas for health IT.]
First described in a March 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article the SMArt architecture is an iPhone-like health IT platform model that aims to transform the way health IT supports healthcare by facilitating the development of medical applications that are scalable and substitutable. The goal is to drive competition, innovation and increased efficiency in the functionality of technology for improved health care.
[See also: Children’s Hospital Boston at work on iPhone-like app.]
The SMArt project will enable the equivalent of an iTunes App Store for health and support applications ranging from medication managers for patients at home to e-prescribing applications and decision support for physicians in the office.
"The goal of this model is to enable a substantial shift towards technologies that are flexible and able to quickly adapt to meet the various needs of their users on a variety of devices," said Kenneth Mandl, MD, of the Children's Hospital Informatics Program and Harvard Medical School, and co-lead on the SMArt project. "As developers begin to compete on quality, value and usability, we expect to see the introduction of an array of innovative functions and a drop in the cost of healthcare technology. Just as staple applications of the iPad, Android, and Blackberry platforms constantly evolve and compete to meet user demands, the SMArt platform will enable health IT to do the same."
In August, Mandl and Isaac Kohane, MD, also with the Children’s Hospital Informatic Program and Harvard Medical School and co-lead on the SMArt project, held a SMArt developer meeting that included more than 60 representatives from academia, government and business.
Multiple prototypes of the SMArt platform were presented and feedback was collected from software developers and the health IT community. Following that meeting, the team built the SMArt platform architecture and interface that was made publicly available March 9.
"There is an enormous talent pool available in our country's developers and entrepreneurs to help drive new Web and mobile health IT solutions that support healthcare functions," said Kohane. "Through this competition we hope to excite this pool, to spark their imaginations and partner with them to move new ideas forward."
"Future developments in health IT should always be driven by empowering physicians and improving patient care," addd Wil Yu, director of the SHARP program at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
Developers interested in learning more about the SMArt project and/or participating in the SMArt health app challenge may visit http://www.smartplatforms.org/challenge/ for complete details. Entrants are eligible to receive an award – $5,000 and release in an "App Store" – for best application. The deadline for submission is May 31, 2011 11:59PM EDT.
The judges
A panel of industry leaders has been assembled to judge the challenge and will review submitted apps and announce winners in June 2011. Judges will include Susanna Fox, director of Health Research at the Pew Internet & American Life Project; Regina Herzlinger, the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School; David Kibbe, senior advisor to the American Academy of Family Physicians and principal at The Kibbe Group LLC; Ben Shneiderman, professor of Computer Science at the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park; Doug Solomon, chief technology officer at IDEO; Edward Tufte, professor emeritus of Political Science, Statistics, and Computer Science at Yale University; and Jim Walker, chief health information officer at Geisinger Health Systems.
The Congress for and of Curious Peoples 2011, The Coney Island Museum, April 8-17
"Blood Work: Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution," Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with Holly Tucker, Tomorrow Night at Observatory!
Tomorrow night at Observatory! Very much hope to see you there.
Blood Work: Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution
Lecture and Book Signing with Professor and Author Holly Tucker
Date: Tuesday, March 22
Time: 8 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid AnatomyIn 1667 physician Jean-Baptiste Denis transfused calf’s blood into the body of Antoine Mauroy, an infamous madman known to tear through the streets of Paris naked and screaming. With this, Denis--a brash physician with a taste for the limelight--enraged both the elite doctors who wanted to perform the first animal-to-human blood transfusion themselves and powerful conservatives who believed he was toying with forces of nature that he didn’t understand. It only got worse when just days after the experiment, Mauroy was dead, and Denis was framed for murder. A trial ensued and Denis became a kind of 17th century Dr. Kevorkian, a stubborn man of science who held the public spellbound and reveled in controversy.
Animal-to-human transfusion was then on the cutting-edge of medicine. In an era in which superstition sparred with science, transfusion was also a flashpoint for controversy. Conservative camps in Catholic France, including King Louis XIV’s Academy of Sciences, railed against transfusion and predicted that before long animal-human hybrids would walk among us. Ambitious scientists fumed at being held back by retrograde forces who would choke the progress of science. A confused public feared that they would be crushed by cosmic backlash or social upheaval.
Join us tonight as Dr. Tucker tells us this fascinating story of a notorious madman, a renegade physician, a murder that remained unsolved for over three centuries, and the true story one of the world’s first blood transfusions in 17th century France as detailed in her new book, Blood Work: Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution (W.W. Norton, March 2011).
Copies of Blood Work will be also available for sale and signing.
Holly Tucker is an associate professor at Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health & Society and the Department of French & Italian. Her research focuses on the history of medicine. She writes for publications including the Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, New Scientist, and Christian Science Monitor. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee. You can find out more at her website, http://www.holly-tucker.com and her blog http://www.wondersandmarvels.com.
You can find out more about the book by clicking here, and more about this event on the Observatory website by clicking here; you can access this event on Facebook here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.
NASA’s Space Shuttle Train Is Basically a Giant, Moving Bomb… [Video]
...but it's actually very safe! And yes, NASA has a railroad. It's been around since 1963, actually—so apologies to space nuts who've known about it for a while—but only recently has the agency uploaded an expose to YouTube. More »
