These headlines go to show you that humans and their inventions are adequate but rarely perfect…
FDA clot device advisory tells of patients’ risks (re: Inferior Vena Cava Filters)
A Newly Candid FDA on the Future Of Medical Device Regulation (re: example – external infusion pumps, pp. 3 & 4)
Mobile toilet tissue role
A marriage of science, art and remarkable skill…
Dr. Larry Over, DMD, MSD, a maxillofacial prosthodontist in Eugene, OR, rebuilds a mother’s face.
Building a new face
See the American Medical Association’s site at amednews.com for the amazing reconstruction…read on…
Tags: How'd they do that?, Is this amazing...or what?, What IS Happiness?
Who of us in the medical industry would have the guts to give a neurosurgeon permission to have our infant’s brain glued?
According to the authors – “It was just a few months before the parents noticed Joley’s head was growing rapidly and was unusually larger than [her twin's] Jared’s . Her mother could see the tiny veins in Joley’s head bulging out from her scalp.”
…But crazy glue worked!
Image of glue in Ella-Grace Honeymans brain
Got to love N-butyl-cyanoacrylate…read more at HealthMad.com…
Tags: Is this amazing...or what?, It works how?, What does that thing do?, You think you know weird?
From the blog InnocentEnglish.com, these “Funny Doctor Chart Bloopers” from actual medical record entries are precious…
Discharge status: alive but without permission.
The patient refused an autopsy.
Exam of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized. (…sometimes even spell check won’t help!)
Rectal exam revealed…read more…
“But honey, the < fill in here > made me do it!”
A meta-analysis of healthcare insurance claims has shown that middle aged men (40’s or older) who take impotence drugs have triple the rate of sexually transmitted diseases compared to their drug-free brethren.
The scientific theory, however, is not that the drugs make them more promiscuous but that perhaps the predisposition of the male mindset leads them to seek the path to more fun through pharmaceuticals.
Tags: An "old dads' tale", An old dads' "tail", This is healthy for me?, We KNOW how that works!, What were they thinking?
We know that exercise is good for us and why, right?
Wrong. None of us do. No one knows the granular biochemistry. But here’s a S.W.A.G. (click to first term)…
Translucent Woman Running Illustration by Bryan Cristie
A new study suggests it offers both acute and long term benefits:
“These findings suggest that exercise has both “acute and cumulative” effects on your body’s ability to use and burn fat,” says Gregory Lewis, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and an author of the study. After only 10 minutes of exercise, even the least fit showed evidence that their bodies were burning fat; the more fit, the more metabolic evidence of fat burning.”
Number ten in the Top 10 new tech advances of 2010 goes to an ancient material…
Implanted under the skin, an array of light-emitting diodes could signal the concentration in the blood of biomarkers such as insulin. Over time, the array will dissolve away, eliminating the need for surgery to remove the implant. Flexible silicon electronics (inset) are held in place with a silk film. Incorporating antibodies or enzymes into the film will allow devices to detect biomarkers. Credit: Bryan Christie Design. Source: MIT's Technology Review
According to MIT’s Technology Review, such “dissolvable devices make better medical implants.”
And what is that mysterious yet familiar bioabsorbable material for advanced implantable electronics?
Silk! It can be engineered to transmit images via light waves along its fibers, deliver drugs, measure vital signs or test blood, and can be resorbed over hours or as long as two years depending upon how long it is needed. And all from the belly of a worm? Amazing. For more amazing apps…read on.
Got silk?
Dissolvable devices make better medical implants.
Tags: How'd they do that?, Is this amazing...or what?, It works how?
You-Tube video of Jonathan’s Cochlear Implant Activation 8 mo., Rt Ear cont\\’d – April 14, 2008
Beautiful Baby Boy
Tags: Is this amazing...or what?, It works how?, What IS Happiness?
Welcome home to our Atlantis Space Shuttle and and the STS-132 mission crew!
Just over 10 hours ago Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL, concluding its 32nd and last voyage as a space workhorse. According to NASA it went as “smooth as silk.”
Upon the routine arrival inspection, the shuttle is reported by NASA engineers to be in fine repair, after 25 years reported to have the capacity to easily double the miles it has already logged – 120 million miles. [Seattle PI.]
Space Shuttle Atlantis The Space Shuttle Atlantis is towed back to the Orbiter Processing Facility after landing on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Click picture.
This fact makes it all the more difficult to fathom. It is beyond weird that our space shuttle era is coming to a close, retiring Atlantis first, then Discovery and finally Endeavour at the end of this year.
These spacecraft, their mission teams and crews have allowed us to dream we are astronauts, exploring one of our last frontiers, or engineers, enabling that exploration.
Let our medical industry salute NASA’s vast team of astronauts, engineers, aerospace professionals and its supporting industry suppliers as the STS program winds down.
…and let’s give one more pitch to President Obama – to rethink retiring this program to wait until the mid-2030’s for the Mars program, else the loss of yet anther critical national treasure further tarnishes our nation’s hope for the future.
Tags: and now Weird History?, What was he thinking?, You think you know weird?
Do you have patients or family members who struggle daily with Attention Deficit [Hyperactive] Disorder (ADD/ADHD)?
You know the symptoms – difficulty concentrating, constant fidgeting, poor memory, disorganized, sensitive or even argumentative.
“Although ADD carries some basic handicaps, you can’t place all ADD adults in the same box. Here are a few suggestions, keeping in mind both the strengths, as well as the weaknesses of ADD,” says Venice Kichura in hear article entitled, “Good Jobs for Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder“:
