Chemical War Agents – A New Way of Decontamination

On March 20, 1995, 7:00-8:10 am – during the rush hour at the Tokyo subway, in five well planned acts of terror, members of the Aum Shinrikyo in Japan released sarin gas on several lines of the Tokyo Metro, killing about a dozen people, severely injuring fifty and causing vision problems for nearly a thousand other victims. The incident remains, the most serious attack to occur in Japan since the end of the Second World War.

The incident involving a poisonous laboratory chemical starkly revealed how annihilating an attack by chemical warfare agents can be, and given the frequency of the terror attacks these days, the possibility of a terrorist attack by means of toxic laboratory chemical supplies can't be ruled out.

With research by their side, the scientists in Texas, California, and Maryland, via the American Chemical Society, recently claimed to have developed sophisticated "wipes" that could be used to clear up people and equipment exposed to a range of harmful military and industrial and laboratory chemicals.

The Next Generation Wipes

The high-tech wipes are being considered a big leap toward a universal personal decontamination system for nearly that could clear up just about any toxic or hazardous chemical, and save countless lives. For instance, "mustard" is one of the deadliest blister agents around. It is known to cause severe, delayed burns to the eyes, skin, and respiratory tract, damages cells within minutes of contact and large exposures to the chemical may be fatal. However, the new wipes are effective against it as well.

Another distinction about the new wipe is that unlike the earlier generation of decontaminating agents were either powders or liquids, this one is fabric-based. And hence it doesn't carry the disadvantages of its predecessors. For example the powders, like activated carbon, can pollute the air and cause lungs damage, the liquids on the other hand are effective against only a handful of harmful agents as many laboratory chemical manufacturers would vouch for , and that they can also damage electronic equipment.

Comprising a layer of activated carbon pressed between layers of absorbent fibers, they've been shown to work better than particulate carbon and a just as good as the military decontamination kit.

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Study: How Poverty Affects the Brain

University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown for the first time that the brains of low-income children function differently from the brains of high-income kids.

In a study recently accepted for publication by the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, which seems to have surprised many including those from the medical industry, scientists at UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and the School of Public Health report that normal 9- and 10-year-olds differing only in socioeconomic status have detectable differences in the response of their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is critical for problem solving and creativity.

Brain function was measured by means of an electroencephalograph (EEG) - basically, a cap fitted with electrodes to measure electrical activity in the brain - like that used to assess epilepsy, sleep disorders and brain tumors.

"Kids from lower socioeconomic levels show brain physiology patterns similar to someone who actually had damage in the frontal lobe as an adult," said Robert Knight, director of the institute and a UC Berkeley professor of psychology. "We found that kids are more likely to have a low response if they have low socioeconomic status, though not everyone who is poor has low frontal lobe response."

UC Berkeley News

Should Mental Health be Integrated into Primary Care?

Mental disorders affect millions around the world, which are often fundamentally linked to a number of physical ailments such as cancer, heart disease and AIDS.

According to NIMH estimates, about 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older that's about one in four adults suffering from a mental disorder in a given year. And these figures translate into 57.7 million people afflicted with mental disorders, considering the 2004 U.S. Census. Despite the widespread prevalence of mental illness across the word, there's a huge gap between the number of people affected and those who get treatment, which often requires prescription of pharmaceutical drugs. This is true for all countries. A recent report by the WHO titled “Integrating mental health into primary health care: a global perspective,” suggests integrating mental health into primary care, citing many benefits and justifications.

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Pharma Packaging – Innovation Key to Cost Savings

In the pharmaceutical industry, while the status of the packaging function might only be that of an appendix, if properly utilized, it can be an invaluable resource for innovation and cost savings.

During the whole process of production, the packaging people are roped in only after the product research and development teams are over with their jobs. And at times they're brought in even past the stage of product engineering. Naturally, by this stage, the schedule gets tight and there's barely time left for meeting deadlines, leave aside innovation.

Innovation might not be an invention but just a new way of doing something. And as Peter Drucker identified, it's one of the only two basic business functions, the other being marketing, it has has been known to result in improved quality, reduced labor costs, improved production processes, reduced pharmaceutical packaging materials, reduced energy consumption, etc. – all of which spell profitability.

However, if packaging is only considered as an afterthought, the possibility of innovation is lost somewhere, and consequently its benefits too.

Leveraging Integration for Innovation

Experts believe that integrating the packaging function with the research and development function requires only a few tweaks. To breed innovation it's important to allow the packaging function more influence within R&D. This is so because when the two functions work jointly, it will enable the packaging department to better help with quality initiatives, continuous enhancement programs, costs reduction, etc.

Also, when the packaging department is aware of the projects that are underway including the high priority ones, it can prepare in advances and has the time necessary to think and innovate, and better use their pharmaceutical packaging equipment .

Further, in addition to just an influence within R&D, a more innovative set-up could include merging R&D and packaging. Because a lot of cost reduction, quality, and continuous improvement depends on packaging, so including packaging within the whole process sounds like a better option.

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Eye Diagnostics – A New Way To Capture Color Retinal Images

Monitoring and treatment of eye diseases with a potential to cause blindness can be challenging. However, with new advances in research, scientists may have just developed an effective means of taking high quality color photographs of eye inflammation with the help of diagnostic equipment.

Recently, scientists made a headway by taking high quality color photographs of the clinical stages of ocular inflammation in mice, using what they call “Topical Endoscopic Fundal Imaging (TEFI).” And it seems that mice are just the beginning, soon humans could replace the mice, and for the better.

How TEFI would help?

Topical Endoscopic Fundal Imaging or (TEFI), makes use of an endoscope (the good old diagnostic equipment) along with parallel illumination and observation channels connected to a digital camera to capture images eye images. The development of this technique is attributed to Michel Paques, et al.

In the new study a team researchers from the University of Bristol's Academic Unit of Ophthalmology tracked the changes in the mice retina, and the best part was that it didn't cause distress to the animals or was there a need administer anesthesia to the patients (mice, in this case). Quite a painkiller find!

The paper was published in the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science in a paper titled "The Clinical Time-Course of Experimental Autoimmune Uveoretinitis Using Topical Endoscopic Fundal Imaging with Histologic and Cellular Infiltrate Correlation."

According to experts, TEFI would enable monitoring of clinical disease quickly and in a non-invasive fashion. And based on the clinical observations, the investigators will be able to design experimental protocols. In addition, this new technique also paves the way to detect changes in the eye that were previously undetectable.

At the same time, while TEFI along with other histological methods does enable observation of clinical features and severity of disease, in order to gather information about the dynamics, phenotype, function, etc - a detailed analysis of cell populations during different stages of disease as it progresses might be needed.

For now only the mice used in the study seem to have benefited from it, humans may need to wait a bit.

I think the most exciting aspect of medicine is innovation. Not too far back Video Game Surgery provided new means for training surgeons. Or more recently, as it was revealed that Robots are the Future of Assistive Technology.

Assistive Technology – Robots are the Future

Imagine a world where you have a faithful aide by your side that can assist you with just about anything from moping up the floors, washing the dishes, patrolling your house, providing elder care to being you best buddy by being ready to help whenever you need it. It seems that after the dog, robots are going to be man's most faithful friend.

We seem to have come far from the times when robots or mechanical servants were only heard of in ancient mythologies, such as the robots built by the Greek god Hephaestus to the age of patient aid and assistive devices. While, modern robotics has come a long way, there was a lot of buzz recently about the “uBOT-5” - the robot, supposed to be an awesome robotic assistant for the elderly in future.

The State-of-the-art Robotics

And it's not without a reason because computer science researchers are well set on their path to endow these “mechanical servants” with never seen capabilities. For instance the uBOT-5 would not only be able them to assist the elderly but would also act to help them, e.g. dialing 911 in case of emergencies. Or they could send out reminders to patients when its time for their medication. To top it all, they could even help them with grocery shopping in addition to allow them to talk to their friends 'n' family including healthcare providers.

However, this is only one side of the story, because when a patient's friends, family or medics need to talk to their loved ones – they too can initiate a conversation via the assistant. For instance, a concerned family member who wants to know about whether their elderly relative is ok or not? They can establish a link with any Internet connection, or better still navigate around the house to look for mom or dad. This can be especially useful if a patient needs help and is unable to take the call.

At the same time, while the technology may have advanced, cost concerns still seem to persist for these patient aids. For instance, at present the prototypes at University of Massachusetts Amherst cost close to $65,000 for a unit. However, experts believe that with commercialization the robots may cost about $5,000. That's less, but lesser still would be be better.

Till the time that happens, perhaps cutting edge enhancements to the already existing patient aid equipments aren't bad either – as some interesting gadgets came to life at this year's Assistive Technology Exposition of the Saint Francis University’s CERMUSA - including retina-steered wheelchairs, digitized and synthesized speech-generating devices and pressure sensing prosthetic limbs that could fill up a glass or water or wine!

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Hospital Reforms - A Must for the Future

Experts believe that value of hospital-based care will not decrease in the future, rather, hospitals will be required to meet the high expectations of the public and all stakeholders of a medical facility in addition to a progressively challenging medical industry environment.

Consequently, just like earlier, hospitals of today must be prepared to remain flexible to accommodate the changing healthcare environment and to remain sustainable. Recently, the Joint Commission released a report titled “Health Care at the Crossroads: Guiding Principles for the Development of the Hospital of the Future” urging hospitals and public policymakers to use the guidelines in the report to prepare today's hospitals for the future.

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