Researchers tested a digital version of a positive psychology intervention called “Three Good Things” (3GT) among health care workers to assess whether gratitude practice improved well-being. Two hundred and twenty-three participants—all of whom were based at a single, large academic medicine department—were randomized to an immediate intervention or delayed intervention control group. During the study, participants received text messages three times per week, prompting them to document three things for which they were grateful. Participants completed surveys measuring levels of depression, positive affect, gratitude, and life satisfaction at the study’s ...

Researchers looking to better understand patient experiences are turning to patient-guided tours (PGT) of health facilities, an approach drawn from the experience-based design literature. However, little research has assessed how patients with disabilities perceive the approach. In this qualitative study, 18 patients were asked to walk through the clinic as they would on a typical visit while describing their experiences. Patients’ experiences and perceptions of the tours were audiotaped and transcribed. Additionally, investigators took field notes and completed thematic content analyses. Their findings support the value ...

A bionic pancreas—a wearable, pocket-sized, automated insulin delivery device—that was first developed in a Boston University lab has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The iLet Bionic Pancreas is now commercially available, bringing fresh hope to the almost two million Americans with type 1 diabetes. The approval is a massive milestone in a two-decade—and deeply personal—journey. Invented 20 years ago in the lab of Ed Damiano, a BU College of Engineering professor of ...

Ann Arbor, May 23, 2023 – High school students who experience violence or bullying at school are more likely to bring weapons like a gun, knife, or club to school than those who have not experienced violence, according to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier. Because weapons increase the potential for injury and death when there is interpersonal conflict, developing a better understanding of the relationship between exposure to violence and weapon carrying is essential for developing effective public health interventions. “With 93 school shootings in the US just the 2020-21 period alone, ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 23, 2023) – World-renowned chef, author, and humanitarian José Andrés and international research leader the George Washington University (GW) today announced their partnership to build a premier Global Food Institute at GW, an unprecedented and transformative collaboration in the heart of the nation’s capital with plans to be a world leader in food system solution delivery. “Our global food system is experiencing a crisis, brought on by systemic inequities, rampant hunger and poverty, the climate crisis, and deteriorating public health and nutrition. But food has the power to solve problems: It can rebuild lives and communities, heal ...

Researchers at National Jewish Health evaluating computerized tomography (CT) scans of emphysema progression in the COPDGene® study showed that, during a span of 10 years, participants with pre-existing emphysema who continued smoking had the largest decline in adjusted lung density (ALD). The lung density decline was notably worse in current smokers compared with former smokers. The study is significant because reliably measuring changes in emphysema over time has always been challenging, due in part to differences in CT equipment technology and imaging parameters across institutions. The study, which published ...

An international clinical trial co-led by UCL (University College London) researchers will evaluate much-needed new antibiotic combinations for newborn babies with sepsis. The trial, which has started in three public hospitals in South Africa and Kenya, will be expanded to other countries and regions in 2024, with a target of recruiting up to 3,000 newborns overall. The NeoSep1 trial will evaluate new combinations of generic antibiotics and compare them to existing treatment regimens that are often used in newborn babies with suspected neonatal sepsis. Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Johannesburg, Tygerberg ...

Vaccines against smallpox given until the mid-1970s offer continuing cross-reactive immunity to mpox (previously known as monkeypox), researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report in a study published in the scientific journal Cell Host & Microbe. During last year’s mpox outbreak, the virus spread for the first time outside Africa, causing over 85,000 cases of the disease to date. Men who have sex with men account for the most infections, with a marked skew towards the young. The virus that causes mpox is what is known as an orthopoxvirus and is very similar to the virus that caused ...

Session:  C58, Health Services Research in Diverse Settings Date and Time: 11:30 a.m. ET, Tuesday, May 23, 2023 Location:  WEWCC, Area 1, Hall C (Lower Level)   ATS 2023, Washington, DC – Fever was found to be the most common non-respiratory feature of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to research published at the ATS 2023 International Conference.  The finding held true regardless of which COVID variant patients had, and whether or not they were fully vaccinated or not fully vaccinated. The researchers, who also looked at mortality risk, found that patients who were ...

Doctors and other health-care providers have a new standard for diagnosing mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), thanks to a thorough process led by researchers from the University of B.C. and Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. "We've achieved consensus across a diverse range of experts in developing these new diagnostic criteria,” said Dr. Noah Silverberg, associate professor in UBC’s department of psychology, member of the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health and Centre for Aging SMART at Vancouver Coastal Health, and co-lead of the project. “Our ...

LOS ANGELES — Paul B. Rothman, MD, has been appointed as a member of the USC Health System Board, which provides strategic oversight and governance over Keck Medicine of USC and university clinical services.  Rothman, former CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine and retired dean of medical faculty for the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, brings his leadership acumen as well as clinical and scientific expertise in rheumatology and molecular immunology to this advisory role.  “Paul ...

Different studies have documented an increased incidence of type 1 diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, none of the studies distinguishes between children with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection. Researchers were now able to gain new insights: the KVB data set provides information on whether children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes previously had COVID-19. This allows an analysis of the temporal relationship between a COVID-19 diagnosis and the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. Amongst the analyzed children without ...

Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Albany Medical College were awarded a $3.3 million grant over five years by the National Cancer Institute to use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve targeted drug therapy in HER2-positive breast cancer treatment. HER2-positive breast cancer tends to grow and spread quickly, but targeted treatments improve outcomes. The research is being led by Xavier Intes, Rensselaer professor of biomedical engineering and co-director of the Center for Modeling, Simulation and Imaging in Medicine, and ...

Led by Kelly Chipps of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, scientists working in the lab have produced a signature nuclear reaction that occurs on the surface of a neutron star gobbling mass from a companion star. Their achievement improves understanding of stellar processes generating diverse nuclear isotopes. “Neutron stars are really fascinating from the points of view of both nuclear physics and astrophysics,” said ORNL nuclear astrophysicist Kelly Chipps, who led a study published in Physical Review Letters. “A deeper understanding of their dynamics may help reveal the cosmic ...

Programme of combined one-to-one and group support sessions was tested in landmark clinical trial After one year, one in five people were able to stop taking opioids without their pain increasing Experts say the new treatment is an alternative to opioid use and has potential to give patients better quality of life Researchers at the University of Warwick and The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough have led a clinical trial, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), on a new treatment which can help people stop needing to use opioid painkillers to manage chronic pain. There are over 1 ...

CHICAGO ---CT scans are better at predicting a middle-aged person’s risk for a heart disease, such as a heart attack, than genetics, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.  “Finding the best way to identify who is at risk for developing heart disease can help determine what needs to be done to lower their risk,” said lead study author Dr. Sadiya Khan, an assistant professor of medicine and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine cardiologist. “This finding can help doctors and patients in managing risk for heart disease, which is the leading cause ...

Long-awaited outcomes data of transcatheter edge-to-edge procedures to repair patients’ leaky mitral valves revealed the minimally invasive procedure to be safe and effective in nearly 90% of patients, according to Cedars-Sinai physician-scientists. Their findings on the condition called degenerative mitral regurgitation were published today in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), representing the largest study to date that examines outcomes for patients treated outside of a clinical trial with transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER). “Treatment was successful in nearly nine out of every 10 patients in whom TEER was used to repair ...

WASHINGTON, May 23, 2023 – Type 1 diabetes affects 46.3 million people worldwide, and the number of people affected increases by about 3% each year. It requires careful calculations of insulin needs and bothersome daily injections to avoid peripheral diseases caused by extremes of high or low blood sugar. Automated insulin delivery systems, also called artificial pancreases, make diabetes management much less onerous for patients. These systems — with implanted insulin sensors, pumps that ...

WASHINGTON, May 23, 2023 – Volatile organic compounds are chemicals emitted as gases that can have adverse health effects. They are often found in paints, pharmaceuticals, and refrigerants, among other common products, but they can also act as markers of explosives, insect infestation, food spoilage, and disease. Tracing VOCs is important for public safety and all “smell” related issues. To this end, in Applied Physics Reviews, from AIP Publishing, Liu et al. introduced a fluid mechanics-based chamber design for an electronic nose (e-nose) that consistently detects ...

bout The Study: In this study of women living in low-income areas, those who moved to a higher-income area between births experienced less morbidity and death in their second pregnancy, as did their newborns, compared with those who remained in low-income areas between births. Research is needed to determine whether financial incentives or enhancement of neighborhood factors can reduce adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes.  Authors: Joel G. Ray, M.D., M.Sc., of the University of Toronto, is the corresponding author.   To ...

About The Study: Immunoglobin G and neutralizing antibody titer levels were associated with protection against infection with the Omicron variant and against symptomatic disease in this study that included 2,300 vaccinated health care workers in Israel.  Authors: Gili Regev-Yochay, M.D., of the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, is the corresponding author.   To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.14757) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The findings in this study of nearly 1,700 midlife women without diabetes suggest that prediabetes was associated with risk of fracture. Future research should determine whether treating prediabetes reduces fracture risk.  Authors: Albert Shieh, M.D., of the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, is the corresponding author.   To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.14835) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The results of this quality improvement study involving 13,000 nursing homes suggest widespread underreporting of major injury falls and pressure ulcers, and underreporting was associated with the racial and ethnic composition of a facility. Alternative approaches to measuring quality need to be considered.  Authors: Prachi Sanghavi, Ph.D., of the University of Chicago, is the corresponding author.   To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.14822) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other ...

Quantum networks connect quantum processors or quantum sensors with each other. This allows tap-proof communication and high-performance distributed sensor networks. Between network nodes, quantum information is exchanged by photons that travel through optical waveguides. Over long distances, however, the likelihood of photons being lost increases dramatically. As quantum information cannot simply be copied and amplified, 25 years ago Hans Briegel, Wolfgang Dür, Ignacio Cirac and Peter Zoller, then all at the University of Innsbruck, provided the blueprints for a quantum repeater. These feature light-matter entanglement sources and memories ...

Session:  C16, The Road to Recovery: Improving Long-Term Outcomes After Critical Illness Date and Time: 9:24 a.m. ET, Tuesday, May 23, 2023 Location:  WEWCC, Room 143 A-C (Street Level)   ATS 2023, Washington, DC – In a randomized controlled trial, ICUconnect helped ICU physicians to reduce unmet palliative care needs of critically ill patients and their families better than standard care did, according to research published at the ATS 2023 International Conference.   ICUconnect is a mobile app that enables families to give and receive ...