INDIANAPOLIS - As electronic medical records (EMRs) are increasingly used across the United States, the next generation of physicians, nurses, social workers, pharmacists and other clinicians need to acquire new knowledge and competencies related to use of EMRs early in their clinical education. But training is not routinely provided. A new study presents the functions and application of the novel, scalable Regenstrief teaching electronic medical record (tEMR) platform which contains a unique, large, anonymized patient database enabling health professions students to learn how to use health information technology (HIT) to best manage the ...

The way that many of us live has created the "perfect storm" for the evolution and transmission of infectious diseases like Covid-19 according to a researcher at the University of East Anglia. A new editorial published today describes how the world's vast population of people, pets and livestock has created an ideal breeding ground for infectious diseases which are passed between humans and animals. It shows how we urgently need to control the transmission of pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 by using vaccination passports, maximising genetic variation in livestock, and reducing how much meat we eat. Prof Cock Van Oosterhout, from UEA's School of Environmental Sciences, said: "We humans have been living in a non-sustainable way over the past few centuries. We now have a vast population size ...

LSE-Lancet Commission critically considers the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and sets out a long-term vision for the NHS which re-lays the foundations for a better, fairer health and care service. The expert authors make seven recommendations spanning workforce, disease prevention and diagnosis, digital health, and better integration of public health and social care, as well as calling for yearly increases in funding for the NHS, social care, and public health of at least 4% in real terms over the next decade. Failure to take action risks a continued deterioration in service provision, worsening health outcomes ...

Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials seized on contact tracing as the most effective way to anticipate the virus's migration from the initial, densely populated hot spots and try to curb its spread. Months later, infections were nonetheless recorded in similar patterns in nearly every region of the country, both urban and rural. A team of environmental engineers, alerted by the unusual wealth of data published regularly by county health agencies throughout the pandemic, began researching new methods to describe what was happening on the ground in a way that does not require obtaining information on individuals' movements or contacts. ...

As state and federal authorities decide whether to continue reimbursing for telehealth services that were suddenly adopted last spring in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a new study out of UC San Francisco has found that clinicians in the San Francisco Health Network (SFHN) overwhelmingly support using these services for outpatient primary care and specialty care visits. The results surprised the research team, which includes a number of clinicians at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG), since they witnessed firsthand the difficulties that many of their colleagues and patients experienced ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--May 6, 2021--In the brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease, neurons degenerate and die, slowly eliminating memories and cognitive skills. However, not all neurons are impacted equally. Some types of neurons in certain brain regions are more susceptible, and even among those subtypes--mysteriously--some perish and some do not. Researchers at Gladstone Institutes have uncovered molecular clues that help explain what makes some neurons more susceptible than others in Alzheimer's disease. In a study published in the journal Nature ...

A new study from McGill University suggests that some Icelandic killer whales have very high concentrations of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in their blubber. But it seems that other orcas from the same population have levels of PCBs that are much lower. It mainly depends on what they eat. PCBs were industrial chemicals banned decades ago, after they were found to affect the health of both humans and wildlife. But because they degrade very slowly after being released in the environment and they still accumulate in the bodies of marine mammals. After collecting skin and blubber biopsies ...

WASHINGTON -- People who feel younger have a greater sense of well-being, better cognitive functioning, less inflammation, lower risk of hospitalization and even live longer than their older-feeling peers. A study published by the American Psychological Association suggests one potential reason for the link between subjective age and health: Feeling younger could help buffer middle-aged and older adults against the damaging effects of stress. In the study, published in Psychology and Aging, researchers from the German Centre of Gerontology analyzed three years of data from 5,039 participants in the German Ageing Survey, a longitudinal survey of residents of Germany age ...

LA JOLLA--(May 6, 2021) Plants are unparalleled in their ability to capture CO2 from the air, but this benefit is temporary, as leftover crops release carbon back into the atmosphere, mostly through decomposition. Researchers have proposed a more permanent, and even useful, fate for this captured carbon by turning plants into a valuable industrial material called silicon carbide (SiC)--offering a strategy to turn an atmospheric greenhouse gas into an economically and industrially valuable material. In a new study, published in the journal RSC Advances on April 27, 2021, scientists at the Salk Institute transformed tobacco and corn husks into SiC ...

ITHACA, N.Y. - By swiping surfaces in commercial food processing plants with specially designed rapid-testing adenosine triphospate (ATP) swabs - which produce a light similar to the glow of fireflies in the presence of microorganisms - spoilage and foodborne illness could diminish, according to a new study from Cornell University food scientists. During food production, routine cleaning and surface sanitation are keys to help prevent microbial contamination in the end food products. Without such a sanitation regime, food from processing plants can become more vulnerable ...

PHILADELPHIA-- When evaluating the opioid crisis, research reveals that external factors - such as the volume of pre-filled syringes, or a default number of opioid tablets that could easily be ordered at discharge for the patient - can shift prescribing and compel emergency department (ED) physicians to administer or prescribe greater quantities of opioids. A new study published in the Journal of Medical Toxicology reveals that opioid prescribing behavior can also be decreased by external factors, such as a supply shortage. Led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers evaluated pharmacy data from the electronic medical records (EMR) collected before, during, and after a period of parenteral ...

BOSTON - New research led by a team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) points to a promising strategy to boost tumors' intake of cancer drugs, thereby increasing the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatments. The group's findings are published in Nature Nanotechnology. Getting enough anticancer drugs into a tumor is often difficult, and a potential strategy to overcome this challenge involves binding the medications to albumin, the most abundant protein in blood. The strategy relies on tumors' large appetite for protein nutrients that fuel malignant growth. When consuming available albumin, the tumors will inadvertently take in the attached drugs. A popular albumin-bound drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is ...

How did people living in the Bronze Age manage their finances before money became widespread? Researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Rome have discovered that bronze scrap found in hoards in Europe circulated as a currency. These pieces of scrap - which might include swords, axes, and jewellery broken into pieces - were used as cash in the late Bronze Age (1350-800 BC), and in fact complied with a weight system used across Europe. This research suggests that something very similar to our 'global market' evolved across Western Eurasia from the everyday use of scrap for cash by ordinary people some 1000 years before the beginning of classical civilizations. The results were published in Journal of Archaeological Science. This study analysed around ...

'Natural disasters,' sparked by climate change and other natural hazards, increase the triggers for violence against women and girls by boosting the means, opportunity, and underlying drivers, finds a review of the available evidence, published in the online journal BMJ Global Health. As these disasters are increasing in frequency, severity, and duration worldwide, this consequence must now be formally recognised in public health, violence prevention, and disaster management strategies, urge the researchers. Over the past two decades, 7348 ...

New research from Simon Fraser University suggests that students learning remotely become night owls but do not sleep more despite the time saved commuting, working or attending social events. The study, led by psychology professor Ralph Mistlberger, Andrea Smit and Myriam Juda, at SFU's Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Lab, compared self-reported data on sleep habits from 80 students enrolled in a 2020 summer session course at SFU with data collected from 450 students enrolled in the same course during previous summer semesters. The study results were recently published in the journal PLOS ONE. "There is a widespread belief among ...

In a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers show that although two doses of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 -- the virus that causes COVID 19 -- confers some protection for people who have received solid organ transplants, it's still not enough to enable them to dispense with masks, physical distancing and other safety measures. This is a follow-up study to an earlier one published in March in JAMA, in which the researchers reported that only 17% of the participating transplant recipients produced sufficient antibodies after just one dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine regimen. "While there was an ...

Loneliness and social isolation have been significant problems for the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic, but for cancer patients these issues were particularly acute, likely due to isolation and social distancing, according to a new UCSF study. The study, which is the first to evaluate loneliness, anxiety, depression, fatigue and other symptoms in a single group of patients, is published in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. "We found that oncology patients were experiencing a deep sense of loneliness," ...

Researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina Greensboro made a surprising finding while examining areas where sand flies rear their young: a new species of bacteria that is highly attractive to pregnant, or gravid, sand flies. The findings could advance the production of ecologically safe baits or traps to reduce sand fly populations. Sand flies are vectors for important parasitic diseases affecting people in tropical and subtropical regions in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. One of those diseases is Leishmaniasis, which generally causes ...

HOUSTON - (May 6, 2021) - A Rice University laboratory has adapted its laser-induced graphene technique to make high-resolution, micron-scale patterns of the conductive material for consumer electronics and other applications. Laser-induced graphene (LIG), introduced in 2014 by Rice chemist James Tour, involves burning away everything that isn't carbon from polymers or other materials, leaving the carbon atoms to reconfigure themselves into films of characteristic hexagonal graphene. The process employs a commercial laser that "writes" graphene patterns into surfaces that to date have included wood, paper and even food. The new iteration writes fine patterns of graphene into photoresist polymers, light-sensitive materials used in photolithography and ...

As the human body's largest organ, the skin is responsible for protecting against a wide range of possible infections on all fleshy surfaces, from head to toe. So how exactly does the skin organize its defenses against such an array of threats? A new Yale study shows that the epidermis, the outermost layer of skin, is comprised of an army of immune cells that station themselves at regular intervals across the skin's vast expanse to resist infection. When necessary, the researchers found, these immune system soldiers are able to reposition themselves to protect vulnerable areas. The study, published in the journal Nature Cell Biology, was conducted by the lab of Valentina ...

The introduction of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries has revolutionized technology as a whole, leading to major advances in consumer goods across nearly all sectors. Battery-powered devices have become ubiquitous across the world. While the availability of technology is generally a good thing, the rapid growth has led directly to several key ethical and environmental issues surrounding the use of Li-ion batteries. Current Li-ion batteries utilize significant amounts of cobalt, which in several well-documented international cases is mined using child labor in dangerous working ...

The idea of creating quantum computers has long captured the minds of researchers and experts of IT corporations. They are the most powerful computers operating according to the laws of the quantum world and capable of solving many problems more efficiently than the most productive classical supercomputers. Similar developments are underway, for example, at Google and IBM. However, many such projects require the use of cryostats. These are vessels with liquid nitrogen or compressed helium, inside which quantum processors are cooled to temperatures below -270°C. Such a low temperature is required to maintain the superconductivity effect, which is necessary for the operation ...

Today's 10,000 species of birds live in virtually every habitat on Earth, but only a handful have adaptations enabling them to hunt active prey in the dark of night. Scientists have long wondered whether theropod dinosaurs - the group that gave rise to modern birds - had similar sensory adaptations. A new study led by University of the Witwatersrand scientist, Professor Jonah Choiniere, sought to investigate how vision and hearing abilities of dinosaurs and birds compared. The international team of researchers used CT scanning and detailed measurements to collect information ...

New Haven, Conn. -- If paleontologists had a wish list, it would almost certainly include insights into two particular phenomena: how dinosaurs interacted with each other and how they began to fly. The problem is, using fossils to deduce such behavior is a tricky business. But a new, Yale-led study offers a promising entry point -- the inner ear of an ancient reptile. According to the study, the shape of the inner ear offers reliable signs as to whether an animal soared gracefully through the air, flew only fitfully, walked on the ground, or sometimes went swimming. In some cases, the inner ear even indicates whether ...

The findings, published in the journal Science today, demonstrate how integrating vertical descent and horizontal gene transfer can be used to infer the root of the bacterial tree and the nature of the last bacterial common ancestor. Bacteria comprise a very diverse domain of single-celled organisms that can be found almost everywhere on Earth. All Bacteria are related and derive from a common ancestral Bacterial cell. Until now, the shape of the bacterial tree of life and the placement of its root has been contested, but is necessary to shed light on the early evolution of life on our ...