Here’s something you might not want to know. Most surgeons learn how to perform surgery on real live patients. Sure, they start off as students practicing on cadavers but mostly, they learn by performing actual surgical procedures under the guidance of senior surgeons.
However, researchers are looking to technology to change this learning pattern and have created virtual patient simulators for residents to practice on before using a scalpel on real patients.
Clinical trials are currently being held at the Stanford University School of Medicine to test the effectiveness of this virtual reality training.
They are integrating data from patient’s pre-op CT scans …read more

Does Twitter make you dumber?
According to one psychologist, yes it does.
Dr. Tracy Alloway from University of Stirling in Scotland, who studies working memory, recently told an audience at the British Science Festival that some social-media behaviors are much more conducive to developing working memory than others.
In her opinion Facebook is good while twitter is not.
In fact, she sees microblogging activities such as twitter as reducing a person’s attention span.
On the other hand, Alloway sees participating in facebook as enhancing intelligence.
Interesting but I’m not buying it. To me, both social media behaviours can be as intelligence enhancing or intelligence numbing as …read more

Interested in finding out where the latest salmonella or H1N1 Flu outbreak is?
Want to know what diseases are bugging your hometown or favorite vacation spot before you get there?
Now you can do so not only in the internet with the user friendly HealthMap website but also with the recently released Outbreaks Near Me iPhone App.
The iPhone app is hooked into the HealthMap site and every time you search of information, the HealthMap database is searched and the info is downloaded to your phone in map form.
While the H1N1 flu takes center stage, in all, there are nearly 100 diseases listed …read more

Move Over Cluedo…Fluedo has arrived
Trust the British to come up with a unique, even bizarre, way to combat Swine H1N1 flu.
Most governments are focusing on helplines, information on anti-viral drugs, and specialized clinics.
But British health chiefs have looked outside the square and created The Flu Pandemic Game.
It’s a role-playing game that simulates ‘the effects of a flu pandemic on staffing in an imaginary group of small businesses’ through the role of the dice and chance cards.
The players (3 to 60) assume staff identities at imaginary workplaces. The game has 15 rounds that represent 15 weeks of work. The players learn …read more

Japanese scientists, always at the forefront of robotic innovation, created a robot suit that they say improves mobility and also allow the wearer to carry more.
The hybrid assistance limb, otherwise known as HAL, was developed with the goal of helping the injured and the weak get around.
Made by Japanese robotics company Cyberdyne, the exoskeleton is a 10 kilogram (22 pound) machine that belts at the waist and has a battery and computer system at the back.
HAL’s bio-electrical sensors, which are attached to the body, are able to capture electromyogram signals on the person’s skin control the way someone walks.
As a …read more

Are you addicted to the internet?
Not sure?
Well, according to reSTART, the first US rehab center for Internet Addiction,  if you have  5 or more of the following signs and symptoms, the answer is probably yes
So, go ahead and check it out. Think about your internet and computer use and then answer yes or no to the following:

   Failed attempts to control behavior
 Heightened sense of euphoria while involved in computer and internet activities
Craving more time on the computer and internet
Neglecting friends and family
Feeling restless when not engaged in the activity
Being dishonest with others
Computer use interfering with job/school performance
Feeling guilty, ashamed, anxious, …read more

Last month, over 350 medical professionals, computer experts and entrepreneurs gathered for the fifth annual Games for Health Conference in Boston and discussed out topics such as how computer games could boost patients’ health.
There were even sessions that specifically focused on the relationship between gaming and cognitive health and whether games can help change behavior and/or improve balance for people with neurodegenerative diseases.
Me – I’m all for the idea that games can help maintain cognitive health as well as possibly improve memory.
And with that in mind, I’d like to introduce you to my latest find – Chocolatier: Decadence by Design.
Seriously, …read more

Well, here’s your chance…
Have a go at Open Heart Surgery. Definitely not for the faint of heart. With a simulated heart monitor beeping away, the pressure is on to perform. There’s a choice of three levels – intern, surgeon, and specialist. I should have chosen intern but I wanted to be the top gun. Bad move. As a specialist, I killed the patient within seconds. I was advised to ‘call my lawyer’.
Or maybe something a little less challenging – performing open heart surgery on a stuffed bunny . Easy you think! Think again! You have 60 seconds to shock the heart, …read more

It’s not all textbooks and anatomy labs for medical students these days. Advances in computer technology has opened up many new ways to help these future doctors.
Take for example this pilot study by the University of Florida, the Medical School of Georgia, and a couple of other universities.
They are using a ‘mixed reality human’ consisting of a life size computer avatar on a flat screen TV and a mannequin with a prosthetic breast.
Her name is Amanda Jones and her job is to help teach students how to perform breast exams, an intimate procedure that once could only be learned ‘on …read more

It looks like a real heart. It acts like a real heart. But in reality, it’s only a  super-realistic computer model.
Created by a team of doctors from the Heart Hospital in London, this virtual heart is perfect for medical students to get indepth knowledge of the heart’s anatomy.
It sure beats staring at a dull anatomy textbook or static model.
It can be viewed from both inside and out, rotated around any axis with a simple flick or click of the computer mouse or keyboard.  It can even be made to simulate irregular heart beats and mirror the effects of various conditions …read more