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 into a virtual patient simulator. The simulator consists of a endoscopic camera and mannequin head that is attached to a touch-feedback device. As the ‘surgeon’ manipulates the endoscope through the nose of the ‘patient’, he or she can watch what’s happening on the computer screen about the ‘patient’.

The computer is programmed to determine just how much resistance the ‘surgeon’ needs to apply to the endoscope throughout it’s journey through the sinus cavity.

No blood, no gore, and more importantly, no real patient to practice on.

Sounds promising.

Post from: Healthbolt

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 you choose. It all depends on what you do with them and who you are following.

What do you think?

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

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 on the database and all you need to do is select the disease you are interested in finding out about.

It’s as easy as the push of a button, either via computer or via iPhone.

The Outbreaks Near Me App will also send out alerts whenever new outbreaks occur in the user’s area, and if you are travelling, will send alerts informing you that you have just entered an area where disease activity has been reported.

Plus you can also send in reports, including photographs, to HealthMap, who will review and then include them on it’s world map as appropriate

Check it out. It’s free.

Post from: Healthbolt

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 whether or not they will go down with the flu through the roll of the dice, with certain sets of numbers indicating their fates. As the rounds progress, the risk increases.

But it’s not all fun. At the end of each round, surviving players are asked to discuss the impact that the flu pandemic is having on their ‘imaginary’ workplaces.

The game, by the way, comes with this government health warning:

‘Some people may find it disturbing to play using details of their own organisation.
The game is a simulation and has no effect on subsequent events, but it can seem a little like fortune telling.’

By the way, do not expect the be seeing this game any time soon at the local Toys r Us.

It’s not for sale.

It was designed for use simply as a training resource for local businesses and voluntary organizations to develop their own business continuity plans.

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

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 result, a HAL suited individual will be able to walk up to speeds of 1.8 kilometres an hour.

Interested?

Well, you can rent your own suit from Cyberdyne for  220,000 yen ($2,200) a month.

Post from: Healthbolt

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, or depressed as a result of behavior
•   Changes in sleep patterns
• Physical changes such as weight gain or loss, backaches, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome
• Withdrawing from other pleasurable activities

How’d you score?

I’m hoping it was less than 5 and better still maybe only 1 or 2.

Anyone one with 5 or more, though, might want to reconsider their time in cyberspace and the computer. Just switch it off and walk away.

And if you can’t do that, there is always reSTART program at Heavensfield Retreat Center in Fall City, Washington, where for $14,500 you can spend 45 days of dis-connect

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

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, what could be more fun than spending an hour or two pretending that you are a chocolatier building up a chocolate empire from scratch. There’s travel, there’s intrigue, and there’s recipes. And not a single ounce of chocolate will get near your waist line.

Decadence by Design is the third in a series of Chocolatier games available. You can play them free online, download free and play for an hour, or purchase and be a chocolatier for the rest of your life. The choice is yours.

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

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, make an incision, do some intraoperative tasks and then suture the poor bunny back up.  I tried but the poor bunny did not survive.

Don’t know about you, but my dream of being a (successful) surgeon was fading away…

But then I found Heart Operations and my faith in my abilities was restored. This is heart surgery without pressure. I soon discovered I had a hidden talent for transplant, bypass, hole in
the heart, and valve replacement surgery. In other words, no one died.

So what are you waiting for?

Gown up, grab your scalpel and start cutting…

It’s a guaranteed fun-filled (not to mention educational) way for the whole family to kill time together.

All the fun with none of the blood and gore…

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

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 the job’. But now, thanks to Amanda, students can not only learn the correct examination procedure in a laboratory setting. But it’s not all about the physical.

Amanda talks – via a voice simulation system – and will maintain a conversation with the examiner, providing students with an opportunity to develop good doctor-patient communication skills.

The conversation is all unscripted. The student must draw Amanda’s medical history from her, asking questions and listening to her responses and concerns. And just like a real exam, this conversation takes place while the physical examination is being done.

And Amanda will know if the breast examination is not being done correctly. Sensors within the prosthetic breast provide pressure information depicted by colors on the virtual computer breast. The colors will change depending on whether or not the correct position is being palpated or not.

Amanda is also programmed to exhibit abnormal breast changes which the student should be able to discover through correct palpating and question asking techniques.

Definitely a win-win learning model for both medical students and their future patients.

(image source)

Post from: Healthbolt

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 and diseases.

(source and image)

Post from: Healthbolt