Monthly Archives: December 2018

Radiation treatment timing in head and neck cancers

Man Receiving Radiotherapy for Cancer Treatment

Time is precious, as is the human life. Head and neck cancer (HNC) is a fatal disease and if not managed promptly, can lead to disastrous outcomes. A contemporary review published in Cancers of the Head and Neck, discusses the importance of overall radiation treatment time in the management of head and neck cancers and addresses implications of delays in treatment outcomes, barriers to shorter treatment times and strategies to mitigate these problems.

Health Medicine

Global Forum on Bioethics in Research holds its annual meeting on the ethics of data and sample sharing

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The Global Forum on Bioethics in Research (GFBR) was founded in 1999 as a global platform for debate on ethical issues pertaining to international health research. Each meeting centres on a contemporary theme of significance for global health research. The GFBR held its annual meeting on 13-14 November 2018 in South Africa on the theme “The ethics of data sharing and biobanking in health research”. 95 participants from 35 countries attended the meeting.

Medicine

Home treatment of Parkinson’s disease through remotely supervised brain stimulation

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An exciting therapy option for Parkinson’s disease is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a type of noninvasive brain stimulation. In a recently published study in Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, Dr. Leigh Charvet and colleagues trialed this stimulation method in home settings with remote supervision from technicians. They found compliance to be extremely high with patients appreciating the opportunity to access treatment from home. Further insights into tDCS application for motor rehabilitation are and will be published in Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation’s thematic series.

Health Medicine

Global Patient and Public Involvement Network: The vision and mission

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Patient and public involvement in health research is now happening across the world1,2,3. Not only do patients and the public have a right to be involved in decisions that impact upon them, but involving patients and public in research leads to better research and better outcomes. The time is right to bring this knowledge and expertise together to create a world where patient and public involvement in health research is the norm.

Health Medical Evidence Medicine

The psychological impact of intensive care

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A period in intensive care is known to negatively affect patients’ long term physical, cognitive and psychiatric health, in what’s known as post-intensive care syndrome. Researchers from the University of Oxford sought to reveal the impact of an ICU stay on patients’ mental health by surveying UK ICU survivors 3 and 12 months after discharge. Dr Rob Hatch, co-author of the study published in Critical Care, describes their findings.

Health Medicine

Natural Killer cells as key regulators of broadly neutralizing antibody responses during HIV-1 infection

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December 1st was World AIDS Day. To mark the occasion we invited a series of blogs by authors and editors from Retrovirology and AIDS Research and Therapy to talk about the latest research into the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS. Continuing the discussion, Jelle van Schooten and Mathieu Claireaux tell us about the work being done to better understand the role of the innate immune system in developing acquired immunity, paving the way for HIV-1 vaccines.

Medicine

Backstory podcast on the UK’s Mental Health Act review with Sir Simon Wessely

In this episode of ‘Backstory’ we talk with Sir Simon Wessely, Regius Professor of Psychiatry at King’s College London, about the review of the UK’s Mental Health Act. In 2017, Simon was asked by Prime Minister Theresa May to lead the review of the Mental Health Act, and he shares with us some insights into the challenges in creating a more compassionate mental healthcare system in the UK and the process of reviewing the Mental Health Act.

Medicine