USA Healthcare Updates

  Doctors could one day diagnose and characterise early stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) with a simple blood test thanks to a transatlantic study led by CRUK Manchester Institute Cancer Biomarker Centre researchers at the University of Manchester with a team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York published in Nature Cancer. The study focussed on a new sensitive blood test to detect, characterise and monitor Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC), the most aggressive form of lung cancer. SCLC is a fast-growing type of cancer that can rapidly spread to other parts of the body through a process called metastasis. Most small SCLC patients, representing 10-15% of all lung cancer cases, are diagnosed late with advanced metastatic disease and few survive beyond 1 to 2 years.  However, of the minority of patients with SCLC who are diagnosed very early and have surgery, 6 out of 10 can live for 5 years or more. The research team developed a new method to analyse blood samples ...

Challenges in conventional orthopedic treatments You never know when you might need to see an orthopedic surgeon. From cradle to casket, accidents and injuries are an inevitable part of life, with your joints worse off for it. Even if you can avoid accidents, wear and tear in your joints can lead to arthritis, with an estimated 150,000 knee and hip replacements performed in the US every year, predicted to triple by 2040. While the young and fit can recover from injuries with conventional treatment, we might find our joints don't respond the same way as we age. Tissue such as cartilage, ligaments, and tendons have very little capacity to regenerate and heal by themselves, which worsens as we age. We often resort to joint replacement and invasive procedures to fix our joints when our bodies cannot. Traditionally the choice is between conservative management – physical therapy, mobility aids, steroid injections, and surgical procedures, including joint replacement. Conservative measur...

  Industry leaders looking to boost staffing numbers in 2022 and beyond can no longer sit on the sidelines expecting workers to join the sector simply based on a company’s marketing efforts or increased wages. Instead, those at the helm of nursing home companies should take an active role in getting young people introduced to the sector as soon as possible — such as setting up summer internships for teenagers. That’s according to Jennifer Robinson, who ascended to the president role at SanStone Health and Rehabilitation last July. “As a company we’re making strides to start building those interactions and relationships as early as elementary ages. It’s fundamental, I believe, to help our youth feel comfortable in a skilled nursing setting,” Robinson said recently on an episode of the Skilled Nursing News Rethink  podcast .  SanStone has also bolstered its workforce by focusing on internal growth and the creation of succession plans. That planning led Robinson to the role ...

  In the medical industry, adoption of new cutting-edge technology is slow compared to other industries, such as the automotive industry. 1  Computer-assisted and robotic-assisted surgery (CAS and RAS, respectively) have been around for decades, yet a small percentage of procedures performed take advantage of the innovative solutions available on the market today. In coming years, the number of procedures using robotics and surgical navigation is predicted to increase at a double-digit rate year over year to reach over 6 million procedures by 2028. 2  This rise in CAS and RAS can be attributed to the predicted increase in the utilization of navigation systems and robotic devices as more companies launch new or next-generation systems for assisted surgery. Reasons For Slow CAS And RAS Adoption Some argue that using CAS and RAS is not worth the time and monetary investment, as using this technology often increases procedure planning time and reduces the number of procedures...

  The chief executive of Dutch company Philips has left the business in the wake of a costly recall of faulty medical devices that led to a profit warning. The health technology company said on Tuesday that Frans van Houten would be replaced by Roy Jakobs, head of its connected care division, in mid-October. Van Houten’s third term as chief executive was scheduled to end in April next year. The Amsterdam-based group said the supervisory board and van Houten “have agreed that with the end of his third term in sight, the time is right for the change in leadership”. Shares in Philips, which were trading above €41 late last year, rose 2 per cent to €19.89 on Tuesday. Van Houten’s sudden departure comes after the company had to recall or repair 5.2mn devices in June last year. Philips had found a faulty component in the devices, which were primarily used to assist the breathing of patients suffering from sleep apnoea. The Dutch group subsequently issued a profit warning in January and l...

  A new gene therapy has dramatically cut the risk of bleeding in people with the rare condition haemophilia B, experts have said. Researchers  found  that a single injection of the gene therapy, called FLT180a, removed the need for people to inject themselves weekly with clotting factors. The study was led by experts from University College London (UCL), the Royal Free hospital in London and the biotechnology company Freeline Therapeutics. Haemophilia is a rare condition that affects the blood’s ability to clot. It is usually inherited and mostly affects men. Normally, when a person cuts themselves, clotting factors mix with blood cells called platelets to make the bleeding stop. But people with haemophilia are lacking clotting factors and are at risk of heavy bleeding. About 85% of people with haemophilia  have haemophilia A , caused by a lack of the blood-clotting factor VIII, while haemophilia B is caused by a deficiency of factor IX. People with haemophilia B ne...