Tag: Quicknews original

Categories : General Interest Medical Research & Technology UncategorizedTags :

US Officials Discover Illegal Biological Laboratory inside Warehouse

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Louis Reed on Unsplash

Authorities in the US have shut down what seems to be an illegal biological lab in California. Hidden inside a warehouse, the lab held nearly 1000 lab mice, around 800 unidentified chemicals, refrigerators and freezers, thousands of vials of biohazardous materials such as blood, incubators, and at least 20 infectious agents, including SARS-CoV-2, HIV, and a herpes virus. The lab’s owners claim they were developing COVID testing kits.

NBC News affiliate KSEE of Fresno reported that the authorities first cottoned on to the lab when a local official noticed an illegal hosepipe connection, prompting a warrant to search the building, which was only supposed to be used for storage.

Officials first inspected the warehouse in Reedley City, Fresno County on March 3, court documents reveal. It was only on March 16 when local health officials conducted their own inspection – and they were shocked to discover the true nature of the warehouse’s contents and operations.

Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba told KSEE, “This is an unusual situation. I’ve been in government for 25 years. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Certain rooms of the warehouse were found to contain several vessels of liquid and various apparatus,” court documents read. “Fresno County Public Health staff also observed blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material.”

Chemicals and equipment were also haphazardly stored with furniture. They also discovered nearly a thousand mice; more than 175 were already dead and 773 were euthanised.

The tenant was found Prestige BioTech, which was not licensed for business in California. The company president was identified as Xiuquin Yao, whom officials questioned via email. Prestige BioTech had moved assets from a now-defunct medical technology company which had owed it money.

Prestige Biotech is accused of not having the proper permits and disposal plans for the equipment and substances, and would not explain the laboratory activity at the warehouse.

“I’ve never seen this in my 26-year career with the County of Fresno,” said Assistant Director of the Fresno County Department of Public Health Joe Prado.

“Through their statements that they were doing some testing on laboratory mice that would help them support, developing the COVID test kits that they had on-site,” Prado said.

Zieba also commented that this was only part of the investigation. “Some of our federal partners still have active investigations going. I can only speak to the building side of it,” Zieba said.

Further attempts to contact Yao for comment have been unsuccessful.

Categories : Ethics and Law Surgeries & ProceduresTags :

Plastic Surgeon Loses Medical Licence for Streaming Surgeries on TikTok

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Piron Guillaume on Unspalsh

A plastic surgeon in the US has had her medical licence permanently revoked for livestreaming parts of her surgeries and causing harm to her patients while doing so, according to the Washington Post.

Dr Katherine Grawe, who was also fined US$4500, streamed her operations with between 100 000 and 500 000 viewers at a time, speaking to the camera and on occasion answering viewers’ questions.

Three of her patients whose surgeries she had streamed experienced complications – infections, a perforated intestine and a loss of brain function – that required further medical care. She told the Washington Post that she did not believe that her livestreaming her surgeries had resulted in harm to her patients.

“Nobody wants a complication, and we never want things to go poorly, but any complications that happened with me were not because I was not paying attention,” Grawe said. “My whole goal in life is to give these people confidence and make them more beautiful. And, unfortunately, they suffered these complications, and I feel very sad for them. I would never want anything bad to happen to them.”

She specialised in cosmetic surgery for women’s breasts, as well as tummy tucks and other procedures, Grawe said. She is also being sued by the three patients who had complications. Since she started practising in 2010 with her Dr Roxy practice, she built up a social media following and eventually began livestreaming on TikTok in an effort to break down “this scary wall” between patients and doctors. Her patients all signed consent forms for their procedures to be livestreamed.

Grawe’s licence was suspended in November, and she pleaded with the board, saying that she would never livestream her surgeries again. The board was not moved by her appeal. “Dr Grawe’s social media was more important to her than the lives of the patients she treated,” the board stated.

The board had warned her in 2018 over patient confidentiality concerns in her livestreaming, and again in 2021.

Surgeries conducted in front of an audience are nothing new in medicine; medical students and clinicians alike observe procedures to learn and share knowledge. Some operating theatres are specially designed to host audiences behind windows overlooking the operating table. In the 21st century, it has become commonplace for educational livestreaming of surgeries, with considerable benefits for surgeons and increased anatomy knowledge scores.

There is also some evidence of risks to patients: one review found no increased risk of harm in urology, but this was not true for other surgical fields. Thirteen

Unlike in-person viewing of surgeries, data protection considerations must be employed as operating on a patient often may reveal identifiable information even if not livestreaming to a wide audience. Certain video conferencing platforms may not be secure, and recordings of the procedure may inadvertently be accessible to others, eg being stored on network drives, on the cloud without password protection and so on. There are secure communication apps that can be used to confidentially view and share patient data, such as TigerConnect, Medic Bleep, Forward Health and Siilo.

Categories : Ageing Mental HealthTags :

SA Retirement Home Study Reveals the Mental Health Benefits for Residents Interacting with Children

On By ModernMedia

A small South African study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE suggests that programmes promoting interaction between retirement home residents and children may provide quality of life improvements and could help manage residents’ anxiety and depression.

Among retirement home residents, previous research has shown that common mental health conditions often go undetected and untreated. These conditions, which include anxiety and depression, are typically treated with a combination of drugs and non-pharmacological interventions.

One intervention is the Eden Alternative, which identifies loneliness, helplessness and boredom as key challenges to overcome provide a higher quality of life. Evidence suggests that programmes that enable older adults to regularly interact with children may improve mental health, but these have mostly been done outside of retirement homes and few have looked at such programmes in South Africa.

To deepen the understanding of potential benefits of intergenerational interactions, Elizabeth Jane Earl and Debbie Marais of Stellenbosch University, South Africa, conducted a study at a retirement home in South Africa. Residents were able to regularly interact with children who attend an onsite preschool. Activities include playing games, doing puzzles, reading, or singing with the children.

Ten female residents were recruited and invited to complete a questionnaire evaluating their anxiety and depression levels, as well as asking them to describe their experiences with the children. Four of the participants were screened as possible having anxiety, depression, or both. The participants all took part in the same interactions, though to varying degrees of participation.

Generally, the participants reported positive experiences with the children. Analysing their responses, the researchers found that the interactions fostered a sense of purpose and belonging, fond reminiscences of their own childhood and a positive influence on mood and emotions. Recollections of childhood also sparked a sense of playfulness and positive self-evaluation. They noted that the participants differed in their preconceptions of children, which might have affected their experiences.

The authors wrote that, “Interactions with children promote a sense of belonging and purpose, evoke reminiscence, and positively influence the mental well-being of older persons.”

Based on their findings, Earl and Marais concluded that intergenerational interaction programmes may help manage the mental health conditions that are common for retirement home residents. They suggest that trained staff facilitate the interaction, preparing the children and residents, and should be voluntary, which helps preserve the residents’ agency. Running the interaction as a regular programme should help build bonds and give the residents something to look forward to. Additionally, there should be an educational aspect for the children, giving the residents a sense of purpose.

Looking to the future, they wrote that larger studies would be able to better outline the benefits of such programmes.

Categories : Healthcare Politics and Regulations Medical IndustryTags : 4 Comments

‘No Need to Panic’ Over NHI, Says Discovery CEO

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Hush Naidoo on Unsplash

On Tuesday, June 13, South Africa’s National Assembly approved the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, signing this new law into effect in the face of strong expert objections. The CEO of Discovery Health, Dr Ryan Noach, said that at the moment there is “no need to panic” over NHI, although overwhelming negativity was a major concern. . This was reflected in Quicknews polls results, with 98% of respondents expressing skepticism over NHI implementation.

Speaking in an interview with Newzroom Afrika, he responded to comments that the implementation of the NHI would devastate the private healthcare sector, which he said “sounds like a panicky reaction”.

While he did not say that NHI implementation would be without consequences, the chief executive of the country’s largest private medical scheme reminded viewers that, even with NHI as promulgated now, there was still a long way to go before there was any impact on private healthcare schemes or systems.

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla hailed the Bill: “This is one of the most revolutionary pieces of legislation presented to this house since the dawn of our democracy in 1994.” Briefing the media, he was bullish on existing issues of corruption and mis management in healthcare, saying “Those issues must be dealt with.” He pointed to a number of “good examples” of institutions.

But serious questions about the impact, implementation and feasibility of the extraordinarily expensive and far-reaching Bill have yet to be answered.

The impact of Section 33

Dr Noach noted that one important point regarding the Bill is Section 33, which “talks about the full implementation of NHI before any impact on medical schemes.” Essentially, the NHI would have to be fully in place before the healthcare and health insurance sectors would be affected.

He added that the Department of Health’s expected that NHI would take some 10 to 15 years to fully implement after its promulgation. Speaking with the experience of a scheme that provides for 4 million people, he said that it is already a huge amount of work, and the task of catering to the entire population of South Africa would be even greater.

Dr Noach notes that as for the necessary financing bill for the NHI, it is nowhere to be seen. Little said about it by the Treasury, which has only noted that it is “nascent”. As the population contributes GDP of 8.5% to healthcare, the assumption seems to be that this 8.5% would simply be redirected into a NHI scheme, which is not likely to happen.

Medical funds are contributed from medical schemes after tax, are well-protected by schemes, and as trust funds they essentially belong to the members. By law no-one can take away access to those funds: it would be like taking away people’s pension funds.

No parallel with any other country’s public health scheme

This singular NHI fund would essentially be a monopoly, and there were also no other examples of this to be found anywhere in the world. Even with the UK’s NHS, 12% of the population opts for private medical insurance. No other countries exclude by law the participation of private insurance and private funders. The annual spend would be R500bn to R700bn, and the NHI would disburse this to about 100 000 healthcare providers – assuming that the healthcare market would remain in its present form, which would likely suffer.

The biggest short term risk of the Bill would be the emigration of skilled healthcare professionals from a very negative sentiment emerging among in that grouping.

Meanwhile, those working in the public sector are battling under corruption and a lack resources while those in the private sector are extremely concerned. According to a Quicknews poll which ran for the month of June, 97.78% of the 90 respondents agreed with the South African Medical Association’s objections to the Bill.

In early 2022, a Quicknews poll had found that 81% of respondents had either considered emigrating due to the NHI Bill or were actively planning to do so.

Dr Noach says that “we are doing everything we can to calm the health professionals, partner them and work with them and reassure them, because we do believe that the outcome here could be optimistic.” A version of NHI would be welcomed.

As for the eventual fate of medical aid scheme under Section 33, once the Minister determines that NHI is fully implemented (and it is unclear how that would be determined), only those services not covered by NHI would be covered by medical aid schemes – though there is no indication at this stage of what would be covered.

An alternative approach to NHI

Before this can even be implemented, the government needs to find R200 billion to fix the public healthcare system, something which Dr Noach applauds as a priority.

He described an alternative NHI, with policy reform one in both private and public healthcare to create a “multi-funded environment”, something which Discovery’s actuarial work had found to be a better fiscal option. The NHI has many favourable qualities, which are smart and feasible, he continued.

The current monopolistic approach to NHI would create a single pot of money which would be the largest fund in the country by far – with its attendant risks.

Notes: Updated to reflect latest Quicknews poll results and to include Dr Joe Phaahla’s comments on the Bill.

Categories : Implants and Prostheses NeurologyTags : 2 Comments

‘Digital Bridging’ Enables Paraplegic Man to Walk Again

On By ModernMedia
Study participant Gert-Jan Oskam walking with the brain-spine interface. Credit: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne

A 40 year-old man, Gert-Jan Oskam, has regained the ability to walk independently after being paralysed from a spinal cord injury with the use of a new brain-spine interface. The ‘digital bridging’ technology, developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and described in Nature, consists of implants and a computer to translate brain signals of the intention to move into stimulations that move the legs accordingly..

This BSI system could be calibrated in minutes, and remained stable for one year, including use at home. The BSI enabled the participant to exert natural control over the movements of his legs to stand, walk, climb stairs and even traverse complex terrains.

In addition to the digital bridging, neurorehabilitation supported by the BSI improved neurological recovery. The participant regained the ability to walk with crutches overground even when the BSI was switched off. This digital bridge establishes a framework to restore natural control of movement after paralysis.

The system consists of a pair cortical of sensors, each an array with 64 electrodes housed in 5cm-diameter titanium discs. These discs are implanted snugly in the skull to pick up brain activity. They transmit the data wirelessly to a personalised headset, which also provides power for the sensors. The headset then sends the data to a portable processing unit (which may be carried in a backpack). Using specialised software, it uses this brain signal data to generates real-time predictions of motor intentions. These decoded intentions are translated into stimulation commands and sent on to another implant, a paddle array of 16 electrodes implanted next to the spinal cord, delivering current to the targeted dorsal root entry zones.

Neurosurgical implantation procedure

Oskam had sustained an incomplete cervical (C5/C6) spinal cord injury during a biking accident 10 years previously. He had already participated in a neurological recovery programme, the STIMO trial, which had used neurostimulation to get him to the stage where he could walk with the aid of a front-wheel walker. The neurorehabilitation from the trial also enabled him to use his hip flexors and lift his legs against gravity, but recovery had plateaued for the three years prior to his participation in the present study.

For the BSI to function, the researchers needed to locate neural features related to the intention to move the legs. To pinpoint the cortical regions associated with the intention to move, they used CT scans and magnetoencephalography. Taking into account anatomical restraints, they then decided on the positions of the implants.

Under general anaesthesia, surgeons performed a bicoronal incision of the scalp to allow two circular-shaped craniotomies over the planned locations of the left and right hemispheres. They then replaced the bone flaps with the two implantable recording devices, before closing the scalp.

The paddle lead had already been emplaced over the dorsal root entry zones of the lumbar spinal cord during the STIMO clinical trial. Its optimal positioning was identified using high-resolution structural imaging of the spine, and its final position was decided during the surgery based on electrophysiological recordings. The implantable pulse generator was inserted subcutaneously in the abdomen. Oskam was able to return home 24 hours after each procedure.