South Africa launches AIDS vaccine clinical trials.South Africa,announced the launch of clinical trials of the first AIDS vaccines created by a developing country with assistance from the National Institute of Health,US on Monday.

The field of AIDS vaccine research is so filled with disappointments some activists are questioning the wisdom of continuing such expensive investments, saying the money might be better spent on prevention and education.

Will it be a new begining in management of AIDS disease..for more information..

This year, the 20th for Best Hospitals, institutions are ranked in 16 specialties, from cancer and heart disease to respiratory disorders and urology. A total of 4,861 hospitals were considered; 174, or less than 0.4 percent of the total, were ranked in even one of the 16 specialties.

America’s Best Hospitals, an annual ranking of the country’s elite medical centers, is a tool for patients who need medical sophistication most facilities cannot offer. Unlike other rankings and ratings that grade hospitals on how well they execute routine procedures like outpatient hernia repair or manage common conditions like low-grade heart failure, the U.S. News approach looks at how well a hospital handles complex and demanding situations—replacing an 85-year-old man’s heart valve, diagnosing and treating a spinal tumor, and dealing with inflammatory bowel disease, to name three examples. High-stakes medicine.

For more information ….

There is considerable interest in development of this new technology.But,innovation is the key in development of new applications in health care.

In a report published by Inter American Development Bank-Innovation Note_

Innovation is just invention unless it enjoys practical application; it has to work in reality to have an effect. Technology alone does not drive change; rather, innovation in management and other processes together drive the adoption of beneficial technologies for good. Those projects that have achieved particular success or scale have done it through an integrated, locally driven initiative, with a high level of political support, good public-private partnerships, and a pervasive communication strategy along the value chain.

How will it change medicine today is a subjet of debate.

NASA first pioneered the concept of telehealth when sending across astronauts to space,today the applications of telehealth have trickled down to our everyday life as Personalized Medicine

Personalized Medicine

With the advent of miniaturized devices and wireless communication, the way in which doctors care for patients has changed dramatically. The next decade will bring a new realm of precision and efficiency to the way information is transmitted and interpreted and thus the way medicine is practiced. Empowering clinicians to make decisions at the “point-of-care” has the potential to significantly impact health care delivery and to address the challenges of health disparities by providing diagnostic capabilities to communities with limited access to large healthcare facilities. The success of such a shift relies on the development of portable diagnostic and monitoring devices for near-patient testing that, when combined with suitable telehealth technologies, effectively empower clinicians or other providers to make decisions at the point-of-care. Results are immediate as samples do not have to be shipped off-site to a centralized laboratory. This is further complemented by their ability to carry out multiple assays such as blood gases, electrolytes, chemistries, coagulation, hematology, glucose, and cardiac markers simultaneously. The NIBIB has contributed to advances in this area by funding the development of sensor and microsystem technologies for point-of-care testing. These instruments combine multiple analytical functions into self-contained, portable devices that can be used by non-specialists to detect and diagnose disease, and can enable the selection of optimal therapies through patient screening and monitoring of a patient’s response to a chosen treatment. These technological advances limit the reliance on submission of samples to centralized laboratories, with results available within minutes as opposed to several hours or days, enabling clinicians to make decisions regarding treatment at a time when these decisions can have the greatest impact. In specific cases, sensors and microsystems can enable patient self-testing, and can contribute to the realization of personalized medicine by creating a link between the diagnosis of disease and the ability to tailor therapeutics to the individual.

http://www.techgadgets.in

As health care of an individual is always changing,and mobile phones are now a part of our life,it is but natural,applications about health management on mobile phones become a part of our lives in upcoming years.

Mayo clinic is now forging on its Mobile startegy,in a interview on Mobile health news-Scott Eising discuss about Mayo Clinic group Mobile road map

There are two strategies there — we have a referring physician portal today that is a secure portal where a physician who wants to refer a patient to Mayo logs in, fill out a profile on that patient, submit it and upload things like medical records that may be necessary for the referral. The patient may or may not end up coming to Mayo, but if they do, then the portal is where we refer back to that referring physician the status of the visit and the opinion or the outcome of it. So we are doing some user research right now and asking that group which aspects of that referring physician portal might be of more value if they were accessible via mobile devices. Certainly, you could imagine an alert or a reminder sent to the referring physician when new information was pushed to their portal. Maybe we could provide them some sort of preview into that information via mobile device or a way to put in a simple request for a referral from their device. So, we have a user survey out to that group so we can find out how we can better optimize that experience for those users. Obvioulsy being a tertiary destination medical center, referrals are a big part of where our patient base comes from. They are looking for that specialty expertise that Mayo provides and that they can’t get in their community. Referring physicians are an important partner for bringing patients to Mayo or for patients finding their way to Mayo.

published on Apr 16th 2009 by economist-

Developing countries are using mobile phones to leapfrog to personalised medicine

In co-operation with MTN, a big mobile carrier in South Africa, American academics and several other innovative groups, iTeach has launched Project Masiluleke. Using a form of text messaging similar to SMS, this sends out up to a million short messages a day, encouraging the recipients in their local language to contact the national AIDS hot line. The response has been spectacular, especially among young men who have proved hard to reach in the past. When people ring, they are often told about clinics outside their immediate community; in future they will be offered special test kits they can use at home.

Similarly,UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION

MHEALTH ALLIANCE ACTIVITY

In keeping with the rapid evolution of the mHealth industry, the Alliance will maintain a broad vision. Its initial activity will focus on thought leadership, global advocacy and collaboration, and implementation. The Alliance will provide:

• Thought leadership to the mHealth sector through: rigorous market research on the size and dynamics of the global mHealth market; presenting the “opportunity for mHealth” by commissioning white papers; undertaking regional conferences and impact studies, and consulting.

• Global advocacy and collaboration in the areas of policies, regulations, interoperability, best practices and support of relevant mobile and related health standards.

• Partnership for selective implementations in areas such as project design and support, project funding, and driving the public-private collaboration necessary for successful mHealth projects to be nationally and regionally scaled.

Can Mobile technologies really change medicine!

The current WHO phase of pandemic alert is 6.

In nature, influenza viruses circulate continuously among animals, especially birds. Even though such viruses might theoretically develop into pandemic viruses, in Phase 1 no viruses circulating among animals have been reported to cause infections in humans.

In Phase 2 an animal influenza virus circulating among domesticated or wild animals is known to have caused infection in humans, and is therefore considered a potential pandemic threat.

In Phase 3, an animal or human-animal influenza reassortant virus has caused sporadic cases or small clusters of disease in people, but has not resulted in human-to-human transmission sufficient to sustain community-level outbreaks. Limited human-to-human transmission may occur under some circumstances, for example, when there is close contact between an infected person and an unprotected caregiver. However, limited transmission under such restricted circumstances does not indicate that the virus has gained the level of transmissibility among humans necessary to cause a pandemic.

Phase 4 is characterized by verified human-to-human transmission of an animal or human-animal influenza reassortant virus able to cause “community-level outbreaks.” The ability to cause sustained disease outbreaks in a community marks a significant upwards shift in the risk for a pandemic. Any country that suspects or has verified such an event should urgently consult with WHO so that the situation can be jointly assessed and a decision made by the affected country if implementation of a rapid pandemic containment operation is warranted. Phase 4 indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a forgone conclusion.

Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.

Phase 6, the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5. Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.

During the post-peak period, pandemic disease levels in most countries with adequate surveillance will have dropped below peak observed levels. The post-peak period signifies that pandemic activity appears to be decreasing; however, it is uncertain if additional waves will occur and countries will need to be prepared for a second wave.

Previous pandemics have been characterized by waves of activity spread over months. Once the level of disease activity drops, a critical communications task will be to balance this information with the possibility of another wave. Pandemic waves can be separated by months and an immediate “at-ease” signal may be premature.

In the post-pandemic period, influenza disease activity will have returned to levels normally seen for seasonal influenza. It is expected that the pandemic virus will behave as a seasonal influenza A virus. At this stage, it is important to maintain surveillance and update pandemic preparedness and response plans accordingly. An intensive phase of recovery and evaluation may be required.

Source:WHO GLOBAL ALERT RESPONSE

US Department of Health and Human Services  has created a 2009 Flu Prevention PSA Contest,visit the contest site for more details.

Create a video Public Service Announcement with the message of preventing or dealing with the flu, post it on YouTube, and you could win a $2,500 cash prize!

Devices which are tethered to a single system will be like an Island,but devices which can send information across electronic health record portals,could indeed change the way medicine is practised in the next couple of years,

In a recent forecast by published in Computer world – ABI Research forecasts that Wi-Fi-enabled health care products will hit sales of nearly $5 billion globally in 2014, up 70% from 2009.

“compris[ing] [of] consciously constructed opportunities for learning involving some form of communication designed to improve health literacy, including improving knowledge, and developing life skills which are conducive to individual and community health.”

Fast forward to 2009,internet has played an very important role in shaping of our lives-either in commerce,arts or even in science.The growth of internet has lead to creation of several interesting websites like (patientslikeme.com)-which enable patients with similar disease to discuss about their health.

According to the founders of the website:Our goal is to enable people to share information that can improve the lives of patients diagnosed with life-changing diseases. To make this happen, we’ve created a platform for collecting and sharing real world, outcome-based patient data (patientslikeme.com) and are establishing data-sharing partnerships with doctors, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, research organizations, and non-profits.

The changing needs of the population,growth of technology needs to addressed specifically by governmental organizations,in order to enable them to meet the needs of not only healthy people but also patients with newly diagnosed disease and also chronically ill subjects.

Self help  needs like when In the context of health promotion, actions taken by lay persons (i.e. non health professionals) to mobilize the necessary resources to promote, maintain or restore the health of individuals or communities will definetely help in growth of patient communities and help in better health resources management.Adopting newer technologies and also using tools like Internet,Mobile technologies and Wireless technologies are some of the methods of developing self help techniques.

Ref:WHO Documents [pdf]

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