The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented need to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospital staff. A team of Montreal medical experts has partnered with a 3D printing company to design and distribute face shields to protect healthcare workers as they treat patients with this life-threatening disease. “Although we currently have an inventory of…
As coronavirus patients are hospitalized, it is difficult for doctors to predict which of them will require intensive care and a respirator. Many different factors come into play, some yet to be fully understood by doctors . As such, computer scientists at the University of Copenhagen are now developing computer models based on artificial intelligence…
Think about traffic flow in a city – there are stop signs, one-way streets, and traffic lights to organize movement across a widespread network. Now, imagine what would happen if you removed some of the traffic signals. Among your brain’s 86 billion neurons are the brain’s own version of stop signals: inhibitory neurons that emit…
Princeton researchers have been awarded a National Science Foundation RAPID grant to study how anxiety about COVID-19 influences how we learn and share information about the pandemic. The NSF’s Rapid Response Research (RAPID) program funds proposals that require quick-response research on disasters and unanticipated events. What the researchers find could help inform the design of…
Few novel or emerging infectious diseases have posed such vital ethical challenges so quickly and dramatically as the novel coronavirus. An early-view essay in the March-April 2020 Hastings Center Report offers guidance at a time when health care institutions and governments are desperately confronting these challenges. The authors are Prof. Lawrence O. Gostin, director of…
MADISON, Wis. — In the future, treating a concussion could be as simple as cooling the brain. That’s according to research conducted by University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers, whose findings support the treatment approach at the cellular level. “There are currently no effective medical treatments for concussions and other types of traumatic brain injuries,” says Christian…
A group of scientists, physicians, funders, and policy makers from over 70 institutions from over 30 countries have launched an international coalition to respond to COVID-19 in resource-poor settings. The COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition aims to accelerate desperately needed COVID-19 research in those areas where the virus could wreak havoc on already-fragile health systems and…
Bottom Line: An analysis of a large Swedish cohort revealed that breast density, microcalcifications, and masses are heritable features, and that breast density and microcalcifications were positively associated with a genetic predisposition to breast cancer. Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research Author: Natalie…
PATERSON, N.J. — “Back up, sir!” shouted Kenny Kiefer, a Fire Department battalion chief, his N95 mask muffling his words. “What?” replied the frail older man leaning out the doorway of a shelter and addiction treatment center, who had called 911 because he was having trouble breathing. Smiling timidly, he began to venture down the…
WASHINGTON — President Trump has repeatedly assured Americans that the federal government is holding 10,000 ventilators in reserve to ship to the hardest-hit hospitals around the nation as they struggle to keep the most critically ill patients alive. But what federal officials have neglected to mention is that an additional 2,109 lifesaving devices are unavailable…