Doctors Rely on More than Just Data for Medical Decision Making
Many technology companies are working on artificial intelligence systems that can analyze medical data to help diagnose or treat health problems. Such systems raise the question of whether this kind of technology can perform as well as a human doctor. A new study from MIT computer scientists suggests that human doctors provide a dimension that, as yet, artificial intelligence does not.
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App, Brief Intervention may be Lifesaver for Suicidal Teens
A troubled teenager is hospitalized with suicidal thoughts. The patient is diagnosed, medicated, and counseled by a team of experts. The teen is sent home a few days later, and the following week the parent finds the child's bedsheets fashioned into a noose. The scenario is tragically common in the field of psychiatry, which has long struggled to develop strategies to help adolescents cope with recurring thoughts of suicide in the weeks after leaving the hospital.
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Wearable Device can Predict Older Adults' Risk of Falling
Every year, more than one in three individuals aged 65 and older will experience a fall. Falls are the most common cause of injury in older adults, and can create ongoing health problems. But treatment and awareness of falling usually happens after a fall has already occurred. As a part of the NIH's Women's Health Initiative, researchers wanted to see if they could predict an individual's risk of falling so that preventative measures could be taken to reduce this risk.
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Research Finds Three Major Failings in some Apps Used for the Diagnosis of Skin Cancer
In the scramble to bring successful apps for the diagnosis of skin cancer to market there is a concern that a lack of testing is risking public safety, according to research led by the University of Birmingham. The research, outlined at the British Association of Dermatologists' Annual Meeting in Edinburgh, reviewed the medical literature on skin cancer apps to explore the number of apps on the market, ascertain how accurate they are, and what the benefits and limitations of these technological solutions are.
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Researchers Apply Computing Power to Track the Spread of Cancer
Princeton researchers have developed a new computational method that increases the ability to track the spread of cancer cells from one part of the body to another. This migration of cells can lead to metastatic disease, which causes about 90 percent of cancer deaths from solid tumors - masses of cells that grow in organs such as the breast, prostate or colon.
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Rapid Zika Detection Test Uses Smartphone Technology
The Zika virus, which continues to cause microcephaly and other neurological complications in infants whose mothers were infected during pregnancy, remains a public health concern. Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital are working to develop a new way to rapidly and accurately diagnose Zika using mobile health technologies that could potentially be deployed in resource-limited settings.
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AI and Radar Technologies could Help Diabetics Manage their Disease
People with diabetes could be able to monitor their blood sugar without drawing blood using a system now being developed at the University of Waterloo. In a recent study, researchers combined radar and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to detect changes in glucose levels without the need for painful finger pricks several times a day.
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