Blog

Wearables could help detect patients struggling after traumatic event

Wearable IDs posttraumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae biomarkers: A study in JAMA Psychiatry found that lower 24-hour activity variance and changes in six (6) rest-activity measures were associated with increased pain severity and pain changes over time, respectively. These were tracked using Verily Life Sciences’ Study Watch in patients who wore the device for 21 hours or more per day for eight (8) weeks following a traumatic event, such as a serious fall or car crash.

Deep learning helps experts take advantage of ‘rare’ chance to study deadly tumor progression

Deep learning predicts aggressive brain cancer progression: Researchers at the Universities of Waterloo and Toronto (Canada) are using data from patients with glioblastoma multiforme who have declined treatment to develop a deep learning model to identify patient-specific tumor characteristics linked with tumor progression. The model produced patient-specific progression estimates based on MRI data and was validated on synthetic tumors with known parameters, researchers reported in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.

3D-printed gelatin robots could target diseased tissue:  Tiny gelatin robots will crawl through your body and cure you of disease

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have created a 3D-printed gelatin robot powered by temperature that they say could replace intravenous injections and pills to carry medicine directly to infections, blood clots or tumors and bypass healthy tissue, according to a study published in Science Robotics. “Our study shows how the manipulation of shape, dimensions and patterning of gels can tune morphology to embody a kind of intelligence for locomotion,” says Study Author David Gracias

Smartwatch being developed to detect suicidal risk:  Researchers to Develop Smartwatch Device to Address Youth Mental Health Crisis

Young people experiencing suicidal thoughts may not notice worsening symptoms, which drove researchers at Oregon Health and Science University to partner with Analog Devices to develop a smartwatch that would serve as an early detector. The watch will collect data such as heart rate variability, which has been shown to correlate with suicidal thoughts in teenagers, and users and their parents will document stressors, among other measures, to see if a biometric signal can indicate suicide risk.