Lifeboat Foundation

A sweat-powered wearable has the potential to make continuous, personalized health monitoring as effortless as wearing a Band-Aid. Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed an electronic finger wrap that monitors vital chemical levels—such as glucose, vitamins, and even drugs—present in the same fingertip sweat from which it derives its energy.

The advance was published Sept. 3 in Nature Electronics by the research group of Joseph Wang, a professor in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering at UC San Diego.

The device, which wraps snugly around the finger, draws power from an unlikely source—the fingertip’s sweat. Fingertips, despite their small size, are among the body’s most prolific sweat producers, each packed with over a thousand sweat glands. These glands can produce 100 to 1,000 times more sweat than most other areas of the body, even during rest.

Independent advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration are meeting this week to discuss the regulations, ethics and possibilities of creating an artificial womb to increase the chances that extremely premature babies would survive — and without long-term health problems.

For the study, the researchers analysed blood samples and medical information from 27,939 healthcare providers living in the US, who participated in the Women’s Health Study. The women were on average aged 55 at the study’s start (1992−1995) and followed for 30 years.

In H.G. Wells’ 1,897 science fiction novel, “The Invisible Man,” the protagonist invents a serum that makes the cells in his body transparent by controlling how they bend light.

More than 100 years later, scientists have discovered a real-life version of the substance: A commonly used food coloring can make the skin of a mouse temporarily transparent, allowing scientists to see its organs function, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Science.

The breakthrough could revolutionize biomedical research and, should it be successfully tested in humans, have wide-ranging applications in medicine and health care, such as making veins more visible to draw blood.

IT is the backbone of modern healthcare, from patient records and medication management to diagnostic equipment, networking and communication systems. These healthcare IT professionals play a pivotal role in ensuring the accuracy, security, reliability and accessibility of health data. Hospital IT professionals also ensure that the technological backbones of these hospital systems operate correctly.

They ensure that doctors have real-time access to patient information, nurses can track medication schedules accurately and communication between departments is fluid and efficient. Without this critical support, the efficiency and safety of patient care is severely compromised. Simply put, the work of hospital IT teams is vital to the smooth operation of hospitals.

It is fair and appropriate to say that hospital IT teams are unsung heroes. The nature of working in IT is to keep everything running smoothly at all times. These dedicated, talented and hardworking IT experts are often ignored unless the infrastructure is not working or has failed. Nobody notices when hospital IT systems are operating properly; the IT teams only get noticed when things go wrong, and typically receive negative attention.

Finally, the goal of any healthcare organization is to provide the best possible care to patients. Predictive AI can contribute significantly to this goal by enabling more accurate diagnoses, tailored treatment plans and earlier interventions.

From the patient’s perspective, this translates to better health outcomes, reduced hospital stays and increased satisfaction with their care. For healthcare organizations, improved patient experiences lead to higher patient retention rates, positive word-of-mouth referrals and better performance on patient satisfaction metrics, which are increasingly tied to reimbursement rates in many healthcare systems.

As we’ve explored, the benefits of predictive AI extend far beyond improved diagnostics and treatment plans. It’s a catalyst for operational excellence, financial optimization, availability of investments and long-term growth. From resource management to building an authoritative brand, predictive AI touches every aspect of the healthcare business environment.

The brain’s white matter comprises areas of the central nervous system made up of myelinated axons. Its name is derived from the pale appearance of the lipids that comprise myelin. Myelin is a segmented sheath that insulates axons, ensuring the conduction of neural signals. The loss of myelin is documented in a number of neurodegenerative pathologies, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and perhaps most notably, multiple sclerosis. As people age, demyelination becomes more likely.

Researchers have long suspected a relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and the integrity of the brain’s white matter as people age. However, a lack of specific evidence has led researchers at the National Institutes of Health to conduct a study examining the strength of this correlation, now published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To establish a correlation between cardiovascular fitness and cerebral myelination, the researchers recruited a cohort of 125 participants from age 22 to 94 years old. The cardiovascular fitness of the participants was quantified as the maximum rate of oxygen consumption, popularly and succinctly known as VO₂max. Myelin content was defined as the myelin water fraction, which the researchers estimated through an advanced multicomponent relaxometry MRI method.

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Current osteoarthritis treatment manages symptoms rather than addressing the underlying disease, but a new University of Adelaide study has shown the condition may be treatable and reversible. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Osteoarthritis is the degeneration of cartilage and other tissues in joints and is the most common form of arthritis in Australia, with one in five people over the age of 45 having the condition.

Continue reading “Gremlin 1 cells discovery offers hope to treat and reverse osteoarthritis” »

One-minute, short bursts of high-intensity interval training for 19 minutes may be more effective for improving fitness among people six months or more after a stroke than traditional, 20–30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise sessions, according to research published today in the journal Stroke.

“This study shows that people with stroke can also benefit from high-intensity interval training,” said Kevin Moncion, Ph.D., a physiotherapist who led this study as part of his doctoral studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. “With the right support and guidance, stroke survivors can safely and effectively engage in high-intensity interval training, significantly improving their overall health and recovery.”

The multi-site trial took place between September 2018 and March 2024 and included stroke survivors between six months to 5 years after a stroke. Researchers randomly grouped participants to receive either three days per week of 12 weeks of high-intensity interval training or three days per week of 12 weeks of traditional moderate exercise sessions. The high-intensity interval training protocol involved ten 1-minute intervals of high-intensity exercise, interspersed with nine 1-minute low-intensity intervals, for 19 minutes total. The moderate intensity continuous training involved 20 to 30 minutes of steady exercise at moderate intensity.