healthcare technology

Use of eHealth technologies is common in the multiple sclerosis (MS) population and facilitates the exchange of health care information with providers, according to a recent study.

However, use of eHealth and mHealth technologies varies substantially with sociodemographic factors, and health care providers need to be aware of these disparities as these technologies are increasingly leveraged in health care settings.

Researchers surveyed participants in the North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS) Registry in 2017 about their use of eHealth technologies using questions adapted from the Health Information National Trends (HINTS) 4 Cycle 4 survey. They found:

• Of 6,423 participants included in the analysis, most participants were female, and white, with a mean (SD) age of 59.7 (10.1) years.
• Overall, 5,408 (84.2%) had exchanged medical information with a health professional most often using a secure online portal (1,839, 28.6%), followed by email (1,327, 20.7%).
• Of the 5,529 smartphone and tablet users, 2,556 (46.2%) used an mHealth app.

read original at https://www.mdedge.com/clinicalneurologynews/clinical-edge/summary/multiple-sclerosis/use-ehealth-technologies-common-ms

On December 5, 2011, Andrew Meas wiggled his toes for the first time since a motorcycle accident four years earlier paralyzed him from the chest down. Within a week, he was beginning to stand. Meas’s remarkable (albeit partial) recovery comes courtesy of a groundbreaking use of an electrode array implanted over his spinal cord. 

For decades, researchers have been seeking ways to help the millions of people with spinal cord injuries regain control of their limbs, with frustratingly little success. The new device provides a rare glimmer of hope. Scientists at the University of Louisville’s Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, where Meas and three other patients received their im­plants, speculate that the stimu­lation may be reawakening connections between the brain and the body. “There’s residual circuitry that we can recover that no one realized was possible to do,” says Reggie Edgerton, director of the Neuromuscular Research Laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles. “We were shocked.” 

Some of the benefits, such as better bowel and bladder control and improved blood pressure, remain even when the device is switched off. Electrical stimulation isn’t a cure, of course. The patients still can’t walk. And the stimulation must be customized for each individual, a time-consuming process. But it’s an enormous advance nonetheless. Says Edgerton, “It opens up a whole new mechanism of recovery.” 

more at http://www.popsci.com/article/science/how-it-works-system-reverses-paralysis

A protein in the central nervous system could provide a useful tool for diagnosing concussions and allow doctors to assess when it is safe for athletes to return to competition.

Swedish researchers have found, through examining studies in sporting injuries, that a protein in the central nervous system could provide a tool for diagnosing concussions. They published their results in JAMA Neurology.

Previous studies have measured changes in the levels of protein biomarkers present in cerebrospinal fluid or blood in athletes who participate in contact sports.

Certain biomarkers - neuron-specific enolase, S-100 calcium-binding protein B, neurofilament light and total tau (T-tau) - have been shown to increase in boxers, correlating with the number and severity of head blows received. After a rest from boxing, these biomarkers return to normal levels.

The U.S. military has chosen two universities to lead a program to develop brain implants to restore memory to veterans who have suffered brain injuries, officials said at a news conference Tuesday.

The Restoring Active Memory (RAM) program is a project of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch of the U.S. Department of Defense charged with developing next-generation technologies for the military. The initiative aims to develop wireless, fully implantable "neuroprosthetics" for service members suffering from traumatic brain injury or illness, DARPA Program Manager Justin Sanchez said at the news conference.

DARPA has selected two teams of researchers to develop the implants: The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.