Who Will Step Up in The World of Telemedicine?
While telehealth in the hospital has not taken hold as quickly as expected in spite of efforts by telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon, other companies — many of which are in Silicon Valley — may have more success, a Bloomberg article reports.
AT&T’s electronic slippers to track patients couldn’t get much grip in the field, and Verizon was outmaneuvered by smaller competitors in offering patient-doctor teleconferencing packages, according to the article — all in an attempt to capture a quickly growing market. A recent survey by Harvard Medical School found that Medicare patients’ use of teleconferences or virtual visits increased by 28 percent a year from 2004 to 2013, with 107,000 visits in 2013, the report stated.
Perhaps technology companies are more suited to fostering tech innovations, such as wearable contact lenses that measure glucose, which Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. is working on, or the myriad health apps that Apple supports. That’s one thing a Google search on an iPhone can’t tell you.
Is That Mom?
As a child, you probably knew the answer to that in less than a second — the time it takes for children to recognize their mother’s voice, CNN reports. A recent study from Stanford University School of Medicine performed MRI brain scans on two dozen children ages 7 to 12 while they were played bite-sized clips of mothers' and strangers' voices. They found that children could ID their mom’s voice 97 percent of the time, but that wasn't all that caught their attention.
Researchers were surprised at the effect a simple familiar voice had on the brain during the MRI tests. Areas related to emotion, reward processing, facial recognition and social functioning light up "like a Christmas tree" when hearing the familiar call, CNN writes. Try getting that same experience through a text.
Many with Autism Have the Hidden Talents Certain Jobs Need
Those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder might have undiscovered talents tailor-made for certain jobs, but an NPR blog reports 40 percent of those diagnosed don’t find work. Repetitive behaviors and intense focus that some find confusing often make someone with autism spectrum disorder an ideal fit for some positions. Bank of America’s support center in Dallas has a staff of 75 — all with a form of disability. The center prints, checks and sorts incredible amounts of paperwork and those with high-functioning autism “tend to be aces at catching errors,” said Duke Roberson, manager of the Bank of America team, to NPR.
Do You Know if it’s a Heart Attack?
Nearly half of all heart attacks can be “silent,” with no symptoms, according to a new study published in the journal Circulation. The study analyzed 9,500 middle-aged adults and found that these silent killers are more common in men than women at a rate of 5.08 compared with 2.93 per 1,000 person-years. And a study on heart attacks published last year found an incredible 80 percent of all heart attacks go undiagnosed. Should they really be considered attacks? Seem more like assassination attempts.
