I did not post last week because of a Chemistry EMPA practical and plan to not post this week either for similar reasons!
With the increased workload at this time of year and the upcoming crucial A Level exams I plan to end my blog (most probably permanently) after over a year of posts!
Good luck to anyone else attempting to get into medical school, I hope the exams go well and results day is a good day!
Tuesday 23 April 2013
Tuesday 9 April 2013
The 'five-second rule'
A light hearted post this week which loosely relates to health! Have you ever asked yourself is the 'five-second rule' really true? Surely it can't be true...
For those of you that don't know the theory is this: any food that is dropped on the floor is safe to eat as long as it is picked up within five-seconds.
Three specimens were collected, each was then imprinted individually on a culture plate and then incubated for several days.
The results were as follows;
1.) Pizza dropped on the kitchen floor - culture plate covered in bacteria, even some fecal bacteria present.
2.) Apple dropped on the street - Again lots of bacteria present on the culture plate.
3.) Buttered toast dropped on the carpet - Most bacteria of all the specimens!
Furthermore similar results were also recorded for food that touched surfaces for effectively zero seconds.
The conclusion of the experiment as you may have expected was this, (regardless of how long you drop it for) 'if you drop it, chuck it!'
A short video clip, which includes images of the bacteria samples can be found here.
For those of you that don't know the theory is this: any food that is dropped on the floor is safe to eat as long as it is picked up within five-seconds.
Three specimens were collected, each was then imprinted individually on a culture plate and then incubated for several days.
The results were as follows;
1.) Pizza dropped on the kitchen floor - culture plate covered in bacteria, even some fecal bacteria present.
2.) Apple dropped on the street - Again lots of bacteria present on the culture plate.
3.) Buttered toast dropped on the carpet - Most bacteria of all the specimens!
Furthermore similar results were also recorded for food that touched surfaces for effectively zero seconds.
The conclusion of the experiment as you may have expected was this, (regardless of how long you drop it for) 'if you drop it, chuck it!'
A short video clip, which includes images of the bacteria samples can be found here.
Tuesday 2 April 2013
April Fools
Yesterday marked the first day of the new NHS structures, GP-led groups (clinical commissioning groups) have taken control of local budgets and a new board, NHS England, has started overseeing the day-day running of services.
The NHS is facing a crucial period, for example, it needs to rebuild public confidence after the recent report into the Stafford Hospital scandal.
Bringing clinical expertise to the forefront of decision making will help however structural changes alone will not suffice.
Savings still need to be made and targets met but this must not get in the way of the delivery of 'compassionate care' which has been mentioned so often in recent weeks.
Finally not everyone agrees with the changes, in particular there are fears surrounding the increased role of the private sector. Will this not lead to fragmented patient care and miscommunication rather than better, compassionate care?
The NHS is facing a crucial period, for example, it needs to rebuild public confidence after the recent report into the Stafford Hospital scandal.
Bringing clinical expertise to the forefront of decision making will help however structural changes alone will not suffice.
Savings still need to be made and targets met but this must not get in the way of the delivery of 'compassionate care' which has been mentioned so often in recent weeks.
Finally not everyone agrees with the changes, in particular there are fears surrounding the increased role of the private sector. Will this not lead to fragmented patient care and miscommunication rather than better, compassionate care?
Wednesday 20 March 2013
Three-person IVF
I was unable to post yesterday as I was playing in the Roslyn Park 7s Tournament and will only be able to post briefly today as I am very busy preparing route cards etc for my D of E Expedition next week so apologises for that!
Three-person IVF features in the news this week as it has done before, in fact it was something I posted about in September 2012.
The time has come round for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to advise ministers and report on the public consultation they carried out looking into techniques to try and prevent serious and often fatal mitochondrial diseases.
As well as the potential moral and ethical issues surrounding the treatment that I mentioned before one potential problem is that eggs with abnormal mitochondria may have other unknown problems in their nucleus.
If you want to find out more refer to this BBC health article!
Three-person IVF features in the news this week as it has done before, in fact it was something I posted about in September 2012.
The time has come round for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to advise ministers and report on the public consultation they carried out looking into techniques to try and prevent serious and often fatal mitochondrial diseases.
As well as the potential moral and ethical issues surrounding the treatment that I mentioned before one potential problem is that eggs with abnormal mitochondria may have other unknown problems in their nucleus.
If you want to find out more refer to this BBC health article!
Tuesday 12 March 2013
fMRI - A more balanced perspective
In November 2012 BBC Panorama showed a research team using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to detect hidden awareness amongst patients who may be deemed vegetative by observational assessments. This is something I consequently wrote about here.
The programme claimed 20% of patients in a vegetative state show cognitive responses to fMRI however this isn’t strictly true. In addition, around one in five normal volunteers cannot generate fMRI activity on motor imagery tasks so negative results in patients do not necessarily indicate a lack of awareness.
One thing which wasn’t stressed in the programme was the important difference between patients in a ‘vegetative state’ and those who are ‘minimally conscious’. ‘Patients in a vegetative state have no discernible awareness of self and no cognitive interaction with their environment.’ Whereas patients in a minimally conscious state ‘show evidence of interaction through localising or discriminating behaviours although these interactions occur inconsistently.’
The two patients shown in the programme responding to the fMRI techniques may have been minimally conscious rather than vegetative. The reason for this being that one of the patients was filmed responding to a question from his mother by raising his thumb and the other seemed to turn his head purposefully in response to having his earphones put on.
More than 40% of patients in a minimally conscious state are misdiagnosed initially as being in a vegetative state. Currently in the UK the Wessex Head Injury Matrix (WHIM) and the sensory modality rehabilitation assessment technique (SMART) are used to assess disorders of consciousness.
So again, to finish I ask the same question; In the future will scans such as the one using fMRI be used in addition to observational assessments to decide if someone is in a vegetative state?
The possibility that fMRI might open up potential avenues of interaction with patients with these conditions still exists and the findings are still important however the way in which the tests should be delivered and interpreting the findings still needs to be determined and may not be as significant as originally thought.
Source: Student BMJ
The programme claimed 20% of patients in a vegetative state show cognitive responses to fMRI however this isn’t strictly true. In addition, around one in five normal volunteers cannot generate fMRI activity on motor imagery tasks so negative results in patients do not necessarily indicate a lack of awareness.
One thing which wasn’t stressed in the programme was the important difference between patients in a ‘vegetative state’ and those who are ‘minimally conscious’. ‘Patients in a vegetative state have no discernible awareness of self and no cognitive interaction with their environment.’ Whereas patients in a minimally conscious state ‘show evidence of interaction through localising or discriminating behaviours although these interactions occur inconsistently.’
The two patients shown in the programme responding to the fMRI techniques may have been minimally conscious rather than vegetative. The reason for this being that one of the patients was filmed responding to a question from his mother by raising his thumb and the other seemed to turn his head purposefully in response to having his earphones put on.
More than 40% of patients in a minimally conscious state are misdiagnosed initially as being in a vegetative state. Currently in the UK the Wessex Head Injury Matrix (WHIM) and the sensory modality rehabilitation assessment technique (SMART) are used to assess disorders of consciousness.
So again, to finish I ask the same question; In the future will scans such as the one using fMRI be used in addition to observational assessments to decide if someone is in a vegetative state?
The possibility that fMRI might open up potential avenues of interaction with patients with these conditions still exists and the findings are still important however the way in which the tests should be delivered and interpreting the findings still needs to be determined and may not be as significant as originally thought.
Source: Student BMJ
Tuesday 5 March 2013
'UK lagging in Europe health league'
A very short post this week as I have masses of work to be doing this week, as well as dealing with the stress surrounding the upcoming January module results! However I thought it was better to post something rather than nothing. On that note, good luck to anyone collecting results on Thursday...
A study recently published in the Lancet suggests that the UK is worse off on many indicators of poor health when compared to other countries, the full article describing the study can be found here on BBC Health.
The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt feels '30,000 lives a year could be saved if England performed as well as its European neighbours' and the focus should be on the 'big five avoidable killers'. These diseases are cancer, stroke, heart, respiratory and liver disease.
The majority of which link closely to the risk factors associated with lifestyle that appear in the news far too often, tobacco smoke (including second-hand smoke), obesity, inactivity, alcohol consumption and an unhealthy diet.
Its difficult to say what can be done, because if it were simple it would have been done already! One suggestion is that people pay closer attention to their health and make regular health checks in order to spot diseases earlier.
However ultimately I feel it the responsibility of everyone to try and achieve better health. Although this starts with individuals themselves help should come from government (both central and local), charities and employers for example and it must be remembered that certain individuals may need more help than others to either stay healthy or deal with ill health if it arises.
A study recently published in the Lancet suggests that the UK is worse off on many indicators of poor health when compared to other countries, the full article describing the study can be found here on BBC Health.
The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt feels '30,000 lives a year could be saved if England performed as well as its European neighbours' and the focus should be on the 'big five avoidable killers'. These diseases are cancer, stroke, heart, respiratory and liver disease.
The majority of which link closely to the risk factors associated with lifestyle that appear in the news far too often, tobacco smoke (including second-hand smoke), obesity, inactivity, alcohol consumption and an unhealthy diet.
Its difficult to say what can be done, because if it were simple it would have been done already! One suggestion is that people pay closer attention to their health and make regular health checks in order to spot diseases earlier.
However ultimately I feel it the responsibility of everyone to try and achieve better health. Although this starts with individuals themselves help should come from government (both central and local), charities and employers for example and it must be remembered that certain individuals may need more help than others to either stay healthy or deal with ill health if it arises.
Tuesday 26 February 2013
Do hospitals need to do more about junk food?
The “obesity crisis” is a recurring theme in the news and is something I have written about before. I plan to write briefly on it again this week having read an article by a Cardiologist on the BBC news health page.
“A report by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges called for a range of measures...including improving food in hospitals” to try and tackle the so called obesity crisis. Another “report by the group Sustain has also called for hospital food to meet mandatory nutritional standards.”
After all, shouldn’t hospitals be leading by example?
The clinician speaks of their own experiences and feels it is unacceptable to have “fast food franchises on site and corridors littered with vending machines selling junk food.” I can draw parallels with this as the cardiology ward I volunteer on has a ‘fizzy drinks’ vending machine down the corridor, but by contrast the meals on the ward itself appear to be balanced and the menu follows a fortnightly cycle.
Chief executives and senior managers defend such practices by arguing that the revenue from the sale of these products is used to save lives. But is such practice acceptable? These items may well have contributed to the patients admission in the first place! Most would agree that selling cigarettes to produce revenue to treat patients would be unacceptable. So, how different is selling fast food products to produce revenue?
Hospital staff are also suffering from serious weight problems as well as patients. A recent report from the Royal College of Physicians revealed that “half of the 1.4 million people who work for the NHS are obese”
Shouldn’t NHS staff be leading by example?
The article suggests that education alone will not tackle the obesity crisis and that the food industry (for example advertisements,) has a much greater impact on our eating habits than we realise.
In summary the NHS and health campaigners need to try and capture the attention of the public above the food corporations who are driven by profit rather than good health. However perhaps patients will only listen once the message has reached the NHS staff surrounding them. To achieve this the food industry needs to be regulated more strictly and a good place to start would be hospitals. Finally obesity is an ongoing problem and not one which can be fixed quickly and simply.
“A report by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges called for a range of measures...including improving food in hospitals” to try and tackle the so called obesity crisis. Another “report by the group Sustain has also called for hospital food to meet mandatory nutritional standards.”
After all, shouldn’t hospitals be leading by example?
The clinician speaks of their own experiences and feels it is unacceptable to have “fast food franchises on site and corridors littered with vending machines selling junk food.” I can draw parallels with this as the cardiology ward I volunteer on has a ‘fizzy drinks’ vending machine down the corridor, but by contrast the meals on the ward itself appear to be balanced and the menu follows a fortnightly cycle.
Chief executives and senior managers defend such practices by arguing that the revenue from the sale of these products is used to save lives. But is such practice acceptable? These items may well have contributed to the patients admission in the first place! Most would agree that selling cigarettes to produce revenue to treat patients would be unacceptable. So, how different is selling fast food products to produce revenue?
Hospital staff are also suffering from serious weight problems as well as patients. A recent report from the Royal College of Physicians revealed that “half of the 1.4 million people who work for the NHS are obese”
Shouldn’t NHS staff be leading by example?
The article suggests that education alone will not tackle the obesity crisis and that the food industry (for example advertisements,) has a much greater impact on our eating habits than we realise.
In summary the NHS and health campaigners need to try and capture the attention of the public above the food corporations who are driven by profit rather than good health. However perhaps patients will only listen once the message has reached the NHS staff surrounding them. To achieve this the food industry needs to be regulated more strictly and a good place to start would be hospitals. Finally obesity is an ongoing problem and not one which can be fixed quickly and simply.
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