Research

Emergency Video Telemedicine Positively Impacts Newborn Resuscitation

Approximately 10 percent of newborns require help breathing after birth, and 1 in 1,000 newborns require more intensive resuscitation measures. These infrequent, high-risk deliveries may present challenges to community hospitals less familiar with advanced newborn resuscitation interventions. Telemedicine consultations are a good option to help meet these challenges and positively impact patient care, according to a study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Live Long and... Facebook?

Is social media good for you, or bad? Well, it's complicated. A study of 12 million Facebook users suggests that using Facebook is associated with living longer - when it serves to maintain and enhance your real-world social ties. Oh and you can relax and stop watching how many "likes" you get: That doesn't seem to correlate at all.

Telemedicine, in Addition to Clinical Care, May Help Manage Diabetes

Telemedicine, including text messaging and Web portals, may help patients with diabetes and their doctors manage blood sugar levels, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). The prevalence of diabetes has more than doubled worldwide in the last 30 years, to 382 million in 2013, and is projected to increase to 592 million in 2035.

Paper vs. Electronic: How a Dermatology Prescription is Written Affects Adherence

A UNC School of Medicine dermatologist recently conducted a study to determine if the way a prescription was written - either traditionally or electronically - played a role in whether a patient filled and picked up the medication. In the study, published in JAMA Dermatology, Adewole S. Adamson, MD, assistant professor of dermatology, found that the way a prescription was written could influence whether a patient filled the prescription.

Facebook Updates could Help Understand - and Potentially Treat - Mental Health Disorders

The sign outside the main entrance to Facebook HQ

Our Facebook status updates, 'likes' and even photos could help researchers better understand mental health disorders with the right ethical safeguards, argue researchers from the University of Cambridge, who suggest that social networks may even be used in future to provide support and interventions, particularly among young people.

Can a Brain-Computer Interface Convert your Thoughts to Text?

Ever wonder what it would be like if a device could decode your thoughts into actual speech or written words? While this might enhance the capabilities of already existing speech interfaces with devices, it could be a potential game-changer for those with speech pathologies, and even more so for "locked-in" patients who lack any speech or motor function.

After Blindness, the Adult Brain Can Learn to See Again

More than 40 million people worldwide are blind, and many of them reach this condition after many years of slow and progressive retinal degeneration. The development of sophisticated prostheses or new light-responsive elements, aiming to replace the disrupted retinal function and to feed restored visual signals to the brain, has provided new hope. However, very little is known about whether the brain of blind people retains residual capacity to process restored or artificial visual inputs.

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