Please find a selection of recent articles below, which may be of interest to you. Note that the below articles are not representative of the view of Infinity Medical Concierge or associated healthcare professionals. Please reach out to us should you wish to discuss any of these articles further.
Aging
- Healthy behaviours have been linked to a lower risk for Alzheimer's disease but may also benefit patients already diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early AD, new research suggested.
Artificial Intelligence
- Virtual Reality may soon be used in more medical training after a study found no significant difference in training outcomes between virtual reality–assisted and traditional one-on-one methods for teaching ultrasound-guided needling skills in regional anesthesia.
- ChatGPT4 has outperformed gastroenterology practitioners and showed better concordance with the 2020 US Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer (USMSTF) guidelines in determining rescreening and surveillance colonoscopy intervals. This is based on a study where information regarding history of present illness, age, gender, family history, colonoscopy procedure, and pathology report was entered into ChatGPT4, which was then queried for the next recommended follow-up interval.
- In a letter to the editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, a team reported its experience in exploring the performance of ChatGPT Vision in diagnosing melanoma from dermatoscopic images. ChatGPT was accurately able to diagnose between melanomas and non-atypical benign nevi with a 36% accuracy. It must be noted though that this was hardly a robust study and that artificial intelligence algorithms for diagnosing melanoma from dermatoscopic images generally perform much better in this regard.
Back Pain
- A new study, published in The Lancet, found that among adults who recently recovered from an episode of low back pain, those who participated in an individualized walking program had fewer repeat episodes of low back pain and went longer before a recurrence than peers in a control group.
Diabetes
- Recent research on popular weight loss drugs has uncovered surprising benefits beyond their intended use, like lowering the risk of fatal heart attacks. And now there may be another unforeseen advantage: People with type 2 diabetes who took these drugs had a lower risk of having 10 out of 13 obesity-related cancers, compared to those who used insulin therapy.
Diet / Lifestyle
- New research has shown that individuals on an intermittent-fasting and protein-pacing diet had fewer gastrointestinal symptoms and increased diversity in gut microbiota than those on a calorie-restricted Mediterranean-style diet. (Nature Communications)
Health-tech
- Samsung has launched their new health-tracking wearable, called the Galaxy Ring, which competes with the Oura Ring. The company boasts that it has embedded its existing sensor technology into the far smaller space a ring affords. It’s carrying an accelerometer, PPG / heart rate and skin temperature sensor, which will feed data to Samsung Health to build a portrait of your body. In the app, you’ll be able to look at your sleep score, how much you move during sleep, your heart and respiratory rate as well as your menstrual cycle. An overall Energy Score will track how well it thinks you’re feeling every day and offer suggestions on what to change.
Migraine Treatment
- Findings were recently presented to the American Headache Society (AHS) Annual Meeting 2024. A single dose of a dihydroergotamine mesylate (DHE) nasal powder formulation appears to quickly and significantly reduce migraine pain, results of a new phase 3 study showed.The powder demonstrated a statistically significant response rate for pain relief at 2 hours post-dose vs placebo. It also significantly improved pain relief from 2 hours through 48 hours post-dose.
Sleep Health
- The diabetes and weight loss drug tirzepatide was so effective at reducing sleep disruptions in patients with obesity and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) that 40% to 50% no longer needed to use a continuous pressure airway positive (CPAP) device, according to two new studies.
- Apnimed have completed phase II trials in the US on the first potential pill to help improve sleep apnea. The study found that the pill, AD109, showed clinically meaningful improvement in sleep apnea, suggesting that further development of the compound is warranted.
