medi-culling: 13 april 2015
TRANSCRIPT
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Medi-culling Curations: current, curious, controversial
13 April 2015
Crowdsourcing treatment for depression 1
Childhood cancer survival is longer but at a price 2
Walnuts: good for your brain, colon, heart … 3
Want your brain to stay young? Meditate 4
Expert breast pathologists don’t see eye-to-eye 5
Asthma and turbulent childhood 6 Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
There's a lot of ongoing effort in building web apps and mobile apps to provide psychotherapy without a therapist in the loop. A new peer-to-peer networking tool enables sufferers of anxiety and depression to build online support communities and practice therapeutic techniques.
The platform was designed to closely mimic some of the interaction paradigms that underlie very engaging social programs. The new tool called Panoply outperformed conventional self-help techniques for easing depression and anxiety.
Crowdsourcing treatment for depression
Novelty
Gear shift effect
Proof of concept
Applicability1 2 3 4 5
Low High
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
The prevailing, primary focus on curing cancer yields an incomplete picture of childhood cancer survivorship. Although more than 80% of children with cancer survive 5 years or more, the burden of chronic conditions in this population is profound, both in occurrence and severity.
About 70 percent of the survivors of childhood cancers were estimated to have a mild or moderate chronic condition, and about 32 percent were estimated to have a severe, disabling, or life-threatening chronic condition.
Children with cancer survive longer but at a
significant price
Novelty
Gear shift effect
Proof of concept
Applicability1 2 3 4 5
Low High
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Research suggests walnuts may have the potential to positively affect several important health factors. Heart health, diabetes, cancer, cognition, fertility and weight management, all benefit from eating walnuts.
One component that differentiates walnuts is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the plant-based omega-3 fatty acid. Walnuts are the only nut that contain a significant amount of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) with 2.5 grams per one ounce serving.
Walnuts: good for your brain, colon, heart …
Novelty
Gear shift effect
Proof of concept
Applicability1 2 3 4 5
Low High
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Meditation may be associated with better preservation of gray matter in the brain - the brain component tissue responsible for processing information and cognitive function. MRI studies were performed on 50 meditators and 50 controls who never meditated.
As expected, the researchers identified reduced gray matter with increasing age but were surprised to find that individuals in the meditation group showed significantly lower gray matter loss in numerous brain regions, compared with those in the non-meditation group.
Want your brain to stay young? Meditation may
be the answer.
Novelty
Gear shift effect
Proof of concept
Applicability1 2 3 4 5
Low High
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
To investigate potential observer variability and ambiguity in breast disease and cancer diagnoses, investigators sent 60 breast biopsy slides — with a diagnosis unanimously agreed upon by three expert breast pathologists — to 115 practicing pathologists.Overall concordance of diagnosis between the participants and expert pathologists was 75.3%.
Expert breast pathologists don’t see
eye-to-eye
Novelty
Gear shift effect
Proof of concept
Applicability1 2 3 4 5
Low High
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Being exposed to adverse experiences in childhood - such as witnessing domestic violence or drug abuse - could significantly increase the risk of developing asthma. Compared with children who had not had any adverse childhood experiences, the team found that those who had one adverse childhood experience were 28% more likely to develop asthma. The more adverse experiences a child had, the greater the risk of asthma.
Asthma and turbulent childhood
Novelty
Gear shift effect
Proof of concept
Applicability1 2 3 4 5
Low High
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan
Medi-culling Curations: current, curious, controversial
13 April 2015
Dr Arjun Rajagopalan