Clipmarks | wiccantexan's 'medical' clips

Giving biometrics a hand

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:06:06 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Palm-reading system used to safeguard patient records

Bryn Nelson

Columnist

A perceptive palm reader is helping one of the largest healthcare systems in the U.S. divine the true identities of its patients, ushering in a new era of biometric identity verification.

The device, resembling a small black cube and manufactured by Tokyo-based Fujitsu Corp., uses a vascular pattern recognition system to accurately identify people while they hold their palm just above the cube. The scan, requiring less than a second, captures the unique branching pattern of blood veins and instantly converts key data points into a numerical code that can be compared with other palm scans to identify matches. The miniaturized device can plug into a laptop computer via a USB port, while an alternative version released last year incorporates the palm scanner into a computer mouse to facilitate secure logins.

At its core, the palm-reading system works by recording subdermal vein patterns.

Tags: medical, security, biology, health, healthcare

Obama Quietly Visits Wounded War Vets

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:40:52 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

Barack Obama stopped by Walter Reed Army Medical Center Saturday to visit wounded war veterans, a group that he has said endures substandard care under the Bush administration.

The presumed Democratic nominee, who was in Washington to speak to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, slipped into the facility shortly after 9 a.m. without stopping to speak to the small group of reporters who follow him. The visit wasn't on his public schedule.

Obama has criticized the Bush administration for its treatment of veterans returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and has suggested Republican rival John McCain would continue Bush policies if elected.

Obama has said the country has failed its veterans by allowing such "second-rate conditions," by not giving troops enough time at home and not doing enough to support military families.

"It is time to rebuild our military and take care of our veterans," he said.

Tags: obama, politics, military, veterans

Russian Spa Opens Monument To The Enema

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:46:34 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

A monument to the enema, a procedure many people would rather not think about, has been unveiled at a spa in the southern Russian city of Zheleznovodsk. The bronze syringe bulb, which weighs 800 pounds and is held by three angels, was unveiled at the Mashuk-Akva Term spa, the spa's director said Thursday.

"There is no kitsch or obscenity, it is a successful work of art," Alexander Kharchenko told The Associated Press. "An enema is almost a symbol of our region."

The Caucasus Mountains region is known for dozens of spas where enemas with water from mineral springs are routinely administered to treat digestive and other complaints.

Kharchenko, 50, said the monument cost $42,000 and was installed in a square in front of his spa on Wednesday. A banner declaring: "Let's beat constipation and sloppiness with enemas" _ an allusion to a line from "The Twelve Chairs," a famous Soviet film comedy _ was posted on one of the spa's walls.

Tags: medical, health, strange, art

Legendary dancer Cyd Charisse dies

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:33:21 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Cyd Charisse, the long-legged Texas beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died Tuesday. She was 86.

Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack, said her publicist, Gene Schwam.

She appeared in dramatic films, but her fame came from the Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.

Classically trained, she could dance anything, from a pas de deux in 1946's "Ziegfeld Follies" to the lowdown Mickey Spillane satire of 1956's "The Band Wagon" (with Astaire).

The 1952 classic "Singin' in the Rain" marked a breakthrough.

When Freed was dissatisfied with another dancer who had been cast, Charisse inherited the role and danced with Kelly in the "Broadway Melody" number that climaxed the movie. She stunned critics and audiences with her 25-foot Chinese silk scarf that floated in the air with the aid of a wind machine.

Tags: hollywood, movies, film, dance, ballet, actor, music

Incest dungeon girl wakes from coma

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:05:37 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

A 19-year-old girl whose hospitalization exposed a shocking Austrian incest case has woken from her coma -- a development that could shed new light on what occurred in the basement were she was held captive for decades.

Doctors placed Kerstin Fritzl in an artificial coma in April after she emerged for the first time from the cellar where she was held captive from birth by her father Josef.

Kerstin was admitted to hospital in Amstetten, west of Vienna, in an unconscious state after Elisabeth persuaded Fritzl she needed medical attention. Suspicious medics alerted police who opened an investigation.

Detectives began investigating the case after hospital officials started inquiring about the girl's family history.

Officials at hospital in Amstetten, Austria did not release any more information about Kerstin Fritzl's condition. A news conference on the case is scheduled for Wednesday.

Tags: family, crime, incest, children

"Lorenzo's Oil" boy dies at 30

Sat, 31 May 2008 02:16:02 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

The man whose parents' battle to save him from a nerve disease was told in the movie "Lorenzo's Oil" has died at his home in Virginia.

The father of Lorenzo Odone says his son died Friday at age 30. Doctors had predicted he would die when he was 8.

Augusto Odone says his son had come down recently with pneumonia.

Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte starred as Michaela and Augusto Odone in the 1992 movie. They formulated an oil that they said helped their son fight the neurological disease.

A study published in 2005 verified that the oil could prevent the onset of symptoms.

Tags: medical, health, neuroscience

Comic actor Harvey Korman dies at 81

Fri, 30 May 2008 02:29:40 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Comic actor Harvey Korman has died at 81, according to the UCLA Medical Center.

Korman died at the center four months after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

"It was a miracle in itself that he survived the incident at all. Everyone in the hospital referred to him as 'miracle man' because of his strong will and ability to bounce right back after several major operations," said Korman's daughter, Kate Korman. "Tragically, after such a hard-fought battle, he passed away."

Korman was a regular on "The Carol Burnett Show" from 1967 through 1978, for which he won Emmy awards in 1969, 1971, 1972 and 1974. He also won a Golden Globe for his work on the series.

The lanky Korman also appeared in Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" (as the sneering Hedley Lamarr), "High Anxiety" and "History of the World, Part 1."

Tags: comedy, tv, television, actor, movies

Crackdown on Ghoulish 'Body Exhibitions'

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:10 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says the company that has made millions of dollars with U.S. exhibitions of plasticized human bodies used "the remains of individuals that may have been tortured and executed in China."

In announcing what he called the "grim reality" of an official investigation triggered by an ABC News "20/20" report, Cuomo said the company, Premier Exhibitions, "despite repeated denials...had no way of knowing the true source of their human exhibits and no meaningful documentation to support their claims that the bodies had been donated for such a use."

"Respect for the dead and respect for the public requires that Premier do more than simply assure us that there is no reason for concern," said Cuomo.

In the "20/20" report on Premier, the then-premier CEO, Arnie Geller, denied using the bodies of executed prisoners and said all of the bodies had come from the Dalian Medical University in China.

Tags: china, body, human, exhibit, death

What Your Eyes Say About Your Mood

Thu, 29 May 2008 03:59:32 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: well.blogs.nytimes.com

Has anyone ever told you that you looked sad or tired when you weren’t? If the problem isn’t your mood, it might be your face, according to a study in the medical journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Yale University researchers set out to determine how facial features like eyebrow shape, eyelids and wrinkles affect facial expressions. They took a photo of a woman’s eyes and digitally altered it to change the eyebrow or lid shape or add wrinkles. After producing 16 different versions of the same face, they asked 20 study participants to rate, on a scale of 0 to 5, the presence of seven expressions or emotions: tiredness, happiness, surprise, anger, sadness, disgust and fear.

What was surprising about the study is that many of the pictures that mimicked various plastic surgery procedures, such as eyelid surgery or brow lifts, actually generated worse scores, with study participants rating those faces as looking angry or tired.

To see the photos used in the study, click here.

Tags: mood, behavior, social, face, emotion, medical

Bush Signs Genetics Anti-Discrimination Law

Sun, 25 May 2008 04:40:41 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed a law that prohibits discrimination against anyone whose genetic information shows a predisposition to illnesses such as cancer or heart disease.

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, passed by overwhelming majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, bans health insurers and employers from discriminating on the basis of genetic information.

As he signed the legislation in the Oval Office, Bush praised Sen. Edward Kennedy, who was instrumental in pushing the legislation through Congress. The Massachusetts Democrat was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor this week.

The law bars health insurers from rejecting coverage or raising premiums for healthy people based on personal or familial genetic predisposition to develop a particular disease such as cancer, diabetes, heart ailments or others.

Tags: genetics, health, discrimination, medical

Brain Implants May Let 'Locked-In' Patients Speak

Fri, 23 May 2008 04:51:31 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Imagine being trapped in your own body, aware of what's going on around you but unable to move or even speak.

Thanks to a modern technological innovation known as a neural interface — a direct link between the human brain and a computer — there may be hope for sufferers of what's commonly known as "locked-in syndrome."

As portrayed in the 2007 movie "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," locked-in patients are conscious, but fully paralyzed except for their eyes.

A major breakthrough for these patients occurred in December 2004, when a neural interface consisting of a few thin electrodes was implanted in the brain of 24-year-old Erik Ramsey, who was "locked in" at age 16 when a car crash triggered a brain-stem stroke.

Dr. Frank Guenther and his team put the device, developed by Neural Signals Inc. near Atlanta, into Ramsey's speech-motor cortex, allowing him a chance to communicate for the first time in nine years.

Tags: medical, health, brain, technology

‘Miracle’ Marine dies

Sat, 03 May 2008 02:52:35 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

A Marine sergeant who became a symbol of resilience as he strove to recover from a roadside bomb blast in Iraq that blanketed 97 percent of his body with burns has died, the Defense Department said. He was 22.

Sgt. Merlin German died April 11 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he was continuing treatment for the injuries he suffered in combat on Feb. 22, 2005, the Pentagon said Thursday.

The former turret gunner was dubbed the "Miracle Man" for his determination in facing his wounds, which cost the former saxophone player his fingers and rippled his face with scars. He endured more than 40 surgeries, spent 17 months in a hospital and had to learn to walk again.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that the state Capitol's flags would be flown at half-staff in German's honor, saying the sergeant's "courage and unfailing loyalty serve as an inspiration to Americans everywhere."

Tags: military, iraq, marine, burn, hero, medical

Haleigh Poutre gives dramatic details in abuse case

Thu, 01 May 2008 04:53:24 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: Prosecutors are preparing for a fall trial in one of the state's most horrific child abuse cases, one made even more disturbing by the state's repeated failures to protect Haleigh.

Clip Source: www.boston.com

Haleigh Poutre, a 14-year-old girl once diagnosed as being in an "irreversible vegetative state," has provided police with dramatic testimony about frequent use of corporal punishment during her childhood, but she has not given any specifics about what caused her to suffer a near-fatal head injury more than two years ago, according to two people with direct knowledge of her statements.

Haleigh, who has spent the last two years at a pediatric rehabilitation hospital in Brighton, communicated with simple words and hand gestures in an interview last December. She also spelled out full sentences by pointing to letters of the alphabet on a board, reflecting the remarkable recovery of a girl who nearly was removed from life support by the state after doctors had declared her condition hopeless. She began to breathe on her own just as the state's highest court ruled that she should be allowed to die.

Tags: child, children, abuse, medical, death

Clinton drops false hospital story from stump speech

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:14:04 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

Hillary Clinton’s campaign says the candidate will stop telling the story of an uninsured pregnant woman who lost the baby and died after being denied medical care, following a hospital raising questions over its accuracy.

Clinton has frequently told the emotional story of the woman from rural Ohio since late February. In the speech, Clinton said the woman made minimum wage working at a local pizza restaurant, without insurance, when she became pregnant. Clinton said the woman ran into trouble and went to a hospital in a nearby county but was denied treatment because she couldn’t afford a $100 payment.

In the speech, Clinton said the woman later was taken to the hospital by ambulance and lost the baby. The young woman was then taken by helicopter to a Columbus hospital where she died of complications.

But an Athens, Ohio hospital is questioning the accuracy of the story.

The hospital said the woman did indeed have insurance, and at least at their hospital was never turned away.

Tags: politics, clinton, lies, medical, controversy

The nose knows: Smell sharpens during danger

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 05:56:28 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

It turns out emotion plays an even bigger role with the nose, and that your sense of smell actually can sharpen when something bad happens.

Northwestern University researchers proved the surprising connection by giving volunteers electric shocks while they sniffed novel odors.

The discovery, reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science, helps explain how our senses can steer us clear of danger. More intriguing, it could shed light on disorders such as post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Scientists long have known of a strong link between the sense of smell and emotion.

Could an emotionally charged situation make that initial cue be perceived more strongly in the first place?

The research team recruited 12 healthy young adults to find out.

Tags: science, study, danger, smell, emotion, medical