2017 Newsletters

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January 15, 2017
Your Mother Telling You to “Eat Healthy and Get Enough Sleep” is Now Related to Longevity
As a child, your mother always told you to “Eat your vegetables and go to bed early,” and now there is scientific evidence to confirm that when you “eat healthy and get enough sleep,” you live longer.  Your longevity is related to telomeres.  What are they and how are they related to longevity?  Read more
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 February 15, 2017
Why the Spine Market is Growing so Rapidly, and What is Needed to be Successful in a Fiercely Competitive Market
In 2011, the global spine surgery market was projected to reach anywhere between (USD) $9.3 billion to $14.8 billion by 2017, depending on which source you use. , The spine surgery market consists of three (3) main segments: 1) Spinal fixation devices, which is the largest of the three areas; 2) Spinal fusion devices that immobilize the spine, although it is a mature segment, it’s nevertheless projected to grow at the fastest compounded annual rate of 8.2%; and 3) Spinal implants, more specifically artificial discs, which have been rapidly adopted as one of the motion preservation technologies, used in lieu of spinal fusion to enable a better quality of life. Read more
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 March 15, 2017
 Trumpcare vs. Obamacare – Repeal and Replace
 During the presidential election, Trump vowed to repeal and replace Obamacare.  Hisseven point healthcare reform, which mainly follows the Republican party, is listed below, along with opposition viewpoints:

  • Obamacare will be fully repealed, including the mandate requiring everyone to have coverage.

Opposition: To completely repeal “Obamacare,” which means repealing the Affordable Care Act’s regulations, subsidies, Medicaid expansion, Medicare savings and tax increases, would cost nearly $550 billion over ten years under conventional scoring and about $330 billion with dynamic scoring because of the cost savings already incurred with Obamacare (see itemized cost in reference).  Read more

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April 15, 2017
 Liquid Biopsy: Could This Be a Reality for Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment in the Future?
 What is Liquid Biopsy?It’s a blood test that detects evidence of cancer in circulation or circulating tumor cells (CTC), as dying cancer cells are shed into a person’s blood. This has generated a lot of excitement in the lab, but has not come to fruition in the clinic yet.  Read more
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May 15, 2017
China Healthcare Reform, Opportunities and Challenges for Pharma and Medical Devices Companies
Many pharma/biotech and medical device/diagnostic companies looking for growth opportunities saw China as an enormous potential. Here are some of the statistics regarding China’s demographics, healthcare and spending in 2009 before China’s Healthcare Reform (2009-2011) was implemented:  Read more
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June 15, 2017
Highlights from the 2017 Medical Informatics World Conference
The theme for this year’s conference was “Population Health: Improving Clinical and Financial Outcomes Through Hi-Tech & Hi-Touch.”John Mattison, MD, Assistant Medical Director, CMIO, CHIO, Kaiser Permanente, the first keynote speaker, addressed the topic “Why Personalized Medicine and Community-Based Health will Replace Traditional Models of Population Care.”  When one thinks of personalized medicine, community-based health goes hand-in-hand, because one has to tailor healthcare to the person and their environment. As the old saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child,” and the same applies here.  Read more
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July 15, 2017
How Will Incorporating Artificial Intelligence Deliver Better Healthcare? 
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, AI is defined as the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior.  AI can be divided into three (3) subgroups, 1) Strong AI, 2) Weak AI and 3) In-between AI. The three groups are defined as:1) Strong AI – building computer systems that think and also explain how humans think. There are currently no hyper- intelligent machines that can actually simulate human cognition and take over the world or eliminate jobs.  Read more
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August 15, 2017
 Can’t Stop Eating? Maybe Your Brain is Telling You to Eat
Ever wonder why some people can’t stop eating and become overweight or obese, no matter how hard they try?  Some would say that this person can’t lose weight because s/he lacks the willpower to stop eating.Scientists from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) believe they’ve discovered why some people even when they feel full, want to eat more, and the answer may lie deep in the brain, specifically, in your neurons.  Read more
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September 15, 2017
White Fat is Bad, Brown Fat is Good, Can We Convert White to Brown Fat?
We know that too much fat is not good.  But, what is the difference between white and brown fat and why is one bad and the other good?  Scientists have been studying fat for decades and found that the type of fat makes a difference in your metabolism.  White fat, or white adipocytes, get their color from triglycerides and other unhealthy substances and their only function is to store energy. Too much white fat can lead to obesity which in turn can cause other diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. Brown adipocytes, on the other hand, burn energy and protect against obesity.  Read more
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October 15, 2017
How to Use Social Media Successfully
Social media; Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and the list goes on has become a daily part of our lives and marketers are taking advantage of this “real time” information.  While social media is taking the consumer world by storm, the medical industry has been a bit shy to fully embrace social media because of the regulatory requirements.  Read more
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November 15, 2017
New Information to Unlocking the Pathology of Alzheimer’s Disease
In a healthy brain, there are nerve cells or neurons (triangle figures) and synapses (the branches or legs coming out of the nerve cells) as depicted in Image 1.  In AD, there are fewer nerve cells and synapses.  Plaques are abnormal clusters of beta amyloid protein fragments that build up between nerve cells depicted as orange balls in Image 1.  Dead and dying nerve cells (triangle figures) contain tangles, which are made up of twisted strands of a protein called tau.  Read more
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