A Department of Veterans Affairs initiative targeting staph infections in hospitalized patients has produced positive results, according to data released by the VA. 

Among VA patients in ICUs between 2007 and 2012, healthcare-associated MRSA infection rates dropped 72% — from 1.64 to 0.46 per 1,000 patient days. Infection rates dropped 66% — from 0.47 to 0.16 per 1,000 patient days — for patients treated in non-ICU hospital units.

“These results are striking,” Carolyn Clancy, MD, VA’s interim under secretary for health, said in a news release. “Healthcare-associated infections are a major challenge throughout the healthcare industry, but we have found in VA that consistently applying some simple preventive strategies can make a very big difference, and that difference is being recognized.”

VA’s prevention practices consist of patient screening programs for MRSA, contact precautions for hospitalized patients found to have MRSA, and hand hygiene reminders with hand sanitizer stations placed in common areas, patient wards and specialty clinics throughout medical centers, according to the release. Practices are reinforced via computerized reminders, training, measurement and continual feedback.

MRSA infections are a serious global healthcare issue and are difficult to treat because the bacterium is resistant to many antibiotics. In a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2012 MRSA surveillance report from its Active Bacterial Core surveillance, the CDC cites 75,309 cases of invasive MRSA infections and 9,670 deaths due to invasive MRSA in 2012, according to the release.

“The VA healthcare system is able to implement and assess these prevention strategies,” Martin Evans, MD, director of VA’s MRSA control program, said in the release. “What we’ve learned translates into better healthcare for the veterans we serve.”

Source: www.va.gov

By Dan Munro

Released on Friday, the survey of 700 Registered Nurses at over 250 hospitals in 31 states included some sobering preliminary results in terms of hospital policies for patients who present with potentially infectious diseases like Ebola.

• 80% say their hospital has not communicated to them any policy regarding potential admission of patients infected by Ebola
• 87% say their hospital has not provided education on Ebola with the ability for the nurses to interact and ask questions
• One-third say their hospital has insufficient supplies of eye protection (face shields or side shields with goggles) and fluid resistant/impermeable gowns
• Nearly 40% say their hospital does not have plans to equip isolation rooms with plastic covered mattresses and pillows and discard all linens after use, less than 10 percent said they were aware their hospital does have such a plan in place
• More than 60% say their hospital fails to reduce the number of patients they must care for to accommodate caring for an “isolation” patient

National Nurses United (NNU) started the survey several weeks ago and released the preliminary results last Friday (here). The NNU has close to 185,000 members in every state and is the largest union of registered nurses in the U.S.

The release of the survey coincided with Friday’s swirling controversy on how the hospital in Dallas mishandled America’s first case of Ebola. The patient ‒ Thomas E. Duncan ‒ was treated and released with antibiotics even though the hospital staff knew of his recent travel from Liberia ‒ now the epicenter of this Ebola outbreak.

On October 2, the hospital tried to lay blame of the mishandled Ebola patient on their electronic health record (EHR) software with this statement.

Protocols were followed by both the physician and the nurses. However, we have identified a flaw in the way the physician and nursing portions of our electronic health records (EHR)interacted in this specific case. In our electronic health records, there are separate physician and nursing workflows. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Statement ‒ October 2 (here)

Within 24 hours, the hospital recanted the statement by saying no, in fact, “there was no flaw.”

The larger issue, of course, is just how ready are the more than 5,700 hospitals around the U.S. when it comes to diagnosing and then treating suspected cases of Ebola. Given the scale of the outbreak (a new case has now been reported in Spain ‒ Europe’s first), it’s very likely we’ll see more cases here in the U.S.

As an RN herself ‒ and Director of NNU’s Registered Nurse Response Network ‒ Bonnie Castillo was blunt.

What our surveys show is a reminder that we do not have a national health care system, but a fragmented collection of private healthcare companies each with their own way of responding. As we have been saying for many months, electronic health records systems can, and do, fail. That’s why we must continue to rely on the professional, clinical judgment and expertise of registered nurses and physicians to interact with patients, as well as uniform systems throughout the U.S. that is essential for responding to pandemics, or potential pandemics, like Ebola. Bonnie Castillo, RN ‒ Director of NNU’s Registered Nurse Response Network (press release)

As a part of their Health Alert Network (HAN), the CDC has been sounding the alarm since July ‒ and released guidelines for evaluating U.S. patients suspected of having Ebola through the HAN on August 1 (HAN #364). As a part of alert #364, the CDC was specific on recommending tests “for all persons with onset of fever within 21 days of having a high‒risk exposure.” Recent travel from Liberia in West Africa should have prompted more questioning around potential high-risk exposure ‒ which was, in fact, the case.

As it was, a relative called the CDC directly to question the original treatment of Mr. Duncan given all the circumstances.

“I feared other people might also get infected if he wasn’t taken care of, and so I called them [the CDC] to ask them why is it a patient that might be suspected of this disease was not getting appropriate care.” Josephus Weeks ‒ Nephew of Dallas Ebola patient to NBC News

The CDC has also activated their Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

The EOC brings together scientists from across CDC to analyze, validate, and efficiently exchange information during a public health emergency and connect with emergency response partners. When activated for a response, the EOC can accommodate up to 230 personnel per 8-hour shift to handle situations ranging from local interests to worldwide incidents.

The EOC coordinates the deployment of CDC staff and the procurement and management of all equipment and supplies that CDC responders may need during their deployment.

In addition, the EOC has the ability to rapidly transport life-supporting medications, samples and specimens, and personnel anywhere in the world around the clock within two hours of notification for domestic missions and six hours for international missions.

Source: Forbes

By Federico Guerrini

I just had a Skype chat with entrepreneur Olivier Jeannel about his new product. It was a text chat, as Olivier – just like roughly 70 million people in the world (of which approximately 26 million of Americans) – suffers from profound hearing loss. If he has his way, soon this is no longer going to be a problem. Together with his associate Sidney Burks and product manager Pablo Seuc-Rocher, he’s working on the launch of RogerVoice, an Android app that has been designed from the ground up for those who cannot hear on the phone.

With RogerVoice, the deaf or hard-of-hearing person starts a call and receives on his smartphone instant live transcriptions of what the other speaker is saying, regardless if he is speaking in English or another of the many other languages recognized by the system (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Greek and Japanese top the list).

While the idea, generally speaking, is brilliant, there are still some hurdles to overcome. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology is still far from flawless; also, unlike other softwares (Dragon and friends) that can be trained to recognize a single voice, improving this way the recognition rate, RogerVoice has to work with any kind of voice, so don’t imagine you can have a long, complex conversation without any trouble.

“You might use it to confirm an appointment with a doctor – Olivier says – or tell a plumber to come”. Basic stuff, but enough to significantly improve the quality of life of a deaf person, allowing he or she to rely less on other people’s intervention. It’s also up to the hearing person to make a better effort to enunciate, to help the voice recognition software’s performance. So you could in fact have a long and articulate conversation, provided that the counterpart is a relative, a friend, or someone that’s kind enough not to speak in a rush.

I asked Jeannel if – when the problem is not too severe – an hearing aid wouldn’t work as well, and the answer was quite interesting, because it pointed to the social implications of suffering from hearing loss.

“The interesting fact is – he says – that most deaf people don’t wear hearing aids, only 1 in 5 apparently bother to get equipped. This is because wearing hearing aids is often associated to a kind of social stigma. Also, of the profoundly deaf population, most manage to speak, but understanding a conversation without visual cues is difficult, if not impossible. In my case, impossible without lip-reading. More and more profoundly deaf use cochlear implants, which is a revolution: it helps a lot to understand speech, but it’s still quite difficult over a phone”.

The app is designed to be Bluetooth compatible, meaning that the RogerVoice app could connect directly to a Bluetooth-equipped hearing aid for a better listening experience and, after the launch of the Android version, the team will start working on the iOS and Windows ones.

The business model will be based on subscriptions, with one year of unlimited calls priced at $59 for those that will contribute to the Kickstarter campaign that’s currently running to support the product’s development. As for the time to market, if the $20,000 is reached on Kickstarter, founder hope to release the product by the end of the year. “Hopefully for Christmas – Jeannel says”.

Source: http://www.forbes.com

Source:http://www.inquisitr.com

By JOSHUA A. KRISCH

McBaine, a bouncy black and white springer spaniel, perks up and begins his hunt at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center. His nose skims 12 tiny arms that protrude from the edges of a table-size wheel, each holding samples of blood plasma, only one of which is spiked with a drop of cancerous tissue.

The dog makes one focused revolution around the wheel before halting, steely-eyed and confident, in front of sample No. 11. A trainer tosses him his reward, a tennis ball, which he giddily chases around the room, sliding across the floor and bumping into walls like a clumsy puppy.

McBaine is one of four highly trained cancer detection dogs at the center, which trains purebreds to put their superior sense of smell to work in search of the early signs of ovarian cancer. Now, Penn Vet, part of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, is teaming with chemists and physicists to isolate cancer chemicals that only dogs can smell. They hope this will lead to the manufacture of nanotechnology sensors that are capable of detecting bits of cancerous tissue 1/100,000th the thickness of a sheet of paper.

“We don’t ever anticipate our dogs walking through a clinic,” said the veterinarian Dr. Cindy Otto, the founder and executive director of the Working Dog Center. “But we do hope that they will help refine chemical and nanosensing techniques for cancer detection.”

Since 2004, research has begun to accumulate suggesting that dogs may be able to smell the subtle chemical differences between healthy and cancerous tissue, including bladder cancer, melanomaand cancers of the lung, breast and prostate. But scientists debate whether the research will result in useful medical applications.

Dogs have already been trained to respond to diabetic emergencies, or alert passers-by if an owner is about to have a seizure. And on the cancer front, nonprofit organizations like the In Situ Foundation, based in California, and the Medical Detection Dogs charity in Britain are among a growing number of independent groups sponsoring research into the area.

A study presented at the American Urological Association’s annual meeting in May reported that two German shepherds trained at the Italian Ministry of Defense’s Military Veterinary Center in Grosseto were able to detect prostate cancer in urine with about 98 percent accuracy, far better than the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. But in another recent study of prostate-cancer-sniffing dogs, British researchers reported that promising initial results did not hold up in rigorous double-blind follow-up trials.

Dr. Otto first conceived of a center to train and study working dogs when, as a member of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Urban Search and Rescue Team, she was deployed to ground zero in the hours after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“I remember walking past three firemen sitting on an I-beam, stone-faced, dejected,” she says. “But when a handler walked by with one of the rescue dogs, they lit up. There was hope.”

Today, the Working Dog Center trains dogs for police work, search and rescue and bomb detection. Their newest canine curriculum, started last summer after the center received a grant from the Kaleidoscope of Hope Foundation, focuses on sniffing out a different kind of threat: ovarian cancer.

“Ovarian cancer is a silent killer,” Dr. Otto said. “But if we can help detect it early, that would save lives like nothing else.”

Dr. Otto’s dogs are descended from illustrious lines of hunting hounds and police dogs, with noses and instincts that have been refined by generations of selective breeding. Labradors and German shepherds dominate the center, but the occasional golden retriever or springer spaniel — like McBaine — manages to make the cut.

The dogs, raised in the homes of volunteer foster families, start with basic obedience classes when they are eight weeks old. They then begin their training in earnest, with the goal of teaching them that sniffing everything — from ticking bombs to malignant tumors — is rewarding.

“Everything we do is about positive reinforcement,” Dr. Otto said. “Sniff the right odor, earn a toy or treat. It’s all one big game.”

Trainers from the center typically notice early on that certain dogs have natural talents that make them better suited for specific kinds of work. Search and rescue dogs must be tireless hunters, unperturbed by distracting environments and unwilling to give up on a scent – the equivalent of high-energy athletes. The best cancer-detection dogs, on the other hand, tend to be precise, methodical, quiet and even a bit aloof — more the introverted scientists.

“Some dogs declare early, but our late bloomers frequently switch majors,” Dr. Otto said.

Handlers begin training dogs selected for cancer detection by holding two vials of fluid in front of each dog, one cancerous and one benign. The dogs initially sniff both but are rewarded only when they sniff the one containing cancer tissue. In time, the dogs learn to recognize a unique “cancer smell” before moving on to more complex tests.

What exactly are the dogs sensing? George Preti, a chemist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, has spent much of his career trying to isolate the volatile chemicals behind cancer’s unique odor. “We have known for a long time that dogs are very sensitive detectors,” Dr. Preti says. “When the opportunity arose to collaborate with Dr. Otto at the Working Dog Center, I jumped on it.”

Dr. Preti is working to isolate unique chemical biomarkers responsible for ovarian cancer’s subtle smell using high-tech spectrometers and chromatographs. Once he identifies a promising compound, he tests whether the dogs respond to that chemical in the same way that they respond to actual ovarian cancer tissue.

“I’m not embarrassed to say that a dog is better than my instruments,” Dr. Preti says.

The next step will be to build a mechanical, hand-held sensor that can detect that cancer chemical in the clinic. That’s where Charlie Johnson a professor at Penn who specializes in experimental nanophysics, the study of molecular interactions between microscopic materials, comes in.

He is developing what he calls Cyborg sensors, which include biological and mechanical components – a combination of carbon nanotubes and single-stranded DNA that preferentially bond with one specific chemical compound. These precise sensors, in theory, could be programmed to bind to, and detect, the isolated compounds that Dr. Otto’s dogs are singling out.

“We are effectively building an electronic nose,” said Dr. Johnson, who added that a prototype for his ovarian cancer sensor will probably be ready in the next five years.

Some experts remain skeptical.

“While I applaud any effort to detect ovarian cancer, I’m uncertain that this research will have any value,” said Dr. David Fishman, a gynecologic oncologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. One challenge, he notes, is that any cancer sensor would need to be able to detect volatile chemicals that are specific to one particular type of cancer.

“Nonspecificity is where a lot of these sort of tests fail,” Dr. Fishman said. “If there is an overlap in volatile chemicals — between colon, breast, pancreatic, ovarian cancer — we’ll have to ask, ‘What does this mean?’ ”

And even if sensors could be developed that detect ovarian cancer in the clinic, Dr. Fishman says, he doubts that they would be able to catch ovarian cancer in its earliest, potentially more treatable, stages.

“The lesions that we are discussing are only millimeters in size, and almost imperceptible on imaging studies,” Dr. Fishman says. “I don’t believe that the resolution of the canine ability will translate into value for these lesions.”

McBaine remains unaware of the debate. After correctly identifying yet another cancerous plasma sample, he pranced around the Working Dog Center with regal flair, showing off his tennis ball to anyone who would pay attention. In an industry saturated with hundreds of corporations and thousands of scientists all hunting for the earliest clues to cancer, working dogs are just another set of (slightly furrier) researchers.

Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com

By Jeroen Tas

Imagine a time when a device alerts you to the onset of a disease in your body long before it’s a problem. Or when your disease is diagnosed in Shanghai, based on the medical scan you did in Kenya. This future is far closer that you might think due to rapid advances in connected devices and sensors, big data and the integration of health services. Combined, these innovations are introducing a new era in healthcare and personal well-being.

In only a few years, mobile technologies have spawned tremendous innovation of consumer-level health tools. The emerging solutions are focusing on health conditions over a person’s lifetime and on holistic care. They generate constant insights through analytics and algorithms that identify patterns and behaviours. Social technologies enable better collaboration and interconnected digital propositions that reach out to communities of people with similar conditions, engaging them in ways which were never before possible.

We are starting to get a taste of what the consumerization of healthcare will mean in the future. In two to three years, analysing your personal health data will become commonplace for large parts of the population in many countries. Also, it is very likely that for the first time it will not be the chronically ill but the healthy people who will invest the most in managing their health.

Digitization and consumerization will rattle the healthcare industry. It is already tearing at the very fabric of the traditional healthcare companies and providers. Innovation is not only about just adding a new channel or connecting a product. It is also a complete redesign of business models, adjustment of systems and processes and, most importantly, it calls for changing the culture in companies to reflect the new opportunities – and challenges – presented by the digital world.

To drive true industry transformation, companies need to collaborate and continue to learn from each other. Great strides will be made in alliances, which, for example, will deliver open, cloud-based healthcare platforms that combine customer engagement with leading medical technology, and clinical applications and informatics.

The game will not only be played by the traditional healthcare providers. With consumerization, even companies without healthcare expertise, but with strong consumer engagement and trust, could potentially become healthcare companies. Big multinationals invest incremental budgets in developing new propositions and count on their global user bases or professional networks to gain a foothold in the market.

And in parallel, a raft of start-ups are attempting to transform the worlds of preventive or curative healthcare – in many cases, limited only by their imaginations. For example, we may see virtual reality technology moving from gaming industry to healthcare for improving patients’ rehabilitation after a stroke. Or we may see facial recognition software become common in monitoring and guiding patients’ daily medical routines.

While these new propositions tackle a number of healthcare industry’s core concerns and provide solutions to completely new areas, these propositions still need to mature. They need to become scalable, reliable, open, and the user experience needs to be harmonized.

But perhaps one of the most important challenges is related to people’s behaviour and preferences. Regardless of whether these new and existing companies are analysing health data, using virtual reality or reading people’s vital signs, they all need ample time to become trusted and accepted in the emerging digital health care space. Especially for the new entrants, obtaining the right level of credibility will be one of the key success factors.

Consumers, patients and professionals alike, will need the right motivation, reassurance and mindsets to adopt these new solutions. The companies that know how to offer us tailored, cutting-edge solutions, combined with meaningful advice and trustworthiness, will be the winners and become our trusted advisers in health.

Source: World Economic Forum

Fastaff

Making the transition to working nights may feel a bit intimidating, but many night nurses, myself included, have grown to love the position! It tends to be quieter and less chaotic because the patients are generally asleep, and there's a special camaraderie that develops between a team of night nurses. Put these tips into practice to survive, and even thrive, in your night shifts.

Stack several night shifts in a row: Rather than spacing out your night shifts during the week and having to switch between being up during the day and up during the night, try to put all your night shifts for the week in a row. That way, you can really get yourself onto a schedule of being awake during the nights you work and sleeping during the days in between.

Nap before work: As you transition from being awake during the day to being awake as you work at night, take a nap in the afternoon to help you go into your first night shift as rested as possible. Alternately, if your schedule allows, stay up later than usual the night before your first night shift and sleep in as late as you can the next morning.

Fuel up with healthy foods: While sugars may seem like they provide energy, they also come with a crash. Before heading into work, eat a filling meal with a healthy balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fiber. Then bring healthy snacks for the night that include protein and fiber to keep you going strong. Some options include yogurt, mixed nuts, hard boiled eggs, cheese cubes, or carrots with hummus dip

Plan caffeine carefully: It can be tempting to drink a cup of coffee anytime you feel sleepy, but you may develop an unhealthy dependence or be unable to fall asleep when you get home after your shift. Therefore, try to limit yourself to just one or two cups of coffee per shift, and drink your last one at least six hours before you plan to go to sleep.

Create a restful sleeping environment at home: The key to surviving night shifts in the long term is getting lots of restful sleep after each shift. Set up room darkening curtains and a white noise machine to help you block out signs of the day. When you get home, don't force yourself to go to bed right away. Instead, develop a routine that includes some time to bathe, read, and relax as your body winds down after work. Try to avoid bright screens, which block your body from releasing melatonin, the hormone that makes you feel sleepy.

With some attention to detail, you will probably find yourself really enjoying working at night. Many of the night nurses I know started out stuck on the shifts, but grew to prefer them. Plus, the pay differential doesn't hurt at all!

Source: http://www.fastaff.com

By Susan Donaldson James

Raymond and Mazie Huggins, a devoted West Virginia couple with the same failing heart condition, didn’t think they would make it to their upcoming 74th wedding anniversary on Oct. 10.

But in August, Raymond or “Huggie Bear,” 96, and Mazie Leota, 93, received newly FDA-approved heart valves in a life-saving procedure on the same day.

“We went to the supper table one night and Raymond said, ‘If you have it done, then I will have it done and that’s how we will do it — together,'” Mazie said. “We went in together, had it done together and came home together.”

The couple went to the Cleveland Clinic for transcatheter aortic valve replacement or TAVR, a procedure designed for those who typically can’t withstand the risk of open-heart surgery. A catheter is wound through an artery in the groin and into the heart muscle.

This non-invasive surgery has been used on patients for some time, but the smaller valve required for the Huggins’ surgery was just approved in June after successful clinical trials.

“I’m very glad we had it and I am feeling fine,” said Mazie, a great-grandmother and former dental secretary. “I can’t get over there not being any pain afterwards.”

Now, the couple, both “with it” intellectually and otherwise healthy, can celebrate their long marriage at home in Moundsville, where they continue to live independently. They have every reason to expect to live an even longer life: Mazie’s maternal grandmother lived to be 108. 

“My father’s goal was to live long enough to get on the Smuckers jar,” said their son, Roger Huggins, 67. “Last year, even with his heart problems, he made apple butter and applesauce out of the tree in the backyard.”

Roger said his father, a former glass factory shipper and retired prison guard, is “very strong and a tremendously hard worker.” He calls his mother an “angelic” woman who worries about others and is beloved by all who know her.

“My mother protects my father to the fullest,” said Roger. “He might make her madder than the dickens, but she protects him to the fullest.”

Two years ago, his parents had stents put in their hearts on the same day.

“I was in pre-op with them,” said Roger, a retired food company sales rep. “Their tables passed in the hallways and they were awake enough to make [the medical staff] stop their beds. They held hands and kissed each other and had the whole hospital crying.”

Roger, who drives three hours each way from his home in Erie, Pennsylvania, to check in on his parents and organize their medications, persuaded them to have the TAVR procedure after doing his own research.

Raymond insisted his wife go first, then his surgery followed.

“They both were prepared to pass away on the table,” said their son. “But it very well could have been much worse if my mother had woken up and my dad had died beside her. Or harder if my father had woken up.”

“The first thing my father said when he came out of the anesthesia was, ‘Am I alive?’” said Roger. “The second thing he said was, ‘Is my wife alive?’ The third thing he said is, ‘I’ve got to go out and fix the yard.’ He’s a workaholic.”

The Hugginses may not be the oldest patients ever to undergo TAVR surgery (some patients have been 98 and 100), but they were the first couple, according to their surgeon, interventional cardiologist Dr. Samir Kapadia.

“The data suggest that 50 to 60 percent would not make it until the end of the year with their condition,” he said. “They were declining fairly fast. … When they came to us they were very short of breath and had medical problems that were unbelievably complex.”

The aortic valve is the “door” to the heart, according to Kapadia. A normal opening is about 2.5 cm. But theirs were closed down to .3 and .4 — “about 10 times less.”

“Five or 10 years ago, nothing could have been done for them,” he said. “We would have had to stop the heart and open up the chest, and at that age the recovery would be up to two months, with significant risk,” he said.

Mazie was prepped for surgery first at 5:30 a.m. and Raymond followed at 9:30 a.m.

“The kissed each other and were in recovery opposite each other and wanted to be together holding hands in the same room,” said Kapadia.

By the evening after surgery, they were out of bed, and the next day, they were walking. Mazie’s release was delayed because of fluid in her lungs, so Raymond insisted on staying at the hospital with her for several more days.

The couple is now back at home with a part-time caregiver, looking forward to their anniversary next month.

Mazie attributes their 74-year happy marriage to good communication.

“There have been a few ups and downs,” she said. “If you don’t agree, get it out and say it and get it over with.”

Kapadia said the family’s closeness was an important factor in the surgery’s success.

“They are wonderful people,” he said. “Their son fought for them to be treated together as the only best option. Who would take care of the other one? It would have been a disaster for their family life.”

“But more than anything else, they wanted to live and celebrate and enjoy the last part of their life together.”

Source: http://www.today.com

By LAURA GEGGEL

For health care workers and researchers, wearing pressurized, full-body suits around Ebola patients may be counterproductive to treating the disease, say three Spanish researchers in a new letter published in the journal The Lancet. But other health experts, wary of wearing less protective gear, disagree.

Health agencies often require that health care workers caring for Ebola patients wear hazardous material (hazmat) suits that protect against airborne diseases. But the Ebola virus rarely spreads through the air, according to the researchers at the University of Valencia and Hospital La Paz-Carlos III, in Madrid.

Ebola is transmitted through contact with infected patients' secretions (such as blood, vomit or feces), and such contact can be prevented by wearing gloves and masks, the researchers wrote.

Wearing full-body protection gear is "expensive, uncomfortable, and unaffordable for countries that are the most affected," they said. It may also send the message that such protection against the virus is being preferentially given to health care workers and is out of reach to the general public, they wrote in their article. [Ebola Virus: 5 Things You Should Know].

Moreover, the image of health care workers in hazmat suits could lead to panic, causing people to flee the area and possibly spread the virus elsewhere, they added.

Instead, protective gear such as gloves, waterproof smocks, goggles, masks and isolated rooms may be enough to manage infected patients, so long as they are not hemorrhaging or vomiting, the letter said. "In control of infectious diseases, more is not necessarily better and, very often, the simplest answer is the best," the researchers wrote.

The current Ebola virus outbreak is the worst in history. It began in February 2014 in Guinea and has since infected people in Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, killing more than 1,500 people. Just 47 percent of infected patients have survived.

But other experts disagree with the researchers, saying a high level of protection against the virus is needed in places with struggling health care systems, including the countries in West Africa where the outbreak is raging.

"The authors have a point, but I don't think a very strong one," said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, who was not involved with the letter.

"It must indeed be unsettling for people to see folks in hazmat suits come into their communities," Schaffner told Live Science. "It's very foreign, and often increases their anxiety about events."

But it's better to err on the side of safety, he said. Because the Ebola virus does spread through contact with infected bodily fluids, if health care workers don't immediately clean up such excretions, it's possible these fluids could infect others not wearing appropriate protective gear.

Patients may also start vomiting or bleeding at any time, increasing the risk of infection for health care workers who are not wearing protective suits, he said.

"I would remind us that there are any number of health care workers, including Dr. [Kent] Brantly and Ms. [Nancy] Writebol, were using elaborate equipment in Africa and nonetheless became infected," Schaffner said. (Brantly and Writebol have both since recovered.)

In hospitals with cutting-edge technologies, such as Emory University Hospital, health care workers may not have to wear full-body suits for all Ebola patients, if the patients are on the mend, he said. If they are not displaying symptoms such as vomiting or bleeding, health care workers may be able to scale down their uniforms and use goggles and gloves in lieu of wearing hazmat suits, Schaffner said.

But "when you have a circumstance as hazardous as Ebola, it's important to be secure," Schaffner said.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com

Mary Lou doesn't know that she's being tracked.

The 77-year-old is in the middle stages of Alzheimer's and though she lives on her own, her family keeps close tabs on her. If she leaves her Washington D.C. home between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., a silent sensor on her front door texts her daughter an alert.

There is a sensor on each of Mary Lou's two key chains that detects when she goes outside her condo's grounds. A motion sensor in the kitchen helps monitor her eating habits, and another in the bedroom notes when she wakes up in the morning and catches any sleeping issues. There is even a flood sensor in the laundry room.

All the sensors are made by SmartThings and relay the information back to a small wireless hub. Her two daughters, who act as her caretakers, can monitor it all on a smartphone app and set up special notifications.

"It's kept her to the point where we haven't even had to have in-home care yet. Our goal is to keep her in her home for as long as possible," said her daughter Cathy Johnson.

Caregivers like Johnson are increasingly turning to smart-home technology and wearable devices to monitor family members with Alzheimer's and dementia, helping them live independently longer. One of the first things Alzheimer's patients lose is the ability to learn new things. It makes getting their bearings and adjusting to a new residence especially difficult. But living alone can pose its own dangers, such as leaving a stove on, wandering off or forgetting to take medication.

"Often, decisions about care are made when safety becomes an issue" said said Beth Kallmyer, vice president of constituent services for the Alzheimer's Association. Tools like these sensors "can allow people to feel more comfortable" and ease the transition.

Finding the right system

SmartThings is a DIY home automation system that connects sensors and smart devices with a wireless hub. In addition to sensors like those in Mary Lou's home, the system can loop in smart thermostats, smart plugs, door locks and surveillance cameras.

SmartThings is highly customizable and works easily with third-party sensors, which makes it appealing to people like Cathy Johnson. It also doesn't require a monthly fee, unlike many other systems. (Samsung recently purchased the company for $200 million.)

The elder care tech industry is still young, but Laurie Orlov, an industry analyst, predicts it could be a $20 billion business by 2020. This means that both startups and big-name brands are getting in on the action.

Lowe's, Home Depot, Best Buy, AT&T and Staples all have their own connected home systems and sell starter kits that you can expand by purchasing sensors à la carte.

Systems Lively and BeClose offer senior-specific accessories such as bed, toilet and pillbox sensors. GrandCare offers connected blood pressure, weight and glucose monitoring devices.

Wearable devices can also track health and behaviors, and built-in accelerometers can pick up on physical changes or tell when a wearer has fallen. Tempo is a wristband for seniors that picks up on lapses in routine or changes in gait that might indicate mental or physical deterioration. The device is due out this winter.

"Pet doors, water heaters, you name it we've either got it connected right now or we're in the process of connecting it," said Kevin Meagher, the vice president and general manager of Lowe's smart-home system, IRIS.

Watching without invading privacy

With any device that collects data, privacy can become an issue.

"We want to respect people's autonomy, respect their desire for how they want their care to go. One of the reasons we think people should get diagnosed early is so they can be a part of the conversation," said Kallmyer.

Phil D'Eramo chose to tell his parents about the Lively system he set up in their senior housing. He uses sensors to make sure they take their pills and tracks how many times his father goes to the bathroom at night, information that gets passed on to his doctor. His father, who has Alzheimer's, said it makes him feel more comfortable to know his son is monitoring him.

It helps that Lively includes a social element that appeals to seniors. Caregivers can upload photos, texts and notes to the Lively app from their phones, and once a month Lively will print out and mail the messages and photos to the seniors in a bright orange envelope.

"I compare it to the analog version of Facebook for seniors," said D'Eramo. "It helps them be connected to the digital social world."

The future of memory care

Connected home and wearable technology isn't enough to replace professional care or personal attention from family members. However, it can extend the amount of time a person is able to live independently, and the technology is constantly improving.

"We're just touching the surface of the technology," said D'Eramo. "I think in the future, the Lively base unit could interact with the person, almost like an electronic caregiver."

Source: http://www.cnn.com