Health Tech Hub Vol. 22 — Your Weekly Reads in Medicine and Health Tech
- When Heartbreak Causes Heart Attacks — Much has been made about risk factors for cardiac diseases, such as high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, and smoking. But what about the psychosocial dimension of cardiac health? Cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar advocates for a deeper investigation of the social and emotional features of cardiac disease.
However, this narrow focus on biological mechanisms has hurt patients. We have overused stents and pacemakers. We have moved away from the emotional heart to a narrow focus on the biomechanical pump. The American Heart Association still does not list emotional stress among the key modifiable risk factors for heart disease — perhaps in part because serum cholesterol is so much easier to reduce than emotional and social disruption. We need a better way, one that recognizes the power and importance of emotions that the heart — the metaphorical heart — was believed to house for millennia. Though we know today that the heart is not the repository of the affections, it nevertheless remains the physiological canvas upon which our emotions are most easily written.
More:
Sandeep Jauhar’s new book, Heart: A History (book)
A Review: Chronic Predictable Stressors vs. Chronic Unpredictable Stressors
2. The Apple Watch, a Tipping Point for Healthcare? — With the release of EKG-like capability on the latest Apple Watch, Apple has seemed to open the door for the possibility of mass adoption of healthcare screening consumer products.
By overcoming the arduous tasks of getting FDA clearance for consumer medical devices, it’s possible that healthcare wearables evolve into a mainstay in our culture. In addition, the article discusses the changing nature of FDA approval and their attempt to become more “lean” as progress in medical device development continues to ramp up.
It remains to be seen whether medical screening devices like the Apple Watch will lead to a large number of false positives and an increased strain on medical resources, or if the preventative diagnostic benefits lead to worthwhile outcomes.
More:
Article discussion on Y-Combinator/Hacker News
Cardiogram: A health monitoring startup in collaboration with UCSF
3. The importance of community engagement — After being able to sit-in on a couple of city meetings that invited members of the community to participate in discussions on city health, I realized the importance of actively providing members of the community a platform to voice their opinion on the ideas they care about. Instead of a top-down approach where experts knowingly shoot-off answers for community issues, it was powerful to see community members take the lead and offer insights about how the members of the community can work together to take better care of each other. Moving forward, I think that civic engagement will become among the most powerful tools for improving quality of health in underserved areas.
4. New Spinal Cord Treatment Helps Patients Get Back on Their Feet — After suffering a cervical spine injury while bodysurfing, Matt Wetschler became the first patient to undergo a new protocol for severe spinal injuries at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
The new protocol, which focuses on instant evaluation and proper interspinal blood perfusion maintenance, is now helping patients get back on their feet after severe spinal trauma.
Surgeons performed a laminectomy on the neck vertebrae C3 through C5, removing part of the vertebra bone to decompress the spinal cord. They also fused the C2 through C5 vertebrae to stabilize his neck.
About a month and a half after his surgery, Wetschler took his first steps using a walker.
“I cried,” he said. “It was very emotionally overwhelming. When something so meaningful is taken from you to get it back when it wasn’t certain, it’s beautiful.”
Within four months of the injury, Wetschler regained nearly all his motion control. He can walk over a mile without exhaustion, climb stairs, lift weights — and he’s working on his hand dexterity.
Bonus:
Book Recommendation: Systems Thinking For Social Change: A Practical Guide to Solving Complex Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting Results — As healthcare leaders think about creating solutions for future, a systems-thinking approach should be employed to account and plan for possible unforeseen challenges and outcomes.
Removing friction in EMR adoption — As a current medical scribe, I can see some of the advantages and frustrations that come along with mass adoption of the Electronic Medical Record. Moving forward, it does seem that having a dynamic electronic medical record that engages both the providers and the patients will create more opportunities for greater quality of care as improvements are continuously made to the system.
Curated by Genesis Dayrit
