News
New point-of-care test may help tackle flu pandemics
Researchers have developed a fast and easy-to-use point-of-care diagnostic test that has the potential to stave off global flu pandemics. In a recent study, published in Analytical Chemistry, researchers used multiple steps in influenza detection including viral lysis, target protein capture, labelling, rinsing and an enzyme-driven colour change into a single point-of-care diagnostic device.
Researchers trained staff at Seattle Children's Hospital to use the device on 25 patients during a flu outbreak and it detected influenza A with 70% accuracy. The device, which researchers say costs less than $6 each, works by analyzing the contents of a cotton swab from inside a patient's nose. The swab is inserted into the device and is twirled for about 10 seconds to release the virus. The device then uses all of the other detection tools it contains to produce a visual readout that can be seen by the naked eye or captured with a smartphone camera in about 35 minutes.
Alberta Health plans delayed again for online patient portal
Albertans will be waiting at least until next year for the province to complete work on a secure online portal that will give patients access to their lab results, prescription records and other health information.
Health Minister Sarah Hoffman intervened earlier this year to halt the portal’s rollout until more "compatibility" and "functionality" could be added, the ministry said in a written statement. "It does appear that the former government did not anticipate how critical mobile compatibility would be in 2017, and how users expect tools like this to work the same as other applications they have on their phones."
Work on the complex project began almost a decade ago, back in 2008. The health ministry now says it hopes to release it to the public sometime during the 2018-19 fiscal year. The government has issued a request for proposals to find a vendor who can optimize the tool for cellphone users. It’s unclear how much this will cost. To date, $34.3 million has been spent on the project.
Show promotes health care studies
A multidisciplinary group of health care students from post-secondary institutions travelled to northern and rural communities around B.C. to showcase rural career opportunities to high school students as part of the Healthcare Travelling Roadshow. Dr. Sean Maurice, a senior lab instructor at UNBC with the Northern Medical Program, helped to create the Roadshow in 2010 and has been part of this special educational tour ever since. "It started as a small, grassroots initiative that was just students in the Prince George training program, and we’ve expanded to invite health care professional students from across the province, and this year, we are doing three trips," he explains.
"During our visits to the schools, we are speaking to students about careers in health care and giving them a first-hand look at different health-related equipment and technology," Maurice explains. "They have a chance to interact with model patients and learn everything from how to read an X-ray to how to take blood pressure and intubate." University of Alberta medical laboratory scientist Eric Querengesser was one of the Roadshow trainers. Interested students and even a few PSO teachers gathered around in groups to hear what he had to say about his lab tech work, before moving on to the next of several learning stations.
Video: Northern Routes: new paths to health professional education
Leadership
Preparing clinical laboratories for future pandemics
The rapid flourishing of the Ebola outbreak in 2014 caught clinical laboratories across the world off-guard, and exposed a general lack of preparedness to handle collection and testing of samples in patients with such a highly lethal infectious disease.
While the outbreak was largely limited to West Africa, fears in the United States became heightened in September of 2014 with the first reported imported case diagnosed in Texas. Most concerning to healthcare professionals was the subsequent news that two healthcare workers involved in caring for the Texas patient contracted Ebola virus disease in mid-October. Several questions quickly arose within the clinical laboratory community. Read the full article for a case study on how these were answered.
- Should clinical laboratories test specimens from patients with suspected or known Ebola virus disease in their main laboratory facilities, on instruments used for routine patient care, or should testing of these specimens be quarantined?
- What laboratory tests are necessary for adequate evaluation of patients with suspected or known Ebola virus disease?
- Should clinical laboratory personnel be allowed to opt out of collection, processing and/or testing of specimens potentially infected with Ebola virus due to concerns for personal safety?
- What level of personal protective equipment, or PPE, should be worn by clinical laboratory workers handling these specimens?
- How should specimens be transported for testing within the clinic/hospital or for shipment to outside testing facilities?
Leading a culture of safety: A blueprint for success
Patient safety experts and researchers have increasingly pointed to the role of organizational culture in the success of patient and workforce safety initiatives. Yet, creating a culture of safety in healthcare settings has proven to be a challenging endeavor, and there is a lack of clear actions for organizational leaders to take in developing such a culture.
Click the link to check out the "Leading a Culture of Safety: A Blueprint for Success" that was developed to bridge this gap in knowledge and resources by providing chief executive officers and other leaders with a useful tool for assessing and advancing their organization’s culture of safety.
This guide can be used to help determine the current state of an organization’s journey, inform dialogue with the board and leadership team, and help leaders set priorities. Whether an organization is just beginning the journey to a culture of safety or is working to sustain its safe culture, the guide can serve as a useful guide to direct efforts and evaluate an organization’s success along the journey to zero harm.
Transfusion Medicine
Blood test reveals type in 30 seconds with 99.9% accuracy
Chinese researchers claim to have invented an inexpensive point-of-care (POC), paper-based blood test that can determine a patient’s blood type in seconds and with nearly perfect accuracy.
"In our proof-of-concept experiment, we used the rapid reaction between albumin and BCG [bromocresol green dye] to substantially reduce the analytical time without compromising specificity and sensitivity," the researchers wrote in the study.
Dye-assisted paper-based test strips use immobilized antibodies and green dye for rapid and reliable blood grouping. A visual readout that changes colors reveals the different blood types. A teal square appears if an antigen is present, while a brown square appears if it is not.
When tested on 3,550 human blood samples the assay was 99.9% accurate. ABO antigens and five major Rh antigens could be detected within 30 seconds. More rare blood types were determined in less than two minutes without centrifugation.
The low-cost assay would be a boon in remote areas, war zones, and emergency departments by providing fast and reliable blood typing without the need for specialized clinical lab equipment, and by reducing demand on type-O blood supplies.
Microbiology
Year-long survey tracks the microbiome of a newly opened hospital
As the largest study of its kind, 12 months were spent mapping bacterial diversity within a hospital, focused on the flow of microbes between patients, staff and surfaces.
Research began two months before the University of Chicago Medicine opened its new hospital, the Center for Care and Discovery, on Feb. 23, 2013, and continued for 10 months afterward. The researchers collected more than 10,000 samples. They were able to detect microbial DNA in 6,523. These came from 10 patient care rooms and two adjoining nursing stations, one caring for surgical patients and the other, on a different floor, for cancer patients. The investigators swabbed each patient's hand, nostril and armpit, as well as the surfaces patients may have touched, such as bedrails or faucet handles. They collected additional room samples from multiple surfaces, including the floor and the air filter. Each room was cleaned daily, with a more extensive cleaning after each patient's discharge.
This study should help hospitals worldwide better understand how to encourage beneficial microbial interactions and decrease potentially harmful contact. Read the article to find out the unexpected results that were found.
Research
Regenerative medicine: Making blood stem cells in the lab
Researchers have been trying to develop reliable, lab-based methods for making the vital, blood-producing component of bone marrow: hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Two new studies by National Institute of Health (NIH) funded research teams bring us closer to achieving this feat. In the first study, researchers developed a biochemical "recipe" to produce HSC-like cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which were derived from mature skin cells. In the second, researchers employed another approach to convert mature mouse endothelial cells, which line the inside of blood vessels, directly into self-renewing HSCs. When these HSCs were transplanted into mice, they fully reconstituted the animals’ blood systems with healthy red and white blood cells.
These lab-derived HSCs already hold vast potential for screening new drug candidates for the treatment of blood disorders. While more work is needed to perfect making them and to evaluate their safety, these advances also stand as encouraging signs that adult stem cell therapies for people with various blood disorders could be achievable in the coming years.
Read more about it in the full article.
Scientists exploit Zika to kill brain cancer
In a revolutionary first, Cancer Research UK-funded scientists will test whether the Zika virus can destroy brain tumour cells, potentially leading to new treatments for one of the hardest to treat cancers. Dr Harry Bulstrode at the University of Cambridge has received a Cancer Research UK Pioneer Award to test the effect of the Zika virus on glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain tumour.
The team is fascinated by Zika’s ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, an elusive feat that most drugs can’t achieve. Indeed, Johns Hopkins researchers were among the first to prove that the Zika virus is capable of crossing both the placental barrier and the blood-brain barrier. Furthermore, in the brain, the virus targets cortical neural progenitor cells to make more of the virus. This is one of the mechanisms behind the microcephaly birth defects seen in babies born to Zika-infected mothers. But while the virus wreaks havoc in the developing fetal brain, the virus usually doesn’t do much in the adult brain. It is these attributes that can be exploited to treat glioblastomas, the most common and deadly form of primary brain cancer. "If we can learn lessons from Zika’s ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and target brain stem cells selectively, we could be holding the key to future treatments," said Bulstrode.
Simple saliva test for dementia 'shows promise' in bid to diagnose the disease early
A simple saliva test for early signs of dementia has shown promise, according to researchers. The non-invasive test uses small molecules in saliva to help identify those at risk from Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Stewart Graham of the Beaumont Research Institute in the US, said: "We used metabolomics, a newer technique to study molecules involved in metabolism… Our goal was to find unique patterns of molecules in the saliva of our study participants that could be used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in the earliest stages, when treatment is considered most effective."
The study participants included 29 adults in three groups: mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease and a control group. After specimens were collected, the researchers positively identified and accurately quantified 57 metabolites. The researchers found some of the observed variances in the biomarkers were "significant." From their data, they were able to make predictions as to those at most risk of developing Alzheimer’s. The researchers are now seeking additional funding to conduct a larger, three-year study with more participants to validate the pilot study which was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
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