MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Dr. Bernadine Healy, the first woman to lead the National Institutes of Health and the first physician to lead the American Red Cross died from recurring brain cancer died over the weekend.
She battled brain cancer for 13 years before passing away at her home in Gates Mills, Ohio on Saturday. She was 67 years old.
Read the full story from the New York Times.
Pacemakers: Light-controlled cardiac assistance
Pacemakers could be more precisely controlled by using a new technique that stimulates heart muscles with low-energy light rather than the traditional electric pulses.
"Electronic cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators are well established and successful technologies, but they are not without problems, including the breakage of metal leads, limited battery life and interference from strong magnetic fields," said senior author Emilia Entcheva. "Eventually, optical stimulation may overcome some of these problems and offer a new way of controlling heart function."
Read the press release from the American Heart Assn.
Deep brain stimulation leaves its mark after 10 years
Despite the gradual decline of some functions of the brain, deep brain stimulation improves motor function in Parkinson’s patients as much as 10 years beyond the initial implant date, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.
Read the press release from JAMA.
Can your dentist tell if you have diabetes?
Yes, and that may be a great help to the 25 percent of diabetics who go undiagnosed and risk complications like periodontal disease, according to the Journal of Dental Research.
Read the full story from the Wall Street Journal.
Brigham loses patient records
A doctor at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospital lost an external hard drive that holds an estimated 638 patient medical records. The doctor left the hard drive in a piece of luggage in a cab.
Read the full story from the Boston Herald.
