Girls exposed to "electronic babies" more likely to become pregnant, study finds

Young girls exposed to electronic babies – designed to simulate the real experience of having a baby and discourage teenage pregnancy – were more likely to get pregnant, a study of Australian schools has found.

The landmark study, published in the Lancet, found that 17% of girls who used the dolls had become pregnant by the age of 20, compared with 11% of those who did not.

The electronic “Baby Think It Over” dolls were part of a Virtual Infant Parenting (VIP) program run in 57 schools in Western Australia, first implemented in 2003.

Similar programs, based on the US concept, are now delivered in 89 countries, despite there being no robust evidence of their effectiveness.

Researchers from the Telethon Kids Institute in Western Australia conducted a randomised control assessment of the VIP program and warn that the electronic babies may be an ineffective use of public funds.

Nearly 3,000 Western Australian schoolgirls aged 13 to 15 took part in the study.

Of the girls who became pregnant in the VIP group, 58% had abortions, compared with 60% of girls from the control group.

The lead investigator, Dr Sally Brinkman, said the study highlighted that even the most well-intentioned programs could have “unexpected consequences”.

“Australia has the sixth highest teen pregnancy rate out of 21 OECD countries and this study will help policymakers better tackle the issue,” she said.

Girls exposed to "electronic babies" more likely to become pregnant, study finds

Why Practice Fusion And Theranos Will Disrupt Lab Testing On Electronic Health Record Platforms

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Connectivity and integration are essential attributes which include value and increase the consumer knowledge when taking into consideration whether or not to adopt a specific electronic well being record (EHR) platform. While numerous sorts of EHRs can get the work completed, the path of least resistance to record, translate and integrate critical information defines a superior [...]

Why Practice Fusion And Theranos Will Disrupt Lab Testing On Electronic Health Record Platforms

Should the NHS give electronic cigarettes on prescription?

Some e-cigarettes will not be regulated and so could have unknown amounts of nicotine or other chemicals. Photograph: Garo/Phanie/Rex

Last week it was recommended by researchers that the NHS could start off prescribing e-cigarettes as a review finds them to be 60% much more efficient than nicotine substitute.

Euan Ferguson, Observer writer

The Observer needs to have a debate about whether the NHS need to prescribe e-cigarettes, and I, an ex-smoker, say no, and you, as a foremost spokesperson for the anti-smoking lobby, believe, potentially, it truly is a yes. Allow me set out my stall. I resented the smoking ban. I championed the right to smoke, and equally the rights of people to be offended by it taking place in their face – mine was a very dwell-and-allow-reside perspective, it is a large planet out there, and I could never fairly recognize the curtain-twitching intolerance on the element of either lobby. But what’s accomplished is carried out. The query now is ought to men and women be aided by the state to quit anything born of their own really human failings, namely an addiction. I feel not, any significantly less so than they need to assume help with gastric bands, or small breasts or willies. E-cigarettes – I curse them, but I have need to have of them – are a fantastic move towards “more healthy” smoking, but, let us encounter it, if you can afford to smoke or have smoked, you can afford to purchase a Ten Motives starter pack – about £14 – and a leading-up of five cartridges (£7) a couple of times a week. I do hope you disagree!

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Ash

Euan, I do disagree. Smoking prices are highest among the poorest and most disadvantaged in society. Youngsters developing up in properties exactly where their mothers and fathers smoke are 3 occasions as likely to smoke themselves, so this is a disadvantage passed down from generation to generation. Smoking is largely an addiction of childhood, not an grownup decision. Latest study appears to display that smokers are obtaining electronic cigarettes valuable in quitting, much more helpful than nicotine replacement treatment purchased more than the counter, and that is wonderful. Even so, smokers who get medication on prescription and help from the NHS end smoking companies are far far more profitable than if they consider to quit cold turkey or purchase nicotine items in excess of the counter. In addition, electronic cigarettes are at present really lightly regulated so their security and efficacy is not assured. We’d like to see them regulated as medicines to guarantee they are excellent high quality and so they can be manufactured available on prescription. Quitting smoking is vital for good quality and quantity of existence. Long-phrase smoking can shed you a decade or a lot more of life, plus several many years of unpleasant ill overall health beforehand from cancers, heart illness and strokes, often with lungs so destroyed by smoking that you struggle to draw breath for many years just before you die. These are not matters of private taste like the size of your breasts or your willy, but matters of daily life and death.

EF Deborah. With respect, I disagree profoundly with your contention that smoking is largely an addiction of childhood, not an grownup selection. This imposes not only a guilty burden on the mother or father but also a concatenate denial of children’s free of charge will as they mature, which increasingly they are not permitted to do. All the smokers I know started late. Some via an try to increase a personality, others by means of peer-group strain: but every through forgivable stupidity.

I am supremely conscious of the reality that smoking prices are highest among the poorest and most disadvantaged. Wealthy men and women have much more beauty to live for: when you are bad, less so.

A huge element of the difficulty is that for numerous years we have had so many bloody people lecturing us about stopping smoking who, crucially, didn’t, ever, smoke. Gums and patches had been never going to function, fail as they ever did to get into account the good tube-thing, in the fingers: it truly is not just the nicotine addiction, it really is the breaking of habits.

Nicotine is the most addictive of all medication. By rights, Marx ought to have written “religion is the nicotine of the people” and not let opium have a appear-in. So allow us, for now, have our fake cigarettes and our nicofix – but, rather please, allow us shell out for it. We’re utilized to it, inured to it, and will not want to even more upset the horses.

DA This is not an “either/or” alternative. Electronic cigarettes would nevertheless be accessible on common sale for smokers and ex-smokers like you to get. All I am arguing is that they should also be offered, where they meet the essential requirements, on prescription for smokers. Assist to quit smoking by means of the NHS is amongst the most cost-powerful [pdf] healthcare interventions there is. This is since smoking is so deadly that even although not all smokers do well in quitting, even with NHS help, the positive aspects for those that do are substantial. It truly is also 1 of the number of treatments that does not conform to the inverse care law, so that poorer more disadvantaged smokers are a lot more, not less, very likely to use NHS aid to quit. Supplying effectively regulated electronic cigarettes on prescription would make them accessible free of charge to the poorest smokers who locate it hardest to quit. I can not realize why you would be against that.

One hundred thousand smokers die prematurely in the Uk each 12 months, with 20 instances as several suffering from conditions induced by smoking. The numbers of youngsters taking up smoking have dropped dramatically but it’s nonetheless hundreds a day, 1000′s a week. This continues to be an epidemic of epic proportions and demands to be taken care of as this kind of.

EF I appreciate hugely your goodwill in in search of to comprehend and defend what you know is a loathsome habit. Value-effectiveness is developing more and more vital in the NHS, and a successful ex-smoker can dwell a vital lifestyle. But you know Britain, and its stubborn waywardness. Supplying correctly regulated electronic cigarettes on prescription would without a doubt conserve lives, a great number of, but there would be an equal amount who would rebel, just because they can. It really is part of the odd elegance of this nation, that we have a tendency to not like becoming advised what to do. And I reiterate: any smoker, no matter how poor, can afford replacement e-cigarette treatment: it functions, just about, it’s more affordable than true smoking, and the tars and harmful toxins are avoided. By all implies please press ahead with a drive for high quality regulation – but I strongly suspect that a lot of smokers are fairly aware of their personal fault, their own addiction, and would prefer to workout cost-free will, the free of charge will to not smoke, or not to be obese, or not be an alcoholic, rather than undergo a type of infantilisation.

DA You say that any smoker no matter how poor can afford to purchase electronic cigarettes. E-cigarettes are not inexpensive and creating high quality assured products available on prescription will inspire more smokers to get help from the NHS and so conserve lives. It makes no sense to say that due to the fact items are offered on prescription smokers will be put off employing them because they come to feel infantilised. The NHS exists to supply large quality, free healthcare at the level of want. Really rightly, it does not make moral judgments about people

I am an ex-smoker. A lot more usually than you I had my first cigarette when I was 10, and was a typical smoker before I left college. Two thirds of smokers are like me, they begin ahead of 18, which is why I say it truly is an addiction of childhood. Like most smokers I tried to quit several times. The notion that smokers pick freely to smoke is a unsafe illusion that is fostered by the tobacco industry. For some people quitting can be easy, but for most it is a struggle just request the smokers who are dragging their drips behind them outdoors any hospital.

Should the NHS give electronic cigarettes on prescription?

Past wearables: electronic implants could remedy illness

Devices such as hearing aids can already be charged using near-field waves, but the technology has a limited range and cannot be used to power implants buried deep in brain, heart or other muscle tissue.

Researchers claim that their findings could lead to new implants that will help to cure or manage diseases, but also sensors to monitor vital functions, electro-stimulators to change neural signals in the brain and drug delivery systems to apply medicines directly to affected areas.

“We need to make these devices as small as possible to more easily implant them deep in the body and create new ways to treat illness and alleviate pain,” said Poon.

William Newsome, director of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute, said Poon’s work created the potential to develop “electroceutical” treatments as alternatives to drug therapies.

He said such treatments could be more effective than drugs because implantable devices would directly target specific areas, unlike drugs which act globally throughout the body.

“To make electroceuticals practical, devices must be miniaturised, and ways must be found to power them wirelessly, deep in the brain, many centimetres from the surface,” said Newsome. “The Poon lab has solved a significant piece of the puzzle for safely powering implantable microdevices, paving the way for new innovation in this field.”

What could ‘electroceuticals’ cure?

1. Parkinson’s
2. Epilepsy
3. Pain relief
4. Depression
5. Heart failure

Past wearables: electronic implants could remedy illness

Electronic cigarettes may encounter public ban in Wales

Electronic cigarettes are used virtually exclusively by recent and ex-smokers, the group Ash says. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

Wales could be the very first portion of the Uk to ban smoking e-cigarettes in enclosed public spaces.

The Welsh health minister, Mark Drakeford, stated officials had been contemplating a ban amid concerns that the items could “re-normalise” the use of conventional cigarettes.

He mentioned there had been also issues that their spread could undermine the ban on tobacco smoking in enclosed public spaces, generating it far more tough to enforce.

“We have invested 30 years … creating a climate in this country in which folks understand that smoking is not something that is to be regarded as glamorous or desirable. We are concerned that e-cigarettes might reverse that tide,” he told BBC Radio 4′s These days programme.

“We are concerned that they may act as a gateway to standard cigarettes. It includes nicotine, it is hugely addictive, and you may well then find it less complicated to move on to standard cigarettes.”

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the well being charity Ash, mentioned: “The concern that electronic cigarettes may possibly be a gateway into smoking is understandable.

“Even so, this is not borne out by the evidence so far from England, the place our investigation exhibits that their use is practically with out exception only amongst present and ex-smokers.

“There is expanding proof that they are successful in assisting smokers quit, and this is to be welcomed.

“We’re pleased that the Welsh government is consulting on regardless of whether to ban their use in enclosed public spots as it is critical to consider account of the proof before going ahead.”

Electronic cigarettes may encounter public ban in Wales

Electronic Overall health Records - High-priced, Disruptive And Right here To Stay

Though workers shortages and rising require for care are time consuming for providers and add responsibilities, the genuine culprit of lost operate time, particularly for Emergency Room physicians, is electronic health data (EHR). The require to make positive each and every interaction is digitally recorded for a patient’s personalized archive is a necessity of strengthening care and long term regulation, nonetheless it is also disruptive to overall health providers and techniques spanning the country. Jonathan Handler, MD, FACEP, Chief Healthcare Data Officer at M*Modal says that present day EHRs are frequently overly targeted on data entry and generally offer poorly designed data displays with rudimentary functions for browsing and organizing patient data. The data entry steals doctor time away from direct patient care, and that is what’s driving doctor dissatisfaction.” EHRs are also exceptionally expensive, occasionally costing millions in technological innovation, training and misplaced time, as effectively as presently remaining incomplete. Despite claims from the Secretary of Wellness and Human Providers that wonderful progress has been manufactured, other federal agencies assert that there is a prolonged way to go and measurements for EHR achievement are extremely hard. However, with  and federal needs to comply, EHRs are not going anywhere.

Government Push For EHR

Even the Government Accountability Workplace (GAO) has taken a swipe at the incentive program for EHRs claiming it lacks an capacity to demonstrate purpose achievement for improving care. GAO specifically stated that there wants to be far better approach for establishing reliability in clinical quality measures, which will be essential in the 2nd stage of Meaningful Use (MU), specifically since 

Even so, according to the Secretary of Overall health and Human Solutions Kathleen Sebelius, “We have reached a tipping level in adoption of electronic health records. Much more than half of eligible professionals and 80% of eligible hospitals have adopted these programs, which are crucial to modernizing our wellness care system.” While these numbers are fantastic achievements in contrast to past reports of compliance, adopting a new engineering method and making use of it effectively are extremely various.

Despite the government attempting to incentivize usage of EHRs in all care settings, the burden on physicians and health system staff is posing challenges beyond expectations. One particular of the beneath-told stories from the digitizing of patient information is the burden computerized documentation areas on medical doctors. They are getting tasked with better information entry, and much less with analysis and care. This goes past anecdotes – a recent report from Rand, in partnership with the AMA, factors to dissatisfaction with the current model and requirements as a significant location of concern for doctors.

Hospital techniques and administrators are also concerned that unintended consequences of developing pains connected with EHR compliance could avert them from getting chosen by well being ideas, managed care strategies and shared-risk organizations. Given that these entities will be looking for robust track information of EHR value-efficient usage and potential ICD-ten utilization, numerous suppliers on the finding out curve could be left behind.

A Bumpy Path For Companies

The worldwide EHR market is expected to attain $ 22.3 billion by the end of 2015, with the North American market alone accounting for $ ten.one million, or 47%. With that variety of anticipated – and regulated – growth, there is a important need to make the transition much less taxing on the doctor so they can see and get benefit of the benefits, which consist of much better population and patient-degree knowing of ailment and care utilization.

US health care groups’ adoption of EHR (2005) (Photograph credit score: Wikipedia)

A Rand report also mentioned that well being care providers that supplement quick-term solutions like transcription experts or movement managers were useful and value saving at the time. This lends hope that the up coming generation of engineering offerings this kind of as speech technology, Google Google Glass, and innovations nevertheless uncovered could make inputs simpler and the target on information output and utilization much more appealing.

Even so, Judy Murphy, RN and deputy national coordinator for packages and policy at the Workplace of the National Coordinator (ONC) tells AHIMA that  One of the things we’re undertaking with acquiring EHRs set up is that we’re setting up the capabilities and electronically exchanging the data so we can generate a patient-centric record.”

However, that is simpler said that carried out. Just like dropped calls, shifts to cell phones, outgrowing contracts, geographic barriers and interoperability issues plagued telephone service, initial adopter difficulties will lead to underperforming programs. Use of EHRs is increasing swiftly, but tweaks will be essential for a along time.

Paving The Way Via Innovation

 This leaves suppliers two possibilities – continue the path of anguish or try out to at least do anything about it so that physicians truly use the EHR methods in which they have invested.

While EHR’s are nevertheless operating in direction of interoperability, clinical imaging has charged forward with vendor neutral archive (VNA) technological innovation. VNA systems archive clinical photos in a vendor neutral format, offer imaging workflow, and accessibility to all clinical pictures throughout the enterprise from the EHR. Jon Hamdorf, Director of Worldwide VNA Answers for Perceptive Computer software believes, “VNA technology delivers on the guarantee of information ownership which is the foundation of interoperability. Patient data requirements to grow to be a lot more available in a lot more dynamic techniques to support new versions of care.”

According to Dr. Handler the solution is basic, “Computers need to have to do function for physicians rather than producing physicians do work for the computer. Technologies must make it faster and easier for the treating doctor to see relevant info, to document a useful patient story, and to make the very best care decisions”. He believes this can be achieved by means of various means such as single indicator-on, biometrics, speech recognition, normal language comprehending, personal computer-assisted physician documentation, advanced information visualizations, predictive analytics, and other modern technologies. “By supplementing EHRs with these modern technologies, we can enhance physician adoption and ease the burden of EHR entry,” contends Dr. Handler.

Electronic Overall health Records - High-priced, Disruptive And Right here To Stay

Syrian Electronic Army Was Right here

I’ve been doing work as the Social Media Editor and a personnel writer at Forbes since October 2011. Prior to that, I worked as a freelance author and contributor right here. On this weblog, I emphasis on futurism, cutting edge technology, and breaking investigation. Comply with me on Twitter – @thealexknapp. You can electronic mail me at aknapp@forbes.com

Syrian Electronic Army Was Right here