by medicaltechont | Sep 26, 2015 | Technology
Terry Fox called it his Marathon of Hope, and he wanted it to raise both attention to and money for cancer research. This remarkable young man, who was only 21 years old when he set out from St. John’s, Newfoundland, was handsome, articulate and sure of himself. His goal was to raise one million dollars.
Sure, people had run marathons before, but attempting to run across Canada with an artificial leg was audacious. Terry was both audacious and determined. This edition of Rewind goes back to 1980. You’ll hear how the run started and took off with a dip of Terry’s foot in the Atlantic Ocean, through the rough early days, the days of discouragement and fatugue, then on to the growing awareness amongst Canadians of his cause, the support and adulation he attracted and then finally to the days of heartbreak.
In April of 1980, Terry was preparing to start his epic cross-country. He talked to Ted Withers of CBC Radio News about how he’d lost his leg, how he’d reached the decision to run across the country and how he wanted to both raise money for cancer research and be an example to other people with disabilities.
Terry Fox 35 Years Later
by medicaltechont | Jul 26, 2015 | Technology
People who suffer from celiac disease may not need to avoid pasta forever: scientists are developing a pill that would allow them to eat gluten.
Scientists at the University of Alberta are working on a pill made from chicken egg yolks that could help people with celiac disease digest gluten, Quartz reports.
Click here to read more.
by medicaltechont | Jul 25, 2015 | Technology
Scientists have developed an interactive tool to help researchers and clinicians explore the genetic underpinnings of cancer.
The tool – Mutation Annotation and Genome Interpretation (Magi) – is an open-source web application that enables users to search, visualise, and annotate large public cancer genetic datasets, including data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project.
“Magi lets users explore these data in a regular web browser and with no computational expertise required,” said Max Leiserson, lead developer of the tool.
In addition to viewing TCGA data, it also allows users to upload their own data and compare their results to those in the larger databases.
Over the last decade, researchers working with TCGA have sequenced genes from thousands of tumours and dozens of cancer types in an effort to understand which mutations contribute to the development of cancer.
At the same time, as sequencing has gotten faster and cheaper, individual researchers have begun sequencing samples from their own studies, sometimes from just a few tumours.
Click here to read more.
by medicaltechont | Jul 20, 2015 | Technology
During the Cold War, back when Richard “Dickie” George was a mathematician at the National Security Agency, security meant something different than it does today. The foes knew one another well. And if there was plenty of skulduggery to go around, at least there were some recognizable rules of engagement.
“Back when it was us and the Soviets, there was about one big espionage event every 10 years,” he said, speaking at theHealthcare IT News Privacy & Security Forum in Chicago on Tuesday.
In the 21st Century, the threat landscape is very, very different, said George, now a senior advisor for cybersecurity atJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/healthcare-adjusts-life-hacker-target
by medicaltechont | Jul 18, 2015 | Technology
The four-hospital UCLA Health System on Friday notified a staggering 4.5 million of its patients that their protected health information and Social Security numbers were compromised following one of the largest HIPAA breaches ever reported.
Despite the cyberattack having occurred nearly a year ago, in September 2014, officials did not notify patients until July 17. UCLA first detected suspicious activity on its networks back in October 2014, according to a company statement.
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/hackers-swipe-data-45m-ucla-health-system-massive-cyberattack
