Quicksilva thoughts...

Many of us will welcome the introduction of stark visual warnings on cigarette packets to illustrate the harsh reality of the effects smoking will have on the long term health of smokers – approximately 87,000 will die prematurely each year as a result, quite a disturbing statistic. Is life not as precious to some as it is to others? Evidence suggests that these morbid images will be more effective on plain packets, so if the government implements legislation to remove all branding from cigarettes packaging, they will hopefully prove to be a very powerful tool in discouraging people from smoking. If just one person gives up smoking as a result, then surely they have to be worth a shot?

Quicksilva thoughts...

This is an exciting development in computer-aided detection using artificial intelligence techniques, which if implemented correctly could leverage both improved cancer-patient survival rates and crucial savings for the NHS.

Development of these systems requires an initial outlay, however long term gains will be realised in either the saving of health professional resource or increased sampling and detection rates, or even both.

This technology will be life-saving - increasing the numbers and range of patients being scanned will have a marked impact on detection rates, providing that all important early diagnosis which is so crucial to patient survival.

Computers don’t get tired. They don’t get distracted. They don’t take holidays. They don’t get ill. They simply provide reliable, scalable, consistent analysis, crucial to cancer diagnosis. Improvements in software development can only lead to them eventually superseding the human diagnosis, becoming the clinician of choice in the future.

Technologies like these are a huge step forward, and should be promoted throughout the NHS. Notwithstanding the accuracy and scalability that these systems provide, their efficiency-savings must be very welcome news to an NHS deciding which cancer drugs it can afford...

Quicksilva thoughts...

The possibilities of nanotechnology are endless. With nanoparticles being so small (between 1 and 100 nanometres) there is great interest in the potential of their use in biomedical, optical, electronic fields and even cosmetics.

This new research shows that they can breach the skin and enter our bodies. In the future this could mean tiny nanoparticles could enter the bodies and be used to fight diseases and break down tumors.

There is an important question about safety though. This paper does not look into the long term risks of nanoparticles entering your body and certainly there is a risk that someone could create malicious nanoparticles.

For the moment though, nanoparticles have been seen creeping into everyday cosmetic products, such as sunscreen and lip gloss. As research continues into future uses of these miniscule particles, responsibility lies heavily on the scientists involved.

There must be future investigations into the possible long term effects they can have on a human body as well as a way they can be prevented from breaching the skin before irreversible damage is done.

Quicksilva thoughts...

My first question is why was this study carried out only on teenage males? Within the news articles today, I believe you see an equal level of males and females involved in thuggish activity and therefore I firstly think this article is quite biased and will get a certain quantity of readers backs up.

The use of drugs to tackle the problem? If this solution continues to be used for any and every problem, we will more than likely be in a world that sees more violence and bad behaviour as individuals become immune and require higher dosages etc... What happened to preventative cures?

Maybe, the solution is not to provide youths with ammunition (as it were) by engulfing them in situations where they feel that not only thuggish behaviour is the answer, but is the norm...

I say ban those violent computer games and E-numbers!

Quicksilva thoughts...

Employees who take long spells of sick leave for circulatory or psychiatric problems for surgery are at an increased risk of dying early, says a new study. Jenny Head from University College London and colleagues investigated whether the reason for sickness absence improved the prediction of death compared with overall sickness absence irrespective of diagnosis.

I'm a great believer in the use of various predictive tools that are being deployed within the health service, for example, identifying people that are at risk of re-hospitalisation. When our personnel department doesn't accept my own death as a reason for not coming into work but ask for two weeks notice to train my replacement I'll know things are going a little too far!