THE DAILY WARM UP:

One Joke: 

Is “buttcheeks” one word?

🤔 🤔 🤔 

Or should they be spread apart?

One Fact: 

The US spends nearly $13,000 per person annually on healthcare.  The next closest country is Germany, which spends only $7,400 per person.

One Quote:

“When you love someone, the best you can offer is your presence.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh

One Guess…Name That Disease: 

• Description:  Condition involving low platelet count triggered by administration of a particular anticoagulant.

• Signs and Symptoms:  Most affected individuals don’t have clinically relevant drop in platelet count, so they don’t experience symptoms.  The most common symptom is clotting.  Systemic reaction and skin rash may occur.

• Pathophysiology: Caused by formation of antibodies that activate platelets, which activates thrombin, leading to clot formation.  Counts drop 5-14 days after the first dose of the triggering medication.  

• Diagnosis:  Largely based on clinical grounds.  Antibody testing can help confirm suspected diagnosis.   

• Treatment:  Withdrawal of offending blood thinner and substitution with an alternative anticoagulant to suppress clotting tendency. 

**Trivia Answer: Click HERE to find out!

HEALTHCARE HEADLINES…flex your knowledge at work:

** Kids are going to the ER in record numbers due to intoxication from THC containing gummies.  The now federally legal hemp-derived cannabis candies lead to hundreds of calls a month to poison control centers, with children experiencing symptoms including vomiting, dizziness, rapid heart rate, confusion, and breathing difficulty.  Little is known about how hemp-derived chemicals affect the developing brain.

** Researchers are getting closer to being able to inject viruses into the body that can alter healthy immune T-cells and allow them to fight against cancer.  Current CAR-T treatment is prohibitively expensive and difficult, requiring T-Cells to be removed from a patient, engineered to target the appropriate diseased cells, and reintroduced to the body.  

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POTPOURRI…fun facts and conversation starters:

** Year in Review: Check out Medium’s 52 Things I Learned in 2023.  Favorites include the fact that the US Defense Department earns $100 million/year operating slot machines on military bases.  Also, contrary to what you may think, US job satisfaction is at a 35 year high post-pandemic due largely to improvements in work/life balance and the performance review process.  

** Year in Podcasts:  Wondering what podcasts dominate the 2023 power ranking?  Look no further and give them a try!

FOCUS ON INNOVATION…a look at emerging health technologies:

How many of us grew up watching The Magic School Bus and wondered what it would be like to track our bodies from the inside out?

A digital health company, Celero Systems, is making it possible to do just that with its electronic pill that makes its voyage through your digestive system over one week just like normal food.  The tiny multivitamin sized device is fitted with a variety of sensors, a microprocessor, a radio antenna, and batteries that make it possible to record data and potentially trigger appropriate clinical responses to that information unlike ever before.  

The device measures heart rate, breathing, core temperature, GI motility, and movement.  The clinical applications are tantalizing:

• Combat opioid overdose by detecting changes in breathing pattern and releasing potentially life saving drugs such as naloxone when respiratory distress is detected.  

• Improve the diagnosis of sleep disorders, with a small clinical trial showing the device was as accurate as the current standard, polysomnography.

• Home monitoring of patients with cardiac problems or severe COPD, potentially detecting any life threatening irregularities in bodily function and prompting emergency medical services.

Given that over 100,000 people die from opioid overdose each year in the US, the life saving possibilities of this new technology is something even Ms. Frizzle couldn’t help but appreciate.  

THANKS FOR READING!

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