Patient

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday directing federal agencies to protect abortion access and the online privacy of patients seeking reproductive healthcare following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The order’s primary directives prompt the Department of Health and Human Services to expand access to emergency contraception and long-acting birth control devices like IUDs. But it also calls on HHS and the Federal Trade Commission to take steps to protect the sensitive health data…

God of War: Ragnarok fans are eagerly awaiting news about the highly anticipated sequel, and now producer Cory Barlog has asked fans to "please, be patient."Writing on Twitter, Barlog said the decision on when to show or discuss more of Ragnarok is not up to him. "If it were up to me, I would share all the information when I know about it. But it is not up to me," he said. "So please, be patient. I promise things will be shared at the earliest possible moment they can be."He added: "We make games for you.…

About 33 of the top 100 hospitals in the US are sending sensitive patient data to Facebook, now known as Meta, via a tracking tool installed on their websites, according to a media report.Whenever a person schedules a doctor's appointment, the tracker called the Meta Pixel sends Facebook data -- which includes details of medical conditions, prescriptions, and doctor's appointments, The Markup reported. Meta Pixel was also installed inside the password-protected patient portals of seven health systems. Collectively, 33…

You can’t see them, but Meta’s trackers are embedded in millions of websites all over the internet, collecting data about where you go and what you do and sending it back to Meta. A recent investigation shows that those trackers are on sites that even the most cynical among us might expect to be off-limits: those belonging to hospitals, including patient portals that are supposed to be protected by health privacy laws. This week, the Markup, a nonprofit news outlet that covers technology’s harms, has been publishing…

Organ transplants can quite literally save lives, but they also come with strings attached – often including a lifetime of immunosuppression drug treatments required to keep the immune system in check, lest it reject the transplanted organ as a foreign invader.  Now scientists are reporting on three successful kidney organ transplants, carried out in children in California, without the need for immune suppression. The transplants used a new method that minimizes the risk of the new kidney getting rejected.This means…

A surgeon who just a decade ago was celebrated around the globe as a pioneer in stem cell transplants has been convicted of one count of “causing bodily harm,” a felony, in a Swedish court. The district court in Solna today found Paolo Macchiarini not guilty on other charges, including aggravated assault, that could have carried prison sentences of up to 4 years, relating to three patients he treated while working for the famed Karolinska Institute (KI). The court said the penalty…

Research from the University College London and the University of Sheffield has shown that robot-assisted surgery for bladder cancer removal and repair allows patients to recover much faster and spend considerably less time in the hospital.A new study has found that robotic surgery is less dangerous and has a faster recovery period for patientsRobotic surgery, also known as robot-assisted surgery, enables surgeons to conduct a variety of complicated operations with more precision, flexibility, and control than traditional…

In what appears to be a very promising breakthrough for the treatment of rectal cancer, a small drug trial conducted in the US found every patient treated in the experiment had their cancer successfully go into remission.  The medication given, called dostarlimab and sold under the brand name Jemperli, is an immunotherapy drug used in the treatment of endometrial cancer, but this was the first clinical investigation of whether it was also effective against rectal cancer tumors.The early results reported so far suggest it…

Chemotherapy is an incredible tool for annihilating cancer cells, but our regular cells end up in the crossfire, which can result in life-altering side effects.Chemotherapy or chemo for short is not always required for successful treatment either, but how to tell if someone requires it can be both an art and a science. Now, a new study provides clinicians with a technique that has already helped some stage II colon cancer patients avoid chemo, with no change to their clinical outcomes.  The technique employed in this…

There may soon be new hope for patients born with genetic defects that leave them with misshapen or missing ears. A new human clinical trial will test an implant known as AuriNovo, which uses a 3D-bioprinted ear grown from the patient’s own cells.Microtia is a birth defect that affects the external part of a baby’s ear. This can range from a minor deformation that might be barely noticeable, to more severe forms where the ear is just a small lump of cartilage, or missing entirely. It can affect one or both ears, and in…