Integrated Digital Pathology - no more microscopes?

At the Advances in Health Informatics Conference a few days ago, we saw several amazing presentations on digital pathology.  Dr. Slyvia Asa talked about integrated digital pathology with telepathology, robotics, and streamlined processes for diagnoses to the point of care - all with a rapid turn around time.  She quoted something by Sir William Osler, which I was able to find on the net for another talk she gave on pathology and informatics < here > and that was "As is your pathology, so goes your clinical care".  When Osler was a young student he used to study bacteria from a reedy marsh not far from where I am typing this, and examined it with the greatest new technological marvel of that age - the microscope.  Listening to Dr. Asa describe their integrated pathology labs at Toronto's University Health Network, it sounds like radiologists are exclusively using digital imaging to read pathological sample slices and make diagnosis.  This was evident to me as well when I visited an anatomy lab in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster, where the instructor showed us how digital imaging was being used more frequently than microscopes.  He took a picture of a human cardio sample with his iPad, and then displayed the image on a big screen.  He was able to zoom in with great detail on the pixels.  

To quote from this article by Dr. Asa:

The future of pathology will be reports that are comprehensive clinical consultations that incorporate all of the imaging, biochemical, histologic, molecular, cytogenetic, and epigenetic data. Pathologists will not have two screens in front of them; most will have four. And they won’t want that microscope at their desk because it’s not good for their neck.

So what I see in the year 2020 as pathology is digital radiology, digital endoscopy, digital cardiology, digital genetics, all the relevant information on my four-screen computer in front of me, wherever I happen to be, always with quality assurance as an important part of it, and as the center of personalized medicine.

Progress on Python Programming for Plone

I am trying at least to learn some Python programming, because it is the main programming behind the Plone content management system.  I have been given a site to manage and I would ideally like to extend the capability of the site, beyond just designing content using the built in CSS.  I am up to exercise 19 on the Python hard programming site.  I am more used to programming in Coldfusion and PHP but what I want to do with CF or PHP I have no clue right now with Plone or Python.  I just want to learn how to do some simple CRUD (create, read, update, delete) in Plone and Python.  If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know. I would like to start with uploading a CSV file exported from an Access database, then displaying the content in an edit/update form in Plone.  I learned how to create a feedback form in Plone, which was a fairly simple built in module, but I have not found out yet how to create a form creation utility through Zope.  I also don't have command line access to the Plone site, and have to work through an administration that charges by the hour for the service, so I need to get that right.  I have searched the internet for CRUD documentation on Plone, but the documentation is not easy to read or understand, so I am not sure if I need an Archetype or ContentMirror, or whatever.  But just now I googled "CRUD Python" and got an interesting result - < here >  The more I see this the more I miss CPANEL, PHPMyAdmin, or CFAdministrator and Dreamweaver.

White Coat Black Art eHealth

I saw Dr. Brian Goldman give a keynote address at eHealth 2011 in Toronto.  I missed getting a signed copy of his book - The Night Shift - but I took it out of the library later that week and enjoyed reading it.  His CBC radio program - White Coat Black Art -  is excellent.  I remember him saying at the conference that his pet peeve about ehealth technologies was too many usernames and passwords.  After all, he is an ER doctor, where every second counts, so having to remember dozens of usernames and passwords under time pressure, would be frustrating.  I don't know a solution off hand to that.  I know there is Open ID, but from my limited experience with hospital IT systems, and their privacy and security requirements, I can't see them using that.  There does have to be more privacy by design put into systems, for security reasons, but designers also need to think about patient safety - and I would argue that usernames and passwords is possibly an encumbrance to that in the ER.  

Futurememes and behind the enemy lines

Here are two blogs worth following:
http://futurememes.blogspot.ca/
The tag cloud alone is worth reading.


A computer scientist in a business school.
http://www.behind-the-enemy-lines.com/
The posts I have read so far have been quite startling! Heard about this from a colleague who was doing some research on crowdsourcing and Mechanical Turk.

Tricorder Project

The X Prize Foundation announced a Tricorder competition not long ago, but a McMaster graduate and  researcher has been working on one for quite some time. See Jansen Tricorder Project. I say just add a geiger counter feature and this will fly off the shelves the next time there is a nuclear error. Hat tip to the Hamilton Spectator for publishing this.

The dire need to improve healthcare and health in the U.S. is a problem whose solution has evaded the brightest minds. The Qualcomm Tricorder
X PRIZE is a $10 million competition to stimulate innovation and integration of precision diagnostic technologies, making definitive health assessment available directly to “health consumers.” These technologies on a consumer’s mobile device will be presented in an appealing, engaging way that brings a desire to be incorporated into daily life. Advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, wireless sensing, imaging diagnostics, lab-on-a-chip, and molecular biology will enable better choices in when, where, and how individuals receive care, thus making healthcare more convenient, affordable, and accessible. The winner will be the team that most accurately diagnoses a set of diseases independent of a healthcare professional or facility and that provides the best consumer user experience. Visit the competition website to learn more.

This prize is made possible by a generous grant from the Qualcomm Foundation.

TRICORDER is a trademark of CBS Studios, Inc. Used under license.

The Guardian Informatics Section

It would appear that the UK Guardian has a section on Health Informatics.  Quite interesting that this should be a "normal" section of one's daily reading.  Perusing the articles, you come across a series by the Patient from Hell - Dick Vinegar, who writes articles on EMR implementations, public health, the NHS, etc.

Sample Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence Weekly NewsFeed

Honeywell and Inmarsat to modernize global in-flight connectivity
Researchers boost efficiency of multi-hop wireless networks
Disruptive innovation — in education
Photoreceptor transplant restores vision in mice
New free online computer-science courses from Princeton, Stanford, UMich, Penn start Monday
Breakout Labs announces first grants to support radical scientific innovation
Brain-activated muscle stimulation restores monkeys’ hand movement after paralysis
How the presence of water changes the structure of an antibiotic
Low-cost mini-sensor measures magnetic activity in human brain
Nanomaterials offer new hope for cerebral palsy
Neal Stephenson on science fiction, building towers 20 kilometers high … and insurance
New microscope captures nanoscale structures in dazzling 3D
Serious Blow to Dark Matter Theories?
A statistical model of the network of connections between brain regions
Iris recognition report evaluates ‘needle in haystack’ search capability
Page, Cameron, Simonyi, Perot to back launch of new space venture to ‘ensure prosperity’
Spoiler alert: Your TV will be hacked
Fine-scale analysis of the human brain yields insight into its distinctive composition
Tim Berners-Lee tells U.K. that its latest snooping bill is ‘destruction of human rights’
Google Drive detailed: 5 GB for free, launching next week for Mac, Windows, Android and iOS
Nanotube electrodes may lead to solar cells at a fraction of the current cost
Nanocrystal-coated fibers might reduce wasted energy
Computer scientists build computer using swarms of crabs
Powerful X-ray technique reveals structure of printable electronics
Boron-treated carbon nanotubes soak up oil from water repeatedly
Scientists create nanoparticles that image brain tumors, increasing accuracy of surgical removal
Free videos for new iPad apps programming course at CMU now available
Fullerene C60 administration doubles rat lifespan with no toxicity
Designing the interplanetary Web
Mavericks invent future Internet where Cisco is meaningless
Homegrown labware made with 3D printer
Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google’s Sergey Brin
Is there a Japanese plan to evacuate 40 million people? [Disinformation]
Will a Dutch discovery lead to understanding dark matter and a real quantum computer? UPDATE APR 17
UCLA-engineered stem cells seek out and kill HIV in living organisms
New genes linked to brain size, intelligence
Baboons can learn to recognize words
Discovery could help to develop new drugs to treat organ transplant and cancer patients