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Organ Donation Map Highlights UK Variations
While Lands End and John O"Groats may be poles apart geographically they"re side by side when it comes to generosity.
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What Is Herpes? What Is Genital Herpes?
Genital herpes is a sexually transmitted infected caused by HSV (herpes simplex virus). This virus affects the genitals, the cervix, as well as the skin in other parts of the body. There are two types of herpes simplex viruses: a) HSVp1, or Herpes Type 1, and b) HSV-2, or Herpes Type 2.
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New York Doctors Race To Abide By In-Office Surgery Rules
"A New York State law that takes effect on July 14 has physicians who perform office-based surgery scrambling to upgrade their offices or find new space altogether," The New York Times reports. The Patient Protection Bill, "signed into law by Gov. Eliot Spitzer in July 2007, is intended to ensure high safety standards in offices when surgery and other invasive procedures are conducted with more than minimal sedation" and is "the first time that New York State will regulate office-based surgeries." Doctors may need to modify their office space with "larger elevators, improved ventilation, backup power equipment with the ability to run for a longer period and other mechanical accommodations." But "since some medical offices cannot be physically adapted to meet accreditation requirements, especially in Manhattan, many physicians have been seeking new office space." This can be difficult in the city, where there is "a dearth of recently built medical office space." Claire Pospisil, "a spokeswoman with the New York State Department of Health, said the state did not know how many medical offices were conducting operations; this was one reason for the new law." She estimates that "70 or 75 percent of medical offices in New York City and Long Island do these surgeries."
Diagnostics

Calypso Medical Study Shows Potential For Improving Radiotherapy Treatment Accuracy Of Deadly Pancreatic Tumors

Calypso Medical Technologies, Inc., announced the publication of data from a clinician sponsored investigational study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, demonstrating the utility of the Calypso® System in tracking tumor movement in the pancreas. The data will be presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), July 26-30, at the Anaheim Convention Center. "In areas of the body, such as the pancreas, that are susceptible to respiratory motion it can prove difficult to handle the spectrum of motion that can arise," said James Metz, M.D., Clinical Director, Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Pennsylvania Health System. "The Calypso System successfully tracks such motion and enables us to address it as it occurs. We are very excited that our time response study shows the promise of expanding the use of Calypso"s GPS for the Body® technology to other anatomical areas." Pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancers due to the advanced stage at which most patients are diagnosed, strikes over 42,000 Americans each year according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). Additionally, in 2009 over 35,000 people will die from pancreatic cancer in the United States alone. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) lists the one year survival rate at 24 percent and the five year survival rate just one percent. The Calypso System is the only product platform that provides real-time tumor tracking during radiation treatment. Tracking tumor motion is critical for radiation treatments because gross patient movement or internal motion of the organ and tumor increases the likelihood that the radiation beam will miss the intended target thereby delivering radiation to the surrounding healthy tissue. Calypso Medical"s proprietary technology utilizes miniature transponders implanted in the diseased organ to provide accurate, precise, continuous real-time information about the tumor position during external beam radiation therapy. Knowing the location of the tumor target allows the therapist to adjust the delivery of the radiation beam to accurately target the cancer. Currently, the Calypso System is cleared by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for use in radiation therapy for the prostate and prostatic bed; however, the technology is also designed for body-wide applications. In addition to the promise of using the Calypso System for pancreatic targets, an independent investigation conducted at Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle will be featured in an oral presentation in which researchers demonstrated the feasibility of using Calypso technology for tracking during accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) treatments. With APBI, a balance is required to ensure that the whole lumpectomy cavity and the surrounding tissue are treated while minimizing the volume of breast tissue that is irradiated. The Calypso System recorded relevant intrafraction motion, or the amount the target moves during radiation treatments. Monitoring and accounting for this motion not only allows confidence that the target is being hit, but could provide physicians the confidence to pursue tighter margins to reduce the amount of the breast that is irradiated. "The scientific investigations of our technology into new treatment areas that have traditionally been associated with a poor prognosis is particularly gratifying," said Eric R. Meier, president and chief executive officer of Calypso Medical. "Today"s announcement demonstrates the feasibility of our technology to extend beyond the prostate to track real-time tumor movement in other body locations even those organs like the pancreas that are susceptible to respiratory motion." In total, sixteen studies involving Calypso will be presented at the AAPM meeting and represent a mix of work highlighting the promise the technology holds for future applications as well as demonstrating the value of the Calypso System for current use in real-time tracking of the prostate and the prostatic bed during prostate cancer treatment. According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the leading cancer in men in the Untied States with 192,000 new cases diagnosed each year. It is also the most common location for radiation therapy in the body. Since the radiation beam is more precisely focused on the tumor target, Calypso"s technology allows physicians who are treating prostate cancer patients to more tightly contour the radiation dose to the prostate and minimize unwanted does to adjacent healthy tissues. The Calypso Medical booth will also highlight a recent enhancement to the system, the Adaptive Workflow Efficiency Release, which is designed to allow clinicians the ability to further manage patient motion and increase procedure efficiency by repositioning the patient"s treatment table remotely. Calypso Medical


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