Social media helps prevent illness
When it
comes to stopping illness, socialmedia
posts and tweets may be just what the doctor ordered. A Kansas State
University-led research team is looking at social media as a tool to reduce and
prevent diseases from spreading.
Researchers are studying whether a well-timed post from a public authority or trustworthy person could be as beneficial as flu shots, hand-washing or sneezing into an elbow.
"Infectious diseases are a serious problem and historically have been a major cause of death," Faryad Sahneh, Kansas State University doctoral candidate in electrical engineering who is modeling the spread of epidemics in an effort to reduce them, said.
"During the last decades there has been a huge advancement in medication and vaccination, which has helped save many peoples'' lives. But now there also has been a revolution in communication and information technology that we think could be used to develop an even more robust preventative society against infectious diseases," Sahneh added.
Sahneh is working on the project with Kansas State University researchers Caterina Scoglio, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and expert in complex network modeling; Gary Brase, associate professor of psychology who studies how people make decisions; and Walter Schumm, professor of family studies and human services who studies family dynamics.
According to Scoglio, having research collaborators from a wide range of relevant disciplines helps the team develop more comprehensive and accurate models that account for realistic human behavior.
Brase, for example, is collecting data by surveying college-age students about social media and what preventative measures they use against illness. Results indicate that a majority of participants get their information predominately from Facebook and a few other social media sites.
Moreover, the majority of participants stated they would be willing to increase preventative behaviors such as washing their hands more, taking vitamins or getting a flu shot if asked to do so.
"However, we also saw that restricting contact with family and friends is something that people are not willing to do," Brase said.
"If you think about how diseases are spread, one of the best things you can do is to not interact with other people. But we've seen that this is one thing that people are not very excited about doing," Brase added.
Software developed for
detecting diabetic retinopathy
A
software for the early detection and risk categorisation of diabetic
retinopathy (DR) has been developed by the Indian Institute of Technology –
Kharagpur. Diabetic retinopathy is a disease caused by the complication of
diabetes that can eventually lead to blindness. DR is an ocular manifestation
of systemic disease, which affects up to 80 percent of all patients who have
had diabetes for 10 years or more.
Titled
Computer Vision Approach to Diabetic Retinopathy Screening and developed by
Chandan Chakrabarty of IIT-Kharagpur, the project is now being used on a pilot
basis at a hospital in the city with encouraging results. It is being funded by
IT major IBM India.
‘The
software uses data analytics capabilities to automatically compare and analyse
retina images of the patient. It can tell if the patient has DR and also
provides risk categorisation ranging from low to medium and high,’ Chakrabarty
said.
The
project was initiated on March 2011 by the IIT Kharagpur, in association with
IBM India and Susrut Eye Foundation and Research Centre (SEFRC), Kolkata.
‘The
solution is being used in our clinic and the results are very encouraging, in
fact, the accuracy level is as high as 92 percent,’ said Anirudh Maity of
SEFRC, where the project is being used on a pilot basis.
Chakrabarty
said the project will take at least a year more before it can be marketed
commercially.
‘We
are using the results generated by the prototype at the SEFRC to enhance its
operations and we hope it will ready within a year. Once operational, the
solution will help prevent and cure DR which has been increasingly spreading
across the country,’ Chakrabarty told IANS.
Source: http://health.india.com
29.11.2012
Defeat
never comes to any man until he admits it
No comments:
Post a Comment