Equipped with a color 3D camera, an inertial measurement sensor, and its own on-board computer, a newly improved robotic cane could offer blind and visually impaired users a new way to navigate indoors. When paired with a building’s architectural drawing, the device can accurately guide a user to a desired location with sensory and auditory cues, while simultaneously helping the user avoid obstacles like boxes, furniture, and overhangs. There are still a few kinks to be worked out before the system will be market-ready – it’s still too heavy for regular use, for example. Nevertheless, with the ability to easily switch between its automated mode and a simpler, non-robotic “white cane mode,” researchers believe this device could provide a key independence tool for the blind and visually impaired, without losing the characteristics of the white cane that have stood the test of time.

(NIH, September 8, 2021)

AI developers have worked with experts in human-computer interaction to design an EHR that shows clinicians all information pertinent to the patient case they’re working on—and only that information. Driven by artificial intelligence, this ‘smart’ EHR automatically displays customized, patient-specific medical records when a clinician needs them. The system, dubbed MedKnowts, also automatically populates patient-info fields and completes clinical terms, adding efficiency to EHR review processes. And while initial results are promising, as the researchers consider feedback from testing and work on future iterations of MedKnowts, they plan to proceed with caution.

(AI in Healthcare, September 29, 2021)

Researchers at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) have completed the first analysis of the use of complementary health approaches in a nationally representative sample of adults over a long period of time. The analysis provides insights into the use of four common complementary approaches over nearly two decades and identifies specific factors that may predict new, continued, or discontinued use. The analysis, which was funded by NCCIH, was recently published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

Atogepant (Qulipta) became the first oral calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist (gepant) specifically developed for migraine prevention to win FDA approval, AbbVie announced recently. The drug earned a nod for prevention of episodic migraine in adults and became the second gepant approved for migraine prevention. The first, rimegepant (Nurtec ODT), originally was approved to treat acute migraine but snagged an additional indication for migraine prevention earlier this year.

(Medpage Today, September 29, 2021)

The model of the neighborhood Black barbershop providing blood pressure (BP) checks and facilitating hypertension care was adapted successfully in a Tennessee city, though investigators warned of local challenges. With the intervention implemented at eight barbershops in Nashville, 27 African Americans with uncontrolled hypertension were able to bring BP down from an average 157.7/95.1 mm Hg at baseline to 125.7/75.6 mm Hg at 6 months, according to Jarod Parrish, PharmD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

(Medpage Today, September 29, 2021)

A synbiotic (a probiotic plus a prebiotic) can reduce behavioral symptoms associated with stress by normalizing the populations of microorganisms in the gut and changing immune cell activity, according to a new study in animals from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center, New York. This study evaluated the effects of a synbiotic that included two bacterial strains (Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC 793 and Bifidobacterium longum ATCC 15707) and a prebiotic composed of grape seed polyphenol extract, resveratrol, and concord grape extract. In this study, mice were randomly assigned into eight treatment groups. Overall, the researchers found the synbiotic promoted more consistent and robust resilience to stress-induced behavioral impairments compared to its components and reduced inflammatory gene expression profiles at the gene level.

(NCCIH, June 2021)

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