Optical biosensor rapidly detects virus that causes mpox
- Researchers from University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Boston University, and their colleagues have developed an optical biosensor that can rapidly detect the virus that causes mpox.
- The technology could allow clinicians to diagnose the disease at the point of care rather than wait for lab results.
- Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is currently the only approved method of diagnosing mpox, which is expensive, requires a laboratory, and can take days or weeks to get results.
150,000 people to revolutionise NHS cancer care
- The NHS has launched a rallying cry for nearly 150,000 people to join a series of major research projects that could revolutionise cancer care.
- Three cancer programmes have been selected as part of the NHS DigiTrials initiative, which has set the aim of recruiting tens of thousands of volunteers over the next two years. The projects include: BEST4 Heartburn Health, MyMelanoma, and PROTECT-C.
- PROTEC-C will recruit 5,000 women to participate in a saliva-based genetic test to check their risk of developing a range of cancers, including ovarian, breast, endometrial, and colorectal.
Coronary function testing improves diagnosis of heart disease in women, study finds
- A Yale School of Medicine team finds that women who underwent a common procedure called coronary angiography (CA) were more likely to receive an accurate diagnosis with the use of coronary function testing (CFT), in a recent study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
- Their results suggests that CFT leads to a higher diagnostic yield by deciphering the exact cause of cardiac symptoms, leading to more appropriate adjustments in medical therapy.
ChatGPT beat doctors at diagnosing medical conditions, study says
- The study asked 50 doctors, 26 of whom were attending physicians and 24 of whom were residents, to try to make six different diagnoses for medical conditions with the same case histories. Some doctors were given OpenAI’s ChatGPT to help them make their decisions; others went without AI.
- Doctors who did the project without AI got an average score of 74%, doctors who used AI got an average score of 76%, and ChatGPT itself got an average score of 90%.
- The study’s authors wrote that because AI “alone demonstrated higher performance than both physician groups,” there is a “need for technology and workforce development to realise the potential of physician-artificial intelligence collaboration in clinical practice.”
NHS hospitals that underperform to be outed in league tables (Financial Times, paywall)
The Monthly Diagnostics statistics for September 2024:
- The total number of patients waiting six weeks or more from referral for one of the 15 key diagnostic tests at the end of September 2024 was 359,900. This was 22.7% of the total number of patients waiting at the end of the month.
- Nationally, the operational standard of less than 1% of patients waiting six weeks or more was not met this month.
- Compared with September 2023 the total number of patients waiting six weeks or more decreased by 56,000 while the proportion of patients waiting six weeks or more decreased by 3.6 percentage points.
- In the last 12 months, the proportion of patients waiting six weeks or more at the end of a month has varied between 20.8% (February 2024) and 26.8% (December 2023).
- The estimated average time that a patient had been waiting for a diagnostic test was 2.7 weeks at the end of September 2024.
- There were 1,587,000 patients waiting for a key diagnostic test at the end of September 2024. This is an increase of 3,400 from September 2023.
- A total of 2,369,700 diagnostic tests were undertaken in September 2024. This is an increase of 170,100 from September 2023.
