PHE - Resources

"What is a Transformational Community? A collection of individuals who share an intention to support each other's growth, development, health, and wholeness."

"Now more than ever, the global mental health community must look to innovative solutions to curtail the 'second epidemic' of mental ill-health sweeping the world. The huge variety of solutions has created a new problem - how can one ensure the disruptive tech they are using is clinically validated, ethical and efficacious? The Forum has partnered with Deloitte to create a set of standards to vet digital mental health solutions called the Global Governance Toolkit for Digital Mental Health."

"Thesis: "Patient Empowerment through Timely Information" On Friday, 1 October 2021, Thomas Timmers (CEO) successfully defended his doctoral PhD "Patient Empowerment through Timely Information" at Radboudumc.   He examines the impact of the provision of timely information using an app to increase patients' self-management throughout their treatment. The thesis includes a systematic review and the results of 2 large multi-center RCT's. Furthermore, a qualitative study was performed to determine what kind of timely education patients need."

"As a repository of sensitive patient information, the company's databases churn silently behind the scenes of their medical care, scooping up their most guarded secrets: the diseases they have, the drugs they're taking, the places their bodies are broken that they haven't told anyone but their doctor. The family of databases that make up MarketScan now include the records of a stunning 270 million Americans, or 82% of the population. The vast reach of MarketScan, and its immense value, is unmistakable. Last month, a private equity firm announced that it would pay $1 billion to buy the databases from IBM. It was by far the most valuable asset left for IBM as the technology behemoth cast off its foundering Watson Health business."

"The Nutrition for Precision Health consortium includes $14.55 million to launch a new Microbiome and Metagenomics Center at UC San Diego. The center will analyze the microbiomes - communities of microbes and their genetic material - found in the stool samples of nutrition study participants. "

"iHopeTM Genetic Health (iGH) will eliminate the barriers to genomic insights for tens of thousands of individuals across the globe each year by addressing access to high-quality clinical whole genome sequencing (cWGS) as well as education and support. Leveraging contributions of genomic sequencing technology from Illumina and donations from philanthropists and technology and logistics partners, iGH will provide awards of reagents and, where necessary, sequencers and software to enable genomic testing across the globe. iGH will provide cWGS and patient support services for undiagnosed individuals in low and middle income countries1 (LMICs) and low-to-moderate income2 (LMI) households across the globe and in the United States (US) respectively. Over time iGH will develop in-country, sustainable solutions for communities with little to no access to genomic care."

"Yale University researchers have developed a novel vaccine that in guinea pigs offers protection against infection by the bacterium that causes Lyme disease and may also combat other tick-borne diseases. Instead of triggering an immune response against a particular pathogen, the new vaccine prompts a quick response in the skin to components of tick saliva, limiting the amount of time that ticks have to feed upon and infect the host, the study shows. The vaccine is delivered by the same mRNA technology that has proved so effective against COVID-19."

"Despite their capacity to acquire and pass on an array of debilitating pathogens, research on ticks has lagged behind other arthropod vectors, such as mosquitoes, largely because of challenges in applying available genetic and molecular tools. CRISPR-Cas9 is transforming non-model organism research; however, successful gene editing has not yet been reported in ticks. Technical challenges for injecting tick embryos to attempt gene editing have further slowed research progress. Currently, no embryo injection protocol exists for any chelicerate species, including ticks. Herein, we report a successful embryo injection protocol for the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, and the use of this protocol for genome editing with CRISPR-Cas9. We also demonstrate that the ReMOT Control technique could be successfully used to generate genome mutations outside Insecta. Our results provide innovative tools to the tick research community that are essential for advancing our understanding of the molecular mechanisms governing pathogen transmission by tick vectors and the underlying biology of host-vector-pathogen interactions."

"We've built a learning experience from the ground to develop these essential skills. There's something for everyone: expert videos, engaging activities, the Mood Meter tool, personal reflections, and much more."

"Get inspiration and ideas from hundreds of self-tracking projects documented in our community archive, searchable by tools and topics."

"Thank you for considering buying our book, Personal Science: Learning to Observe. The book presents a step-by-step approach to exploring your personal questions with empirical methods. It contains no advice whatsoever on what treatments or medicines or diets or vitamins or exercises are worth trying. Instead, it offers meta-advice; that is, advice on how to know if the things that you try actually work the way you expect, and advice about how to develop reasonable new ideas of things to try."

"Uncover the real priorities of your community with our Community Driven Innovation™ program. Learn what matters the most to them and start sharing insights back with your community."

"Starting with an open-mind, questioning the foundational science, and conducting his own studies, Dr. Sarno discovered something revolutionary - the cause of most chronic back and body pain is not due to an underlying physical issue, but a specific way the brain and body interact.   "

"What happens when people turn their everyday experience into data: an introduction to the essential ideas and key challenges of self-tracking. People keep track. In the eighteenth century, Benjamin Franklin kept charts of time spent and virtues lived up to. Today, people use technology to self-track: hours slept, steps taken, calories consumed, medications administered. Ninety million wearable sensors were shipped in 2014 to help us gather data about our lives. This book examines how people record, analyze, and reflect on this data, looking at the tools they use and the communities they become part of. Gina Neff and Dawn Nafus describe what happens when people turn their everyday experience-in particular, health and wellness-related experience-into data, and offer an introduction to the essential ideas and key challenges of using these technologies. They consider self-tracking as a social and cultural phenomenon, describing not only the use of data as a kind of mirror of the self but also how this enables people to connect to, and learn from, others. Neff and Nafus consider what's at stake: who wants our data and why; the practices of serious self-tracking enthusiasts; the design of commercial self-tracking technology; and how self-tracking can fill gaps in the healthcare system. Today, no one can lead an entirely untracked life. Neff and Nafus show us how to use data in a way that empowers and educates."

"The San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas is expanding its plant curation and preservation efforts into medicine with a $384,000 grant from The Conrad Prebys Foundation, the garden announced March 8."

"Reflecting on fond memories goes a step beyond making you feel warm and fuzzy: nostalgia can reduce pain perception. Nostalgia decreases activity in pain-related brain areas and decreases subjective ratings of thermal pain, according to research recently published in JNeurosci."

"Dignity during the process of seeking treatment is a tall order. It requires first and foremost that a patient be believed. This, O'Rourke soon discovers, is much harder than it looks. At appointments, she's often met with disbelief, skepticism, and suspicion - daunting hurdles for her shot at wellness that highlight a gendered conundrum. Autoimmune disease disproportionately affects women (they make up 80 percent of patients), but health care professionals are less likely to take women's concerns seriously."

"Genomics and human ancestral genealogy Hundreds of thousands of modern human genomes and thousands of ancient human genomes have been generated to date. However, different methods and data quality can make comparisons among them difficult. Furthermore, every human genome contains segments from ancestries of varying ages. Wohns et al. applied a tree recording method to ancient and modern human genomes to generate a unified human genealogy (see the Perspective by Rees and Andrés). This method allows for missing and erroneous data and uses ancient genomes to calibrate genomic coalescent times. This permits us to determine how our genomes have changed over time and between populations, informing upon the evolution of our species. -LMZ"

"A vaccine authorized in December for use in India may help solve one of the most vexing problems in global public health: How to supply lower-income countries with a COVID-19 vaccine that is safe, effective and affordable. The vaccine is called CORBEVAX. It uses old but proven vaccine technology and can be manufactured far more easily than most, if not all, of the COVID-19 vaccines in use today."