The post Will We Let AI Into the Surgical OR Soon? appeared first on Techso Mogro.
]]>Operations today rely heavily on computing systems. When I had my last ablation procedure, the technology used was a system developed in Israel that was used to correct a previous failed attempt.
Before the procedure, the cardiologist invited me into the OR to look at the software, knowing that I was a science and technology nerd. He had read an article published here about another breakthrough technology that he quickly brought to his hospital for a pilot project.
AI going solo in the OR, however, may be a stretch. I’ll let Lila describe what she has found.
AI has already transformed numerous industries, and healthcare is no exception. Hospitals and medical professionals are using AI to analyze medical images, identify patterns in patient data, assist with diagnoses, and improve treatment planning.
At the same time, robots are in the OR guided by software algorithms and surgeons to do many procedures. The presence of technologies has raised intriguing questions about the future of medicine: could an AI eventually perform surgeries on its own?
While fully autonomous surgical procedures remain largely theoretical today, rapid advancements in machine learning, robotics, and medical technology suggest a possible future where AI will go solo in the OR.
Whether society will accept AI as a primary decision-maker in the OR depends on technological, ethical, legal, and emotional factors.
To understand the future potential of AI-driven surgery, it is important to recognize how technology is already supporting surgeons today. Modern surgical robots, however, do not operate autonomously. Instead, there is human surgical oversight.
These surgical systems assist in procedures by providing enhanced precision, flexibility, and visualization. The benefits of these systems are smaller incisions, improved surgical dexterity, and reduced recovery times.
AI today helps physicians analyze pre-operative scans, predict treatment outcomes, and identify potential risks before going into the OR. The line between human guidance and machine assistance, however, is quickly blurring.
Medical technology companies developing advanced robotic platforms see AI as an integral part of the OR toolset. Companies like Baxter Advanced Surgery are at the forefront of these advancements, integrating humans with AI in the OR. The AI tools being used in radiology today show the promise of incorporating this technology into decision-making and beyond.
While human expertise will remain essential in the surgical suite, autonomous AI systems show considerable promise. For example, an AI could analyze a patient’s anatomy in real time and adapt an OR procedure instantly based on what it sees.
An AI could provide guidance to a surgical robot to perform precise movements that would exceed a normal human surgeon’s capabilities.
Consider its potential use in remote areas, providing consistent levels of performance and care regardless of locale. It would mean advanced surgical algorithms could make what today’s specialized procedures are become common practice across healthcare systems worldwide and even in outer space.
Is the public ready for this? Societal acceptance is likely one of the biggest hurdles to AI performing autonomously in the OR. Today, we tend to place tremendous trust in surgeons because of their knowledge and skill sets. Even if an AI system could technically perform in the OR with exceptional accuracy, how many patients would hesitate to place their trust in software algorithms and robots?
Trust becomes even more complicated when unexpected situations arise. Human surgeons can adapt to unusual circumstances based on years of training, intuition, and clinical experience. Patients may question whether an AI could demonstrate the same flexibility when faced with unforeseen complications.
The emotional aspect of healthcare also plays an important role. Patients often seek reassurance from doctors before major operations. Conversations about risks, expectations, and recovery foster confidence and provide comfort. AI systems don’t emotionally connect with us the way humans do.
As a result, society may more readily embrace a collaborative model in which AI serves as an advanced assistant rather than the primary performer in the OR.
As we have already stated, the future use of AI in the OR is not solely a technological issue. Besides the obvious discomfort in giving a machine autonomy in life-saving procedures, ethical and legal questions also need to be addressed.
A major concern is accountability. If a robotic surgical system is involved in a bad outcome today, the robot is not considered the party at fault. That lies with the surgical team that supervised the procedure.
What happens, however, should an AI-based system perform an operation that produces a bad outcome? Who takes responsibility? Is it the system developer, or does the fault lie with a human? Establishing clear legal frameworks is necessary to determine responsibility and maintain public confidence.
Privacy and data security also present challenges. AI systems require access to vast amounts of medical information for training and improvement. Healthcare organizations must ensure that patient data remains protected while complying with regulations and ethical standards.
Bias represents another concern. If training data contains gaps or inaccuracies, AI systems could potentially produce different outcomes across diverse patient populations. Ensuring fairness, transparency, and reliability would be critical before AI-driven autonomous surgical technology usage becomes ies widespread.
The most likely future is a deeper collaboration between humans and AI in the OR. AI could handle the data analysis, surgical planning, precision guidance, and certain automated tasks. Human surgeons could maintain oversight and authority over major OR decisions. This would combine the strengths of both parties.
The advantages AI bring include consistency, analytical power, and speed. Human surgeons add judgment, adaptability, ethical reasoning, and compassion. The combination should contribute to a growing public acceptance. As patients observe successful outcomes and robust safety records, acceptance of increasingly autonomous systems may gradually grow.
Should we expect to see future surgical consent forms include a checkbox for patients to grant AI permission to operate? It may happen sooner than we think in the 21st century.
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]]>The post When RFK Jr. Cut mRNA Research It Didn’t Stop Moderna From Creating mFlusiva appeared first on Techso Mogro.
]]>Moderna and Pfizer are the two pharmaceutical companies that went all in on mRNA technology to develop COVID-19 vaccines. Their vaccines proved effective in preventing millions of deaths during the multi-year pandemic crisis. Since then, mRNA research has continued with vaccines produced to address new COVID variants and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, the latter a contagious virus that can be dangerous to the young and those over the age of 60 or suffering from complex medical conditions.
Since 2012, I have written about the promise of using mRNA to fight diseases and cancer. mRNA is DNA’s letter carrier. DNA writes instructions to cells to manufacture proteins and other essential chemicals necessary for cell survival. mRNA delivers the letters within the cell, which then opens them and carries out what DNA has written. Since the early 2000s, researchers have been experimenting with this natural mechanism of cellular biology to see if it could be “weaponized” to attack diseases. The COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer were the first successes. Where traditional vaccines could take between 18 months and three years to develop, the urgency of the spreading COVID-19 pandemic made mRNA an attractive option.
Just how fast can mRNA solutions be developed when compared to conventional vaccines? Influenza vaccine development and production today is state-of-the-art. Fastest to market, influenza vaccines get produced in six months.
What’s involved? Chicken eggs play a big part. Living influenza virus strains are injected into fertilized eggs to produce the product. If the wrong virus strains are selected, it can produce an ineffective vaccine for the coming flu season.
In comparison, mRNA vaccines are produced by synthesizing mRNA coding instructions contained within lipid nanoparticles, which are then injected to deliver instructions to cells responsible for our natural immune response system to recognize the virus and produce antibodies to attack it. Instead of six months, mRNA vaccines can be produced in 6 to 8 weeks.
Moderna is first to market with mFlusiva.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that seasonal influenza infections affect more than 1 billion annually. Of these, a small percentage are severely infected, requiring hospitalization, approximately 3 to5 million. Of these, up to 700,000 die from respiratory and cardiovascular complications.
In 2022, 194 WHO member states reported large-scale administration of 450 million influenza vaccinations. In 2023, of these countries, only 33 saw vaccine uptake of 15.9 per 100 people, showing the general lack of enthusiasm on the part of the general public to get jabbed. Yet flu vaccines are very effective in protecting the public from infections.
Egg-based vaccines, when the right virus strains get picked, can reduce the likelihood of getting the flu by 40 to 60%, and reduce hospitalizations from complications even more dramatically.
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made the decision in 2025 to stop investing in mRNA research, it had negative implications for Americans and the health of the rest of us. Eliminating the US$ 500 million for almost all mRNA research meant abandoning a validated technology that had proven itself in combatting COVID-19. Twenty-two mRNA research projects were cut.
This happened despite a U.S. Centers for Disease Control study of the pandemic response that concluded mRNA vaccines reduced the potential for American hospitalizations and deaths from the virus by 90%.
RFK Jr’s decision was based on his anti-vaccine prejudices. He exploited the imperfect results being reported about mRNA vaccines, such as identified side effects:
How different were these contraindications from what gets reported for most vaccines? Only a few.
RFK Jr. also noted that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines provided only short-duration immunization protection. Why was this? With new strains of COVID-19 cropping up, the latest mRNA vaccines became less potent over time. This led to a race between the virus and pharmaceutical companies to formulate mRNA vaccines to combat new variations.
For a time early in the pandemic, it meant revaccination often every six months. Today, COVID-19 has become endemic, meaning it continues to circulate.
New mRNA vaccine boosters, however, are more often being administered annually, in a similar fashion to the annual seasonal flu shot.
Fortunately, the defunding decision did not stop all mRNA research in the U.S. mRNA vaccine research has continued to provide treatment for other pathogens, including virus-associated cancers. Nor has the funding cancellation affected mRNA vaccine production in the U.S.
It did cause the abandonment of several university and biotechnology-based research projects. In some cases, research and manufacturing of mRNA vaccines moved offshore. For example, Moderna established new facilities in Quebec and Ontario.
Fortunately, the new mFlusiva influenza vaccine is being produced in Massachusetts. mFlusiva is currently being reviewed by Health Canada, the European Union and Australia. It likely will be produced in the company’s Canadian facilities once a notice of compliance is issued for the upcoming seasonal vaccination period.
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]]>The post Predictive Analytics and Remote Monitoring Reshapes Senior Care appeared first on Techso Mogro.
]]>At age 77, I am one of the seniors who personally monitors my health using technology. Kardiamobile checks my heart rhythm. I have a home blood pressure cuff, a pulse oximeter, and even a stethoscope. When needed, I have worn medical devices that instantly reported health issues to my family doctor or specialists. Do you think this is paranoia, or just what seniors are doing today and a sign of the times?
Remote patient monitoring has come a long way from when my daughter, born with a congenital heart condition, was issued a portable ECG monitor with an acoustic coupler to phone in events to cardiologists at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
I’ll let Harper tell the rest of the story.
Senior care is no longer built around scheduled checkups and reactive decisions. Rather, it involves continuous data collection and real-time insight for proactive medical interventions. Some of the data comes from medical technology that seniors have purchased to collect and share with doctors. The rest comes from Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) technologies supplied by hospitals and personal physicians.
The tools driving this shift to RPM and Predictive Analytics (PA) include devices such as wearables, in-home sensors, and other digital medical recording equipment capable of data broadcasting.
Combining RPM with PA involves using statistical models and machine learning algorithms to analyze received data, identify patterns, and forecast potential health risks or outcomes before they occur.
The two technologies enable care providers to move from reactive interventions to more proactive, data-informed decision-making. It means earlier responses, more personalized care, and improved overall outcomes for seniors.
At its core, RPM operates like a distributed data collection system. Think wearable devices (smartwatches, fall-detection pendants), ambient sensors (motion detectors, bed sensors), and connected medical devices (glucometers, blood pressure cuffs) all feeding time-series data streams into centralized platforms.
After collection, the data is stored and processed. Edge computing allows some analysis to happen locally, for example, detecting an immediate fall. Cloud-based systems aggregate long-term trends.
The shift from reactive to proactive care comes from a layered architecture. Instead of waiting for a threshold breach like dangerously high blood pressure, RPM systems can flag gradual deviations from an individual’s baseline. A 5% drop in daily step count over two weeks, or a slight disruption in sleep cycles, can be subtle or easily explained away on an individual level. When analyzed together, however, they can form a predictive pattern.
Imagine a senior living resident wearing a smartwatch that tracks heart rate variability, sleep quality, and movement. Over the course of several days, the system detects elevated resting heart rates combined with decreased activity and fragmented sleep.
In isolation, these metrics might not trigger concern. But RPM platforms use rule-based engines or machine learning (ML) models to correlate these variables. The system flags a moderate risk alert and notifies staff. A nurse checks in and discovers early signs of a respiratory infection. Antibiotics are administered before hospitalization becomes necessary.
Another example uses bed sensors to detect how often residents get up during the night. A sudden increase in frequency could indicate discomfort, medication side effects, or even an early urinary tract infection. Without RPM, the pattern might go unnoticed until the issue escalates. With it, intervention happens early.
If RPM is the data engine, PA is the interpretation layer. Predictive models use historical data combined with real-time inputs to generate educated forecasts.
For example, fall prediction models often incorporate variables like gait speed, prior fall history, medication types (especially sedatives), and even environmental data like lighting conditions. Using regression models or neural networks, these systems assign a continuously updated fall risk score.
In practice, this might mean dynamically adjusting a care plan. A resident flagged as high-risk may receive more frequent check-ins, physical therapy sessions, or environmental modifications like adding handrails in the bathroom or hallways. Importantly, these are targeted interventions, not blanket policies applied everywhere. This precision reduces unnecessary restrictions while increasing safety.
In settings that provide assisted living and memory care, the complexity of care increases dramatically. Residents may experience cognitive decline, behavioural changes, or chronic health conditions that interact in unpredictable ways. This is where layered data models shine.
Take memory care, for example. PA can track behavioural patterns such as wandering frequency, agitation periods, or changes in routine. If a resident typically becomes restless in the late afternoon, a phenomenon called sundowning, PA can anticipate this and suggest preemptive interventions, like scheduling calming activities or adjusting lighting.
Another real-world application involves medication adherence. Smart dispensers can log when doses are taken or missed, feeding the information into predictive systems. If a pattern of missed medication correlates with confusion or fatigue, caregivers can intervene before health outcomes are affected. In these environments, the combination of RPM and PA becomes an early warning system.
One of the hugely important but less obvious impacts of RPM and PA is how these technologies augment caregiver decision-making. In technical terms, RPM and PA form a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS).
Instead of relying solely on intuition or periodic assessments, caregivers receive data-driven insights prioritized by urgency. Dashboards display risk scores, trend lines, and anomaly alerts. For example:
This doesn’t replace human judgment, but rather, augments it. A caregiver can walk into a shift already knowing where attention is needed most. That is transformative for staffing models and care quality.
To truly understand the future of RPM, you must look at interoperability, the ability of different systems to communicate. Modern platforms are increasingly integrated with electronic health records (EHRs), pharmacy systems, and even hospital networks. As an example, a typical chain of events could follow this type of sequence:
All of this can happen in hours, without manual coordination. The result is a closed-loop system where detection, analysis, and intervention are tightly integrated. It is the kind of interoperability that makes data-driven care scalable and sustainable.
Of course, with more data comes more responsibility. Privacy, consent, and data security are major considerations in RPM systems. Designers must ensure that monitoring feels supportive without being invasive.
There’s also the question of algorithmic bias. PA is only as good as the data it’s trained on, which means developers must carefully validate what it reports across diverse populations. Otherwise, risk scores may be less accurate for certain groups.
From a human-centred perspective, the goal is balance. Technology should fade into the background, enabling more human interaction, not less. In the best implementations, caregivers spend less time collecting data and more time connecting with residents. For a world with an aging population, the adoption of RPM and PA will mean a better daily quality of life for seniors.
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]]>The post Smart Technologies Transforming Dermatology and the Treatment of Chronic Skin Conditions appeared first on Techso Mogro.
]]>Digital platforms, artificial intelligence (AI) in diagnostics, and telemedicine are converging to create unprecedented access to expert care. Patients no longer need to rely solely on local clinics or endure months-long waiting lists to access a dermatologist. Instead, innovative software and connected devices can bring the clinic directly to the patient, offering highly effective solutions along with convenience. This is particularly important for individuals requiring ongoing management for persistent inflammatory conditions.
In Australia and Canada, for example, with their vast distances, geographical location has been a major barrier to receiving quality dermatological care, particularly for those living in remote areas. Today, digital health platforms and telehealth applications are bridging the geographic gap, allowing physicians to diagnose patients’ conditions regardless of location.
Using secure applications and today’s high-resolution smartphone cameras, patients can now be sent easy-to-follow self-checkup instructions and submit images to doctors for thorough medical analysis from the comfort of their living rooms. This shift to the digital realm is saving individuals from unnecessary hospital visits and ensuring rapid turnaround in evaluating a patient’s condition and producing a diagnosis and treatment plan.
The addition of creating a cloud-based electronic health record (EHR), a work in progress in many countries, is ideal for diagnosis and treatment in the digital age. An EHR allows secure sharing of patient histories with physicians, ensuring cohesive and well-informed treatment. For those in remote areas, an EHR is a lifeline, making early intervention much more achievable and preventing minor issues from escalating.
The integration of remote diagnostics is paving the way for highly personalized treatment plans. Generalized, over-the-counter products often fail to address the complex nature of chronic inflammatory dermatological issues. Whether dealing with adult acne or seeking targeted treatment for other skin conditions, online resources can be immediately at hand. For example, rosacea, a skin condition that causes persistent redness or flushing of facial skin, can be treated by online experts like those at Qr8 Mediskin.
Through comprehensive online consultations, accredited online platforms can connect with patients directly and offer personalized care. Sophisticated telemedicine platforms analyze patient data, track progress over time, and adjust formulations as a patient’s condition changes during treatment, delivering a dynamic, medically supervised personal treatment plan that evolves and ultimately leads to faster and more sustainable results. The guesswork in treating chronic skin conditions is replaced by data-driven medical science.
The transition to digital health is not just a matter of convenience. It is backed by robust clinical evidence demonstrating clear success and reliability. Modern medical technologies are proving that remote interventions can be just as effective as traditional, in-person consultations. Research published in PubMed Central in 2023 involving 44 studies comparing teledermatology with traditional practice showed a high rate of success and patient acceptance of online care. The key factors driving this included:
Patients reported exceptionally high levels of trust in these remote healthcare systems, frequently indicating a strong willingness to use telemedicine services for future dermatological needs rather than returning to standard clinical visits. The ability to receive rapid feedback and reassurance from medical professionals built a strong therapeutic relationship, even without physical proximity.
As medical technology continues to evolve, dermatology will increasingly look digital and highly personalized. AI will play an even larger role in initial diagnoses, while telehealth platforms will continue to refine the remote patient experience.
For those with chronic skin conditions, these technological advancements offer more than just medical solutions. They provide empowerment, convenience, and a renewed sense of confidence. By embracing these digital tools, the medical community is ensuring that high-quality, customized healthcare will be accessible to anyone with a smartphone, revolutionizing skin management for the better.
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]]>The post Orthopedics is Being Transformed by Acoustic Shockwave Therapies appeared first on Techso Mogro.
]]>Among the most promising of these innovations is acoustic wave technology, specifically known in the medical field as Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT). Once reserved solely for elite athletes recovering from sports injuries, this biomedical engineering marvel is now widely accessible. It offers unprecedented relief for various chronic musculoskeletal conditions without extended hospital stays.
ESWT uses high-energy acoustic waves to stimulate healing and decrease pain in injuries to tendons, ligaments, cartilage and bones. It’s a therapy that has gone mainstream in Europe and is seeing greater use in North America and elsewhere. For athletes, ESWT lets them continue training and participate in sports while undergoing therapy.
The democratization of smart medical devices has fundamentally altered patient expectations globally. People no longer accept long surgical recovery times as a mandatory consequence of joint or tendon degradation. Instead, clinical focus has pivoted towards regenerative medicine that works in harmony with the human body. ESWT utilizes high-energy sound waves to stimulate the body’s natural healing cascade, providing a safe alternative to scalpel-based procedures.
As equipment manufacturing becomes more refined and cost-effective, more regional health clinics in the United Kingdom can now offer acoustic wave therapeutic treatments previously only available in major metropolitan research hospitals.
For example, a patient suffering from debilitating heel pain can, today, easily access plantar fascia shockwave treatment. This localized accessibility highlights how advanced biomedical engineering directly improves everyday patient outcomes without requiring hospital admission or extended periods of downtime. It is a perfect illustration of formerly limited high-end medical technology becoming available to benefit the general public.
To truly appreciate why acoustic wave therapies are so effective, it is essential to understand the underlying physics and biological interactions. When a clinical device emits acoustic waves, these rapid pulses propagate deep into targeted musculoskeletal tissues. The energy transfer creates controlled micro-trauma at the cellular level. This process paradoxically initiates a powerful and highly beneficial regenerative response.
According to recent peer-reviewed research published in the Journal of Clinical Orthopedics and Trauma (JCOT), extracorporeal shockwave therapy is being used to trigger mechanotransduction to promote musculoskeletal regeneration. The biological process is stimulated to produce angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, protein biosynthesis, and significant cell proliferation.
Tendons and ligaments notoriously suffer from poor natural blood supply, which is why injuries in these areas often last for months or years. By stimulating angiogenesis, acoustic wave therapy delivers fresh oxygen and vital nutrients directly to the damaged site. Furthermore, the acoustic pulses help to mechanically break down stubborn calcium deposits within tendons, restoring mobility and elasticity to stiffened joints.
The transition from traditional orthopedic surgery to acoustic wave therapy yields highly tangible clinical benefits. As biomedical technologies continue to evolve rapidly, non-invasive solutions consistently demonstrate superior safety profiles.
The primary advantages of adopting this acoustic technology include:
As digital health and biomedical engineering continue to intersect, the potential for acoustic wave technology will only expand further. Researchers are exploring how to combine ESWT with other regenerative treatments, such as targeted stem cell therapies, to accelerate tissue repair. Furthermore, the future integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in diagnostic imaging will soon allow clinicians to map musculoskeletal damage with microscopic precision. This advancement will guide acoustic waves to the exact epicentre of cellular degradation with pinpoint accuracy.
Ultimately, the normalization of non-invasive treatments reflects a much larger triumph of medical technology. By harnessing the physical properties of sound to repair the human body, clinical engineering is extending our physical longevity, supporting an ageing population, and fundamentally redefining what is possible in modern orthopedic care.
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]]>The post mRNA Vaccines Being Undermined By U.S. Public Health Authorities Despite Known Successes appeared first on Techso Mogro.
]]>Kennedy cites 375 “studies” by anti-vaxxers to support his conclusions. His HHS board is populated with anti-vaxxers who appear to be particularly hostile to mRNA research. The result has been the cancellation of US$ 500 million in federal government funding for mRNA vaccine research. Yet, Kennedy’s Health and Human Services (HHS) is hailing other vaccine research programs, even with his and their anti-vaxxer rhetoric.
The following lists current vaccine research being funded by HHS.
The research programs HHS is funding are well-intentioned, but targeting and defunding mRNA as a villain is a big mistake. The biggest advantage that mRNA brings to fighting disease is speed. With COVID-19, mRNA vaccines have shown they are faster to develop, produce in volume and deploy. mRNA vaccines can be designed and manufactured in a few weeks.
The aforementioned whole virus, gold standard and synthetic antigen vaccines require months to culture and produce. In light of the immediacy of the COVID-19 pandemic, relying on the currently funded HHS vaccine research programs would have led to many more infections, hospitalizations, and deaths.
Having said this, mRNA vaccines do have three downsides. These include:
An October 22, 2025, article in Nature describes an unforeseen upside. The vaccines given to fight COVID-19 have revved up immune systems to train them to kill cancers. Adam Grippin, a radiation oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, stated, “The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine acts like a siren and activates the immune system throughout the entire body.” When asked to comment on the vaccine programming the body to kill lung cancer and melanoma, HHS had nothing to say.
Meanwhile, the Nature article reported a near doubling of survival times for those who had COVID-19 mRNA vaccines compared to the unvaccinated with cancer. The same results were not observed in cancer patients who had received non-mRNA vaccines.
Steven Lin, an oncologist at MD Anderson, in Nature describes the impact the decision by Kennedy’s HHS to defund mRNA research has had. He notes, “The current climate impacts patients because even the word mRNA has stigma these days. We’re walking on eggshells because there’s so much negative publicity about mRNA.”
mRNA defunding has impacted an mRNA cancer vaccine trial aimed at treating melanoma, pancreatic and other tumours. It has also impacted mRNA vaccine development aimed at treating Zika and rabies.
Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in an article published on the school’s website on September 25, 2025, describes the HHS decision as “short-sighted, ignoring the short-term benefit the mRNA vaccines provide when meeting a medical threat like the COVID-19 pandemic. He states, “We should be acutely aware of the number of different infectious threats that can be thrown at us, and once you’ve got a really great new tool in your toolkit, why would you throw it away? Why would you turn your back on mRNA technology when it’s helped us so much?”
Hanage talks about the myocarditis risk, stating that “the risks of getting COVID are worse than the vaccine,” noting that it was hundreds of thousands of doses given before rare incidents of negative reactions to it were described. Hanage also points out that pulling the funding from mRNA vaccine research means that studying why the vaccines caused these rare reactions to occur will now go by the wayside and remain undiscovered. Hanage concludes, “There is no upside,” and that we will be “fighting any future pandemic with one hand tied behind our back.”
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]]>The post Medical Advances To Treat Essential Tremors And Possibly Cure Parkinson’s appeared first on Techso Mogro.
]]>These tremors have worsened as I get older. I often wondered if they were an early sign of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) or Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Fortunately, symptoms associated with those debilitating diseases beyond my tremors have not happened. What I have been experiencing doesn’t compare to anything I have seen in friends who have developed MS or PD.
In this posting, I first look at what are called essential tremors (what I suffer from) and a potential therapy to ease the condition. In the second half, I discuss PD and the latest search to mitigate and even a potential personalized medical therapy to treat this debilitating disease.
Essential tremors (ETs) are a physiological condition that affects the hands, arms and head. In me, it is largely my hands, arms and face. My lips shake, and only when I look in the mirror do I notice. My hands and arms are another matter. Even as I type this posting, if I pause, my hands tremble.
ETs worsen with age, fatigue and exposure to stress. Half of ETs are hereditary. Other ETs are linked to metabolic and neurological conditions, medications, toxic pollutants, too much caffeine and alcohol withdrawal. If you have asthma and use a puffer, ETs are a common reaction.
Hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid), hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), and diabetic conditions with high levels of blood sugar, liver and kidney failure are nerve-signalling causes. Add to the list Multiple Sclerosis (MS), strokes, cerebellar damage, and brain tumours, Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), mercury and lead poisoning, and over-exposure to some pesticides.
Hadi Mohammadi is a doctor and engineering professor at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan (UBCO). He leads a team focused on developing non-invasive wearable devices to control ETs. In a January 2026 UBCO press release, Dr. Mohammadi states,
“Hand tremors are among the most prevalent neurodegenerative movement disorders, causing involuntary upper-limb fluctuations that significantly impair a person’s quality of life.”
The UBCO research focused on developing wearable devices to reduce hand tremors. Their latest invention was recently described in a paper published in the Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology. It describes a wearable, the prototype seen in the image above, that can deliver tremor suppression without motors, restrictive bracing, or a power source. How does it work? Mohammadi describes how the non-invasive, passive technology works:
“Rather than actively driving motion, the device uses a passive omnidirectional vibration-absorbing mechanism tuned to the frequency range of the uncontrolled tremors. When worn on the hand, the system dampens involuntary fluctuations while allowing voluntary movement to continue largely unhindered.”
Results show a 79% reduction in unidirectional tremors and a 73% reduction in omnidirectional tremors. Clinical trials are in the offing.
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that progresses slowly. Associated PD symptoms, not the disease itself, can be fatal. These shorten life spans by as much as ten years for those diagnosed at age 55, 6.7 years at 65, 3.5 years at 75, and 1.2 years at 85. Early-onset PD, before age 50, progresses more slowly and is more treatable.
A common PD symptom is tremors. Another is muscle rigidity and slowness in movement. PD can cause postural instability, leading to falls. PD can cause dyskinesia, abnormal and involuntary muscle movements. It can cause loss of sense of smell, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbances, gastrointestinal issues, and cognitive decline. Clinicians define PD in five physical stages beginning with ETs, then changes to walking gate, loss of balance, mobility loss, and finally full-time need for wheelchair or bed confinement.
PD occurs when dopamine-producing neurons in the brain begin to die. Dopamine controls coordinated muscle movement in our body. All of us lose dopamine as we age, but with PD, the loss is rapid. A dopamine-producing cell loss of 50 to 60% triggers PD.
PD occurrence is 10 to 15% genetics caused. Other agents that induce PD include exposure to toxins in pesticides and traumatic head injury. There is no known cure at present, just a range of treatments to delay its onset. Included among these are:
It is still early on in a PD Phase 1 clinical trial, but there appears to be a degree of confidence in a new treatment to cure PD. Brian Lee, a neurosurgeon at Keck Medicine, University of Southern California (USC), is heading an early-stage patient trial that has been fast-tracked by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is personalized patient therapy that has been given the name RNDP-001.
From the laboratories at USC to clinical trial, the therapy is a product of Kenai Therapeutics, a biotechnology company founded in 2022 and located in San Diego, California.
The Phase 1 trial goes by the name REPLACE
. Its first patient was enrolled in December 2025, with 11 more to follow at three different sites. Each enrollee donates some adult blood or skin cells to produce induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These are then reprogrammed to become dopamine-producing brain cells.
The therapy involves making a small incision in the skull for surgeons, using directed MRI, to implant these dopamine-producing cells in the brain’s basal ganglia, the region responsible for controlling movement. States, Xenos Mason, a Keck neurologist in the clinical trial,
“We believe that these iPSCs can reliably mature into dopamine-producing brain cells, and offer the best chance of jump-starting the brain’s dopamine production.”
Dr. Lee hopes to see this personalized patient therapy treatment for PD become a way to repair and restore lost motor function. No one is calling it a cure as of yet. It will take five years as the 12 enrollees get monitored closely to see if PD symptoms have mitigated. Only then will we know if PD can be reversed.
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]]>The post The People Who Created FitBit Are Launching Luffu, An AI Family Health Platform appeared first on Techso Mogro.
]]>Now, the two of them are behind Luffu, a new family health and caregiving app that combines data from wearables, health apps, and manual records of signs and symptoms, voice, medication, medical and doctor note entries, and lab test results for an entire family, even including pets.
How does Luffu do this? The app uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify various information resources and organize these into a comprehensive family health picture. The app is well-designed for family caregivers. It runs in the background, gathers health information from many sources, and then organizes it to highlight important well-being issues.
The app’s name comes from an Old English word, lufu, meaning love. Currently, it is software. In the future, Park and Friedman plan to add hardware.
The Luffu website describes its family-centric approach:
“At its heart, family caregiving is love in action, channelled through all of the gestures, big and small, that protect and nurture the people who matter most.”
The philosophy behind the app is to be “quiet most of the time,” and “helpful at the right time.”
By 2050, demographic trends project that 1 in 6 people worldwide will be 65 and older. Combine that with smaller family sizes, and the ratio of elderly parents to middle-aged children is creating a phenomenon called “sandwich caregiving.” Sandwich caregivers are around age 50, with elderly parents who are still alive. Sandwich caregivers, while helping their parents, also have dependent children. Looking after the generation that preceded them as well as the one that is following is no easy task. The role reversal of looking after aging parents can be shocking, particularly if a sudden health crisis happens.
Sandwich caregivers have little say initially on where elderly parents live. Many want to age in place, preferring to stay in their family home rather than downsize to a condominium or apartment. Mobility and sudden health issues can disrupt these strategies. Elderly parents, therefore, may need to move in with their sandwich caregivers. Alternatively, they may require an attendant care facility or retirement home.
Today, there is an acknowledgement of the need to grow sandwich caregiver support as the median population rises.
A brief look at resources includes the following:
Enter Luffu, an app that learns the baseline health levels for every family member, that tracks childhood fevers to sandwich-caregiver high blood pressure, to elderly sleep disturbances and more.
Luffu aggregates all of this type of information, drawing on multiple information sources and a growing list of personal health monitoring devices, including:
A&D Medical Deluxe Blood Pressure Monitors, Apple Health and Apple Watch smartwatches, the Beddit Sleep Monitor, Evolv Wireless Blood Pressure Monitors, Fitbits, Garmin MARQ Commander smartwatches, Huawei GT 5 Pro Smart Watches, KardiaMobile, Omron blood pressure monitors, Oura Ring, Philips Sonicare advanced toothbrushes, Polar Vantage Smartwatches, Wahoo TrackR Heart Monitor, Withings Body Scan and BPM Connect Blood Pressure Monitor, and Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite.
To these, it adds medical notes from physicians, manual logs, images and accessible digital health records, which it then aggregates. Luffu’s daily Morning Brief summarizes the health status of all family members and prioritizes any urgent issues. Individual family members can control what data is shared, protecting their individual privacy. The app creates baselines for vital signs and activities. It tracks when medication doses are missed. The daily Morning Brief can even include health status reports on family pets.
Currently, Luffu in beta test is free. There is a waitlist that users can sign up for that is currently restricted to U.S. users. The app runs on mobile devices that use iOS (Apple) and Android OS. The beta test is focusing on core features and data aggregation capabilities.
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]]>The post Gene-Drive Mosquitoes Target The Malaria Parasite And Not The Insect appeared first on Techso Mogro.
]]>There are 3,500 known species of mosquitoes and counting, found in almost every eco niche on Earth. Mosquitoes are incubators for parasites which they spread from species to species, in some cases, causing disease and death. Malaria, spread by mosquitoes, killed 619,000 people in 2021. Most of the victims were under the age of 5.
It seems, therefore, to be a legitimate question to ask,
“What would happen if we eradicated mosquitoes from the planet?”
A lot of unintended consequences.
As the planet warms, mosquito-borne diseases are spreading to areas where they have never been endemic in recent history. Climate change facilitates the spread of vector-borne diseases like West Nile, Malaria, Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya and Yellow Fever.
I asked Perplexity.ai to summarize the impact mosquito-borne diseases have on humanity. This is the chart it produced:
Among the above-mentioned diseases, Dengue is the fastest-growing over the last 60+ years and is endemic in over 120 countries today. The Aedes aegypti mosquito that hosts the Dengue virus lives in proximity to human populations. It likes the clutter of dense urban areas where standing water provides fast-breeding opportunities.
Malaria is the best-known mosquito-borne disease. It is endemic in Africa, with Nigeria reporting 31% of the continent’s cases. Anopheles mosquitoes spread the disease as hosts of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. Insecticide overuse has led to growing mosquito population resistance. The need for alternative control strategies is, therefore, a global imperative.
Traditional approaches to fighting mosquito-borne diseases include eliminating stagnant water breeding grounds such as ponds, ditches, swamps, and standing water sources around homes and buildings. A few years ago, Toronto reported its first West Nile Virus cases caused by the spread of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes into Southern Ontario. Homeowners were asked to remove rainwater collection sites like old tires and pots, and to unblock eavestroughs and rain gutters, all potential breeding sites.
Using genetic engineering is a high-tech deterrent now being employed. A recent mosquito control program has introduced genetically modified sterile males to be released into the wild. The British company, Oxitec, has pioneered this technology in a series of test trials covering five countries. It has targeted Aedes aegypti populations responsible for spreading West Nile, Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya and Yellow Fever.
Crashing mosquito populations can produce negative ecosystem consequences. Why?
Mosquitoes are a food source for amphibians, reptiles, birds, bats, fish, spiders and other insects.
Mosquito larvae live in water where they play a significant role both as a food source and in maintaining freshwater environments. Freshwater today is a scarce commodity.
Eliminating breeding populations at the larval stage has negative impacts above the water, with adult winged populations crashing. Losing mosquito pollinators, therefore, has consequences for plants.
Fortunately, Oxitec and other sterilization experiments have been limited to date, with the vast majority of the 3,500 mosquito species unaffected.
What about other genetic modification strategies?
Previously, I wrote on this blog site about the World Mosquito Program (WMP). This Australian-founded research program has genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. These modifications don’t sterilize. Instead, they create genetic changes that block intracellular disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites that make the mosquito a carrier. (See the image appearing at the top of this posting.)
A paper published in the journal Annals of Medicine in 2024 describes additional research using gene drive technologies. A group of African universities and medical research institutions were involved in publishing work on gene-drive technology to control malaria-spreading mosquitoes. The research involves deploying the CRISPR gene-editing tool to modify mosquito DNA sequences to inhibit malaria. The desired outcome is to create inherited traits from generation to generation to produce a better than 50% reduction in the wild population’s disease transmission rates.
Altering mosquito genes without reducing their numbers is considered ideal.
Could a genetically altered mosquito spread through the natural environment and compete with other benign mosquito species, leading to their extinction? Could cross-breeding in the wild create unintended negative consequences, producing a super spreader, and could genetically modified mosquitoes cause irreversible negative impacts on biodiversity? Then there is the need to advise the public and get informed consent when deploying gene-drive technology experiments.
In the referenced paper, the authors express the hope that gene-drive technology is the tool to eradicate malaria, and by extension, other vector-borne diseases spread through mosquito bites.
For the millions who suffer from vector-borne diseases, this type of research with guardrails in place should turn gene-drive technologies into “a robust, cost-effective, and sustainable prospect” and ensure humans, animals and mosquitoes can find an ecological balance in the 21st century.
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]]>The post A New CRISPR Is Removing Chemical Tags To Reactivate Helpful Genes appeared first on Techso Mogro.
]]>Jennifer Doudna first described CRISPR’s capabilities in an article appearing in the journal Science back in 2012. Later, she wrote the book, A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution, describing the power of this genetic rewriter to cure diseases, enhance biology, address world hunger, and alter humanity.
CRISPR/Cas9 was the laboratory tool that Doudna used to snip out bad genes and replace them. This was the 1st generation of the tool. The 2nd generation could zoom into DNA strands and correct individual nucleotides.
What UNSW has done is introduce a 3rd-generation CRISPR editor that turns genes on by removing methylation marks, small chemical tags that signal and control gene expression. Methylation marks play a significant role in how DNA responds to diseases like cancer. Too many methylation marks suppress genes that could help fight a particular disease.
Removal of promoter CpG methylation by epigenome editing reverses HBG silencing, is the name of the paper published July 27, 2025, in Nature Communications, that describes the collaboration between UNSW and St. Jude. The paper describes how this 3rd-generation CRISPR is no longer slicing and dicing DNA, but rather is used to remove unwanted methylation marks with Sickle Cell Disease and β‑thalassemia, two inherited blood disorders.
Why target Sickle Cell Disease and β‑thalassemia?
Sickle Cell affects hundreds of thousands born with the defect every year. In 2021, there were an estimated 7.7 million living with it. Sickle Cell changes the structure of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying molecule found in red blood cells. The deformed, sickle-shaped cells carry less oxygen, leading to anemia and other symptoms. The Lancet reports that Sickle Cell is one of the leading causes of childhood deaths in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
β‑thalassemia is a genetic defect that causes reduced production of β‑globin, one of the two main proteins found in hemoglobin. It causes anemia and other symptoms. Between 80 and 90 million people carry this mutation, with up to 60,000 symptomatic births each year. A 2024 estimate in The Lancet stated that 1.3 million live with the disease and an estimated 11,000 die from it annually.
States Professor Merlin Crossley, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic Quality, at UNSW, “Whenever you cut DNA, there’s a risk of cancer. And if you’re doing gene therapy for a lifelong disease, that’s a bad kind of risk. But if we can do gene therapy that doesn’t involve snipping DNA strands, then we avoid these potential pitfalls.”
Removing methylation groups is a new use for CRISPR. Guide RNA directs demethylating enzymes to targeted genomic locations to reactivate suppressed gene expression. Crossley likens this to taking a wrench to bicycle training wheels and removing them to free the big wheels to do their thing.
Kate Quinlan, a UNSW professor and contributor to the project, sees the potential to use this third-generation CRISPR tool for many other genetic diseases. She notes, “We are excited about the future of epigenetic editing as our study shows that it allows us to boost gene expression without modifying the DNA sequence. Therapies based on this technology are likely to have a reduced risk of unintended negative effects compared to first or second-generation CRISPR.”
Crossley notes that the development of this third-generation CRISPR makes it possible to target molecules in individual genes. No doubt, therapeutic CRISPR treatments will emerge to fight diseases that impact crops, trees, and more. Crossley’s words say it all: “This is the very beginning of a new age.”
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