Christmas feasting a heart attack risk

We all like to over indulge at Christmas and most of us can get away with feasting on delicious turkey, mince pies, brandy cream and champagne. The average person eats around a whopping 5,240 calories on Christmas Day, including a lot of fat. Most of us can get away with it. But overeating is dangerous […]

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A new boost for leukaemia treatment

Leukaemia treatment can be made more effective by using a drug for iron overload, according to new research. Scientists led by a team at Imperial College London have found that chemotherapy for one type of leukaemia could be improved by giving patients a drug currently used to treat an unrelated condition. Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) […]

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The price of sight loss

Sight loss costs London’s economy £6.4 billion, around £750 per Londoner, per year, according to a new report Eye Health- preventing sight loss in London, and by 2030, an extra 194,000 Londoners are predicted to have a sight-threatening eye condition and an extra 74,000 with sight loss. Already one in twelve adults in London has […]

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In defence of ‘Snapchat surgery’

I’m proud to call myself a so-called ‘Snapchat Surgeon’. At my clinic, we often document plastic surgery by videoing the procedure and uploading the footage to social media. In the case of the app Snapchat, the surgeries are often streamed live to our followers. The sacred bond of respect and trust between a surgeon and […]

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Air pollution cancels out exercise health benefits

Exposure to air pollution on city streets is enough to counter the beneficial health effects of exercise in older adults, according to new research. The findings, published today in The Lancet, show that short term exposure to air pollution in built up areas like London’s busy Oxford Street can prevent the positive effects on the […]

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RITA the caring robot

RITA is a digital robot – an avatar that appears on a phone or tablet screen and can interact with older people to cater for their needs. RITA, which stands for Responsive Interactive Advocate, harnesses emerging technologies from the entertainment industry, including voice recognition and facial recognition software, to innovate future models of personalised care. […]

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A nurse takes a view on cricket

That cricketing and clinical concepts collide has become apparent to me as a nurse spectator enjoying numerous cricket matches. I’ve noticed many cricketing terms and ideas that wouldn’t be out of place in a ward environment when discussing diagnosis, disease and death. As I look at Father Time removing the bails from the wicket above […]

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Does research improve clinical care?

Most people would agree that research is necessary to improve clinical care: research tells us which treatments and services work, and which don’t, so that we can provide patients with the most appropriate, and most effective care. But an important question is: how much of the research that is done in biomedicine actually leads to […]

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Robocare

The use of NAO Robots with patients was trialed at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London. The idea was to assess whether these robots could help combat the social isolation experienced by many inpatients in hospital wards. The results were varied and very moving… This project was conceived and originated by Dr. Marcela P. Vizcaychipi and […]

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