Technology could redefine doctor-patient relationship | Richard Vize

Advances in clinical uses of artificial intelligence (AI) could have two profound effects on the global medical workforce.

AI, which mimics cognitive functions such as learning and problem-solving, is already making inroads into the NHS. In north London it is piloting use of an app aimed at users of the non-emergency 111 service, while the Royal Free London NHS foundation trust has teamed up with Google’s DeepMind AI arm to develop an app aimed at patients with signs of acute kidney injury. The hospital claims the project, which uses information from more than 1.6 million patients a year, could free up more than half a million hours annually spent on paperwork.

AI raises the prospect of making affordable healthcare accessible to all. According to the World Health Organisation, 400 million people do not have access to even the most basic medical services. Hundreds of millions more, including many in the world’s most advanced countries, cannot afford it. A key factor driving this is the worldwide shortage of clinical staff, which is getting worse as populations grow.

At last month’s DigitalHealth.London summit, Ali Parsa, founder of digital healthcare company Babylon, argued that mobile technology coupled with AI makes universal access a realistic goal, while replacing doctors with intelligent systems will slash costs.

“There is no solution which can fundamentally cut the costs of healthcare as long as we are reliant on humans,” he said.

So the second impact of artificial intelligence could be not merely augmenting the pool of medical talent but beginning to replace it. Big claims are being made for the clinical power of AI. Last year IBM’s Watson supercomputer was credited with diagnosing in minutes the precise condition affecting a leukaemia patient in Japan that had been baffling doctors for months, after cross-referencing her information with 20m oncology records.

However, the same system has just consumed five years and $ 62m (£51m) in an unsuccessful attempt to transform care at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, showing how difficult it is to connect these digital behemoths to everyday hospital work. With the NHS still struggling to introduce electronic patient records, the idea of plugging the UK healthcare system into an all-knowing digital brain any time soon is fantasy.

While there is no doubt that AI will enable faster and more accurate diagnoses, a more realistic prospect than replacing doctors is to redefine their role.

That will be to put machine-generated information into the context of the unique life and needs of the individual patient, which cannot yet be reduced to an algorithm. As Dr Ameet Bakhai, consultant cardiologist at the Royal Free trust, told the summit, machines making clinical decisions on their own without that human context could fail to meet Isaac Asimov’s first law for robots of “do no harm”.

Digital evangelists argue that intelligent machines will be able to incorporate the latest data and research immediately, but that is both questionable and a potential weakness. Clinical trials vary in scale and quality, and indiscriminate inclusion would inevitably lead to mistakes. Digital hardliners would argue that machines should judge the quality of the research, but for the foreseeable future the expertise of doctors will be essential to deciding the validity of new approaches.

So perhaps one of the most powerful effects of artificial intelligence will be, perversely, to make healthcare more human and personal. It will remove the dependency on doctors’ fallible memory and incomplete knowledge, and free them to use machine-generated information to work with patients to shape their specific treatment.

This has profound implications for medical training and what defines a leading clinician. It will be those who can harness AI to their own medical knowledge and their human skills of context and empathy who will be the leaders of their profession. In the new world there will still be a great deal for highly-trained humans to do.

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Technology could redefine doctor-patient relationship | Richard Vize

5 Ways to Form an Authentic Loving Relationship with Yourself

5 Ways to Form an Authentic Loving Relationship with Yourself

Why Having A Supercharged Sense of Smell is Key to a Healthier Relationship with Food

Take a minute, close your eyes, and imagine you are in a grocery store.

You are walking over to the produce section, and you see a rainbow of colors. Wow, gorgeous pineapples, bananas, peaches, and mangoes are on the shelves. You pick up and squeeze an orange in your hands and take a celery stick and break it in half to hear it snap.

But wait a minute.

All these beautiful foods are here, but you wonder why you didn’t smell an overwhelming fragrance of fruits and veggies when you walked in?

Well, here’s the deal.

There are two unfortunate reasons why.

However, once you know them, there are several things you can start doing right now to overcome them.

The first reason is that most of the fruits and veggies in the grocery store are picked too early. And therefore, they aren’t ripe and haven’t started producing their fragrant aroma, yet. Some fruits are picked when unripe because they can continue to ripen off the plant. These include apples, mangoes, guavas, and bananas; however, how effectively are they maturing in a cold, dark (no sunlight) grocery store?

It’s a good idea to frequent your local farmer’s markets for ripe and in season produce. Farmers are constantly in tune with the foods they grow. They can tell you all about wholesome, fresh fruits and veggies. Take a few minutes and ask them about color, texture, smell, and taste of the produce before you buy. That way, you can get to know what’s real and ripe, and what’s not.

The other reason you might not smell all the aromas in the grocery store has to do with this little term called Organoleptic. “Or-gan-o-lep-tic” is the science of using our senses to assess the quality and nutritional value of foods. Consequently, we should be able to use this organoleptic ability to seek out foods that are high in nutritional value.

Yes, you have superpowers that are built in to keep you on the prowl for great tasting nutritious foods.

Artificial fragrances (as well as fake foods) dampen our ability to tell if food is high in certain necessary nutrients i.e. ripe and healthy. Cologne and synthetic fragrances used in the home (including scented candles, air fresheners, and cleaning products) all hinder our ability to smell. These artificial scents are harsh chemicals that cause slight damage to the delicate nerve endings in our nose. They work by masking the natural scent with an oily chemical coating on the nerve ending – tricking our bodies into thinking we’re smelling something nice.

Of our five senses, our sense of smell guides us the most in making choices about what we like to eat. Our sense of smell is so powerful that it also shapes our mood. It can bring up old memories that we forgot we even had. You remember that time when your grandmother baked her special apple pie just for you? You would if you smelled a sweet apple pie right now.

Furthermore, bitter tasting herbs can give you a jumpstart on digestion, and having a keen sense of smell can do the same. In a study by Yeomans [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16545846], we find that once an odor is experienced concerning food, our bodies react in a way that prepares us for digestion. This preparation allows us to digest food better and ultimately maintain a healthy balanced weight.

So here are five ways to limit your exposure to toxins that harm your mucous membranes. In the long run, you’ll increase your sense of smell so you can innately go after foods that are rich in vital nutrients. And maybe more importantly, so you can be naturally repelled by fake foods that aren’t good for you.

1. Using essential oils in place of perfume
   Use about three drops of pure essential oil on a cotton ball and dampen the ball with water or coconut oil. Dab the cotton ball on your skin. You’ll want to test out the oils to make sure they are not irritating to your skin. Lavender, Grapefruit or Geranium are lovely sweet oils to start.


2. Light incense or handmade candles (with essential oils) in your home.
   There are many recipes online to make your scented candles. Or you can try Nag Campa incense, which is a nice earthy blend to bring calming and a relaxing scent into your home.


3. Use soaps, shampoos, and lotions without artificial fragrances (Coconut oil is an excellent alternative)
   Raw, organic coconut oil is the perfect all in one moisturizer for your hair and skin.


4. Clean your home with white vinegar and water or lemon juice instead of harsh cleaners
   Although vinegar is not a strong antibacterial, it is a very safe and effective cleaner for your home.


5. Cut fresh flowers for your home or office
   Having live plants in your home can cleanse and purify the air. If you are having company over or need a pick me up, try cut flowers from your garden to freshen up your home.

All of these ideas make your home more natural, beautiful and safe for your senses.

With these five simple practices, you can start to enhance your natural sense of smell. Practice strengthening your sense of smell. You may just be able to choose healthy foods based on your attraction to them. Removing more toxins from your environment is a great place to start to live a little more holistic life.

Resources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16545846

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20693276

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14513063

http://ucanr.edu/datastoreFiles/234-167.pdf

Why Having A Supercharged Sense of Smell is Key to a Healthier Relationship with Food

My girlfriend threatens suicide every single time I try out to end our romantic relationship

My girlfriend threatens suicide every single time I try to break up with her. She even threatened it when I did not response my phone, as she was convinced I was with an additional female. I just want to normalise our connection and grow to be buddies. I have threatened to break off all contact but this is met with hysterical threats. Our troubles are compounded by language and cultural barriers the divorce of her mothers and fathers (she is an only little one) the memory of her abusive ex-boyfriend and her bodily (if not also mental) health difficulties. I have asked her to see a counsellor, but she sees this as an insult. I truly feel as if everything I do unintentionally pushes her closer to catastrophe.

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My girlfriend threatens suicide every single time I try out to end our romantic relationship

Jury offers open verdict on teenager who died following "relationship with star"

Ben Cowburn had mentioned he felt disgusted by what he had accomplished with the celebrity, referred to as Mr X at the inquest. Photograph: Apex

A jury has returned an open verdict on a teenager who died in a mental wellness clinic right after claiming he had been deeply upset by a sexual romantic relationship with an unnamed male celebrity.

The jury also explained it believed that “shortcomings” in the care of Ben Cowburn, 18, might have contributed to his death.

The coroner had earlier warned the jury that it ought to not try out to apportion blame over the death of the teenager.

Shortly just before his death Cowburn claimed he had created much more than 40 attempts to consider his daily life soon after getting “pressured” into performing “sexual issues” with the tv celebrity, the inquest heard.

Cowburn alleged the man had purchased him presents and taken him to nice places but he felt “disgusted” by what they had allegedly completed together.

The Cornwall coroner Emma Carlyon ordered that the celebrity at the centre of the allegations be referred to as Mr X throughout the inquest at Truro.

Summing up the proof before sending the jury out to attain its conclusions, Carlyon emphasised that no person was on trial. She also asked the panel not to undertake their personal research or search at any social network discussions about the situation.

She reminded the jury that a postmortem examination had located that Cowburn died of asphyxia in the en-suite bathroom of his space at Longreach House psychological overall health unit close to Redruth in Cornwall in December 2010. There was no suggestion that any person else was concerned.

Carlyon summarised the proof of a psychological wellness nurse who said Cowburn had told him he had had a partnership with a male celebrity who was older than him. The celebrity had allegedly given him presents, alcohol and medicines.

Cowburn explained he had not been raped or abused and what they had allegedly completed collectively was consensual. But Cowburn advised the nurse he had felt “dirty and ashamed”. Right after Cowburn’s death, police investigated the romantic relationship with the celebrity. They concluded he had not been abused or assaulted. The romantic relationship ended in the summertime of 2010.

The jury was reminded that medical professionals concluded Cowburn had been suffering from a depressive illness and may have had publish-traumatic pressure disorder.

Carlyon also flagged up considerations about how Cowburn was cared for. One particular skilled in mental wellness mentioned there had been failings in how the teenager was handled right after previous situations of self-harm and overdoses.

The inquest has been advised that Cowburn, a fashion college graduate, met the celebrity in a pub and began doing work as his stylist.

On Tuesday the police officer who led the investigation into Cowburn’s death in Cornwall, DC Joanna Sodergren, told the jury: “He mentioned the guy had brought him great items and took him to great spots but had done sexual issues to him. Asked if he had been raped or sexually assaulted he explained he had not, but agreed to them as he felt pressured to do the issues. He said if he killed himself it would make it far better as it would make it go away.”

Devon and Cornwall police informed Scotland Yard about his allegations. The star has not been arrested in excess of Cowburn’s allegations and has not been known as to give proof to the inquest.

Some media organisations have asked the coroner to reveal who Mr X is. The Tory MP Priti Patel explained “standard” details ought to be permitted into the public domain.

Jury offers open verdict on teenager who died following "relationship with star"