News Digest 02.02.2024 — 05.02.2024
Regulators
The Future Technologies Forum 2024 will be held in Moscow on February 13–14
The business program includes seven thematic tracks: “Genetic technologies - part of the medicine of the future”, “Neurotechnologies in healthcare”, “Regenerative medicine - a way to restore lost health”, “Biotechnologies in personalized healthcare, including technologies for active longevity and preventive medicine”, “Ecosystem of the future” technologies”, “Digitalization and artificial intelligence technologies” and “Technological sovereignty in the field of ensuring biological safety”.
The forum sessions will be held with expert support from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, FMBA, Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian Academy of Sciences, National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Rosatom state corporation, Gazprombank, Sberbank, Russian Railways and other organizations.
Registration: https://future-forum.tech/programme/programme-architecture/
Market news
The government will allocate 47 million rubles for the retrofitting of the Chukotka District Hospital
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug will receive 47 million rubles. from the reserve fund of the Government of the Russian Federation for the purchase of equipment for the Chukotka District Hospital and its branches. The order was published on February 5 on the Cabinet website.
With these funds, in 2024, at least 18 units of medical products will be purchased to retrofit the obstetric and intensive care departments of the medical institution. In particular, the need for ventilators, ultrasound, ECG, and EEG will be covered.
Head of Government Mikhail Mishustin, at an operational meeting with deputy prime ministers on February 5, also instructed Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova to monitor the issue of attaching the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug to the perinatal center in Khabarovsk, so that, if necessary, patients would be promptly sent there to receive qualified treatment. Maria Orosova, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the gynecological department of the Chukotka District Hospital, made such a request to President Vladimir Putin in early January, MV reported. The head of state promised to help Chukotka increase the accessibility of maternity care facilities, in particular, to equip them and organize the routing of patients of this profile to large perinatal centers in the Far Eastern Federal District.
Later, the Russian Ministry of Health assigned personal curators to maternity care institutions in Chukotka. In addition, a system of telemedicine visits for high-risk patients has been introduced.
Two more PET Technology nuclear medicine centers suspended their activities
The PET Technology nuclear medicine centers in Tula and Lipetsk suspended their work on February 1 for an indefinite period. Cancer patients will not be able to undergo positron emission tomography under the compulsory health insurance policy (CHI), the company reported.
Oncologists prescribe this research method to patients to clarify the location of tumors, as well as the prevalence of malignant neoplasms, including the search for metastases.
As reported on the company’s official website, the reason for the suspension is a significant decrease in funding: “The tariffs for PET/CT services established by the Territorial Compulsory Health Insurance Funds of the Tula and Lipetsk Regions in 2024 do not cover the costs of this study (“Tariff Agreement in the Compulsory Health Insurance System” on the territory of the Tula region 2024" dated December 29, 2023; "Tariff agreement in the compulsory health insurance system on the territory of the Lipetsk region 2024" dated December 29, 2023).
In this regard, cancer patients from Tula and Lipetsk are offered to undergo examination at PET/CT centers in Ryazan or Obninsk (if they have the necessary package of documents).
The company’s website notes that “the resumption of the provision of PET/CT services in 2024 at the expense of the compulsory medical insurance program for residents of the Tula and Lipetsk regions will be possible after an increase in tariffs for this type of diagnostic study.”
Every month, the PET Technology centers in Tula and Lipetsk perform 240-245 studies per month. As it became known, at the time of stopping PET/CT scanning, 80 residents of Tula and 125 residents of Lipetsk with a diagnosis of cancer are awaiting.
Other
A pilot project “Smart Pharmacy” with a robot was launched in Moscow
The launch of a pilot project “Smart Pharmacy” was announced in Moscow. The mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, announced this on his Telegram channel.
The high-tech system automates all processes - receipt, accounting and storage of medicines. The pharmacy robot checks the expiration date of drugs and their compliance with delivery notes, and generates the necessary orders for hospital departments. This greatly simplifies and speeds up the work of doctors, Sobyanin emphasized.
Source: https://pharmvestnik.ru/content/news/V-Moskve-zapustili-pilotnyi-proekt-Umnaya-apteka-s-robotom.html
FDA suspects pulse oximeters of racial discrimination
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accused devices that measure blood oxygen levels (pulse oximeters) of racial discrimination.
Allegedly, the devices underestimate the rate in black patients, writes STAT. The study confirming this fact was conducted in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not clear what to do with this fact: the regulator says that additional research is needed.
There is only one conclusion: people with dark skin color should not consider pulse oximeters as the only accurate way to measure oxygen levels in the blood. Everyone lies, as Dr. House said. And the devices too.
A device for treating wounds with vacuum and electricity was presented in Novosibirsk
Students from Novosibirsk State University (NSU) presented a vacuum aspirator for faster wound healing.
A vacuum aspirator for wound therapy was developed by students of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics and the Institute of Medicine and Psychology of NSU. An aspirator is a device with electric pumps to create negative pressure under a bandage and can be used in the treatment of open wounds, burns, frostbite and purulent surgical infections.
First, a polyurethane sponge is applied to the wound, fixed with a sealed film, and a connector connected by a tube to an aspirator is installed on top. Through it, exudate (liquid released during inflammation) and purulent contents are sucked out of the wound into a special container.
"Vacuum aspirators are produced in Russia, but their cost is quite high. Our goal is to make the device available to all medical institutions. Our version will be more effective due to the combination of vacuum therapy with other methods, and also more convenient to use thanks to control via a web interface ", notes university student Vladislav Goleinov.
The combination that the young inventor is talking about is that the wound will also be exposed to electric current through electrodes placed under the bandage. This will speed up healing, say the authors of the development.
Experts are concerned about the lack of complete information about the Neuralink neuroimplant. They consider the device dangerous to humans
Experts in the field of neurotechnology do not share the general excitement around Elon Musk’s Neuralink neurochip and express concerns, since detailed information about the experiment is missing. In addition, scientists and doctors do not consider the development innovative. Thus, Anne VanHoestenberg, professor of active implantable medical devices at King's College London, commenting on the technology, said that “nothing that I have seen is anything new.”
Neuroengineer from Oxford University Tim Denison noted that the only confirmation of the successful testing of the chip on a person was a message from Elon Musk on Twitter. It is noteworthy that the main source of public information about the study is the educational invitation brochure for experimental participants. However, it lacks details such as the location of the implantation and the exact results that the study will evaluate.
The study is also not registered in an online repository curated by the US National Institutes of Health, although many universities require that this be met before volunteers take part in the trial. Musk's company did not respond to a request from the scientific journal Nature about this situation.
There are other complaints about the development. For example, neuroethics researcher from the University of Pennsylvania Dr. Laura Cabrera called Elon Musk and his company “showmen,” referring to the primary commercial interest of the head of Neuralink. And Italian neurosurgeon involved in brain transplantation, Sergio Canavero, considers the device dangerous.
“The Mask technology, which has analogues, does not restore the body’s sensory functions, including sexual and vegetative ones. This involves the connection of thousands of miniwires, and this in turn threatens infections and hemorrhages,” the doctor said. Canavero is convinced that this method cannot be used as a treatment for paralyzed patients.
Source: https://www.ft.com/content/da52aa61-4b9a-435a-aa5c-eaf4c6e01dcb
False Rospotrebnadzor in the Chelyabinsk region is trying to make money from private clinics
This was reported by the service itself. A press release from Rospotrebnadzor for the Chelyabinsk region states that fraudsters, on behalf of the regional management, are turning to the heads of private clinics with a request to transfer money to purchase expensive equipment for the needs of Rospotrebnadzor itself or to charity.
The supervisory service called for reporting cases of such complaints to law enforcement agencies.
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