Information Technology
Smartphone blood pressure app often wrong, study finds | Health DayPopular smartphone app Instant Blood Pressure, which promised to give users an estimated blood pressure reading by placing the smartphone on the left side of their chest and placing their index finger on the phone's camera, gave inaccurate readings 4 out of 5 times, according to a research letter published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Pa. system targeted in 'spear phishing' scheme | Philadelphia Business Journal
Main Line Health said it was the victim of a “spear phishing” incident that affected the personal information of all Main Line Health employees.
Fight cancer with Twitter? | Philly.com
Only 5% of cancer patients participate in clinical trials for new treatments. In a report published in JAMA Oncology, University of Pennsylvania researchers say disseminating information on trials using social media like Twitter, which is already used by patients for information and support, could help recruit more participants.
Pharmaceuticals
Sanofi plots accelerated path to Zika vaccine | ReutersDrugmaker Sanofi says it wants to "slash years off the normal timeline required for a vaccine" and has assembled a team of more than 80 researchers to begin preclinical trials of a Zika virus in animals this spring. Other pharmaceutical companies are also working on a Zika vaccine, but some say Sanofi has a head start because it already produces a number of vaccines, including a vaccine for dengue fever, a related virus.
Physicians
How to do a nose job: Plastic surgeons learn procedures on YouTube | STATNearly two thirds of plastic surgeons admit to learning how to perform some procedures by watching YouTube videos, according to a study published this week in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery. But some surgeons note patients shouldn't worry because that method is not much different from more traditional methods in which docs pay a fee to go watch a lecture and video.
