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Ask any kid: a soft cuddly stuffed toy can help with sleep and anxiety. Can a soft robot, worn and clenched by a person in pain or fearing an injection, also provide comfort? What if it clenches back? Researchers developed a soft, wearable robot with airbags and tested/compared scenarios:
- The...
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Unsedated procedures involving patients who have acute or chronic illness can be painful and cause nervousness, anxiety, distress, and catastrophizing. Virtual reality (VR) has been shown to positively distract, and therefore lessen the stress involved. The Journal of Medical Internet Research repor...
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What is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy? It’s a disease that causes abnormal thickening of the heart muscle, which leads to difficulty in blood pumping. It can cause arrythmias and death. Although both genders have a heart, women, along with people of color, are less likely to be implanted with a...
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With fatal overdoses at an all time high and opioids responsible for over 70% of them, naloxone is greatly needed. But over half of overdoses happen when the user is alone; 27% occur in front of bystanders who don’t realize what is happening or don’t know what to do. Therefore, news of a wearable...
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A study published in The Journal of Pain offers hope to those in pain. Researchers examined virtual reality and how it might improve conditioned pain modulation. For those with nerve injuries and other types of pain, VR can improve a dysfunctional pain suppression system. By stimulating the natural...
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As stated in the abstract of an article in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics, a journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, “Approximately 40% of childhood cancer survivors experience chronic pain, with many also reporting pain-related disability. Given associations established in the...
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Featured Faculty Brennan Spiegel, MD, presented Application of Virtual Reality to Pain Management at the 2020 PAINWeek Live Virtual Conference. In it, he discussed the science and practice of virtual analgesia for acute and chronic pain management. Virtual analgesia involves use of virtual reality...
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An interesting development: Artificial electronic skin that reacts to pain. Human skin—the largest sensory organ—"is indicative of health. …pin pricks are used to study the response of a nervous system to evaluate degree of paralysis from nerve damage. Artificial skin receptors that demonstrate such...
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There’s a new player in the multimodal, nonpharmacologic, opioid-sparing pain management arena: the antinociceptive effect of green-spectrum light exposure. This potential new tool in the fight against pain works with the knowledge that areas of affect and circadian rhythm are influenced by visually...
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Newswise — A new technique funded by National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and developed by University of Minnesota researchers allows 3D printing of hydrogel-based sensors directly on the surface of organs, such as lungs—even as they expand and contract. The technology was...