Discover the Science of Health
A series of research articles in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology suggest that light-to-moderate drinking during pregnancy (up to 8 drinks per week) does not affect IQ [1], intelligence, attention, and executive function [2], selective and sustained attention [3], or general intelligence [4] in 5-year-old children.
GE Healthcare and Microsoft recently announced plans to create a joint venture aimed at helping healthcare organizations and professionals use real-time, system-wide intelligence to improve healthcare quality and the patient experience.
The new health information technology company will develop and market an open, interoperable technology platform and innovative clinical applications focused on enabling better population health management to improve outcomes and the overall economics of health and wellness. The joint venture will combine Microsoft’s expertise in building platforms and ecosystems with GE Healthcare’s experience in clinical and administrative workflow solutions.
The as of yet unnamed new company will deliver a distinctive, open platform that will give healthcare providers and independent software vendors the ability to develop a new generation of clinical applications. The venture will develop healthcare applications on the platform using in-house developers and the platform will connect with a wide range of healthcare IT products. GE Healthcare IT will immediately be able to connect existing products to the platform, helping current customers to derive new insights.
The two companies will contribute the following intellectual property:
The long-term vision of the venture is to create new value by offering a healthcare performance management suite that includes many of these products.
Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE, said:
The complementary nature of GE Healthcare’s and Microsoft’s individual expertise will drive new insights, solutions and efficiencies to further advance the two companies’ shared vision of a connected, patient-centric healthcare system. The global healthcare challenges of access, cost and quality of care delivery are creating a new focus on the performance and accountability of healthcare delivery systems –- in every country, at every level of care. This venture will demonstrate what is possible when leading companies with complementary capabilities work together to meet a common goal.
Source: Microsoft
Welcome to the 58th edition of Encephalon, where we highlight some of the best neuroscience and psychology blog posts from around the blogosphere. This edition includes 20 articles on a variety of interesting topics, including intelligence, belief, neurodegeneration, multi-tasking, memory, grief and consciousness.
This edition of Encephalon coincides with the historic 44th U.S. Presidential election. As with every election, voters had to decide which candidate for whom to cast their ballot. Although a recent brain-imaging study found that voting decisions are more associated with the brain’s response to negative aspects of a politician’s appearance than to positive ones [1], many other sources of information come into play when we make important and complex decisions. Indeed, studies have shown that decision making is largely an unconscious process [2], in which a set of attributes, including needs, preferences, values and emotions, shape our response to sensory input.
Will there be engaging and thought-provoking articles below? Will each of us learn something new as we read through the posts? Will this edition of Encephalon be successful?
Let’s move through each of the attributes and shape our response to these questions.
Health Highlights is a biweekly summary of particularly interesting articles from credible sources of health and medical information that we follow & read. For a complete list of recommeded sources, see our links page.
Part of staying healthy is managing stress. Borzack over at Healthy Lifestyle presents a series of mental exercises that can help increase and protect our energy levels to better manage everyday stress.
Clark over at Unintellegent Design discusses a study that examines the impact of birth order on intelligence. Conclusions are difficult to make given the small but significant differences in IQ. My take on the subject is that parental bias trumps other factors. What do you think?
The Beauty Brains presents an example of why references are so important in the deluge of information we all are bombarded with everyday.
Universal Health’s N=1 offers an interesting perspective to the “healthcare as a right” argument, namely keeping disease under control, and suggests the number of sick and disabled will eventually poise the US for “pandemics of untold proportion”.
Bob over at InsureBlog writes about the surprising results of a heathcare survey given to Americans living in Canada. What are your thoughts on publicly funded healthcare?
