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Cancer Patients and Fitness Trackers

Cancer Patient using Fitness tracker

Fitness trackers can be valuable tools for assessing the quality of life and daily functioning of cancer patients during treatment, a new study has found. The trackers, also known as wearable activity monitors, include commercial devices worn on the wrist that log a wearer’s step counts, stairs climbed, calories, heart rate and sleep.

As students of the Medical Field, keeping up to date with trends and discoveries in the medical industry make for a better career and better career advancement opportunities.  As we all know, Cancer is a growing concern in our population. Any insight into treatment can prove to be a life saver or lifestyle enhancer.

“One of the challenges in treating patients with advanced cancer is obtaining ongoing, timely, objective data about their physical status during therapy,” said Andrew Hendifar, MD, medical director for pancreatic cancer at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute. “After all, patients typically spend most of their time at home or work, not in a clinic, and their health statuses change from day to day.”

Hendifar was the principal investigator and Gillian Gresham, PhD, postdoctoral scientist at the cancer institute, was the first author for the study, which was published online in the journal npj Digital Medicine.

Data Gathered Can Help Assess Cancer Patient Treatment

The study focused on 37 patients undergoing treatment for advanced cancer at Cedars-Sinai. They wore wrist-mounted fitness trackers throughout the study except when showering or swimming. Sets of activity data were collected for three consecutive visits during treatment. After the final clinical visit, patients were followed for six months to gather additional clinical and survival outcomes.

Investigators then compared data from the trackers with patients’ assessments of their own symptoms, including pain, fatigue and sleep quality, as collected from a National Institutes of Health questionnaire. These data sets also were compared with two common scales used to gauge physical status and overall health: the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG) and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) scales.

Results suggested that objective data collected from wearable activity monitors can supplement and enhance current assessments of health status and physical function, which are limited by their subjectivity and potential for bias, Gresham said. In the study, increased daily step and stair activity correlated with more positive ratings of a patient’s condition on the provider surveys and lower rates of adverse events and hospitalization.

“Data gathered through advancements in technology has the potential to help physicians measure the impact of a particular treatment on a patient’s daily functioning,” Gresham said. “Furthermore, continuous activity monitoring may help predict and monitor treatment complications and allow for more timely and appropriate interventions.”

As a next step, investigators plan to study long-term use of the monitors in a larger, more diverse group of advanced cancer patients and correlate that data with clinical and self-reported outcomes. “Our hope is that findings from future studies with wearable activity monitors could lead to development of individualized treatment and exercise plans that may result in increased treatment tolerability and improved survival outcomes for patients,” Hendifar said.

“We are at the beginning of a revolution in healthcare in which digital wearables, coupled with broadband telecommunication, will allow remote monitoring of cancer patients and anticipate the need for intervention before symptoms occur,” said Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, director of the cancer institute. “This type of work has the potential to tailor our standard follow-up regimens for cancer to each patient, offering truly ‘precision follow-up’ that is better for patients, providers and society.”

For more information about the information above, please visit ScienceDaily

Interested in a career in Health Care or building a better career in the medical field? Speak to one of our admissions reps today at Mandl School, The College of Allied Health. Call 212-247-3434 anytime.

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National HIV Testing Day 6/27

National HIV testing day is Wednesday June 27.

June 27th is an important day, it is National HIV Testing Day.  In an effort to keep our students at Mandl School, their families and everyone informed of news and events related to health care, it’s important to spread the word that June 27th is National HIV Testing Day. We have come so far in testing and treating HIV but there are still people living with HIV and may not know it.

National HIV Testing Day (NHTD), a day to encourage people to get tested for HIV, know their status, and get linked to care and treatment if they have HIV. This year’s theme, Doing It My Way, Testing for HIV, reminds us that each person has their own reasons why they test for HIV and their own unique ways of Doing It.

About 1.1 million people in the United States have HIV.

In the 1.1 million people, 1 in 7 don’t know they have HIV. Many people have HIV for years[1.86 MB] before they get a diagnosis. For those who are living with undiagnosed HIV, testing is the first step in maintaining a healthy life and reducing HIV transmission. CDC recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 get tested for HIV at least once as part of routine health care and those at high risk get tested at least once a year. Some sexually active gay and bisexual men may benefit from more frequent testing (every 3 to 6 months).

Get tested for HIV

Knowing your HIV status gives you powerful information to help keep you and your partner healthy. Join us on NHTD to raise awareness about the importance of HIV testing and early diagnosis of HIV. Share why and how you are getting tested for a chance to be featured on the Doing It My Way social wall.

Knowing your HIV status helps keep you and your partner healthy. Visit Doing It to learn more.

What Can You Do?

Get the facts. Learn about HIV, and share this information with your family, friends, and community.

Get tested. The only way to know for sure whether you have HIV is to get tested. To find a testing site near you, use the Doing It testing locator, text your ZIP code to KNOWIT (566948), or call 1-800-CDC-INFO. You can also use a home testing kit, available in drugstores or online.

Protect yourself and your partner. Today, we have powerful tools to prevent HIV and help people with HIV to stay healthy. If you have HIV, start treatment as soon as possible after you get a diagnosis. The most important thing you can do is take HIV medicine as prescribed by your doctor.

HIV medicine lowers the amount of virus (viral load) in your body, and taking it every day can make your viral load undetectable. If you get and keep an undetectable viral load, you can stay healthy for many years, and you have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV through sex to an HIV-negative partner. To make sure you keep an undetectable viral load, take your medicine as prescribed, and see your provider regularly to monitor your health.

There are many other actions you can take to prevent getting or transmitting HIV:

  • Use condoms the right way every time you have sex. Learn the right way to use a male condomor a female condom. Check out the condom locator to find condoms near you.
  • If you are HIV-negative but at high risk for HIV, take daily medicine to prevent HIV, called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Use the PrEP locatorto find a PrEP provider in your area.
  • Talk to your doctor about post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)if you think you have been exposed to HIV in the last 72 hours and are not on PrEP.
  • Choose less riskysexual behaviors.
  • Limit your number of sexual partners.
  • Get tested and treated for other sexually transmitted diseases.
  • Never share syringes or other equipment to inject drugs (works).
  • Remember, abstinence (not having sex) and not sharing syringes or works are the only 100% effective ways to prevent HIV.

You can learn more about how to protect yourself and your partners and get information tailored to meet your needs from CDC’s HIV Risk Reduction Tool(BETA).

Read full article here

At Mandl School, Our pledge is to provide our students with the finest Allied Health academic programs and training available in the New York City.  It is our mission to educate men and women, regardless of their backgrounds, to serve ably and effectively in the allied health industry. For more information about starting a career in Health Care, please contact us here or call 212-247-3434.

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Bone Marrow Registry Event

Bone Marrow Registry

Bone Marrow Registry will take place at Mandl School on June 6, 2018.

Each year, nearly 17,500 people, ages 0-74, in the United States are diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses where a bone marrow transplant or umbilical cord blood transplant (also called a BMT) from a related or unrelated matched donor is their best treatment option. A bone marrow or cord blood transplant replaces a patient’s diseased blood-forming cells with healthy cells.

Mandl School, The College of Allied Health takes this issue quite seriously.

We have organized a Bone Marrow Registry Event for June 6, 2018 in our facilities. We expect a large crowd to attend and hope anyone who reads this will join us or contact us at how they can register at a different time.

Bone Marrow transplant

A well-matched donor is important to the success of a transplant.

Doctors look for a marrow donor or cord blood unit with a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue type that closely matches the patient’s. HLA are proteins, or markers, that the immune system uses to recognize the cells that belong in the body and those that do not.

Because tissue type is inherited, you might expect that a family member would be the best match. However, only 30% of patients will have a relative who matches and is able to donate. The other 70%, or approximately 12,000 people, need someone like you to donate their healthy marrow.

Even with nearly 29 million potential marrow donors and 712,000 cord blood units available worldwide, it is harder for patients of racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds to find a match. Because tissue type is most likely to match someone of the same race and ethnicity, donors of these racial and ethnic heritages are especially needed:

American Indian or Alaska Native
Asian
Black or African-American
Hispanic or Latino
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
Multiple race

A close match between a patient’s and donor’s tissue type can improve the chances of a successful transplant. When a patient searches for a donor, sometimes he or she finds a closely matched donor, sometimes not. A patient could be waiting for someone like you.

You can read more from the Health Resources and Services  Administration HERE

Contact us to learn more about our programs, special events and the Mandl School, the College of Allied Health.

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May is Mental Health Month

Health and Human Services Degree Mandl School

So much of our daily life determines our mental health. Diet and Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep, Stress and more all factor into how we approach our short term and long terms life goals. When we talk about health, we can’t just focus on heart health, or liver health, or brain health, and not whole health. You have to see the whole person, and make use of the tools and resources that benefit minds and bodies together.

Mental Health America click here – founded in 1909 – is the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness and to promoting the overall mental health of all Americans. Their work is driven by a commitment to promote mental health as a critical part of overall wellness, including prevention services for all, early identification and intervention for those at risk, integrated care, services, and supports for those who need it, with recovery as the goal.

Understanding the importance of Mental Health.

Understanding the importance of mental health, signs of people in need of help and also signs for yourself are all important for well being. Our Health & Human Services program, while focused on Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counseling, encourages students to understand many human conditions. Our program builds on a strong foundation of the study human behavior and human development within the context of the psychological, social, and biophysical environments in which people live today. Students will develop skills needed to work with others on a one-on-one, as well as in group settings, from which they will practice and learn the ethical standards of the helping profession.

Mental Health and Mandl School Financial Aid

Another organization with great Mental Health resources in the National Alliance of Mental Illness. NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. They offer great insight in mental health, educational programs and more.

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March is National Nutrition Month

Fresh Peaches

March is National Nutrition Month® 2018

National Nutrition Month® is a nutrition education and information campaign created annually in March by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The campaign focuses attention on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits.  These healthy habits are fantastic for better studying. It is also important as someone in healthcare to stay informed.

“Go Further with Food” is the theme for 2018, and its importance is timely for many reasons. Whether it’s starting the day off right with a healthy breakfast or fueling before an athletic event, the foods you choose can make a real difference. Preparing your foods to go further, by planning meals and snacks in advance can also help to reduce food loss and waste. This year’s theme for National Nutrition Month® encourages us to achieve the numerous benefits healthy eating habits offer, but it also urges us to find ways to cut back on food waste. Learning how to manage food resources at home will help you “Go Further with Food”, while saving both nutrients and money.

Key Messages:

  1. Include a variety of healthful foods from all of the food groups on a regular basis.
  2. Consider the foods you have on hand before buying more at the store.
  3. Buy only the amount that can be eaten or frozen within a few days and plan ways to use leftovers later in the week.
  4. Be mindful of portion sizes. Eat and drink the amount that’s right for you, as MyPlate encourages us to do.
  5. Continue to use good food safety practices.
  6. Find activities that you enjoy and be physically active most days of the week.
  7. Realize the benefits of healthy eating by consulting with a registered dietitian nutritionist. RDNs can provide sound, easy-to-follow personalized nutrition advice to meet your lifestyle, preferences and health-related needs.

Eat well and Study hard!

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