The Body Temperature and Sleep Deprivation:-“The Perfect Sleep”
ByNgadiuba Alina21ST May 2020
The Perfect Sleep Pad is a water-based system that syncs with the body temperature that allows the ideal temperature to be maintained during the night. The water inside The Perfect Sleep Pad flows through tube that are embedded inside the pad. These tubes are connected to an advance micro-processing temperature controller that either heats or cools the water to your individual and ideal sleep temperature. The temperature of the water in the Perfect Sleep Pad ranges from 46°F to 118°F and can be adjusted with your remote control or directly on the controller. The Perfect Sleep Pad offers a solution for anyone suffering from sleep disturbances due to difficulties in regulating their body temperature. This applies to couples with different temperature preferences, as well as athletes and women suffering from menopausal hot flashes and night sweats.
The Perfect Sleep Pad can also benefit cancer patients who suffer from temperature related sleep disturbances caused by their medications and treatments.
The cooling pad helps in reducing insomnia. The temperature can be controlled from an individual’s side of the bed without disturbing the partner’s side of the bed; hence, increasing the number of hours of undisrupted sleep.
Thermal environment is the key element of sleep; this is because thermoregulation is significantly associated to the mechanism of regulating sleep. Either too high or low ambient temperature can have an impact on sleep even though the individual is healthy or not suffering from insomnia. Disrupted nocturnal sleep can influence the day-to-day activities of a person, it is also linked to several adverse health effects (AHE) including obesity, the quality of life and increase in mortality rate. Numerous findings illustrate that cultivating a pleasant thermal sleep environment is essential for maintaining sleep; daily activities; the quality of the health.
There are many studies that show that sleep is related to thermoregulation. Individuals have the tendency to develop a sleep-wake rhythm which is usually repeated in a 24-hours cycle. The decrease in nocturnal sleep phase and the increase of the wake-phase which is a 24-hours repeated cycle is due to the sleep-wake rhythm caused by the core body temperature. Sleep is most likely to occur when there is a decrease in the temperature core. The association between the sleep-wake rhythm and the circadian rhythm of the temperature core is significant for maintaining sleep(Okamoto-Mizuno & Mizuno, 2012).
The potential physiological mechanisms related to sleep deprivation and excess energy balance include changes in appetite and increased time to access food, which may influence energy intake (EI), and extended wakeful time at night, physical inactivity due to fatigue, and decreased thermogenesis, which may affect energy expenditure (EE) (Hibi et al., 2017).
Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder that impacts a considerable number of the population on a circumstantial, frequent, or chronic basis. Generally, insomnia is categorized as a sleep dissatisfaction which makes it difficult to maintain sleep along with a significant distress and impairment of functioning during the daytime. Constant insomnia is related with adverse health outcome which includes a decrease in the quality of life, physical and psychological morbidity (Jean-Philippe Chaput, 2018).
Insomnia involves difficulty falling asleep, remaining asleep and early morning awakenings. People who are affected by insomnia may have difficulties focusing, remembering, or achieving daily tasks; they may also have an increased risk of accidents. Insomnia may have consequences on the economic stability on the country such as incurred cost on the use of healthcare services, work absences and work-related injuries(Tjepkema, 2002).
The economic burden of a person in Canada due to insomnia is estimated at $5,010 per individual in a year; nearly 90% of this amount is associated with work absenteeism and reduced productivity. According to epidemiological studies, the prevalence of insomnia is between 6 to 48% of the Canadian population depending on the onset and severity of the symptoms of an individual. For instance, reports show that about 25% of adults express dissatisfied sleep, 10% to 15% of the people say that their insomnia is as a result of daytime consequences and 6% to 10% have insomnia disorder (Morin et al., 2011).
Hibi, M., Kubota, C., Mizuno, T., Aritake, S., Mitsui, Y., Katashima, M., & Uchida, S. (2017). Effect of shortened sleep on energy expenditure, core body temperature, and appetite: A human randomised crossover trial. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep39640
Jean-Philippe Chaput, J. Y. D. P. R. and C. M. M. (2018, December 19). Prevalence of insomnia for Canadians aged 6 to 79. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-003-x/2018012/article/00002-eng.htm
Morin, C. M., Leblanc, M., Bélanger, L., Ivers, H., Mérette, ; Chantal, & Savard, J. (2011). Prevalence of Insomnia and Its Treatment in Canada. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56(9), 540–548. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/070674371105600905
Okamoto-Mizuno, K., & Mizuno, K. (2012). Effects of thermal environment on sleep and circadian rhythm. Journal of Physiological Anthropology, Vol. 31, pp. 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/1880-6805-31-14
Tjepkema, M. (2002). Methods Data sources.
Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education and Advocacy
Take Charge Campaign
17th April 2020
Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education and Advocacy (CPSEA) is a patient-based organization that was founded in the year of 1996. The organization was established with the purpose of providing support to patients or people who have experienced medical errors during or after receiving the necessary medical care. Their goal is to “empower patients and their families to be active members of their healthcare teams and support them through this journey”. Research have shown that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States of America.
Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education and Advocacy educate the public about the significance of patient safety. Their advocacy involves organizing trainings that aids in educating, helping and empowering patients and their respective families and friends to take responsibility of their healthcare and how it can improve their medical serves. According to the speaker, “It is not about death, but it is about the recovery rate among patients”.
Pulse CPSEA is currently organizing a community-based health campaign called the “Take Charge Campaign 5 Steps to Safer Healthcare Challenge”. This is a health care campaign that focuses on helping patients and their families to understand their responsibilities in managing their healthcare as patients (if that should ever be the case). The campaign begun in the year of 2019, on the month of September. The campaign involves 5 steps to “Safer Healthcare” to educate patients and their families to become active members of their healthcare team; to inform them on how to take charge of their healthcare decisions before the strike of any crisis.
The 5 Steps to Safer Health Care!
1. Understand & Complete Your Advance Directives
1. Understand & Complete Your Advance Directives
2. Keep a Record of Your Medical History & Current Medications
3. Prepare for Doctor Visits / Make A List of Questions
4. Prevent Infections / Ask Caregivers to Wash Their Hands
5. Use an Advocate / Be an Advocate for Others
4. Prevent Infections / Ask Caregivers to Wash Their Hands
5. Use an Advocate / Be an Advocate for Others
The campaign is disseminated through online platforms and media. They organize presentations, conference meetings, online meetings, and programs to teach people how to use the Advance Directives an its significance to person’s healthcare. Most of the population in the USA are unable to make the necessary healthcare/medical care decisions on behalf of their love ones who are hospitalized and can’t speak for themselves. This is due to the lack of knowledge or awareness of “Advance Directives”.
The campaign challenges people to make a one-minute video about what they have done to improve their healthcare decisions, and how they have worked towards obtaining an “Advance Directive” and each month another video about each of the 5 steps.
The benefits of the campaign includes saving peoples’ lives, there will be a decrease of pressure on the shoulders of the healthcare providers, people will have access to accurate healthcare information and people would become more responsible as patients (if that may be the case). There blame on the healthcare system would reduce and medical error would have less significant number of cases in the United States.
Artificial Intelligence ClassificationHearX Group
Health Strategies Reform
21st March 2020
Hear X is a start-up in South Africa, it was established in the year of 2015. Several audiologist and engineers came together to create affordable access to hearing healthcare using digital small solutions. The idea was to provide available products that would assess early onset of digital hearing problems among the population. The flagship technology, hearing loss and ear screening technology, it works with calibrated HD headphones. There is more than one million case that was performed in 39 countries. This is a rapid growing technological device that aims at providing
patients with hearing impairment the best available hearing healthcare. Currently, in the clinical state, there are seven solutions in health which is a centralized data management platform.
HearScreen is a smartphone test performed using calibrated HD Headphones: this is used for quick hearing tests to determine if there is a hearing loss and suggest if the patient needs immediate medical care.
HearTest can be used to determine the threshold of hearing loss.
PeekAcuity is a visual acuity test.
Health is the newest product. It is a certified digital, smartphone, audiometer. It gets used by industries to perform hearing tests, a baseline test can be set and hearing can be compared over time. According to the speaker, “employees seem to love the product, because they can go for a quick 30 minutes hearing test on the premise and thereafter get back to work without having to stop the work for a day.
HearOAE: this is an otoacoustic emission screening and diagnosing tool used for newborn hear screenings; it is used to test newborns hearing to allow the health practitioner to treat the hearing impairment from an early stage onwards.
HearScope was released through an Indiegogo campaign in the year of 2017. Indiegogo is a crowdfunded campaign.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in hearScope: AI is the newest feature that was released in hearScope on the 9th March 2020. It has been under development since the year of 2017. hearScope is a smartphone video otoscope that can be used to view the “Tympanic Membrane” and ear canal. It captures images and videos of the Tympanic Membrane and ear canal; audiologists are excited about this product because in developing countries, public clinics and hospitals have a lot of patients and this can assist in triaging patients and ensure that patients receive the correct pre-examination treatment. It also enables patient involvement during an examination, because it enables clinicians to show the patient the images and videos taken of the ear canal and tympanic membrane.
The AI image classification feature assists healthcare practitioners to diagnose ear conditions. The AI model was trained using thousands of images that was all captured by the hearScope hardware. The images were diagnosed by specialists; the system can diagnose wax obstructions, normal ears, chronic perforations, and abnormalities, which indicates a pathology is present and the patient should consult a specialist. As more images get collected, the AI model can be trained to recognize more pathologies. The AI is working towards being able to diagnose 12 pathologies, such as foreign bodies, cholesteatoma, acute otitis media, otitis media with effusion, myringosclerosis, wet chronic perforations, dry chronic perforations, grommets, wax obstructions, retractions, normal ears and unspecified. It is also planning it add extra pathologies to the system.
General practitioners are between 60-70% confident of diagnosing ear conditions. The AI image classification model has an accuracy of 94% to classify ear conditions, and it can assist health practitioners to confidently diagnose ear conditions. Furthermore, the AI plays a significant role in developing countries due to its low number of specialists, to assist hospitals Otorhinolaryngology (ENT) and general practitioners to screen both children and adults, to be able to triage and refer then accordingly. It helps to determine the type of ear disease to treat, for instance, if a patient complains of pain in the ear, the AI image classification can classify a wax obstruction and the patient can simply go to the clinic and a clinician can remove the wax blockage. The hearScope, with the AI image classification feature can be used by anybody and not only healthcare practitioners.
A quick notice, with the current situation of Coronavirus (also known as COVID-19), there have been a high increase in inquiries of the AI image classification. Telemedicine has proven to be useful in a case like this; people can purchase a hearScope via the HearX website (www.hearxgroup.com), use the hearScope to self-screen and send the images and videos to their respective general practitioner (family doctor) for a diagnosis.
The beta-version AI geature has been launched in March, the feature is currently free, but will become paid once the necessary FDA and CE approvals have been received. The AI classification works together with the hearScope hardware; the hardware has a cost incurred on it; the software is free. The hearScope hardware is 200 USD. The price for the AI subscriptions is not yet known.
The device has been under development since the year of 2017 when it was released on IndieGoGo. Various bodies contributed in the development of the product such as the advisory panel (four well known specialist across the world), research partners that assisted with the diagnosis of images, the image collectors, which captures the ear images. The images are validated and there is an exclusion criterion to the images, such as an image of the finger or any image that is not related to the ear. The validated images are further presented to the Panel of Research Diagnosis Partners (PRDP); the PRDP diagnose the situation based on their respective specialties. The hearScope hardware is FDA approved and meets all the hospital standard requirements.
The hardware is expected to be durable for at least 15 years depending on the number of usages on the hardware. The hardware id accompanied with a one-year warranty.
The biggest issue while developing the device, was integrating and improving the quality of the “Collection of Images”. Another problem that arose was finding specialists that can diagnose the images.
The application is also compatible with desktop devices such as Windows, Mac and Linux; however, the device smartphone app is only compliable with android phones. The hardware comes with a storage case for safe keeping. The hardware also has its own packaging such as a stant for the phone, adapter, specula which attaches to the front of the scope, and connectors.
The device is available to use and familiarize with. There are various institutions, such as the Manchester University in the UK or University of Pretoria in South Africa, across the world that have access to the device for academic purposes.