Medtronic Bringing Cutting-Edge Colon Cancer Screening Technology to Underserved Communities
Medtronic, a Healthcare Leadership Council member, is collaborating with the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy to provide colorectal cancer screening technologies to low-income and underserved communities, advancing health equity in the detection of a deadly disease.
Through this initiative, Medtronic intelligent endoscopy modules will be donated to endoscopy centers across the country and can potentially improve the detection of polyps that can lead to colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is the third most common and third deadliest cancer among adults in the United States. With these device placements, there is an opportunity to impact more than 350,000 patients over three years.
Geoff Martha, Medtronic chairman and CEO said, "The crisis of health inequities cannot be solved without expanding access to healthcare technologies that put people first. We must begin with local efforts that consider the needs of the community. This program is an important step toward ensuring that our powerful technologies help reduce disparities, improve care, and enhance patient outcomes."
Research at Mount Sinai May Lead to Alzheimer's Treatment Progress
Mount Sinai researchers, through studies with mice, have learned that increased levels of a hormone produced by the pituitary gland that acts on brain cells could explain the disproportionate increase and severity of Alzheimer's disease in post-menopausal women. The research, done in collaboration with the Emory School of Medicine, found that blocking the action of this hormone significantly reduced the debilitating effects of Alzheimer's in mice. This lays the foundation for a new drug therapy that might impact osteoporosis and obesity as well as Alzheimer's.
Dr. Mone Zaidi, director of the Center for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology at Mount Sinai, a Healthcare Leadership Council member, said, "We are excited and cautiously optimistic that the molecule FSH may play an important role in Alzheimer's disease, bone loss, and obesity simultaneously. Based on that finding, we have developed and hope to soon test a humanized monoclonal antibody that blocks FSH and could have enormous public health implications by potentially treating all three conditions."
Incidence rates for Alzheimer's are particularly high among women after menopause, tracking closely with an increase in visceral adiposity, bone loss, and impaired energy balance. The Mount Sinai study was designed to test whether high levels of FSH drive Alzheimer's and, if so, whether blocking the hormone might prevent onset of the disease. The research results were published in Nature.