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No matter what you may think of Google, you gotta love the brilliance and innovative moxy of the guys who run that company. In today’s New York Times, there was a story about a new web tool called Google Flu Trends. This tool is being evaluated as a new early warning system for fast-spreading flu outbreaks in the US.

Tests of Google Flu Trends, suggest that it may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It works by tracking and quantifying number of Americans who enter search phrases like “flu symptoms” into Google and other search engines. By analyzing these searches as they come in, Google Flu Trends creates graphs and maps of the country that show where the flu is spreading.  For example, in early February the CDC reported that the flu cases had recently spiked in the Mid-Atlantic States. But Google says its search data showed a spike in queries about flu symptoms two weeks before the CDC report was released.

According to public health experts “The CDC reports are slower because they rely on data collected and compiled from thousands of health care providers, labs and other sources. The Google data could help accelerate the response of doctors, hospitals and public health officials to a nasty flu season, reducing the spread of the disease and, potentially, saving lives.” Researchers have long contended that information published on the Web amounts to a form of “collective intelligence” that can be used to spot trends and make predictions.

Google Flu Trends appears to be the first public project that uses the powerful database of a search engine to track a disease. This could be the beginning of a new trend in epidemiology. Google hopes to publish the results of its study in Nature.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!

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As the old saying goes, nobody is indispensable.  On the heels of Friday's report about US unemployment reaching 6.1 per cent, I learned that my contract medical writing position would be ending 4 months sooner than expected.  I worked at the company for 1.5 years and was excepting to finish out a two-year stint.

Of course, given the precarious financial state of the pharmaceutical industry, I had been looking and was able to find several opportunities that may translate into freelance gigs or possible employment. That said, if anybody out there is looking for an experienced medical/science/promotional writer, please feel free to contact me by sending a comment to this post or via e-mail: cmintz@bioinsights.com.

I hope that your luck is better than mine!!!!!

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (I will be looking too)!!!!!!!!!

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Metals like copper and silver have long been known to possess antibacterial properties. I learned this as an undergraduate microbiology major circa 1972. That said, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read an article in today’s NY Times entitled "Regulators Stamp Copper as a Germ Killer". According to the article, the Copper Development Association (CDA), a NY-based trade group for copper companies, announced that federal regulators at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved its application to market copper, bronze and brass-containing products as antibacterials that are effective enough to protect against bacterial infection. Apparently, what made this newsworthy is that this is the first time that EPA has allowed health claims to be attached to a solid antimicrobial material (rather than an aerosol or liquid disinfectant). For those of you who may not know, EPA (not FDA) regulates antimicrobial agents like disinfectants and air fresheners that are not directly applied to the human body.

Not surprisingly, there are many consumer products already on the market which are impregnated with silver and some other antimicrobial substances that claim to reduce the risk of infection.  Some of the more creative and pricey ones include silver-coated computer keyboards and mice manufactured by Iogear. However, none of the companies that manufacture these products can legally claim that the impregnated metals in them kill bacteria or provide a health benefit because they never thought to submit data to  EPA regulators to substantiate these claims. This is marked contrast with the CDA which smartly and painstakingly performed “clinical studies” for the past 4 years with copper and its alloys (mostly door knobs) to gain regulatory approval to claim that these metals have bona fide antibacterial properties. According to a CDA spokesperson, additional “clinical trials are underway to test how copper bed rails, arm rests and other hospital fixtures can reduce the numbers of bacteria in hospitals.”

Don’t get me wrong–you gotta love the creativity of the CDA for developing an innovative business strategy to help maintain the price of copper and bolster the sales of copper-based products. As you may know, the advent of fiber optics and silicon chips has been steadily pushing the price of copper down for the past few years–something that the CDA is keenly aware of.  Unfortunately, in contrast with CDA’s new vision, I believe that the only way to effectively reduce the high bacterial loads in our hospitals is through vigorous enforcement of hospital sanitation and hygiene programs, regular screening of hospital personnel and routine environmental monitoring.  Based on over 30 of experience with food borne and nosocomial bacterial diseases, I firmly believe that improperly sterilized equipment and instruments and people who are either unsuspecting carriers or fail to maintain good sanitation and hygiene practices are the main causes of bacterial contamination and transmission in hospital settings. I don’t think that inanimate metal objects (which have long been known to have inherent antimicrobial properties) contribute to the high levels of bacteria that are commonly found in today’s hospitals. Nor do I think that replacing existing hospital fixtures with copper, brass or bronze ones will do much to reduce bacteria levels in most hospitals.  Nice try CDA–but no cigar this time (at least not from me)!

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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