Important Innovations Collection

New Light Therapy "Highly Effective" for Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Source:  MGH Much More Effective Than Current Treatments Carbon monoxide (CO) is a toxic, colorless, odorless gas produced by cars, trucks, fires and explosions.  Every year in the US, more than 50,000 people with CO poisoning are admitted to emergency rooms.  Now researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have invented a new light therapy that removes CO from the victim's blood.  It's proven to be much more effective than current oxygen therapy treatments. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Carbon monoxide poisoning is frequently deadly.  It occurs when inhaled CO, for instance from a running car in a contained space, displaces oxygen from the blood's hemoglobin.  That compromises the body's ability to deliver oxygen. Light Therapy It's known that visible light can break the molecular bond between CO and hemoglobin.  Knowing that, the MGH team have combined photo...

Triple Discoveries Including Innovative Treatment  Source:  DARPA Brain Mapping of Neural Activity Could "Radically Improve Treatment" A team of researchers working for the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA say they've made a series of breakthrough discoveries that may radically improve the treatment of depression, anxiety and other mood disorders. The researchers are from the University of California San Francisco, Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Southern California.  From their research, they have Detailed a new technology that analyzes and decodes recorded neural signals to predict changes in mood Identified a sub-network of the brain that contributes to low moods Detailed how they used an open-loop neural stimulator to relieve symptoms of moderate to severe depression. This DARPA program is called SUBNETS.  It's focused on improving understanding of the subnetworks of the brain.