College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing

News and information for the College of Medicine, Denstistry and Nursing.

New device for acne treatment developed

Ambicare, a St Andrews based company set up in 2004 by dermatology professors James Ferguson (Ninewells Hospital) and Ifor Samuel (St Andrews University), has developed a portable device to treat acne. The device consisting of a handheld control panel attached to three small lamps which are worn on the face and fitted with light-emitting diodes to provide photodynamic therapy. The blue light it produces is harmless, but amazingly produces free radicals that destroy the acne-causing bacteria. The system can be worn at home and provides free flexibility to the patient. The Fife firm hopes to sell £500,000 worth of the devices by the end of 2012 after lining up European distribution deals. For the full article see: http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/business/company-news/acne-treatmen...

Dundee dental students first to be trained on embalmed bodies
Following a pilot project, Dundee dental students will be the first to carry out surgical treatment on especially embalmed bodies. The bodies are embalmed using the Thiel method which ensures that the bodies are more life-like than when standard embalming is used. Students can carry out extractions on the embalmed bodies as well as practicing the administration of local anaesthetic. For the full article see: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/dental-students-trained-usi...
 

Happiness - a genetic trait?

'Did you know that happiness is partially a genetic trait? And also that happiness can spread from a peson to person?". If you would like to find out the difference between 'joy' and 'happiness', what things make us happy and also some interesting SCIENTIFIC facts about happiness have a look at the article below.'

http://harvardmedicine.hms.harvard.edu/magazine/summer2011/SM_1.php

New Invention - Noise Cancelling Device to Reduce Dental Anxiety

Researchers at the Dental Institute at King's College in London have developed a noise-cancelling device to help anxious patients be more relaxed while undergoing dental treatment involving drill or suction sounds.

When the tool becomes available to dental practitioners, patients will be able to bring their own MP3 players or cell phones to their appointments and plug them into the device. This will allow them to listen to their choice of music while blocking out the unique high pitch sound of dental drills. The patient will still be able to hear the dentist and the nurse speaking to them while only the unwanted noises are filtered out.

The invention contains a microphone and a chip that analyze incoming sound waves and produce an inverted wave to cancel out any sounds that may make patients uncomfortable.

Many people who avoid the dentist or suffer from dental anxiety could potentially benefit from this new device that eliminates uncomfortable noises that would otherwise exacerbate their fears during dental procedures.

'World Class' lab at the University of Dundee is closing

The Translational Medicine Research Collaboration (TMRC), a partnership between the universities of Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow along with their corresponding health boards, Scottish Enterprise and pharmaceutical company Pfizer, was founded in 2006. With the Scottish Enterprise Grant a £11.6m research facility was opened in 2009 at Ninewells Hospital as the 'core lab' "responsible for promoting innovative and novel scientific developments".

Scientists at the lab have been doing research into the areas of cancer, neuroscience, inflammation, cardiovascular and women's health, aimed at speeding up the development of drug treatments and helping to adapt prescription drugs to individual needs so doctors could discover which groups of patients respond best to which medicines.The lab was supposed to eventually create jobs for 120 scientists over a five year period.

A spokesman said: "The TMRC partners agreed in August 2010 that it may be more appropriate for some of the laboratory research to be conducted within partner institutions rather than at a dedicated central laboratory and, as a consequence, the laboratory will not be needed for this particular collaboration after March 2011. Each TMRC partner remains absolutely committed to this ambitious collaboration and to continuing to enhance Scotland's capabilities, capacity and reputation in translational medicine."

As the building is owned by the University of Dundee, it will become part of the School of Medicine from the end of next month. Some translational medicine research will still be carried out there, along with other work, particularly in the areas of cancer, diabetes and neuroscience.

Medical Futures Innovation Awards 2011

Since 2001 Medical Futures run a competition in which healthcare professionals have the chance to pitch their healthcare idea to world leading clinical and commercial experts. To date, past winners have secured over £80m of funding, and most importantly many have gone onto become successful services or products that are now changing peoples' lives.

The entry process to the Awards is in two stages: in the first stage you are aked for a written summary of your idea, in the second stage you will get to pitch your business idea in a Dragon's Den style to a panel of judges. There are several different categories in which you can enter your business idea including dentistry, opthalmology, neuroscience and many more. Entries in the categories Dentistry and Respiratory Medicine are still open until January 28th 2011.