Few Americans Follow 4 Main Pillars of Heart Health

Most Americans know that a heart-healthy lifestyle includes eating a healthful diet, not smoking, being physically active and keeping weight and body fat down. But a new study found that fewer than 3 percent of American adults could claim all four healthy elements.

The study, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, was based on data gathered from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2003 to 2006 and included a nationally representative sample of 4,745 Americans.

Do you think these finding would still be the same percentage today?  Why or why not?

You can read the short article and many comments, published on 3/24/16 in the NYTimes.

The AI Doctor Will Hear You Now

There are so many articles now on AI in medicine, it's no longer about just about IBM Watson.  Here's an article in MIT Tech Review from 3/9/16.  After all, some diagnoses are better down with an algorithm than with the human mind.  For example, there are about 10,000 known human diseases, yet human doctors are only able to recall a fraction of them at any given moment. As many as 40,500 patients die annually in an ICU in the U.S. as a result of misdiagnosis, according to a 2012 Johns Hopkins study. British entrepreneur Ali Parsa believes that artificial intelligence can help doctors avoid these mistakes.

Read the article... Can you find other examples of AI in Medicine (besides Watson, of course)?

Parsa is the founder and CEO of Babylon, a U.K.-based subscription health service that plans to launch an AI-based app designed to improve doctors’ hit rate. Users will report the symptoms of their illness to the app, which will check them against a database of diseases using speech recognition. After taking into account the patient’s history and circumstances, Babylon will offer an appropriate course of action. Currently in beta testing, the app is expected to be available later this year.