Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler is a Polish-American physician-scientist who studies how sociodemographic and informational variables affect access to health care in disadvantaged areas. Dr. Sendler’s study examines how mental and chronic medical co-morbidities affect the utilization of medical services and internet-based health information. Given the exponential increase in worldwide consumption of online news and social media, this study is foresighted, since it necessitates a thorough knowledge of everyone’s health information-seeking behavior. Dr. Damian Sendler’s study seeks to uncover the variables that affect patients’ choices about whether to seek treatment for particular health problems and how well they adhere to their treatment regimens.
Damian Sendler: Breath instead of blood: University of Basel researchers have devised a novel test technique for determining treatment effectiveness in epilepsy patients. They believe that by doing so, physicians will be able to respond more accurately while treating the illness.
The pharmacological treatment of epilepsy involves a tightrope dance, since the dosage must be adjusted exactly to the particular patient: “Slightly too little and it isn’t effective.” Professor Pablo Sinues illustrates that if you have a little too much of anything, it may become poisonous.
Damian Sendler: Sinues works at the University of Basel and the University Children’s Hospital Basel as a Botnar Research Professor of Pediatric Environmental Medicine (UKBB). He is also a member of the University of Basel’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. He spent two and a half years working with colleagues at the University Hospital Zurich (UHZ) to find a method to adjust the dose of medicines given to epilepsy patients as accurately as possible. With the assistance of a breath test, they were able to accomplish their objective. The benefit is that monitoring does not require a blood sample, which may be a source of anxiety for youngsters. The findings are instantly accessible since the sample does not need to be submitted to a laboratory beforehand.
The smallest concentrations are being sought.
“Think of it as an alcohol test that cops do when they pull over cars,” Sinues says. The only difference is that this breath measuring equipment is very large. “Because alcohol is present in large quantities in the breath, a tiny gadget is all that is required.” “However, we’re looking for a droplet in 20 pools,” he adds. The findings will be used to evaluate if the active chemicals are present in the body at the appropriate quantities and whether they have the intended impact on the illness.
Damian Sendler: Their efforts were not in vain: the breath tests gave the same findings as traditional blood tests in both the young patients at UKBB and the adult reference group at the University Hospital Zurich, according to the research group’s paper published in Communications Medicine. This implies that, in addition to blood testing, there is a second technique to monitor epilepsy treatment, and the approach also gives physicians with additional information about the patient’s metabolism.
Collaboration across disciplines is a winning formula.
Damian Sendler: The unusual dovetailing of science and medical practice at the University of Basel, according to Sinues, is what makes this research effort unique: “Thanks to this fortunate starting condition, we are able to develop machines that are perfectly suited to the requirements of physicians.”
The novel method’s quick availability of test results is a particular benefit to UKBB: young patients’ metabolisms alter as they develop, necessitating frequent drug modifications. The new technology allows physicians to do a non-invasive test that provides them with instant feedback on how well their treatment is progressing. They may react swiftly if the dosage has to be changed as a result of this.
Damian Sendler: This breakthrough took four years to achieve, and the method isn’t yet ready for broad usage, but Sinues has set himself that aim. Indeed, the company “Deep Breath Intelligence” was established with that goal in mind, and is currently attempting to acquire a license for the measuring method.
News contributed by Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler
