Listening 45 – Listen for specific words

The world of medicine continues to make innovative leaps in identifying, treating, and even preventing certain diseases and conditions. Here are three developments that show great .

Every year, about 1,000 children in the U.S. are born with only of a functioning heart – a condition known as hypoplastic left heart syndrome. It is the result of a anomaly that causes the left ventricle of the heart, which is the main pumping system, to be and unable to function at all.

Without surgery, it is fatal – and even with surgery to redirect the blood into the right ventricle, over 30% of children born with this condition do not survive into . The problem is that the right side of the heart normally handles only the low-pressure pumping into the , and it cannot sustain both the high- and low-pressure systems for many years.

However, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital have devised a new method that takes advantage of the body’s natural processes. In a series of four surgeries, they meticulously route the blood flow into the left ventricle rather than away from it. This actually the left side of the heart grow and develop, and twelve of the patients in the experimental study ended up with two fully-functional ventricles. It does longer hospitalization, but the long-term benefits definitely outweigh this drawback.

Another new technique has the to revolutionize the treatment of cancer, which kills eight million people per year worldwide. While we still do not have a viable for cancer, there is a new type of genetic testing that can make treatment more specific and . It tests a tumor sample for 280 genetic mutations that may affect the tumor’s growth.

The results can medications that may work, even though they are not typically used for a particular type of cancer. For example, a woman with pancreatic cancer was tested with this new method, and her tumor was found to to a medication that is used primarily in breast cancer patients. These surprising connections lead to treatments that can each patient’s tumor more effectively.

A third in medicine aims to put health care literally in the palm of your hand – using a smartphone. There is one device that connects your smartphone to electrodes, records your heart rhythm and the data for a doctor to analyze. Although not as powerful as an electrocardiogram (EKG) machine, the smartphone gadget is still sufficient for testing or general heart rate monitoring.

Another app helps patients track moles for of skin cancer, and one company is developing an iPhone-based instrument that will allow parents to check the inside of their children’s ears for infections and send photos to a pediatrician. Perhaps the biggest of this technology is its potential to reduce health care costs and empower people to take better care of their health on a day-to-day basis.