Search results for 'Medicine' (4)
From Iowa Roots to Global Health Innovations Dr. Richard Downs, DDS, FAGD, FICOI, D-GMDIA, D-ASBA, embodies a remarkable journey of dedication and innovation within the realm of dental health and beyond. In an insightful conversation, Dr. Downs shared his life trajectory, from his formative years in rural Iowa to his distinguished career as a practicing dentist and his current groundbreaking work in developing wellness solutions. His story is a testament to a relentless pursuit of knowledge and a profound commitment to improving the well-being of others. Growing up in a small town, Dr. Downs experienced the close-knit fabric of a rural community. “I grew up in a little town called Montour, Iowa, right next to a reservation. My dad was good friends with the Native Americans living there. Montour was a rural small town with approximately 200 people,” he said. This upbringing instilled in him a grounded perspective that would undoubtedly shape his interactions with patients and colleagues throughout his career. His academic path led him through Montour Grade School and Marshalltown High School before he earned his Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Dental Surgery degrees from the University of Iowa. Even in his early academic pursuits, a spark of innovation was evident. “I spent two years at the community college in Marshalltown with a Workship Scholarship in chemistry. That is how I got interested in developing products. My chemistry background from the Workship Scholarship ignited my interest in innovation.” Following dental school, Dr. Downs dedicated three years to serving as a Navy dental officer, an experience he recalls with pride. “I practiced three years in the Navy, right after dental school. I enjoyed my stay there. It was a great experience that I would do all over again.” This period not only refined his dental expertise but also instilled a sense of discipline and self-assurance. Reflecting on his decision to establish his own private practice in Iowa in 1978, he stated, “I felt more confident than most people who just started their practice immediately after graduation from dental school.” After a distinguished 42 years in private practice, Dr. Downs retired from clinical dentistry in 2020. However, his passion for enhancing health and well-being ignited a new chapter focused on product development.
INFORMNITY, LLC. is a company that creates novel technologies and identifies new applications for already existing technologies, integrating them in multi- and cross-disciplinary systems. The company seeks to co-opt and support nature’s engineering and crafting of processes. They also provide an intellectual framework and financial partnerships ranging from cell therapy (stem cell products such as tissue allografts, suspensions, and wound healing patches) to regenerative medicine, which supports and encourages the body to heal naturally and has no significant side effects. The mission of INFORMNITY is to “offer the highest quality of safe and scientifically-based products and services that support the best health outcomes at lower financial cost with no adverse health side effects,” according to their website. Dr. Benjamin Arthur, the founder and chairman of INFORMNITY, LLC., has become a prominent figure in regenerative medicine. He is also the founder of The Right Shake, LLC., which is a company focused on using meal replacements customized to each person’s needs based on genetic profiles. Among his other companies, Dr. Arthur is a co-founder and partner of PolyRegen Biosciences, Provitx, and Renover. “I’ve always been interested in trying to help people through our knowledge and development of new technologies and cutting-edge scientific discoveries from a multi- and cross-disciplinary perspective. So, I was initially involved with a lot of studies specializing in the area of Molecular Genetics and Behavioral Neuroscience and formulating bioscience models by application of mathematics to medical systems,” Dr. Arthur shared. He was a senior research scientist at the University of Zurich, where he helped train graduate students on manipulating genes in the brain to study instinctive behavior and more. Dr. Arthur has received his experience and training from some distinguished institutions such as the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD and the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, for practical training in basic medical and clinical research, the California Institute of Technology, University of Zurich, and Swiss Federal University, Zurich, ETHZ for molecular genetics and neuroinformatics, the Courant Institute, NYU for Applied Mathematics, and the Wharton School of Business an UPenn Engineering for Technology Management. He spent years of his time in Regenerative Medicine while receiving his degrees and doctorates in medically related fields on scholarships and fellowships he earned. Dr. Arthur returned to Zurich, Switzerland, after an NIH postdoctoral Fellowship in the USA to conduct research and train students in neurogenetics and behavioral ecology. It was during this time that he discovered and named a new “organ,” Prolatus, in one of the animal models in his efforts to unravel the mechanism of the enigmatic female cryptic choice phenomena in sexual selection. After spending his time training and teaching others, he wanted to enter the commercial space to help real people with his research and studies. “I wanted to enter the commercial space because I wanted to be able to use some of the capabilities I had learned to address problems that people face today within the medical area,” he shared. When he first decided to enter the commercial space, Dr. Arthur went to UPenn to study business and engineering at the master’s level. He co-founded a technology consulting company called Ventis, which helped companies take technology and translate it from the laboratory to a minimal viable product. Ventis helped these mostly startup companies establish their technology businesses, raise funds, and develop optimal exit strategies. “I help people choose the kind of lifestyle that will optimize their life because, in the medical field, it is as important to know what kind of patient you have as what kind of health issue they are presenting, paraphrasing from Sir William Osler’s quote of Parry of Bath. So, it pays to know your patient’s genetics! Also, prevention is key. The sooner you understand your unique situation and start taking measures to deal with any eventualities, the better. A stitch in time saves nine! ” he said. Individualization in the medical field is vital since every single body is different, and personalized precision healthcare can help with this. Through his multi-disciplinary research integrating discoveries and technologies from various disciplines, including molecular genetics, applied mathematics and regenerative medicine, Dr. Arthur is able to bridge the gap between an individual’s specific needs and what the medical field has to offer as solutions to many issues that require personalization in order to be addressed suitably.
The future is now, thanks to science! As our technology advances and our digital world continues to develop, the line between the real world and the digital becomes increasingly blurred. One example of this blurring is augmented reality (AR). Through augmented reality, we can put parts of our digital world on top of our physical one. Typically, we think about augmented reality’s implications for entertainment, shopping experiences and social media. But beyond those industries, AR could completely reimagine how we experience and receive medical care. What is Augmented Reality? Augmented reality is best understood as an interactive experience of a real-world environment. That means that through AR, you’re able to interact with your real-world environment through digital technology. Often, this means using a combination of cameras and displays to project a digital image over something in the real world to allow us to interact and change it in real-time. A good example of AR technology is Google’s old Google Glass project. Google Glass worked by projecting digital images through a pair of glasses so that you could see the digital images in the real world. It allowed users not only to see the real world but also to see it digitally enhanced. How is Augmented Reality Used Daily? Even more than just the example of Google Glass, currently, with even more developed AR technology, we cannot only place digital things into a physical world, but we can also make those digital images interactive and reactive. You can use AR all across your daily life. You may have come across some of these common applications of AR already, but even if you haven’t, AR will likely continue to be a bigger and bigger part of daily life. Visualizing New Finishes or Furniture in Your House AR technology can help you remodel or decorate your home. Through AR, you can see what that couch, paint color, finish, etc., would look like in your house before you buy it and have to go through the trouble of installing it. With AR, you can simply pull up a digital image of your new sofa and see it in your current living room. This lets you make more informed decisions as a consumer because instead of taking a risk on a new couch, paint color or home, you know how that new product will look in your home or what your new home will look like. Bringing Labels on Wine Bottles to Life AR is also being used daily to make labels on wine bottles more interactive, which might be the future of product decoration. For example, the company Living Wine Labels uses augmented reality to turn their labels into an interactive storytelling experience and incorporate fun experiences that add value to their wine for their customers. Translating Signs into Different Languages Perhaps the most exciting usage of AR in our daily lives is the ability to translate street signs and other text into different languages using our phones’ cameras. One of the companies that spearheaded this technology is Word Lens , a smartphone app that allows users to use their cameras to translate street signs and text in real-time. Apps like Word Lens work almost magically by replacing the original text with translated text in the same font and size as the original , giving you a digital window into a world where all the signs and words are translated into your language of choice. How Does Augmented Reality Work? So how exactly does all of this seemingly magical technology work? Through a concept called Volumetric Video. Volumetric Video works by capturing a three-dimensional object or space, allowing that same object or space to be digitally viewed as three-dimensional. It gets its name from its ability to capture volume or the three-dimensional space an object occupies . By reproducing that volume, you can make an object digitally interactive as it would be in the real world. Augmented reality relies on this technology to capture an object and space in 3D and overlay additional information to that image. For example, AR can use volumetric video to accurately scan a room and then put a digital image of a physical object that can be digitally interacted with as though it was actually in the room. How Can Augmented Reality Impact Medicine? AR can reinvent how patients experience medical care by helping them visualize results, make medical advice more memorable and explain how a treatment or illness will affect them. Prosthetics In prosthetics, AR can be used to give patients an idea of what their prosthetic might look like and how they would be able to move and interact with it. The doctor could use AR to help explain how the prosthetic would work in a way that the patient would better understand because they would be digitally interacting with it as the doctor explains it. Aesthetics AR can also be used for aesthetic medical procedures like plastic surgery, implants or fillers. The hardest thing about these procedures for the patient is the unknown of whether they’ll like the aesthetic changes from the surgery. With AR, the patient will see the proposed aesthetic change before the surgery and be able to move around with it, interact with it and work with the doctor to tailor it to their preferences . This will lead to greater patient satisfaction and easier communication for doctors. The same principle applies to smaller things like hair color changes. Through AR, you’ll be able to see what your new hair color or style will look like on you as you interact with it. The same is true for choosing a pair or style of glasses. You won’t need to have a physical pair of glasses with you anymore. Instead, you can use AR technology to try on and interact with new glasses from anywhere! Closing Thoughts about Augmented Reality and Medicine Augmented reality is slowly changing many levels of our society, particularly how consumers and patients experience their products or care. In medicine, AR makes it easier to visualize and understand outcomes, removing the anxiety of undergoing prosthetic or aesthetic procedures through clearer communication. Making it easier and simpler for doctors to explain complex medical procedures and outcomes to patients and for patients to understand and give feedback on proposed outcomes. Through these innovations, AR will make medical care clearer, simpler and less stressful for all, improving the patient experience and making care provisions easier.
Balance. So many people try to find that magical, often elusive point where a challenging, rewarding career, a fulfilling family, and personal life meet and complement each other. It can be complicated when that career is in the medical field. But it’s not impossible. Meet Dr. David Wallace, D.O., an obstetric anesthesiologist with the Midwest Anesthesia Associates in Fort Wayne, Indiana. By making choices supporting his balance goal early in his career, he found that point. Since then, he has experienced success at work, where patients are drawn to his caring nature in addition to his medical expertise. And he made sure he had plenty of time devoted to raising five children with his wife. It may seem impossible for doctors to achieve that balance when their careers demand so much of their time and mental and emotional strength. But Dr. Wallace’s fascinating story about the world of obstetric anesthesiology will guide doctors towards that much-coveted balance. Career Decisions Dr. Wallace’s interest in a medical career began in early childhood. “I’m told that ever since I was a little kid, I said I wanted to be a doctor. My mother and my second-grade teacher talked about it. I remember M*A*S*H (the TV show) was very popular. I had read that it was a fairly decent description of what medicine was really like. I thought that looked like fun. So I thought I would like to do that,” Dr. Wallace said. He followed the academic path from a pre-med major to medical school, eventually choosing anesthesia as his specialization. The science behind it appealed to him. “Anesthesia is applied physiology and applied pharmacology. We blend the two together to bring a patient to where they’re able to have surgery or a procedure and then come back and have no long-term effects,” Dr. Wallace said. There was one other reason for choosing this career path–lifestyle. He wanted to be an active parent and spend plenty of time with his children as they grew up. He decided this choice would allow for the balance he sought. Obstetric Anesthesia The Specialty Obstetric anesthesia plays an essential role during pregnancy and during and after childbirth. This specialty touches several medical disciplines , such as obstetrics, neonatology and surgery. The anesthesiologists work closely with obstetricians, midwives, nurses and other team members to care for both mother and baby and to prevent and manage complications along the way. “I do obstetric anesthesia, so I do epidurals and C-sections on a daily basis. I have patients who are extremely grateful that I’m here and have been instrumental in their care. I see about 50 babies delivered per month,” Dr. Wallace said. Training The obstetric anesthesiology specialty usually includes a fellowship lasting one or two years after residency. Fellows learn skills required to manage pregnancies at varying levels of risk, and they participate in research. Dr. Wallace was fortunate to study under a highly accomplished anesthesiologist, Dr. Jerry Bassell. “I trained under an incredibly gifted anesthesiologist who was one of the authors in obstetric anesthesia. He was the chief editor of the magazine for the Society of Obstetrics, Anesthesia and Perinatology when I was a resident. I had the opportunity to focus my practice in obstetrics and took that opportunity. I’ve enjoyed it ever since,” Dr. Wallace said. The Patient Relationship Dr. Wallace’s favorite part of his work is interacting with the patients. Because of the nature of his work– putting people to sleep–it’s not easy to build a doctor-patient relationship. A lot of patients don’t remember the interactions they have with their anesthesiologist. But Dr. Wallace does make an effort to connect with them. As a result, many of his patients do remember him, and they are truly grateful. Because he meets patients at a stressful point in their lives, he uses humor to help reduce their worries. “They band the mom, dad, and baby with the same code number, so the babies don’t get switched. I will tell my obstetrical patients that it means she has to take both of her children home, the oldest one and the littlest one. The moms get a good giggle out of that,” Dr. Wallace said. Dr. Wallace offers important advice to the mothers about managing expectations. Too many new moms think everything has to be perfect, or they have failed. Dr. Wallace wants to dispel that harmful notion. “Life is what happens in the midst of all of our plans. Some women feel like failures if they need an epidural when they want to go natural, have trouble nursing, or don’t lose the baby weight fast enough. But nothing is going to be perfect. The reality is that you need to take what life gives you and enjoy the good times,” Dr. Wallace said. The Family Side of a Balanced Equation Throughout his training and practice, Dr. Wallace and his family lived in several locations, including Michigan, Utah, Mississippi, and Indiana, where he and his wife eventually settled. “I tried to find positions to work where there was a good work-home balance. And so, I was able to coach my kids in soccer and help them in their schooling and things like that. I could do what I wanted to do and occasionally be an at-home dad,” Dr. Wallace explained. The couple’s five children range in age from 23 to 35. One of them, a daughter, follows in his medical footsteps and is training to be an ICU nurse. All five were fortunate to have their father play an active role in their childhood. A Parting Reminder Obstetric anesthesia has evolved since its introduction in 1847 with the use of ether. Recent advancements in techniques and pain management have dramatically improved the pregnancy and childbirth experience. It has made possible more family involvement , where the father can actively participate as a partner. But Dr. Wallace points out that progress has not necessarily followed a straight line. And new techniques and equipment are constantly being introduced that will continue to add to patients’ safety and comfort. “In a lot of ways, anesthesia has come full circle. When I was a resident, we limited the use of narcotics. In the 90s, the use increased until problems arose. Anesthesia is safer now with newer medications,” Dr. Wallace said. Dr. Wallace figured out how to build a rewarding medical career without sacrificing family time. By creating the work-life balance he desired for himself and his family, he has taken his own advice. “You need to take what life gives you and enjoy the good times,” he said.
