Tag: researcher

A Food Safety Researcher Explains Food Expiration Dates Don’t Have Much Science Behind Them – Here’s Another Way To Know What’s Too Old To Eat
IN OTHER NEWS, WHAT'S GOOD

A Food Safety Researcher Explains Food Expiration Dates Don’t Have Much Science Behind Them – Here’s Another Way To Know What’s Too Old To Eat

Florida’s outbreak of listeria has so far led to at least one death, 22 hospitalizations and an ice cream recall since January. Humans get sick with listeria infections, or listeriosis, from eating soil-contaminated food, undercooked meat or dairy products that are raw, or unpasteurized. Listeria can cause convulsions, coma, miscarriage and birth defects. And it’s the third leading cause of food poisoning deaths in the U.S. Avoiding unseen food hazards is the reason people often check the dates on food packaging. And printed with the month and year is often one of a dizzying array of phrases: “best by,” “use by,” “best if used before,” “best if used by,” “guaranteed fresh until,” “freeze by” and even a “born on” label applied to some beer. People think of them as expiration dates, or the...
A Cybersecurity Researcher Explains How To Trust Your Instincts – Identify Phishing Emails And Foil The Attacks
TECHNOLOGY

A Cybersecurity Researcher Explains How To Trust Your Instincts – Identify Phishing Emails And Foil The Attacks

Rick Wash, Michigan State University An employee at MacEwan University got an email in 2017 from someone claiming to be a construction contractor asking to change the account number where almost $12 million in payments were sent. A week later the actual contractor called asking when the payment would arrive. The email about the account number change was fake. Instead of going to the contractor, the payments were sent to accounts controlled by criminals. Fake emails that try to get people to do things they wouldn’t normally do, such as send money, run dangerous programs or give out passwords, are known as phishing emails. Cybersecurity experts often blame the people who receive such messages for not noticing that the emails are fake. As a cybersecurity researcher, I’ve found that most pe...
A Researcher Reflects On Progress Fighting Hepatitis C – And A Path Forward
TECHNOLOGY

A Researcher Reflects On Progress Fighting Hepatitis C – And A Path Forward

When I began my medical career in Hong Kong in the early 1980s, I chose to focus on hepatitis B, in part because it was very common and because the hepatitis C virus had not yet been discovered. I witnessed the devastation that this virus caused – cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer – and the lack of treatments we could offer to patients. Back then, scientists knew there was another type of hepatitis, but no one could identify it, so we called it non-A, non-B hepatitis. I would never have imagined that during the course of my career I would witness the discovery of what came to be known as hep C and the development of a cure for nearly all patients with chronic hepatitis C in 2014. Underscoring the importance of these discoveries for global human health, this year’s Nobel Prize in ...
Is telehealth as good as in-person care? A telehealth researcher explains how to get the most out of remote health care
HEALTH & WELLNESS

Is telehealth as good as in-person care? A telehealth researcher explains how to get the most out of remote health care

COVID-19 has led to a boom in telehealth, with some health care facilities seeing an increase in its use by as much as 8,000%. This shift happened quickly and unexpectedly and has left many people asking whether telehealth is really as good as in-person care. Over the last decade, I’ve studied telehealth as a Ph.D. researcher while using it as a registered nurse and advanced practice nurse. Telehealth is the use of phone, video, internet and technology to perform health care, and when done right, it can be just as effective as in-person health care. But as many patients and health care professionals switch to telehealth for the first time, there will inevitably be a learning curve as people adapt to this new system. So how does a patient or a provider make sure they are using telehealth...