Next week (March 29) you will view a pilot episode of a series, and you will have to write a review of what you have seen.
In order to get an idea of how to approach this task, here are a few links to reviews from newspapers and internet sites :
Other examples can be found on this page
Voici une proposition de traduction :
Augmented reality; coming soon to a theatre near you
“In ten years’ time we will wonder how we were able to operate without 3D imaging and augmented reality,” said Patrick Pessaux, a surgeon at the university teaching hospital of Strasbourg.
For the surgeon, the advantage of these emerging techniques is two-fold. Firstly, the day before the operation doctors will be able to explain the details of the intervention to the patient using a tablet computer. “This educational and entertaining approach tends to reassure them” the specialist stated.
Secondly, 3D visualization of an anomaly beforehand allows the surgeon to define his movements and aim directly thus lowering the risk of side effects. “When we aim for the gallbladder, in 0.5% of cases the bile duct, which leads from the liver to the intestine, is impacted, causing injury. Augmented reality allows us to visualize this duct which is hidden beneath fat, and thereby avoid it.”
A clinical trial on gall bladder removals (100 000 operations each year in France) in 60 patients has just concluded in Strasbourg. The data are being analyzed. “It is a world first. We are going to identify in how many of the sixty patients augmented reality enabled us to find the right structure”, Patrick Pessoux explained.
Even if augmented reality provides more accurate diagnosis, helps to prepare operations, and informs patients, it hasn’t yet arrived in operating theaters. At present, navigation allows surgical guidance during an operation. We will still have to wait for a few years for these innovations, which are currently in research and development, to finally enter the operating room.
Is 100 days without meat good for our health?
Aline Perraudin, editor of “Santé Magazine” and author of “100 days without meat” set herself the challenge of eating no meat for 100 days. Even though the journalist made the choice for ethical reasons, because she could no longer stand the scandals over animal slaughter for example, is it possible that this decision was good for her health?
“Many studies have compared the health of vegetarians and meat-eaters,” GP Dr Martine Perez told Europe 1. “The results show that vegetarians generally have fewer cancers.” But these conclusions should be taken with precaution. First and foremost, because certain types of cancer, such as colon cancer are just as common in non meat-eaters as in others. Finally, the decrease in risk of cancer is not necessarily linked to dietary habits. “If vegetarians have fewer cancers, it is because over all they are health conscious,” Dr Perez stated. So, they have fewer lung cancers because they are less likely to smoke than the rest of the population.
Other studies have been carried out on cardiovascular diseases. Here again it is difficult to associate lower prevalence in vegetarians with diet. Dr Perez added that “vegetarians are also a little less frequently diabetic and less obese.” But an Austrian study has upset the cart, coming to the conclusion that vegetarians had more allergies than meat-eaters, and were more depressed. Aline Perraudin, for her part, believes that going meat-free has enabled her to eat a more balanced diet. “Initially, you feel like there are only side dishes left”, she told Europe 1. “At the end, I felt as though I was doing myself good. Eating a vegetable-based diet eased my conscience.” The journalist ate a more balanced diet, “tofu doesn’t need chips”. Indeed, besides meat, what people eat with it disrupts a balanced diet, and thus their health. “People who eat meat, eat more chips, and more fat, and drink more wine” concluded Dr Perez.
The question remains as to what (nutritional) deficiencies a vegetarian diet can cause. For nutritionist Jean-Michel Cohen it is nevertheless possible to compensate for the proteins, iron and vitamin B12 contained in meat. “We can get iron from chocolate, wholemeal bread or wheat bran.” Vitamin B12 on the other hand is difficult to find in other foods besides fish. If fish is also being avoided, taking dietary supplements is advised.
It is a revolutionary discovery. French oncologist Patrizia Paterlini-Bréchot at the Necker Children’s University Teaching Hospital has developed a blood test which detects all cancers at an early stage.
French health minister Marisol Touraine regards this new test as the ‘promise of a major shift in cancer treatment because it is particularly simple to use, and therefore easy to implement on a larger scale’.
This technical feat, achieved by Patrizia Paterlini-Bréchot, a professor of cellular biology and oncologie at the Necker Children’s University Teaching Hospital (University of Paris-Descartes) consists in detecting the cancerous invasion at the very beginning of the disease. ‘Thanks to tests on animals, we knew that these (cancerous) cells are present in the blood for years before the appearance of metastases, and patients die because of these metastases, not because of the initial tumor. Just as the AIDS virus does, these cells mutate, and because of this have time to become more and more resistant,’ said the researcher.
After seven years of research, a large box has been produced in which the tests called ISET (Isolation by Size of Tumor cells) can be carried out. This test can detect the presence of these tumor cells which are larger than blood cells among the 5 billion red blood cells and 100 billion white blood cells in 10ml of blood.
The efficiency of the test has been proven by the results obtained at the university teaching hospital in Nice, where a cohort of at-risk patients (heavy smokers with pulmonary disease) was followed for 6 years. Thanks to the test, researchers detected tumor cells in the blood of five patients well before the lung cancer was visible on an x-ray. The patients underwent an operation, and were cured of this most lethal of cancers.
When the tumor cells are identified in the blood, specific medical imaging examinations are required to screen for the tumor, she explained. Based on your predispositions and your medical history, we begin for example with the breast in a woman and the prostate in a man, and scan the whole body if we do not find it. In the future it should be possible to identify the organ from which the tumor cells come and thereby save time. Proteins found in the cancer cells will indicate in which organ they originated.
It will also be possible to use this test for patients who are in remission in order to verify that the cancer has not returned, and allow oncologists to change and adapt treatments for diagnosed patients. The test has recently come onto the market, costs 486€ and is not reimbursed by social security. Even if it is not useful for everyone, and not widely available, it seems that this major discovery, if developed on a larger scale, will increase life expectancy in mankind. Worldwide, 15 million cases of cancer occur every year.
In early 2015 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded that exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) posed no risk to consumers’ health.
On April 26th 2016 the EFSA announced that they would review the effects of BPA on the immune system in 2017-2018, to take into account recent studies which had pointed out the risks if this chemical substance for children and fetuses. Despite calls to prohibit this substance, which is thought to be an endocrine disruptor, and has been banned for use in feeding bottles in Europe since 2011, the EFSA stated that exposure to BPA did not present “any risk for consumer health”. This decision led to France being out of step, just as they were introducing a blanket ban on all food recipients containing this antioxidant and plasticizer.
However, the EFSA announced on April 26th that they were setting up a “workgroup consisting of international experts, to evaluate new scientific elements regarding the potential effects of BPA on the immune system”. The new data come from a report published by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health, which analyzed two studies on prenatal and perinatal effects of BPS on the immune system. The report “recommends that research on alternatives to BPA be promoted and that consumers be advised to reduce their exposure,” according to the EFSA. At the request of the Netherlands, the European agency has decided to “specifically examine the toxicity of BPA for the immune system in the light of these new findings.” “The studies had not yet been published” when the EFSA issued its previous evaluation of the risks of BPA, they stated.
At the beginning of 2015, the European agency recommended dividing the safety threshold for human exposure to this substance by twelve. Nevertheless, real human exposure to BPA, which can notably be found in till receipts is “three to five times lower” than the new threshold, and is regarded as “without danger”, they said. The agency had identified “doubts about BPA’s potential impact on the health of the mammary gland as well as the reproductive, metabolic neuro-behavioural and immune systems.” These effects, in addition to a possible implication in the development of cancer, “are regarded as unlikely, but cannot be rejected,” they added. France took a critical view, with the French ecology minister, Segolène Royal, questioning “the influence of lobbies” on the publication by the EFSA, an agency that was founded in 2002 after a series of food scares.
Next week you will be asked to write a review of a pilot episode. Your work will count towards your final mark for the semester.
Here are some examples of newspaper reviews of pilot episodes to give you an idea of how to approach the exercise.
A group of 16 American experts claims that there is no evidence that electronic cigarettes can be recommended as a way to quit smoking.
Tobacco kills half of those who smoke it, and accounts for almost 6 million deaths per year worldwide. Anything goes when it comes to quitting: nicotine substitutes (patches, gum, tablets, inhalers), drugs, behavioral and cognitive thearapy, or even alternative medicine. ”But what about e-cigarettes?” you might ask. The 16 experts on the US Preventive Service Task Force, an American group working on prevention in public health, will tell you that there isn’t enough evidence to show that these devices are effective for stopping smoking.
The experts came to this conclusion after analysing the results of over fifty studies about the effectiveness of the various methods for smoking cessation. They published their synthesis a few days ago as a set of recommendations for health professionals. In it the scientists stress the lack of proof concerning the effects of e-cigarettes and do not recommend their use.
“There are hundreds of studies on the subject, but only 3 are randomized, and therefore the most reliable.” explained Jean-François Etter, a professor of Public Health at the University of Geneva. ”In a randomized study patients are randomly assigned to one of two identical groups, and in just one of them electronic cigarettes are used. This allows us to prove causality between e-cigarette smoking and cessation.”
In their view, only two methods are effective for curing addiction to smoking. The first is medication, using varenicline (commercially sold as Chantix or Champix), buproprion (an antidepressant called Zyban) or nicotine substitutes. The second is cognitive and behavioral therapy, whch is recommended in particular for pregnant women as a way to avoid the possible side effects of medication on foetal development.
The French tobacco addiction prevention service (Office français de prévention du tabagisme, or OFT) has noted that the commercial success of e-cigarettes coincides with a fall in cigarette sales (-7.6% at the end of 2013) and a reduction in the use of traditional methods of giving up. In a statement published last year the OFT states that “e-cigarettes are a lot less harmful than traditional cigarettes” and that “replacing tobacco smoking with e-cigarettes can reduce health risks”. Since 2014 the national health authority has also been recommending to doctors not to discourage the use of e-cigarettes for people who wish to give up smoking.
Despite the prudence of the authorities, the e-cigarette is viewed by many smokers as an alternative to tobacco. A study of 15000 people carried out in 2014 by the national institute for health prevention and education showed that more than 80% of vapers said that e-cigarettes had enabled them to reduce their tobacco consumption, on average by 9 cigarettes each day.
Retinal Implants Bring Hope to the Blind
Retinal implants could allow the blind to partially recover their sight. At the Vision Institute in Paris, two blind men explained how their artificial retinas work to health minister Marisol Touraine.
Suffering from pigmentary retinopathy, a hereditary disease causing progressive loss of vision, Jean, 72, and Claude, 60 wear a prosthetic device designed to partially restore their sight. Such medical progress could concern thousands of French people who suffer from the disease.
Since his retina operation two years ago, Jean still remembers the first time he wore his glasses. “It was phenomenal. I hadn’t seen in 20 years, and suddenly there was all of this. I said (to the doctors) “it was like fireworks”. Those fireworks were the flashes that enabled him to see shapes, movement and contrast.
At the age of eighteen Jean was diagnosed with a congenital disease. “I was told ‘At the age of 50 or 60 you might become blind’.” On public transport, he used to bump into people because they were not in his field of view, he told us. At work, he went from one manual job to another, and admits to having hidden his problem for a long time, afraid he would be fired. At 51 he lost his sight completely. It was around the age of 18 that Claude, who lives in Avignon, started to have blurred vision. Glasses managed to correct what he thought was simply myopia, but now illness has caught up with him.
“When I was offered artificial retinas, I said yes right away” said Claude emphatically . “It was a gift from above” added his son Julien. “I hope to recover some of my vision, gain more independence and watch TV”, said this retired farmer whose brothers are also affected by pigmentary retinopathy. Only five months after the surgery, it is however too early to perceive any possible changes.
Jean assures us he is able to go walking with his wife, often avoiding obstacles all by himself. He has also succeeded in estimating a person’s height or even spotting a match on the table and grasping it. “It has changed my life a little,” he told us.
Artificial retinas from 50 to 60 pixels
To perceive visual information the patient wears a pair of goggles equipped with a miniature camera and a portable electronic device which relays the visual data to the eye implant. The latter, grafted to the retina transforms visual information into electrical stimulations which are sent to the brain, Serge Picaud, director of research at the Vision Institute, told us. The patient can perceive at best 50 to 60 pixels in black, white or grey. This will help him to have a better sense of direction but he won’t see colors, he explained.
To improve their vision, the patients are subjected to rehabilitation exercises: recognizing numbers, letters, or objects of different sizes, or shades of grey. The aim is to stimulate memory because these prostheses are intended for people who were previously able to see. The long term objective is to help patients become independent again, to be able to recognize faces, and then read complex texts,” explained Serge Picaud.
Currently, fewer than 10 people have a retinal implant in France, including Jean and Claude, for whom the intervention was fully reimbursed by social security. Between 20000 and 40000 people suffer from pigmentary retinopathy in France.