It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, November 07, 2022
Beer hops compounds could help protect against Alzheimer’s disease
Beer is one of the oldest and most popular beverages in the world, with some people loving and others hating the distinct, bitter taste of the hops used to flavor its many varieties. But an especially “hoppy” brew might have unique health benefits. Recent research published in ACS Chemical Neuroscience reports that chemicals extracted from hop flowers can, in lab dishes, inhibit the clumping of amyloid beta proteins, which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
AD is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease, often marked by memory loss and personality changes in older adults. Part of the difficulty in treating the disease is the time lag between the start of underlying biochemical processes and the onset of symptoms, with several years separating them. This means that irreversible damage to the nervous system occurs before one even realizes they may have the disease. Accordingly, preventative strategies and therapeutics that can intervene before symptoms appear are of increasing interest.
One of these strategies involves “nutraceuticals,” or foods that have some type of medicinal or nutritional function. The hop flowers used to flavor beers have been explored as one of these potential nutraceuticals, with previous studies suggesting that the plant could interfere with the accumulation of amyloid beta proteins associated with AD. So, Cristina Airoldi, Alessandro Palmioli and colleagues wanted to investigate which chemical compounds in hops had this effect.
To identify these compounds, the researchers created and characterized extracts of four common varieties of hops using a method similar to that used in the brewing process. In tests, they found that the extracts had antioxidant properties and could prevent amyloid beta proteins from clumping in human nerve cells. The most successful extract was from the Tettnang hop, found in many types of lagers and lighter ales. When that extract was separated into fractions, the one containing a high level of polyphenols showed the most potent antibiotic and aggregation-inhibiting activity. It also promoted processes that allow the body to clear out misfolded, neurotoxic proteins. Finally, the team tested the Tettnang extract in a C. elegans model and found that it protected the worms from AD-related paralysis, though the effect was not very pronounced. The researchers say that although this work may not justify drinking more bitter brews, it shows that hop compounds could serve as the basis for nutraceuticals that combat the development of AD.
The authors acknowledge funding from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR).
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
“Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention through Natural Compounds: Cell-Free, In Vitro, and In Vivo Dissection of Hop (Humulus lupulus L.) Multitarget Activity”
Wood burner users needed to take part in new ‘pollution alert’ study
People who use wood-burning stoves are needed to take part in the UK’s first study to understand how an air quality alert system could help reduce the health risks posed by wood smoke around their homes and in their communities.
Academics at the universities of Nottingham and Sheffield are studying the Burner Alert system – the first and only system in the UK.
Using data from official sensor networks, and weather and chemistry modelling, the system allows stove users across the country to check air pollution levels on their street via a website before burning. It is designed to allow them to make an informed choice over whether to light their stove when the air quality outside is poor.
Dr James Heydon, study lead at the University of Nottingham, said: “Air quality can vary between areas and wood burner emissions can make it worse, particularly when many stoves are lit at once. The Burner Alert system provides people with real-time data on the air quality in their area, allowing them to make an informed decision about whether to light their stove. We’re interested in understanding how people with stoves use this system and whether it could help to improve air quality in different areas.”
Before lighting their stove, users can enter their postcode to find out the current status of pollution levels in their area. The Burner Alert system uses traffic light colour coding, indicating a different level of air quality with an accompanying recommendation for stove users:
Green – no alert: if air pollution over the last 24 hours is well below the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 24 hour average limit, the colour will be green and no alert will be issued.
Amber – advisory: if air pollution is approaching the WHO’s average 24 hour limit, an advisory alert will be issued. Given that air pollution is approaching the limit, stove users are asked to consider not lighting their stoves, particularly if they have an alternative source of heat.
Red – burner alert: the highest level of alert available. Particulate pollution in this area is already above the WHO’s recommended limit for a 24 hour period, and as such, stove users are asked to avoid lighting their stoves, unless they have no alternative source of heating.
Wood burner emissions are attracting increased attention because they produce 17% of all particulate matter emissions nationally; a larger proportion than that produced by traffic. When inhaled, these tiny particles pass through the lungs and into the bloodstream, entering every organ in the body. Exposure increases the risk of respiratory infections across age groups and is associated with the onset of asthma in children, as well as strokes, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and lung cancer in adults. According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, between 2010 and 2020 stove emissions across the UK increased by 35 per cent.
Other countries have piloted variations of this approach, with a system in California proving to be notably successful, causing particulate matter pollution to fall between 11 and 15 per cent in its first year. As a result, the number of older people admitted to hospital with heart problems dropped by between 7 and 11 per cent.
Stove users from across the UK are being asked to take part in the study by completing a 15-minute survey at the start and end of a two-week period. Over this time, they will be asked to use the Burner Alert website to check air pollution levels on their street prior to lighting their stove. All participants will be entered into a draw to receive one of ten £20 Amazon vouchers.
Participants will be asked about their knowledge of air pollution, burning behaviour both prior to and following use of the Burner Alert, as well as their experience of using the system itself to understand how far it could be used to control air pollution in communities.
The team aim to use this information to make recommendations to local authorities and national government on how Burner Alert systems may be introduced to supplement existing regulations, improve local air quality and achieve clean air targets.
The study team includes experts from the universities of Nottingham and Sheffield, along with industry partner AirRated, to understand the potential for Burner Alerts to reduce air pollution across the UK.
Representing cutting-edge efforts at developing interdisciplinary solutions to air quality issues in urban areas, the team draws insights from the fields of behavioural science, politics, social policy, and civil engineering to understand the role of Burner Alerts in addressing air pollution.
The researchers are also looking to speak with professionals who work in the sector to inform their understanding of the Burner Alert system.
Dr James Heydon (Sociology, University of Nottingham – Principal Investigator)
Dr Chantelle Wood (Behavioural Science, University of Sheffield)
Dr Matthew Wood (Politics, University of Sheffield)
Rohit Chakraborty (Civil Engineering, AirRated)
Vibhuti Patel (Behavioural Science, University of Sheffield)
Caitlin Bunce (Social Policy, University of Nottingham)
Ben-Gurion University and Technion scientists make a paradigmatic breakthrough that opens new horizons for hydrogen solar fuel production
BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV
SDE BOKER, Israel, November 7, 2022 – Splitting water to produce green hydrogen fuel has two drawbacks right now: It is both time and energy intensive. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev environmental physicist Prof. Arik Yochelis and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology material scientist Prof. Avner Rothschild took a different tack and believe they have identified new pathways that would speed up the catalytic process that is expected to reduce the invested electrical energy costs significantly.
Water splitting process that is aided by solar energy (i.e., photoelectrochemistry) lowers the amount of the invested electrical energy needed to break the chemical bonds in the water molecule to generate hydrogen and oxygen. Oxygen evolution requires transfer of four electrons to create one oxygen molecule (O2) and two hydrogen molecules (H2). According to the current paradigm, those electrons move one after the other in a sequence of four steps on an atomic reaction site, which makes the chemical reaction energetically difficult.
However, Profs. Yochelis and Rothschild showed both theoretically and experimentally a new paradigm according to which two electrons can simultaneously be transferred at different reaction sites, reducing the energy barriers for oxygen evolution.
They were originally troubled by experiments that did not fit the existing paradigm and so set out to find a different rationale.
"Our research changes the common understanding within the scientific community regarding the catalytic mechanism for oxygen evolution, a central and important reaction that represents a bottleneck in producing hydrogen from water. By combining knowledge and experience from two different fields, we showed that the catalytic reaction is more complicated than people think. Hopefully, this new understanding will lead to additional breakthroughs in materials development and new processes to create clean fuels from renewable resources in order to facilitate the transition to net-zero," says Prof. Rothschild.
"Over and above the scientific contribution of the research, it is important to emphasize the importance of the multidisciplinary approach and collaborations when dealing with complex systems, like the energy system. Without open-minded and constructive communication between two researchers with different approaches, this would not have happened. It is a lesson to all of us, frank collaboration will always yield creative solutions to challenging problems," Prof. Yochelis adds.
Prof. Yochelis is a faculty member of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research in Sede Boqer at BGU, and Prof. Rothschild is a faculty member of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the Technion. The study was supported by the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology (grant no. 3-14423) and largely conducted by PhD student Anton Tsyganok (Technion) and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Paulino Monroy-Castillero (BGU)
Study: How piracy can unravel company profits in product bundling
Determining whether the practice of product bundling — such as combining cable TV channels into packages or computer software programs into software suites — is profitable in the presence of piracy is important to businesses as they formulate pricing strategies.
Piracy — the unauthorized use or reproduction of another’s work — has become more pervasive because consumers often don’t want to pay for an entire bundle of items when they are only interested in a small selection. In a new study published online Aug. 26 and in the Volume 39, Issue 3 print edition of the Journal of Management Information Systems, a researcher from The University of Texas at Dallas and his colleagues examined this issue and concluded that bundling actually abets piracy and that the loss of profits from piracy is not offset by the additional income from selling bundled information goods.
“For example, producing a movie costs money, but creating a copy does not cost anything,” Lahiri said. “There is no additional cost to the producer or seller if one additional consumer watches it. The same is true for software and other information products. So, naturally, bundling is quite appealing to sellers of information goods.”
For manufacturers, the primary benefit of bundling is that it reduces the effective demand elasticity, or how consumers’ willingness to pay for goods and services changes based on the price. A reduced elasticity increases the pricing power of the seller when there is no piracy, Lahiri explained.
“The question is: What happens when piracy is also an issue?” he said. “Can bundling encourage piracy to a point where the profit loss from piracy more than wipes out the benefits from reduced elasticity?”
Piracy is widespread because technology makes it easy to make illegal copies and distribute them, Lahiri said.
For example, the penultimate season of the TV series “Game of Thrones” was pirated more than 1 billion times, according to a 2017 report by the anti-piracy analyst firm MUSO.
“Consumers’ frustrations become obvious if we consider ‘Game of Thrones,’” Lahiri said. “To watch it, you must pay for an HBO subscription package that includes access to a variety of programming, including shows that you may not be willing or have the time to watch. Many netizens and bloggers believe that this pushes consumers toward piracy since consumers are often not interested in paying for programming they do not intend to watch.”
The software, television, film and music industries each lose tens of billions of dollars in profit every year because of piracy, Lahiri said, and as network bandwidth and digital storage become cheaper, piracy gets worse.
To explore the issue of bundling zero-marginal-cost goods, the researchers began with a model in which there was no pirating. They found that bundling is more profitable than separate selling in this case.
When they incorporated piracy into the analysis, however, they found that in cases in which the pirated product is a close substitute for its legal counterpart, bundling is unlikely to be the best strategy.
“If pirated content is just as good as the legal counterpart in terms of quality, piracy is highly attractive to consumers,” Lahiri said. “Instead of purchasing the bundle, some consumers will likely resort to piracy; in particular, they will selectively pirate the product they are interested in while ignoring the others in the bundle. Such piracy can, indeed, make bundling unprofitable.”
In general, mixed bundling — the strategy of offering a bundle alongside individual products — is superior to pure bundling. The researchers found, however, that in the presence of piracy, mixed bundling is not necessarily a preferable strategy either.
The researchers also considered that a fraction of the consumer market could behave ethically and refrain from illegal consumption. Even in this setting, their findings hold true.
Manufacturers of information goods should reassess the efficacy of bundling, particularly in markets where piracy is a serious concern, Lahiri said.
“Unless a manufacturer can find a way to sufficiently degrade the perceived quality of illegal alternatives to its products, it should refrain from bundling,” the authors concluded.
Dr. Chen Jin from the National University of Singapore, and Dr. Chenguang (Allen) Wu from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, are co-authors of the study.
IMAGE: BEES ARE IMPORTANT POLLINATORS, BUT THEY ARE BEING THREATENED BY CLIMATE CHANGE, WHICH CAN AFFECT THEIR RANGES, THEIR INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER SPECIES AND THE PHENOLOGIES OF THE PLANTS THEY DEPEND ON.view more
CREDIT: ANAHÍ ESPÍNDOLA
In a new scientific review, a team of 70 scientists from 19 countries warned that if no steps are taken to shield insects from the consequences of climate change, it will “drastically reduce our ability to build a sustainable future based on healthy, functional ecosystems.”
Citing research from around the world, the team painted a bleak picture of the short- and long-term effects of climate change on insects, many of which have been in a state of decline for decades. Global warming and extreme weather events are already threatening some insects with extinction—and it will only get worse if current trends continue, scientists say. Some insects will be forced to move to cooler climes to survive, while others will face impacts to their fertility, life cycle and interactions with other species.
Such drastic disruptions to ecosystems could ultimately come back to bite people, explained Anahí Espíndola, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Maryland and one of the paper’s co-authors.
“We need to realize, as humans, that we are one species out of millions of species, and there's no reason for us to assume that we’re never going to go extinct,” Espíndola said. “These changes to insects can affect our species in pretty drastic ways.”
Insects play a central role in ecosystems by recycling nutrients and nourishing other organisms further up the food chain, including humans. In addition, much of the world’s food supply depends on pollinators like bees and butterflies, and healthy ecosystems help keep the number of pests and disease-carrying insects in check.
These are just a few of the ecosystem services that could be compromised by climate change, the team of scientists cautioned. Unlike mammals, many insects are ectotherms, which means they are unable to regulate their own body temperature. Because they are so dependent on external conditions, they may respond to climate change more acutely than other animals.
One way that insects cope with climate change is by shifting their range, or permanently relocating to places with lower temperatures. According to one study cited by Espíndola and other scientists, the ranges of nearly half of all insect species will diminish by 50% or more if the planet heats up 3.2°C. If warming is limited to 1.5°C—the goal of the global Paris Agreement on climate change—the ranges of 6% of insects will be affected.
Espíndola, who studies the ways in which species respond to environmental changes over time, contributed to the sections of the paper that address range shifts. She explained that drastic changes to a species’ range can jeopardize their genetic diversity, potentially hampering their ability to adapt and survive.
On the other hand, climate change may make some insects more pervasive—to the detriment of human health and agriculture. Global warming is expected to expand the geographical range of some disease vectors (such as mosquitoes) and crop-eating pests.
“Many pests are actually pretty generalist, so that means they are able to feed on many different types of plants,” Espíndola said. “And those are the insects that—based on the data—seem to be the least negatively affected by climate change.”
The team noted that the effects of climate change are often compounded by other human-caused impacts, such as habitat loss, pollution and the introduction of invasive species. Combined, these stressors make it more difficult for insects to adapt to changes in their environment.
Though these effects are already being felt by insects, it is not too late to take action. The paper outlined steps that policymakers and the public can take to protect insects and their habitats. Scientists recommended “transformative action” in six areas: phasing out fossil fuels, curbing air pollutants, restoring and permanently protecting ecosystems, promoting mostly plant-based diets, moving towards a circular economy and stabilizing the global human population.
The paper’s lead author, Jeffrey Harvey of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, said in a statement that urgent action is needed to protect insects and the ecosystems they support.
“Insects are tough little critters, and we should be relieved that there is still room to correct our mistakes,” Harvey said. “We really need to enact policies to stabilize the global climate. In the meantime, at both government and individual levels, we can all pitch in and make urban and rural landscapes more insect-friendly.”
The paper suggested ways that individuals can help, including managing public, private or urban gardens and other green spaces in a more ecologically-friendly way—for instance, incorporating native plants into the mix and avoiding pesticides and significant changes in land usage when possible.
Espíndola also stressed the value of encouraging neighbors, friends and family to take similar steps, explaining that it’s an easy yet effective way to amplify one’s impact.
“It is true that these small actions are very powerful,” Espíndola said. “They are even more powerful when they are not isolated.”
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Their paper, titled “Scientists’ warning on climate change and insects,” was published in Ecological Monographs on Nov. 7, 2022.
IMAGE: CLIMATE-CHANGE IMPACTS ON INSECTS CAN BE CATEGORISED INTO TWO MAJOR GROUPS: GRADUAL LONG-TERM CHANGE AND EXTREME EVENTS THAT WILL INCREASE IN FREQUENCY AND SEVERITY. INTERVENTIONS INCLUDE FORMAL MITIGATION OF CHANGE THROUGH POLICY AND PUBLIC APPROACHES WHICH IN TURN HELP TO REDUCE IMPACTS IN VARIOUS WAYS.view more
CREDIT: SCIENTISTS' WARNING ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND INSECTS
‘If no action is taken to better understand and reduce the impact of climate change on insects, we will drastically limit our chances of a sustainable future with healthy ecosystems.’ This warning in a very topical paper in Ecological Monographscomes from 70 scientists from 19 countries around the world. But, they also provide ways to help insects in a warming world complete with management strategies.
Yes, we’ve heard about insect decline before. But no, we haven’t done much to stop it on a worldwide scale. Climate change is at the top of the world’s to-do list. Something that coincides very well with the COP 27 climate change conference in Egypt from 6 - 18 November.
Gradual change plus extremes
‘Climate change aggravates other human-mediated environmental problems,’ says Jeffrey Harvey from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. ‘Including habitat loss and fragmentation, various forms of pollution, overharvesting and invasive species.’ He leads the major paper by an international team of scientists. Together, they provide a convincing overview of the role of climate change and climatic extremes in driving insect decline.
The paper is part of the Scientists’ Warning series. ‘Insects play critical roles in so many ecosystems, but we are rapidly losing at least part of them,’ Harvey stresses the urgency. And this seems the case especially in temperate regions. The authors emphasise that both longer-term events and short-term extremes are harming insects in several ways.
‘The gradual increase in global surface temperature impacts insects in their physiology, behaviour, phenology, distribution and species interactions.’ Harvey adds: ‘But also, more and longer lasting extreme events leave their traces.’ Hot and cold spells, fires, droughts, floods.
Piling up
Evidence of the effects is piling up, and it’s all presented in this review. For instance, fruit flies, butterflies and flour beetles can survive heat waves, but males or females become sterilised and thus unable to reproduce. They become ‘living dead’. Bumblebees in particular prove very sensitive to heat, and climate change is now considered the main factor in the decline of several North American species.
‘Cold-blooded insects are among the groups of organisms most seriously affected by climate change, because their body temperature and metabolism are strongly linked with the temperature of the surrounding air,’ says Harvey.
One major concern with insect decline in a warming world is that plants – on which insects depend for food and shelter – are similarly affected by climate change. And as insect numbers dwindle, it in turn works its way higher up the food chain. This has happened to many birds, for instance, over the past decades.
Supporting the global economy
Think pollination, pest control, nutrient cycling and decomposition of waste. Insects represent the overwhelming bulk of biodiversity, and perform vitally important services that sustain human civilisation, all worth staggering amounts of money (billions of dollars) annually to the global economy. Another reason to act on climate change. Harvey: ‘The late renowned ant ecologist Edward O. Wilson, once argued that ‘it is the little things that run the world’. And they do!’
‘Over time, insects must adjust their seasonal life-cycles and distributions as the world warms,’ says Harvey. ‘However, their ability to do this is hindered by other human-caused threats such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, and pesticides.’ Furthermore, heatwaves and droughts can drastically harm insect populations in the short term, making insects less able to adapt to more gradual warming. ‘Warming over different time scales poses different kinds of threats to insects.’
What to do
Importantly, the scientists not only describe the problems, but also discuss a range of solutions and management strategies. These may help to buffer insects against climate warming. Individual people can help by caring for lots of different wild plants, providing food and areas where insects can shelter to ride out climate extremes. And by reducing the use of pesticides and other chemicals. ‘At the larger scale, we need to address climate change. Rewilding programmes also need to consider micro-scale ecosystems which focus on the conservation of small animals like insects.’
‘Insects are tough little critters and we should be relieved that there is still room to correct our mistakes,’ according to Harvey. But time is running out. ‘We really need to enact policies to stabilise the global climate. In the meantime, at both government and individual levels, we can all pitch in and make urban and rural landscapes more insect-friendly.’
With more than 200 staff members and students, the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) is one of the largest research institutes of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The institute specialises in water and land ecology with three major themes: biodiversity, climate change and the sustainable use of land and water. The institute is located in an innovative and sustainable research building in Wageningen, the Netherlands. NIOO has an impressive research history that stretches back more than 65 years and spans the entire country, and beyond.
Local environmental characteristics can either harm or benefit insects (left panel), especially when insects are exposed to climatic extremes such as droughts and heatwaves. Ecologically targeted management strategies (right panel) can help insects to adapt to climate change and other human-caused environmental problems.
CREDIT
Scientists' warning on climate change and insects
Impacted insects (IMAGE)
NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE OF ECOLOGY (NIOO-KNAW)
Examples of impacted insects: emperor dragonfly, Quino Checkerspot butterfly, yellow-banded bumblebee and hyperparasitoid Gelis agilis (from upper left to lower right).
CREDIT
Tim Bekaert, Andrew Fisher (USFWS volunteer biologist), Rob Foster, Tibor Bukovinszky (NVWA Wageningen University & Research) / Scientists' warning on climate change and insects
IMAGE: THOMAS HÖRBERG. PHOTO: HENRIK DUNÉR/STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY.view more
CREDIT: HENRIK DUNÉR/STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY
Most languages lack a specialized vocabulary to describe smell experiences. People instead use words from other domains, such as “heavy”, “good” or “fruity”, when talking about smells. But which words are really used and how do they relate to each other? This has been answered for English by researchers at Stockholm University by using a fully automatic method that is based on texts from the Internet.
“Our research shows that English smell words mainly distinguish between pleasant and unpleasant smells, on the one hand, and smells of edible and non-edible things, on the other. The smell words can be divided into words that describe offensive, malodorous, fragrant and 'edible' smells”, says Thomas Hörberg, researcher in linguistics and psychology, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University. He leads the research project whose results will be published in the scientific journal Cognitive Science. A next step is to examine smell words in Swedish and then continue with other languages.
“This type of identification and division of words that describe smells can be of great use in the food and perfume industry, for example. These fields need standardized vocabularies to be able to describe and categorize smells and tastes”, says Thomas Hörberg.
Previous research on words for smells has been limited to pre-selected words. Subjects have had to make subjective judgments about how well these words describe pre-selected smells. The method used in this research study is instead entirely based on texts from the internet.
“We identify smell words automatically by examining which words people most often use to describe smells in text. We then map the meaning of the words in terms of what smells they describe using an AI method. We therefore do not need to rely on assessments from actual subjects”, says Thomas Hörberg.
The olfactory vocabulary, together with information about semantic properties of the olfactory words, and the code used to retrieve the vocabulary, is available here: https://osf.io/354tr/
Read more about the work at Sensory Cognitive Interaction Lab (SCI LAB): https://sci-lab.se/
Contact:
Thomas Hörberg, docent in linguistics and researcher attached to the Sensory Cognitive Interaction Lab (SCI LAB), Department of Psychology, Stockholm University. phone: +46707559701, e-mail: thomas.hoerberg@psychology.su.se,
The semantic organization of the English odor vocabulary
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
5-Nov-2022
Telehealth brings big advantages for older adults, but new ‘guard rails’ could significantly bolster care
In the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers from West Health push for elevating telehealth standards to meet the unique needs of seniors
SAN DIEGO, Nov. 7, 2022 – Today’s telemedicine providers are only scratching the surface of what’s possible in providing high-quality healthcare to people who need it most—and especially to older adults who benefit greatly from its accessibility, according to researchers and clinical experts from West Health.
The solution, they say, is for telemedicine providers to set the bar higher by following guidelines that ensure remote care is delivered in the best way possible to seniors.
“The COVID-19 pandemic brought to light the immense value of telemedicine to remotely connect patients and doctors for a wide range of healthcare needs,” says Liane Wardlow, Ph.D., senior director of Clinical Research and Telehealth at West Health. “But when treating older patients, we see that telemedicine falls short in many important ways. The problem is that remote healthcare delivery simply wasn’t designed with the needs of older people in mind.”
In an editorial published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Wardlow and West Health’s Chief Medical Officer Zia Agha, M.D.—along with their collaborators from University of North Carolina and University of Pittsburgh—offer commentary around a new peer-reviewed report showing that people who are 65 and older appreciate telemedicine's convenience and want it to remain available but have had frustrating technical challenges and other issues that hindered their experience.
“The pandemic has taught us that our healthcare system is vulnerable and needs to adopt capabilities like telehealth in order to deliver safe and effective care in the future,” the authors write.
To solve the problems that are holding back telemedicine, they argue a framework is needed to ensure providers can offer care that meets three key requirements. First, telehealth must be person-centered to enable visits where patients feel connected and heard. It also must be equitable and accessible to people of all backgrounds, as well as to those with possible cognitive impairment and those living in areas where quick Internet access isn’t a given. Finally, telemedicine must be integrated and coordinated with patients’ overall care plans; providers should also understand the patient's social support structure and ability to obtain prescribed medications.
“Without these guard rails, telehealth may further segment care, thereby increasing the chances of low-value care while further exacerbating health inequities,” the authors write. “With these guardrails in place, however, telehealth has the potential to realize its promise of improving access to high-value, equitable, safe, timely and convenient care to older adults.”
In addition, they say it’s imperative that providers are trained in skills unique to offering remote care to older adults: “Simply because a provider is well-trained in supplying in-person care does not mean that the same provider is capable of providing high quality care using telehealth,” they say.
The authors are among key drivers in the creation of a national Center of Excellence for Telehealth and Aging, which is developing first-ever industry guidelines for age-inclusive telehealth.
“Telehealth with older adults: Getting it right,” was co-authored by Liane Wardlow, Ph.D., and Zia Agha, M.D., of West Health; Kevin Biese, M.D., of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine; and Steven M. Handler, MD, of University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
Kevin Biese serves as an advisor to Third Eye Health, a telehealth provider focused in the post-acute space. None of the other authors have any conflicts to disclose.
