Alvin Health

These 6 Next-Gen AI Tools are Revolutionizing Healthcare Here are 6 AI-based healthcare tools that are effectively playing a suggestion-making role that enhances human efforts. It remains to be seen if such tools will play a decision-making role in the future.

It should be routine to examine your skin once a month and take note of all the spots on your body. Pay close attention to any kind of changes and use the chart from the picture below containing the ABCDEs of melanoma (Asymmetrical, Border, Color, Diameter, and Evolution).
If you see any kind of change on one of your spots, you should bring it to the attention of a dermatologist or your physician.
Please remember, it is more likely that you will detect a spot or a change in a spot before your physician, as you are more familiar with your body.

Exams are over and summer is upon us. Please remember the sun is not a joke. Out of the various types of skin cancer, melanoma is the most dangerous with the vast majority of cases caused by the sun.
Just five blistering sunburns increase a child's risk of developing melanoma by 80 percent.
Although this video below is old, watch it, share it, and most importantly be safe in the sun.

Dear 16-year-old Me FOR TOOLS & INFORMATION: http://dcmf.ca/tools This film was made possible thanks to the generosity of real Canadians and Americans whose lives have been touc...

The long weekend is a few days away and sun safety is imperative.

5 Sunscreen Mistakes to Avoid - Spa Week Daily By now, we all know sunscreen is our best defense against UV rays. But, are you using it correctly? Click here to find out.

35 years ago Canada lost a national hero. Today we pause to remember Terry Fox, a remarkable and inspiring human.
“Even though I'm not running anymore, we still have to try to find a cure for cancer. Other people should go ahead and try to do their own thing now.” Terry Fox

Every year U.S. News & World Report compiles the Best Hospital’s rankings in 16 adult and 10 pediatric specialties.
In addition to rankings for each of the specialties, hospitals that excel in many U.S. News areas are ranked in the Honour Roll.
The rankings will be published in the U.S. News "Best Hospitals 2017" guidebook available August 30.
In the meantime today the Pediatric Hospital Rankings by Specialty and the Honour Roll of Best Children's Hospitals for 2016-17 have been published online.
To browse the 2016-17 Pediatric Hospital Rankings and Honour Roll see the link below.

The Best Children's Hospitals in America, Ranked U.S. News ranks the top hospitals by specialty for children.

Very exciting, yesterday the Genomic Data Commons (GDC) was officially launched.
You may ask what is the GDC and/or why is it exciting? The GDC is an interactive platform for sharing cancer genomics and clinical data. This portal will centralize mass amounts of information. Think about it, the more collaboration, more profiles, and the more data, the more accurate the patterns that will emerge. This will facilitate better predictions and understanding of things such as genetic mutations and patients’ responses to treatments.
The GDC is another great step towards precision medicine!

A Data Sharing Platform to Promote Precision Oncology: The Genomic Data Commons Starting with data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and other studies, the NCI Genomic Data Commons (GDC) imports, standardizes, and provides access to cancer ge...

Today National Cancer Survivors Day, we honour those who are living with and beyond cancer and we recognize family members, friends, and medical professionals who are helping to fight the battle against cancer.

Genes Often Trump Location
Scientists now find that patients’ tumors are often driven by unique combinations of DNA mutations. Collectively, these changes are called tumor’s mutation profile. When it comes to treating cancer, knowing which mutations are in a tumor’s profile may be more important than where the tumor is found.

When we know better we do better.
We are all different, in our likes and dislikes, in our talents and capabilities, and in our response to medical treatment as well.
In Canada the lifetime probability of developing cancer in males is 45% and in females 42%. That means out of every 10 people just over 4 will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.
Let us assume that 3 of those people have the same cancer, in the same place and same grade/stage, all 3 get the same treatment, however they each have a completely different response.
One has no response to the treatment, the second sees vast improvement and for the third the treatment has to be stopped due to toxicity.
Precision medicine, although in its infancy, is showing great promise in predicting outcomes. Predicting outcomes is assisting healthcare providers choose the right treatment for the right person at the right time. Precision medicine: better treatments with fewer side effects.
So what is precision medicine?
According to the NIH (National Institutes of Health) “it’s an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person”
Below is a video by ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) explaining precision medicine.

Precision Medicine and Cancer ASCO’s Annual Meeting is showcasing new research on precision medicine. See how this new approach is transforming the way we treat cancer. To learn more, vis...

We can do more to lessen the burden of cancer. , raise awareness on National Cancer Survivors Day, June 5.