Medical Watch Digest for Oct 23
How long do you keep kids home after a Covid diagnosis?
While school recommendations vary, doctors are weighing in on how long kids are contagious.
Children infected with the omicron variant of covid are infectious, on average, for three days after testing positive.
University of Southern California researchers wanted to give parents some advice about how long to isolate their children following a cCovid infection.
And they urge public health and education leaders to consider shorter duration restrictions for children, allowing them to return to school within three days.
Noninvasive Colon Cancer Test
A noninvasive test may work as well as a colonoscopy for detecting colon cancer.
The prep and the invasive nature of the gold standard colon screening prevents many people from getting the potentially lifesaving test.
Now a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds RNA stool tests in people 45 years and older are sensitive and accurate at finding colon cancer compared to colonoscopy.
The trial of nearly 9,000 people found the sensitivity of the stool test was 94 percent.
And when compared directly with colonoscopy for detecting lesions, the stool test had a specificity of 88 percent.
Study authors say their research showed an RNA stool test can accurately detect colorectal cancer and the ease of use may prompt more people to test, which could save lives.
AI & Skin Cancer
Your phone may be a good resource to detect skin cancer.
Skin cancer diagnosis using artificial intelligence is as reliable as those made by medical experts according to a study at the Medical University of Vienna.
Researchers compared the accuracy of identifying cancerous skin lesions using algorithms and smartphone applications versus a doctor’s analysis.
They also compared therapy recommendations.
Researchers say while AI applications perform well in diagnosis, doctors are far superior when it comes to treatment decisions.
For example, AI recommended removing more benign lesions than experts would.
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