USAID partners private sector on agriculture.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with Chi Farms and Niji Foods, has launched two new agribusiness partnerships Mission Director of USAID Nigeria, Michael T. Harvey, said: “With Nigeria’s increasing population, these programmes are vital to achieving food security and imports,” adding: “Public-private partnerships are a proven way of expanding investment in agriculture, improving both efficiency and productivity.” Through these partnerships, USAID aims to address development and business challenges to agricultural inputs and mechanisation by providing quality technical advisory services and expanded market opportunities for smallholder farmers.” These partnerships will also capitalize on the untapped potential of small-holder farmers and small processors to help grow agribusinesses, create secure jobs, and boost economic growth in Nigeria. According to operators of Chi Farms: “Recognising the need to increase Nigeria’s domestic fish production to meet growing demand and end reliance on imported fish, Chi Farms – under this partnership – will train 1,000 small-holder fish farmers in Lagos and Ogun States on new farming techniques, access to credit, and marketing skills to help raise incomes. Another partner in the agriculture project, Niji Foods, said that despite the volume of cassava processed in Nigeria and the commercial potential of cassava peel for livestock feed, there is virtually no commercially-available livestock feed made from cassava peel. Read Niji Foods, with the International Livestock Research Institute, and USAID support, is establishing three cassava peel processing centres to address this market gap, see Read more in the agriculture daily

Surgical and preoperative planning.

Materialise OrthoView planning software has been developed in conjunction with the orthopedic community and designed specifically for the needs of orthopedic surgeons. The software provides comprehensive digital templating and pre-operative planning solutions for joint reconstruction and orthopedic trauma, pediatric and spine surgeons. Use Materialise OrthoView for: 1) Hip, knee, shoulder or small joint arthroplasty. 2) Trauma and fracture management. 3) Pediatrics, including limb deformity.4) Spinal deformity. Try the software here

5 reasons to plan knee surgery digitally.

Planning is key to execution of any project in life as failure to plan is a sure way to fail. Surgical interventions are delicate and therefore optimal planning is key to success ,now with the advent of 3D printing ,planning is so much easier. The surgeon can actually prepare for the surgery by visualizing the sites and planning entry points,incision lengths and generally study the best way to carry out the procedure before the real surgery. Digitally planning a knee joint replacement procedure, or a revision, can make the surgical procedure quicker and easier to perform, and an increasing number of surgeons are using digital planning tools. Moreover, there are additional benefits for the hospital and the patient as well as the surgeon from planning knee and other orthopaedic procedures digitally. 1) Plan cases faster With software designed specifically for knee procedures, pre-operative planning becomes easier and faster because it provides everything you need in one package. Accessing the patient’s images on the PACS, selecting and sizing the prosthesis and even comparing options, takes a matter of minutes. The digital x-ray and prosthesis template library are a click away and the plan is easily saved back to the PACS for future reference during or after surgery, or to refer back to at a later date. 2) Plan cases more precisely In order to analyze the patient’s anatomy and select the most appropriate prosthesis size, the surgeon can correct the effects of x-ray magnification onscreen in various ways: with the use of a scaling marker or by selecting the known oversize of the x-ray image; but he can also zoom in to see defects and anatomical landmarks in more detail. 3) Save unnecessary costs As digital surgical planning makes it easier for the surgeon to analyze the patient’s anatomy and anticipate what they might find in surgery, it is possible to reduce the need for a huge implant inventory. By reducing the need for a large range of prosthesis options to be available in surgery, sterilization costs are reduced and there is also less potential inventory waste. 4) Improve team communication It is easy to share the pre-operative plans with the entire surgical team prior to surgery when it is on the PACS. The PACS system also allows surgeons to refer back to particular cases when the plan may be appropriate to replicate or to compare differences. Digital planning is also used extensively as a training tool for this same reason. 5) Improve patient communication Having a pre-operative plan that can be called up from the PACS and viewed on a screen during a consultation can help to clarify elements of the surgery for the patient. The doctor can discuss the surgical process with the patient, and set his/her expectations for the surgical outcome. In a worst-case scenario where complications arise post-operatively, the digital record of the surgical plan, along with notes from the surgery itself, can provide a useful reference.source

The Rise of 3D Technology for Patient Treatment in Brazil.

There is a rise of 3D Technology for Patient Treatment in Brazil because the brazil unit of Materialise a medical 3D printing company has started a lecture series tagged “Innovation in 3D technology for health”. The aim of the lectures is to create awareness about the possibilities of 3D Printing for healthcare professionals, and how our technology can help hospitals treat their patients more effectively. An interesting example on the use of medical 3D Printing in Brazil is the case of a 38-year-old man with an aorto-pulmonary window and a right aortic arch, meaning the aorta and pulmonary artery were connected. His aorta also led to the right side of his body instead of the left, which caused shortness of breath. To treat the defect, Dr Carlos A C Pedra (MD, PhD, FACC, FSCAI) at the Instituto Dante Pazzanese de Cardiologia decided to implant a double-disc device to close the connection. To visualize the defect clearly, the patient’s aorta and pulmonary artery were reconstructed in 3D, and printed out with two windows integrated into the heart model so the defect was clearly visible.source

3D printing as a resource tool for medical practice in Africa.

3Dprinting as a resource tool for medical practice in Africa will go a long way to improve health care services,provide jobs and production of medical devices that can generate wealth. 3D printing ,the use in medical sciences are inexhaustible and still evolving in Africa. 3D printing can be used for making new parts and even organs making transplant and orthopedic surgery rather easy,medical devices such as stethoscopes,microscopes,forceps,clamps,e.t.c can be produced easily with the proper technical know-how. This technology transfer is what a company is exploring to improve health and generate wealth. ReFab Dar began as a pilot project to determine if 3D printers could be made of e-waste in developing countries and then if we could build a machine that would use recycled plastic to make 3D printer filament. The recycled 3D printer filament then needs to have users to be able to complete the supply chain. The project examined four possible areas for exploration: medical, jewelry, spare parts, and customized gadgets. While pursuing all four areas through their mentorship programs, they have focused on the creation of medical devices as a first feasible product line that can save times, money, and lives. ReFab has set a course to making 3D printing technology of useful service to Africans. At present, we have 5 Retr3D e-waste 3D printers being made by STICLab under a New Frontier’s experimental grant by Jhpiego. The objective is to test the locally manufactured printers to prototype and make medical tools and equipment that will change the face of medicine in Africa in the next 5–10 years.continue

Mobile technology in healthcare creates productivity and satisfaction.

The use of mobile technology in the healthcare sector is making a positive impact on the productivity and job satisfaction of employees, according to research conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). 59% of workers report being more productive in their jobs as a result of mobile technology, while 48% are more satisfied in their job if they perceived their employer to be a good provider of mobile working practices. The healthcare sector has always been one of innovation and curiosity, noted for being at the forefront of the mobile technology revolution, with wearable devices and personal fitness apps offering unprecedented insight into patient health and at the other send of the spectrum, a clear demand for a better mobile practice for its employees. continue

Half lion, half tiger: Meet Liger cub Tsar

Tsar the liger cub, born from an extremely rare lion-tiger romance, is proving a hit for a traveling Russian zoo. Tsar has a tawny fur of a lion cub but covered in black stripes, was born while the zoo was on tour in southern Russia’s Rostov-on-Don region. Tsar's mother Princess, the zoo’s only tigress, had a difficult birth and has been unable to suckle him. She has given birth to a total of three liger cubs, but only Tsar has survived. Tsar is fed with goats milk about one litre a day. According to a researcher at Moscow’s Darwin Museum of natural history,hybrids like this are extremely rare – and generally they are weaker than lion cubs or ordinary young tigers, but if you take good care of them, they can grow up and live a long time although that male ligers are born sterile. Ligers, like tigons – cubs born to a lioness and a male tiger – can only be born in captivity. source