Research Removes Barrier To Care
Thursday, November 21st 2013—HAMILTON, ON— A McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton researcher has successfully submitted for a Stars in Global Health grant that could change the future of severe airway disease diagnostics. Grand Challenges Canada, grant providers funded by the Government of Canada, support bold ideas with big impact in global health. In this instance, the grant will help removes the barriers of expensive diagnostic testing done to measure bronchitis in adult and child patients with severe airway diseases with a scientific breakthrough employing ordinary paper and an ink - jet desktop printer.
Dr. Parameswaran Nair, researcher and respirologist at McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, primarily studies and cares for patients with severe airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In Dr. Nair’s practice he noticed that bronchitis, which is often a component of these diseases, is poorly measured in those suffering with sever asthma and COPD making treatment for these diseases not optimal.
Along with Dr. Freddy Hargreave, his late colleague at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, Dr. Nair previously developed a test to measure bronchitis using cell counts in sputum. The problem with this previously developed method is it requires laboratory technology and can take considerable amounts of time. Dr. Nair’s new method to measure bronchitis does away with these economic barriers and complicated hindrances, making the test simpler and more accessible.
Dr. Nair’s new proposed method to measure bronchitis uses a diagnostic test using paper and an ordinary desktop printer. The ink--jet printing in collaboration with Dr. John Brennen in Chemical Engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton.
“The scientific breakthrough lies in the specially developed ink containing a specific protein that will then be injected into a cartridge and used with a regular printer. The test is done by printing this special ink on regular paper and then dipping a patient’s sputum into the ink and waiting to see if the ink changes colour,” says Dr. Parameswaran Nair, researcher and respirologist at McMaster University St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. “The degree at which the ink colour changes after the test indicates how to adjust the dose of the patient’s medication to treat bronchitis and improve the quality of care for patients severe airway diseases.”
Dr. Nair’s research breakthrough not only would reduce the cost of measuring bronchitis in adult and child patients with severe airway diseases, but is hoped to change the way sever asthma and COPD are managed globally by making this simple test accessible in poorer countries.
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Megan Bieksa
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Public Affairs Department
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton
Tel: 905--522--1155, ext. 33037
Email: mbieksa@stjoes.ca
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St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton is a regional leader in patient--centred care providing acute care, research, teaching, community and international outreach programs throughout our network. Since being founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1890, our hospitals span three specialized campuses in the Greater Hamilton Area (Charlton Campus, West 5th Campus and King Street Campus), with St. Joseph’s Villa Dundas providing long--term care and St. Joseph’s Home Care providing personalized home care traversing the reach of our region. For more information about St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, please visit www.stjoes.ca.