This Week:
Volume 21 Issue 19 - 2013-05-24

International News Desk
At Home: Video Medicine
Around the World: The Ears Have It

Volume 21 Issue 19 2013-05-24

At Home: Video Medicine

If you hate spending hours in the ER waiting room, you’re not alone. But one clinic is testing an innovative new program that could help solve this problem, shortening the lengthy waiting periods for certain patients. There’s one catch, though: your doctor is on a screen.

As the CBC reports, the Ottawa-based program uses online video conferencing “to connect patients with doctors in Toronto for more timely treatment.”

Patients with “visible symptoms . . . [like] a rash or burn” can be diagnosed and treated from a distance if the physicians can see them via two-way video. Patients with internal symptoms, however, “would have to be treated by a doctor in person.”

Despite the lack of “human contact,” patients seem excited about the “quick service.” So far over 2,000 patients at the clinic have opted for the video diagnosis and treatment.

The so-called telemedicine program is funded by the Ontario government. It is seen as valuable not only for streamlining overcrowded ER waiting rooms but also for providing medical services in remote locations and in areas that are experiencing a shortage of physicians.

Around the World: The Ears Have It

Departing thieves leave behind all kinds of evidence. Clothing. DNA. Fingerprints. For one German burglar, his downfall came through a little more unusual means: his earprints.

As MSNBC.com reports, police nabbed the thief by matching his earprints as well as his DNA and fingerprints. Allegedly, the suspect “put his ears to doors and windows in order to find out whether anyone was home before raiding the properties.” The earprints were analyzed and compared with similar evidence in other crimes.

It’s not well-known, but “[earprints] are almost as unique as fingerprints,” a police spokesperson told reporters. They can be used as evidence, and in this case they linked the same culprit to a series of thefts totalling $650,000.

The burglar is believed to be responsible for “at least 96 break-ins between July 2009 and July 2011 in northern Germany.”