Fertility Treatment is the Likely Cause of the Identical Triplets

Posted on March 5, 2008 by Steven F. Palter, MD

Many are reporting today that a woman on Long Island gave birth to rare identical triplets. She actually gave birth at one of my main hospitals and I know her Ob. The story goes on to say she had IVF but only one embryo was replaced. I was not her treating fertility doctor. However, this event raises and important fact. More and more fertility specialists are turning to a technique called blastocyst transfer. Here we let the embryo grow and additional 2 days in the dish in the lab. Instead of transferring it on day 3 we let it grow until day 5 (occasionally 6). By letting them grow more each embryo that survives has a greater chance of implanting. Therefore we can transfer less of them, reduce the risk of multiples (usually!) and keep pregnancy rates high. The risk is if the embryos are not very strong then none may survive.

Why this may be the cause: It has been know for some time that when we use this technique the rate of identical twins (ie a single embryo splits into two) is significantly great – up to 5% or so. Therefore it makes perfect sense that the rate of identical triplets could rise as well. Since a single embryo was transferred they say- this is usually done in blastocyst cases.

The Bigger Story Behind the 3 Parent Embryo- Human Embryo Genetic Experimentation

Posted on March 3, 2008 by Steven F. Palter, MD

Countless sources are reporting on the “three parent embryo” created as a potential treatment for infertility. What has not been reported is that ther is an almost 10 year history of unreagulated human experimentation in this arena which led to a rare federal ban on specific fertility treatments. Is this hope, hype or dangerous human experimentation? Read on to see!

Background- what are mitochondria? Mitochondria are tiny primite organisms that millions of yers ago became incorporated into human cells. They exisit in every cell but have their own unique genetic material. They function as the engines of the cell providing energy for metabolism. I wrote an review of how they got there and what they do that you can read here. In short mitochondria have their own DNA (similar to that of bacteria) and reproduce independently of the cell in which it is found. We now have a symbiotic relationship with them.

First – the details receontly reported by the BBC. Diseases of the function of mitochondria exist. “About one in every 6,500 people is affected by such conditions, which include fatal liver failure, stroke-like episodes, blindness, muscular dystrophy, diabetes and deafness.” Details of their human experiment: Scientists in the UK experimented on 10 embryos left over after IVF fertility treatments. They microsurgically removed the nucleus, containing the embryo’s DNA and implanted it into a donor egg whose DNA had also been removed. The donor egg while missing its DNA still contained its mitochondrial DNA. They watched these embryos grow in the petri dish for 6 days.

Therefore the resulting embryo will have the DNA of the donated nucleus but the mitochondrial DNA of the host cell- curing and potentially eradicating – the mitochondrial illness.

This is not the first time this has been done. The fertility treatment history of human experimentation on this: While I was teaching at Yale Medical one of my partners and mentors in the fertility department (Dr David Keefe) was actively pursuing research on mitochondrial dysfunction as a cause of human infertility. At that time a few fertility doctors in the US theorized that one cause of human reproductive aging was accumulated damage to the mitochondria in the egg. They thought the genes of the egg could be healthy but the rest of the egg that supports its become faulty. They experimented with a technique called cytoplasmic transfer. Using a microscopic needle tiny drops of fluid were sucked out of a donor’s egg and injected into that of an older infertile woman hoping to breath new energy and life into it. Unfortunately most research groups found it did not seem to offer any benefit.

Reasons why it likely did not work:

using minute drops of fluid from a donor egg into a recipient is just not enough to correct the metabolic problem or defect
my collegues at Yale found that the mitochondria in the egg is often tightly joined to the nucleus so the cytoplasmic transfer did not move enough of them
a huge proportion of age related egg defects are related to nuclear not mitochondrial DNA defects.

The federal government banned this treatment in 2001. Some feared that chromosomal abnormalities and birth defects could result if there were three people’s DNA in one embryo. Federal officials decided that any method involving the transfer of genetic materials without the fusion of egg and sperm requires the oversight and involvement of the Food and Drug Administration. The US legislation leading to the FDA taking jurisdiction over human eggs sperm and embryos is a whole other topic to be covered in later posts. A brief overview of this from Rodger Gosden (who I know and respect as a leading reproductive biologist) is posted here from 1999 when this treatment was at its heyday with references justifying its use from mouse research.

The next brouha using the technique in humans in 2003: Related research on nuclear transfer was again presented at the annual ASRM meeting in San Antonio in 2003. I was in the audience for the talk and remember it well. One of the researchers was an American out of NYU Dr Jaime Grifo who also used to be in my ex-department at Yale. He is also a repected researcher who I know well. Unable to perform the research in the US- the experiment was performed in China. as reported here and here

Researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou implanted three embryos in the womb of a 30-year-old infertile woman… A triplet pregnancy resulted, they announced at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproduction Medicine in San Antonio, Texas this week. One of the foetuses was “reduced” to ensure the viability of the pregnancy, but the other two died anyway at 24 and 29 weeks.

With this technique, called nuclear transfer, the doctors fertilised an egg from their patient and an egg from a donor. Two embryos resulted. The nucleus of both women’s embryos was extracted, and the patient’s genetic material was inserted into the empty “eggshell” of the other embryo which, however, contained mitochondria with the other woman’s DNA. The procedure gives the infertile woman’s embryo the healthy mitochondria it needs to develop — but it also results in a child with genetic material from one father and two mothers.

Dr Grifo has maintained that he was an advisor and did not partake in the actual experiment. NYU issued a statement that if the research was performed in China their IRB did not have oversight (different than my department where all work I did anywhere fell under the IRB as a faculty member). I have never asked him his take on this but do respect him and strongly do not believe he is someone who would knowingly break the law or do what he felt was wrong.

Nonetheless- the ASRM responded with a moratorium on any future presentations on cloning (whether this was cloning is a whole other debate- many feel not).

The technique is still undergoing related research: I chair the video committe of the American Societry for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) the largest international fertility research society. Just this past year we accepted a video presentation on how to technically perform the procedure from a research team in Japan. The paper- Embryonic Development Following the Nuclear Transfer of In Vitro Matured Metaphase-II Oocytes into Enucleated Freshly Ovulated Metaphase-II Oocytes by Tanaka and collegues investigated the possibility of repairing either mitochondrial diseases or female infertility due to ooplasmic deficiency and abnormalities. They demonstrated embryonic development following the nuclear transfer of in vitro matured metaphase-II oocytes into enucleated freshly ovulated metaphase-II oocytes and concluded it could be applied to the treatment of mitochondrial diseases or female infertility due to ooplasmic deficiency and abnormalities.

More is certainly to come.

How Smartdust, Souveillance, Web 3.0, and Personalized Genetics Will Transform the Future of Medical Diagnostics

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Steven F. Palter, MD

There has been a flurry of debate in the military, industrial, and privacy sectors on “smartdust” and the concept of “souveillance” – but no one has yet realized this technology is poised to springboard into medicine and transform medical diagnostics. Here I wanted to give you an overview of what this idea is and why you should keep your eye on it.

First the general concept background:

“Smartdust” refers to micro devices (called motes) which are detection microchips each potentially the size of a speck of dust. These grains of sand however can automatically self-network. So far people have conceived of these low-power distributed sensing networks as having functions for climate control systems, entertainment devices and especially for big brother type surveillance systems.

Wikipedia wrote “the smartdust concept was introduced by Kristofer S. J. Pister (University of California) in 2001 , though similar ideas existed in science fiction before then. A recent review discusses various techniques to take smartdust in sensor networks beyond millimeter dimensions to the micrometre level. A typical application scenario is scattering a hundred of these sensors around a building or around a hospital to monitor temperature or humidity, track patient movements, or inform of disasters, such as earthquakes. In the military, they can perform as a remote sensor chip to track enemy movements, detect poisonous gas or radioactivity. The ease and low cost of such applications have raised privacy concerns.” Beyond web 2.0 vast networks of these real time sensors are once possible technology leap of the yet inknown web 3.0.

General concept – What is Souveillance?: is a term from Steve Mann that refers to “bottom up” surveillance using smart dust as opposed to “top down” big brother networks looking at us little people. Here instead activities are recorded from the “perspective of a participant in the activity, typically by way of small portable or wearable recording devices that often stream continuous live video to the Internet.” Remember the impact of the Rodney King video and of all the user generated video content on the web. Now fast forward to a world where a large segment or even a majority of the populice had real time streaming video devices on all the time (no we are not going to discuss the porn angle on this). This has also been called “inverse surveillance”.

Privacy advocates have been debating the merits or horrors of this type of sensor technology. I serve on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lifeboat Foundation which is dedicated to protecting us from future technological threats through advocacy research and education. They have been having a heated debate on the “paradox of smart dust: we may not live without the greater security provided by smart dust, but many think they could not live with smart dust impinging on our privacy.’

Medical Implications: I have a vision that once this type of low power networked microsensor technology exists it will logically lead to medical sensor technology. Potential uses I see include:

mass screening for infectious disease or bioterror agents. Subjects walking into screening areas could be checked for signature molecules associated with infectious agents. Just as we have metal detectors and now have molecular signature detectors (the litle wipe test for explosives at the airport) we will have such biological screening techology.
The next step will be similar screening for disease states. Metabolomics is one such technology. Metabolomics is the study of the small-molecule metabolite byproducts left behind from cellular processes. In simple terms it’s like examining poop. The concept is that by measuring the collection of all the byproducts of the cells metabolism you can get a snapshot of the physiology of a cell or organism that translates to health. One such sensor is being developed as a breath sensor for disease. This could lead to Star Trek like medical sensors.
Similarly, such technology will lead to individual genetic screening for disease risk using chips that interact with the tiny bits of DNA we shed every time we touch something. Companies commercializing this approach also already exist and have products.
Taking a clue from smart dust we will then inject such sensors into our bodies where thy could circulate in the bloodstream or sit in the abdminal cavity silently sensing for disease, infectious agents, or the DNA or signature molecules of a cancer cell. Alternative chips could exist that sit and slowly release drugs when such cell reappear once a patient is diagnosed.

I will be writing more about the details of these concepts and devices being developed in future posts now that I have introducted the concepts. Let me know what you think!

Retraction From Pointe Conception Medical

Posted on February 15, 2008 by Steven F. Palter, MD

As a practicing physician, consultant to industry and the investment community, and medical technology blogger, my independence is of utmost importance to me.

Pointe Conception Medical issued the following statement today:

“Pointe Conception Medical (PCM) regrets the use of the quote from Dr. Steven Palter in our presentation materials. Dr. Steven Palter did not provide PCM permission to use his name or any type of endorsement from him in any of our promotional materials. Steven Palter is not affiliated in any way with Pointe Conception Medical.”.

Study Shows Accupuncture Boosts IVF Success Rates 65%

Posted on February 8, 2008 by Steven F. Palter, MD

A new study published today in the BMJ showed that the use of accupuncture boosted IVF success rates 65%. They used the statistical tool called meta-analysis. Here several small research studies each showing a possible effect are combined to create a virtual huge study that can demonstrate the clear power of an intervention.

The full report can be read here. They found a 65% increase in pregnancy rates. Using another mathematical tool they found that for every 10 women having IVF one additional will become pregnant.

How it can work: There are several theories. One is the accupuncture could increase blood flow to the uterus and help implantation. Another is that it could relax the uterine muscles. We have also known for some time anyhting that causes tiny uterine contractions (such as poor embryo transfer techniques) can lead to expulsion of the precious microscopic embryos out of the uterus.

Some Fertility specialists have been using this approach: I have been offereing accupuncture to my IVf patients at Gold Coast IVF for years since a German study initially reported benefits.

They missed some studies showing negative effects: I was at the Annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in October in Washington DC. There was a lead study there that showed accupuncture dramatically reduced pregnancy rates. Had this been included in the BMJ study their results would have been less positive. The study was conducted by friends of mine at a well known Seattle fertility center. One possible explanation is that they made the patients get right up after their procedures and drive across town in traffic to get the accupuncture and stress levels were huge – another known negative factor. They also did not use the standard needle placement of earlier studies.

New Laparoscopic Device Stops Harpooning of Patients

Posted on February 6, 2008 by Steven F. Palter, MD

While at the Global Congress of Gyn Endoscopy I saw a really neat new device called LapCap designed to reduce the risk of entering the abdomen in laparoscopic surgery.

What is the problem- why is this needed? In laparoscopy the first step where the surgeon gains access the abdominal cavity is often a blind entry step. There is a risk of injury to internal organs such as the bowel, bladder, or blood vessels. While rare, these injuries can be severe or even life threatening. If you want to read more about laparoscopic access and the risks of entry into the abdomen here is a link to an article I wrote for a Master’s Class in Gyn Surgery on this topic.

What is done in standard surgery: The most common method used by gyn surgeons is the insertion of a needle (the veress needle) which fills the abdomen with carbon dioxide gas (called insufflation). Then a tool called a trocar is inserted into this space and the instruments go through this. The needle insertion step is the most dangerous because it is the blind step. various techniques are used including elevation of the abdominal wall to lift it off of and away from the underlying organs expecially the large vessels like the aorta nad vena cava. The second common method is the open or Hasson technique (invented by my good friend Gyn surgeon Harry Hasson) where the surgeon opens a small 10 mm incision and then inseted the trocar. Injuries occur with all known techniques.

The New System: The LapCap is a new system that puts a plastic dome on the abdomen attached to suction that then pulls a full thickness of the abdominal wall high up into it then allowing the veress needle to be inserted into a potentially larger and they claim safer spot. The LapCap device received 510(k) approval from the FDA and is sold by Aragon Surgical. It won an award from the SLS for new device innovation. Here is a video from the company of it in operation. I know surgeons who have used and were quite impressed and I will likley be involved with surgery using it soon. I know that laparoscopic innovator and friend of mine Camran Nezhat is one of their advisors. I will be speaking with him more about his experience.

Potential problems: Two major issues- first statistical proof of demonstration of increased safety is nearly impossible for access devices such as this because the injury it might reduce so very rarely happens. One study on this problem estimated that it would take a study of more than 200,000 people having the operation to adequately demonstrate reduced injuries statistically. Second- one of the major risks for this sort of injury is when the bowel is adherent to the abdominal wall at the site of entry from previous surgery. I would not expeect this device to help at all in this situation because the adherent bowel will be picked up with the abdominal wall. However it is the vessel injuries that ar emost dangerous and this device might reduce the risk of those if it places the needle much farther away.

About the company: They appear to have acquired the device via an acquisistion of starup Verisure. It was reported last month that they “raised $25 million in a Series B round of venture capital with the hopes of having five products on the market within two years. In a statement on Monday, Jan. 7, Aragon said new investors Bay City Capital of San Francisco and Integral Capital Partners of Menlo Park, Calif., joined original investors Delphi Ventures and Onset Ventures, both of Menlo Park. They formed Palo Alto, Calif.-based Aragon in May 2005 to advance radio frequency technology developed at Stanford University Medical School for use in laproscopic and other surgeries. Bay City Capital was the lead investor in the most recent round.”

I have spoken about the use of RFID for surgical and laproscopic procedures for several years and look forward to seeing where they go with it. I know they also have tissue sealing and dividing technology and are part of the Delphi portfolio. I had a phone call with Delphi last year as part of due diligence they were doing for another company and did think highly of them and their approach. More details of the deal are here.

Sperm Made from Female Stem Cells- All Female Baby Possible

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Steven F. Palter, MD

Scientists in the UK have successfully tricked stem cells from a female to develop into sperm. If these cells are functional then the possibility exists for an “all-female” baby to be made from the cells of a same sex female couple. This is the next step forward from a group that earlier did the same thing with cells from a man.

This study was reported in the British Telegraph Newspaper. They listed it as embryonic stem cells from a female human embryo - they are likely wrong - as I read the report it appears to be cells isolated from an adult female human bone marrow.

This same group from Newcastle University led by Prof. Karim Nayernia reported last year that they had made a sperm from the bone marrow of an adult man. I reported on this research in my previous post Babies Without Men and how it opened the possibility of making sperm from a female and creating a female-female baby. The details of the original project, ethical and genetic risks and heated (and sometimes nasty) debate on lesbian-lesbian parenthood are here.

He now reports that he has repeated the experiment and made the sperm from the marrow cells of a female. The work has not yet been published not subjected to peer review.

I previously reported that I think there is a ticking genetic time bomb here due to imprinting errors. The genes that come from your mother and father are in some cases marked as such genetically and one copy may be shut off. In some cases only the gene from mom is active in others only the one from dad. This new process may mess with this system – and imprinting errors are known to cause genetic diseases in some cases. In fact, the telegraph reports of some “problems”

Prof Nayernia showed the potential of the method in 2006, when he used sperm derived from male embryonic stem cells to fertilise mice to produce seven pups, six of which lived to adulthood, though the survivors did suffer problems.

They also report it could be used to make eggs from a gay man’s cells “a gay man to donate skin cells that could be used to make eggs, which could then be fertilised by his partner’s sperm and placed into the uterus of a surrogate mother.”

While they also report he is seeking permission to create a baby in this way, the UK is very restrictive on new reproductive technologies. They have a law- the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act- that restricts what can and cannot be done.

EMR=CloneWars? – Hidden Dangers to Patient Care

Posted on January 30, 2008 by Steven F. Palter, MD

CRMbuyer is reporting on the benefits of using voice recognition for EMR’s in medicine and presents a series of case studies from the ER. There is a danger here in EMR’s I have not seen reported that voice recognition may help with – but first some of their stats on adoption rates in the ER

A 2006 Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society survey found that 65 percent of chief information officers planned to get it by 2008. It’s being touted as a natural add-on to the electronic medical record, since doctors are used to recording their notes, says Harry Rhodes, director of practice leadership for the American Health Information Management Association.

They list all the usual benefits, speed, digital readability, access, yada yadda yada. The obvious danger is misrecognitions since 2% error rates are not insiginifcant in large volume medical records.

But What is the hidden danger of EMRs docinthemachine you ask? It is the inadvertant cloning of patients.

Let me explain. If you are an ER doc an EMR is fine. Patient comes in with one line chief complaint. History of illness simple fact based. Short and to the point. But for detailed problems in the primary care and specialists’ office too much detail is getting lost in the EMR’s. That is because inmost cases docs are using template driven systems where they click off prepopopulated answers to questions or even touch screen menu choices. This is done to speed up data entry when there is no voice recognition. Most docs do not type well or when they do enter minimal info.

I am a fertility specialist. My practice Gold Coast IVF in New York has a set process we use to completely assess a patients’ past history and treatments and to really get to the nuances this requires quite a bit of narrative of question and answer info. When I am done I have an individualized picture of that patient that is totally unique from other patients due to the details. I know what her problem is and why and how she differs from others with the same diagnosis. Furthermore, during her treatment I can go back to the record and reassess all this wealth of information. What I see constantly when I receive EMR records from other practices (where the patient was first treated elsewhere and the treatments were not successful so they are now coming to me) is that the patients look identical. That is – I can see histories populated from checklists and quick electronic choices. Instead of all the details of a past treatment cycle it will list drug dose and failure with no detail of WHY it did not work. The diseases all look the same. There is never any detail on the nuances and subtle aspects of that individual’s condition. So when a group uses these records and they review a treatment every single person with the same disease (the “patient clones”) end up looking identical and treated identically. Cookie cutter assembly line medicine.

Perhaps voice recognition will allow the details to come back into medical EMR’s. That or a lot more typing by the doc…

Docinthemachine Research Featured on 20/20! MedTechno Insights From the Day

Posted on September 6, 2007 by Steven F. Palter, MD

I previously wrote about the upcoming National Geographic Special Inside the Living Body and my work featured in the special. I was delighted when the producers of 20/20 called to request an interview with me on my research featured on the show and my vision of the future technological transformation of medicine. Bob Brown was interested in coming to interview me. They have already posted a description of the upcoming interview and a summary of the show.

They call it an “Unprecedented Journey Inside the Living Body- ‘We’re Seeing Things That We Had Never Seen Before,‘ Says Scientist (that’s me).

On their website they write:

Recent technological advances have allowed for such dramatic and amazing views of the inside of our bodies that watching the footage can feel like you’re in a science fiction film or on an imaginary expedition…In such a science fiction journey, the 1966 film “Fantastic Voyage,” a group of scientists and their submarine were miniaturized so they could be injected into a body in order to eliminate an otherwise unreachable brain clot.

“I use clips from that movie when I lecture about these new technologies,” said Dr. Steven Palter, the medical and scientific director of Gold Coast IVF in Syosset, N.Y. “Now, physicians can actually see the workings of the body and understand it in a way that they never could before.”

Palter, who has a medical technology blog called docinthemachine.com, is a pioneer of methods capable of producing spectacular high-definition surgical images. Palter obtained his footage by advancing well-established procedures that allow doctors to insert cameras through small incisions and view the target areas of their surgeries. He successfully hooked up high-definition cameras and, he said, was awestruck by the results.

“With high definition, we’re seeing things that we had never seen before … with depth perception, clarity and detail … because now it’s enormously clear and magnified. We have views that you don’t get with your naked eye.”

They also write about my autofluorescent laparoscopy research: “New Way of Seeing Ourselves”

The technology used for the National Geographic Channel is also clearly on its way to helping revolutionize medical care. Palter contributed to the development of what’s called an auto-fluorescent laparoscope, which exposes diseased tissue inside the body that a surgeon couldn’t otherwise see.

“Instead of using visible light, it makes the disease fluoresce,” Palter said. “If you look with your naked eye, you see nothing. When you switch on the light and the filters, all of a sudden the disease is glowing green, and you can see disease that’s beyond the resolution of your naked eye.”

The setup

Details and Insights from the Interview: It really was an amazing morning. I have done countless interviews and seminars with the media over the years and this really stood out for me. Perhaps most enjoyable was the genuine interest and fascination with the topic of their correspondent Bob Brown (who was also a first rate nice guy). They showed up at 8AM and took 1.5 hours to dismantle my office and set up the lighting. We started extra early with the fertility patients that day so they could be finished and out the door before the TV crew came in to protect their confidentiality and to not make them feel uncormfortable (always a key issue in my fertility practice Gold Coast IVF).

Directing the shoot

The cameras and the Crew: Being the techno videophile guy that I am I jumped at the chance to talk with independent film crew brought to shoot me. They had 3 cameramen/directors and there were 2 producers from 20/20, Bob Brown the correspondent, and a media relations rep from National Geographic (in case questions came up about their part). They set-up a 2 camera shoot in my office with blazingly hot spot lights to ensure I would be nice and sweaty on camera. They shot in standard BetacamSP. Of course I could not resist to ask them why they did not shoot in HD. They answered that the news shows inthe studios shoot in HD but that in the US all field work is done in SD. This is because there are countless freelancers and crews out there all using different equipment and all waiting for some semblance of an HD standard to evolve before they invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in new HD cameras and editing and risk it being the “wrong format”. Wow- how similar to the confusion in the medical and consumer video sectors! I continued my fact-finding quest and asked about who was using what systems and the relative advantages of each- panasonic sony JVC image sensors, color fidelity, native chip resolution tape vs disk vs solid state recording editing etc etc all trying to gleam insights I could take back to medicine and the OR.

Showing Bob Brown (and cameraman) a Laparoscope

The interview and turning the tables: Bob interviewed me for 2.5 hours until they ran out of film. I was excited to share my excitement and passion for the subject of the future of medicine and surgery and how my work fits into this vision. Bob was interested in the medical technology behind the show. He asked a very wide range of questions from how I thought to merge HD video and surgerr back in 1999 to what I think is more beautiful – the earth from space or the vista of the internal human organs, to how will we pay for these new technology developments. He was interested in everything I was working on and what I thought would have the most impact. We discussed robotic assited surgery, natural orifice surgery (NOTES), augmented reality and head mounted displays, surgical simulators for training and the potential for real-dataset preoperative practice, virtual colonoscopy and 3D/4D ultrasound etc etc.

I had a chance to turn the tables a bit and ask him why they chose this topic and how they felt it would appeal to the lay public. He told me that TV shows like 20/20 they basically track viewers interest levels minute by minute as they shows air. He added that the medical pieces they ran have huge audience ratings and the more real the higher the appeal. We discussed how the netorks know that on shows like CSI it is often the medical technology that draws the audience in. He has a special talent in reporting human interest segments and has an amazing ability to distill down the high tech medicine we discussed and share with non-medical viewers how it will affect their lives.

Sharing the footage: After the interview he wanted to watch some of my HD surgical footage that I shot for National Geographic with the true HD 1080 16:9 system which I fortunately had available on HD XDCAM with a Sony ultrahigh resolution 24″ LCD HD monitor. Both the 20/20 people and the video crew were amazed by the resolution of the images and one of them remarked “If I need surgery I want them to use that“ Being video people the film crew and director’s understanding of the power of HD in the OR was immediate when they saw just a few seconds of the images. I continue to have the same degree of awe and fascination each time I operate with these systems.

Bob Brown was especially interested in my research on the development of autofluorescent laparoscopy and my concept of “FutureVision“- where surgical technology surpasses inate human senses and we watched those videos as well.

They finished off with few minutes of B-roll footage of Bob and I walking and talking in front of the hospital and requests for room cam OR footage and my AF surgery footage(all of which I was happy to share with them).

Bob Brown, the Producers, and the docinthemachine

The 20/20 show airs this Friday September 7th at 10PM on ABC- check it out!

DITM NG Special Website up- Interview with Wired Magazine

Posted on September 6, 2007 by Steven F. Palter, MD

I previously wrote about the upcoming National Geographic Special Inside the Living Body and my work featured in the special. I was also interviewed by Wired Magazine about the show and the technology behind it. You can read their take on it here (note – I have to email the author Sonia and explain that it is not a good idea to use the descriptor “Organ Porn” in conjunction with the work of gynecologist!).

One of the CG shots from the show

National Geographic has set up a website dedicated to the show with photos videos and facts. Lot’s of fascinating info and images to check out! They write:

From our first cry to our last breath, our bodies undergo a continuous second-by-second transformation. Every move we make and every outside stimulus triggers a reaction through the skin, bones, organs, muscles and cells. We breathe, on average, 700 million breaths in a lifetime; an adult skeleton is replaced every seven to 10 years; we shed as many as 30,000 dead skin cells every minute; and the food we eat travels 30 feet (9 meters) on its journey through our bodies. Now, the National Geographic Channel (NGC) takes you beneath the skin to reveal how our bodies evolve from birth to old age, and the amazing biological systems we need to thrive.
From the producers of NGC’s critically acclaimed In the Womb series, Inside the Living Body traces one “everywoman’s story”, using milestones to examine the everyday workings of a living, functioning body in ways not seen on television until now. Cutting-edge miniature endoscopic HD cameras delve deep inside the mouth, throat, heart, lungs, digestive tract, brain and reproductive organs to shed new light on how and why our bodies do what they do. Stunning photography in this two-hour special reveals universal moments in human development at the most minute level, providing insight into both our own individual metamorphosis and our shared human experiences.

(the bold is my part!)

The Show airs September 16th on the National Geographic Channel (and the NG HD channel!) at 8PM.