AmazingMFitness.com

Imagine having a metal detector handy when you, as an emergency physician, have an unconscious patient come in and you need to know whether he has an implant. Well, you can sort of do it now with the Metal Detector app for Android phones that have magnetometers (ex: HTC T-Mobile G1). It won’t do quite yet, as the magnetometer that’s typically used as a compass isn’t strong enough to detect keys more than an a couple inches away. But as a preview, we can imagine having one of these apps handy on a future, more magnetically endowed, smart phone.

You might want to think twice before ordering The Cheesecake Factory’s Carbonara or California Pizza Kitchen’s Tostada Pizza with Steak.

Olive Garden's Tour of Italy (olivegarden.com)

Those are two dishes named to a consumer group’s annual list of highest-calorie entrees at chain restaurants.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Xtreme Eating Awards 2010 list highlights a few of the worst entrees at chain restaurants.

Not so fast, counters the National Restaurant Association, which says the CSPI list paints a distorted picture of restaurants based on a single menu item. Many restaurants offer healthier, lower-calorie choices on their menus as well, it says.

For what it’s worth, here’s a sample of entrees named to the Xtreme Eating Awards 2010 list (keep in mind that a man should take in roughly 2,000 calories in an entire day:

The FDA and NIH have unveiled a new website that will one day be the central place for reporting on safety issues with foods, drugs, devices, and many other products. Currently to properly report on a product requires submitting forms to different agencies and the new website will try to streamline and centralize the process.

From FDA’s press release:

The new Web portal includes different features for different types of reporting:

Reportable Food Registry: Industry will have a more user-friendly electronic portal for submitting reportable food reports that are required by law. This electronic portal collects reports from the food industry and public health officials regarding problems with articles of food, including animal feed, that present a reasonable probability of causing serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals.

Pets: Pet owners and veterinarians will be able to use the portal to report product problems with pet foods and pet treats.

Animal drugs: Animal drug manufacturers can report adverse drug events associated with animal drugs.

Clinical Trials: Biomedical researchers involved in human gene transfer clinical trials can report an adverse event, indicating whether it might be an unanticipated consequence of the product being tested. Trial sponsors can use the portal to prepare a report, print it and send it to the agency to satisfy reporting requirements for investigational new drugs.

In the future, the system will encompass other types of clinical trials and, eventually, safety problems arising from products regulated by a broad array of federal agencies. This is a first step toward a common electronic reporting system that will offer one-stop shopping, allowing an individual to file a single report to multiple agencies that may have an interest in the event.

Link: Safety Reporting Portal…

Press release: FDA and NIH Launch Electronic Safety Reporting Portal…

Lumenis Surgical out of Yokneam, Israel will be introducing the VersaPulse P20 holmium laser at the American Urological Association annual meeting that’s starting tomorrow in San Francisco. The system is best suited for treating kidney stones, but can be used for other applications where up to 20 watts of energy is sufficient.

From the press release:

Its compact desktop size features the same gold-standard 20 watt treatments, but now allows it to sit on a desktop or fit within existing video towers for increased mobility. Lumenis’ VersaPulse P20 boasts the highest power in its class, flexible treatment settings and enhanced visibility.

The PolyScope is an evolutionary step in the advancement in flexible scope technology. The scope features a disposable catheter with a reusable 10,000 pixel fiber optic. This unique concept solves many of the current drawbacks encountered with the use of standard flexible scopes; including the high occurrence of breakage and cost of repair as well as recent contamination issues associated with scope sterilization.

Press release: Lumenis to introduce the VersaPulse® P207trade; holmium laser at the AUA 2010 Annual Meeting…

Product page: VersaPulse P20…

It’s hard to imagine my childhood without the neighborhood park.

I was always under the rosy assumption that every kid grew up knowing the joys of a local playground. But it turns out that only about one in five kids live near parks.

Health officials have concluded that this may be one reason why so many American kids are overweight — there’s nowhere closeby for them to run around, play and get exercise (whether intentional or unintentional).

Growing up in a small Western New York town, I actually had access to two parks: one within walking distance that boasted a community pool, where I practically lived at in the summer, and one a short bike ride away that was a child’s paradise — a large playground with wooden castles and suspended bridges, swings galore, a track, a football field and even a stage that pals and I commandeered when the town players weren’t using it for their productions in the warmer months.

Based on a survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Associated Press reports that “only about one in five homes have parks within a half-mile, and about the same number have a fitness or recreation center within that distance.”

The CDC says that of the kids surveyed, only about half said they had easy access to playgrounds, jogging paths or other places to exercise.

Additionally, the survey found that fewer than one in five high school students in the U.S. get at least an hour of physical activity a day.

Obviously, neighborhood parks are a luxury; but when, according to the CDC, only 37 states require physical education for all school grades, it seems neighborhood parks and playgrounds could be a great answer to the growing epidemic of obesity in America.

Afterall, I don’t know any kid who doesn’t like to climb, jump, swing and run around when given the opportunity.

So why aren’t there more parks?