Technology is driving the future of health in South Florida.
There is a lot of innovation happening in this region. Medical students train using a simulator. AI targets Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and other health conditions. Elon Musk’s brain chips are undergoing clinical trials in Miami.
Some new technologies are already making a difference in patient care, changing how doctors treat genetic conditions like cancer, stroke and sickle cell disease. It also helps to improve the quality of life of patients.
Ultrasound targets cancerous tumors
High-intensity ultrasound is being used to liquefy cancerous tumors in the liver as part of a new painless treatment at Memorial Healthcare System, one of Broward’s public hospital network. This is one of the latest innovations that helps doctors treat difficult and life-threatening conditions in South Florida, sometimes by supporting the body’s own natural immune response.
“They’re surgical oncologist at Memorial Cancer Institute, Memorial Healthcare Systems,” said Dr. Omar Lulaguna, surgical oncologist at Memorial Cancer Institute.
Ultrasound techniques are used to target liver tumors. It is often caused by cancer that spreads from the colon or other parts of the body to the organs. The invisible sound waves transcend the skin and “drill” from the organs into cancerous tumors and begin carving them out, doctors said. Bubble forms and creeps into infected tissue, destroying and destroying the tumor.
“It almost looks a bit like a hurricane underwater,” said Llaguna, who carefully watches the procedure through the screen.
The destroyed tumor turns into a jelly-like liquid. Then it’s time to let your body’s immune system do that and absorb and remove unnecessary excess liquids. No surgery, chemotherapy or radiation is required.
“It destroys tumors beyond recognition. …We usually really open up opportunities to treat patients who needed invasive procedures, but we also treat patients who were not candidates for these procedures due to comorbidities or other medical issues,” Llaguna said.
Memorial expects FDA-approved technology known as the Edison Histotripsy system can help hundreds of cancer patients who are not eligible for surgery. Memorial plans to begin offering treatments soon and evaluates multiple patients to ensure that treatment is appropriate.
Llaguna said ultrasound beams are first used in combination with other treatments and target liver and metastatic cancers that spread to organs of patients who are not eligible for surgery. The company behind the technology is holding clinical trials to see if it can also be used to treat pancreas, kidneys and other cancers.
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More affordable 3D printed prosthetics
At Florida International University, 3D printing will help children create more affordable, child-sized prosthetics as part of a new home exercise program to help children learn how to better manage their daily tasks.
“I know how expensive it costs,” said Amanda Thomas, a clinical assistant professor of physiotherapy at FIU. Her son was born without a right hand and currently uses one of the 3D printed prosthetics created at FIU’s Miami Beach Urban Studios.
Prosthetics usually cost thousands and are suitable for your order. Children often need new prostheses every 1-2 years for their growing body. Some insurance may cover at least some of the prosthetic costs. Others may require patients to wait a certain amount of time before ordering a new prosthesis.
That means some families can still get a large bill left, or they can take the price from offering children the option to explore what it’s like to use a prosthetic leg, Thomas said.
That’s what 3D printing is like.
Her 11-year-old son Hayden’s 3D printed yellow hand prosthetics helped him make his daily activities easier. He has more confidence in himself. Hayden, who loves to play soccer and other sports, helps him play tennis using his prosthetic hands.
His 3D printing hands cost: $30, she said.
“It’s amazing to see how he’s progressing and go through this whole process. It’s a great feeling,” Thomas said.
Hayden can experience unpleasant hypersensitivity around the limbs, just like other children born without part of their upper limbs. Thomas said it is a common reason why children tend not to like using prosthetics.
That led Thomas and PhD in Physiotherapy Students to create home exercise programs to help children like Hayden strengthen and decolorize their limbs and learn how to use 3D printed prosthetics.
Exercises use items that families have around their homes and require exposure to a variety of sensations, such as using shaving cream to write alphabets, drawing shapes, putting limbs in a bucket of rice, or creating shapes with Playdo.
Hayden’s 3D printed hands are “body power.” This means you need to use your hands and feet to operate your hands. With 3D printed hands, Hayden must pick up and set an empty water bottle, open and close it, and perform various repetitive exercises, including turning pages in a book, pushing blocks and drawing waves.
According to Thomas, four weeks later, his strength, sensitivity and adjustments improved. She saw similar results as other children. Her research, published in the Journal of Hand Therapy, has attracted global interest, according to FIU.
Thomas’ team is currently considering building a 3D printed KID orthotic device (a device that helps relieve pain related to foot condition) and custom-made prosthetics. Families interested in obtaining 3D printed prosthetics or taking part in a home practice program can contact Thomas (amthomas@fiu.edu).
The future of gene therapy
At Jackson Health, a public hospital system in Miami-Dade, new advances in genetic research have recently helped doctors modify patients’ blood cells to reduce the impact of painful blood disorders that can lead to life-threatening complications.
Genetic blood disorders deform red blood cells, transforming them into sickle-cell-like shapes, blocking the blood flow and preventing oxygen flow. This untreated disease is known to cause unbearable pain and fatigue, which can lead to serious complications such as stroke, lung problems and organ damage.
“I scream all the way to the hospital, and that’s how bad the pain is,” said Havalian Weatherspoon, 21, from the Orlando area, who lived with sickle cell disease all his life.
Weatherspoon, like other children, grew up with four siblings, attended school, played sports and video games. But he also saw the hospital walls more than the average person.
He had his first surgery – removal of the spleen – at the age of 2. At 2pm, his gallbladder was removed. By the age of 17, chronic pain had led to monthly hospital visits.
One day, his blood pressure and hemoglobin levels fell to dangerous levels.
“His doctor said if we hadn’t brought him, he would probably have died in his sleep,” said his mother, Laheeda Fisher.
Currently 21 years old, Weatherspoon became his first patient in South Florida, receiving a new gene therapy. This is part of a clinical trial with beam therapy to reduce symptoms of the disease. The therapy, known as Beam-101, is managed by the medical teams at Holtz Children’s Hospital and Miami University of Miami Health System.
This trial utilizes “base editing” to provide scientists with the ability to rewire genes in their bodies. This is similar to how a programmer removes new code and enters it to fix a failed computer program.
Gene editing allows scientists to enter codes into genes in the body, which instructs them to stop the production of mutations causing abnormal red blood cells. The new genes instruct the body to produce the fetal morphology of hemoglobin, an oxygen-carrying protein found in normal shaped red blood cells. The goal is to alleviate the patient’s symptoms.
“We’re modifying very small pieces, so it’s not something like science fiction,” says Dr. David Crawford, director of pediatric stem cell transplants at UHealth and Holtz Children’s. “We’re modifying a single gene to solve a little problem for us. But that’s amazing.”
Crawford sees gene therapy as a useful alternative for patients like weather spoons who were not eligible for bone marrow transplants due to illness damage.
Sickle cell disease in the United States affects approximately 100,000 people in the United States, mostly non-Hispanic blacks or African Americans. According to Jackson Health, patients often get worse with age and make it difficult for patients to attend school or work.
And Crawford has high hopes for the future of gene therapy and its use in the treatment of sickle cells and other conditions. Federal regulators have already approved several gene therapies that can help treat certain conditions, including blood disorders such as sickle cell disease, neurological diseases such as spinal muscle atrophy in children, and blood disorders such as certain types of leukemia and lymphoma.
And progress continues. A Philadelphia baby, who has been hospitalized for a rare and fatal genetic disorder after a doctor created a new personalized gene editing treatment for him, recently made headlines. According to ABC News, the treatment appears to have worked, and the baby was released from the hospital earlier this month.
“My life just changed,” says the patient.
He and his mother were on alert when Weatherspoon doctors recommended they take part in a clinical trial in Miami. But they decided to try it. Once the doctors determined he was a qualified candidate, Weatherspoon and his family drove to Miami. According to Crawford, his stem cells were collected in September in a process similar to a “long blood draw” and sent to a specialized lab for editing.
In January, Weatherspoon began chemotherapy, destroying damaged cells and creating space for newly edited cells. He’s tired. His hair fell off. He turned to video games like two weeks and Grand Theft Auto, trying to escape reality.
Finally, it was time to inject new cells into his body. For four weeks he was monitored at Holtz to make sure everything was going well and kept him safe as his immune system recovered.
His twin brothers, who joined the US military, were surprised to visit him just in time to watch the Super Bowl together. His girlfriend surprised him for Valentine’s Day. The family went in and out of the hospital room.
“To see people take time from the day… to come see me, that just means a lot,” Weatherspoon said.
Kazecho was discharged from the hospital 45 days later. He is currently back in Sanford, central Florida.
“He was doing very well and the treatment was really perfect for him,” Crawford said. “It’s a complete change in his life and he doesn’t have sickle cell disease anymore, so he lives a pretty much a normal life.”
Weatherspoon needs to access Holtz Monthly for surveillance and is taking penicillin to prevent infection. Clinical trial researchers will monitor him for years.
He also uses his new painless life.
Weatherspoon went on an ATV riding on his 21st birthday without the need for painkillers. His crippling migraines are gone. He said he was able to walk to the grocery store and return home for the first time.
“I’m actually speechless,” he said. “My whole life has changed because everything I was doing before I could do better than I am now, I don’t suffer every day.”
