Up at 5AM: The 5AM Solutions Blog

5AM wishes  you and yours a fun, safe, and healthy Thanksgiving. Between stuffing and touch football, we're 

The struggle to combat the deadly Ebola virus is changing. Early in the outbreak which began in March 2014, public health organizations fought to keep up with the unchecked spread of the deadly disease that has ravaged communities and public health systems in West Africa. Now, however, there are signs that the fight against the disease is changing, and in some cases, for the better.

To date, 23 states and the District of Columbia have enacted legislation to make cannabis available to people with medical conditions that can be alleviated using the drug. Many people understand the laws in terms of offering compassionate pain relief and appetite stimulation for people suffering devastating illnesses like cancer and HIV/AIDS.

From a device that shows promise in lengthening the lives of patients with glioblastomas to using magnets to decrease concussions on the football field, this week is full of good (or at least very interesting) science and health news.

5AM Solutions hasn't ever published a holiday gift-giving guide despite our belief that nothing says "Season's Greetings!" quite like the biolocator. Joking aside, as software developers and scientists, we know that innovation is fun and that gaming can be a powerful vehicle for learning and discovery.

At ASHG 2014, I had the pleasure of listening to the talks of Ajay Royyuru from IBM’s Computational Biology Center, and David Glazer from Google, during the ‘Separating Signal from Noise’ symposium.

In my last post I talked about accessing your health information, including the results of diagnostic tests. In general I think people should be more aware of what their test results mean, and how their physicians use those results to make decisions about treatments and other tests.

Most primary medical care relies on a solid knowledge base of human anatomy and biochemistry. If you go to your doctor for a routine physical, she may run bloodwork, looking at a standard panel of markers for disease. Likewise, if you go to the emergency room with intense localized pain, the team can use x-rays or other imaging technology, and they will know where to look and what to look for.