MEDICA, the leading international trade fair for the medical sector, invites you to Düsseldorf / Germany from 12 - 15 November 2018. Be part of the number 1!

Around two to six per cent of all people with obesity develop obesity already in early childhood; it's in their genetic cards. Obesity-causal mutations in one of their "appetite genes" gives them a strong genetic predisposition for developing obesity, also called monogenic obesity. Their experience of hunger is overruling and their feeling of satiety limited.

Smartphones have become our everyday companions. A lot of people are critical of this: On the one hand, they connect us to everything and everybody, on the other hand, we lack time and concentration for personal contacts and our surroundings because of them. Still, smartphones and other wearables are a great asset for medicine, as they help people to stay healthy or to manage a chronic illness, for example. Read in our Topic of the month what this can look like for people with depression.

Ventricular fibrillation is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the heart muscle exhibits a rapid, erratic beat and the heart will no longer pump blood. The cause might be a circulatory system disease or heart attack. Researchers in Göttingen are now developing an ultrasound technique to get to the bottom of ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrhythmias and facilitate better treatment options.

Every day, hospital staff has to manage complex processes to guarantee quality and patient safety. Yet in some areas, the use of checklists and manuals tends to be more cumbersome and not useful – as is the case in sterile processing. A new project studies how augmented reality can take all the necessary information into the staff's field of view.