RIT’s Combined Accelerated Pathways are dual degrees that enable you to earn a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in approximately five years of study. They’re designed for exceptional undergraduate students with outstanding academic records. They accelerate your learning and position you for success. You’ll earn two degrees in less time and with a cost savings while still taking advantage of cooperative education experiences, internships, research, study abroad, and more.

Two is always greater than one, especially when it comes to investing in your education.

When you think of hypnosis, you’ll likely conjure up images of strange men with twirly mustaches dangling a pocket watch in front of your eyes while they drone, “You’re getting sleepy… very sleepy.” Contrary to popular belief, though, hypnosis is much more than that.

There’s a growing number of scientists who believe that it could offer an effective, drug-free approach to treating physical and psychological issues like chronic pain, depression, and anxiety. In fact, the practice is even being taught in some of the world’s top medical schools like Stanford Medicine.

“[We] know that learning about hypnosis from nonscientific sources is associated with more negative views of hypnosis, so it's important for us to provide science-backed information about hypnosis,” Afik Faerman, a psychiatric researcher at Stanford Medicine, told The Daily Beast. “Although it is not yet mainstream in medical and psychiatric departments, interest in and use of hypnosis is increasing thanks to the work of scientists and clinicians across the world.”

While hypnosis offers a lot of promise in treating certain issues, it doesn’t work for everyone. Faerman explained that “only about 20 percent” of the population is considered highly hypnotizable. If there was a way to make the brains of that other 80 percent more susceptible to hypnosis, it could “open the door for improving therapy.”

Steve Fisch / Stanford University

Faerman is the lead author of a study published Thursday in the journal Nature Mental Health that used electric stimulation on certain areas of the brain to temporarily make people more hypnotizable. The method—dubbed Stanford Hypnosis Integrated with Functional Connectivity-targeted Transcranial Stimulation (SHIFT)—could create a path to an effective method of pain reduction without the need for addictive and expensive opioids.

“We found that active SHIFT was associated with increased hypnotizability, while the sham stimulation did not,” Faerman explained. “It was also interesting that participants' guesses as to whether they received active or sham treatment were not associated with the change in hypnotizability.”

SHIFT relies on a process called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which involves essentially zapping your brain with big magnets. While that might sound downright scary, it’s actually a fairly non-invasive and pain-free procedure that involves placing two magnetic paddles over certain regions of the patient’s head and pulsing it with electricity.

TMS has also been shown to be an incredibly effective treatment for things like depression and PTSD. One study has even shown that 60 percent of patients who had undergone the process found immense relief in depressive symptoms.

The science behind it is fairly straightforward: researchers found that parts of the brain were underactive in people with depression, so they used TMS to stimulate those areas—resulting in less depression. The same idea applies to hypnosis, which is linked to areas of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

“Modulating the DLPFC and increasing its information sharing with the ACC could, theoretically, increase hypnotizability,” Faerman explained.

To test the idea, the team at Stanford recruited 80 volunteers with fibromyalgia, which is a condition that causes chronic pain throughout the body. Half of the participants received the SHIFT, which sent 800 pulses of electricity to the patient’s DLPFC. Meanwhile, the other half received a sham treatment, which did nothing to increase hypnotizability.

The team discovered that those who underwent SHIFT became significantly more hypnotizable, scoring one point higher on a 10-point hypnotizability scale (which apparently exists). Meanwhile, the group that received the sham treatment saw no change in their susceptibility to hypnosis. The researchers also found that the effects wore off after just an hour.

While it’s still early, the results are incredibly promising. Not only can the process help treat those with chronic pain using hypnotherapy, but it could open the doors to treatments beyond that.

“[Scientific] evidence points out that hypnosis is effective for anxiety and stress, depression, smoking cessation, and more,” Faerman said. “In their current and future work, we’ll work on adapting SHIFT for clinical use and testing it with clinical applications of hypnosis.”

In his eyes, Faerman envisions a future where patients will be able to go into their clinicians, undergo SHIFT, and then receive a hypnotherapy session to help alleviate their pain. In doing so, they’ll be able to receive even better care—without the need for pills. “This will allow us to offer effective, drug-free treatments and Boost the well-being of their patients, but it will also save time and money for the patients and their healthcare system.”

Whether you’re a professional expert, an enthusiast, or just a living, breathing human being, chances are that your life, and those of your loved ones, have been affected by advancements in medical technology, or the lack thereof.

Just in my personal life, there are numerous examples of both — the X-rays my extreme sports-loving brother has brought home over the years; the metal hip replacement that helps my partner's mother walk without pain, or the cardiopulmonary bypass my grandfather never had the chance to use.

As they know too well, incredible medical advancements don’t certain equal access, and there are too many examples where technologies available to some are out of reach to others, either due to a lack of access or a lack of communication. One of the most recent examples of global health inequality was the COVID vaccine. While many of us in the Global North had received their third shot by early 2022, people in the Global South were still waiting for their first. 

Providing environments where both science and scientists can thrive is critical. But so is ensuring access to healthcare. At Mashable, they are obsessed with medical tech, and they love celebrating both the breakthroughs and the accessibility wins. So, at the end of 2023, they are looking back at some innovations they loved this year.

1. Video game technology helped a person regain their speech

We’ve seen examples where technologies traditionally associated with the creative industries found medical applications. For example, a VR map they covered last year lets us look at cancer cells in a way they couldn’t before. 

More recently, video game technology was used to help a woman regain her speech post-stroke. Facial animation software company Speech Graphics collaborated with UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley to develop a brain-computer interface that successfully translated the woman’s thoughts into speech, and even managed to re-create her facial expressions using a digital avatar.

2. Wearables are tracking human health using the body's sounds

Our bodies constantly produce sounds that inform us about their health — think heartbeat, breathing, or digestion. And so doctors often rely on those sounds to monitor their patients' wellbeing. The issue with current methods is that while they require direct doctor-patient interactions, frequent appointments are not always possible, especially in countries like the U.S. and the UK, where healthcare systems are either expensive, strained, or both. 

In an attempt to simultaneously Boost health monitoring and cut the need for such appointments, researchers at Northwestern University developed miniature wearables that can track a patient's health by capturing the sounds their bodies make. When the wireless devices detect any changes, they transfer the information to health practitioners and caregivers through a tablet. The device proved successful in pilot studies but is still not ready for commercial use.

3. A new implant is monitoring the health of organ transplants in real-time

In another Northwestern study, a new implant can monitor the health of organ transplants in real-time. Incredibly thin, the device can be placed directly on the transplant to track its responses, like temperature shifts, which are then streamed wirelessly to a phone or tablet to alert of any changes.

The implant has so far been tested on an animal kidney transplant, and it successfully signaled a potential organ rejection three weeks earlier than previous methods would have.

Detecting early organ rejection in advance can not only Boost patients’ well-being but also help preserve the health of donated organs, which in turn can save more lives amid a global organ donation shortage.

4. The world's first digital period pain clinic launched

Even though over 80 percent of people with periods report experiencing pain associated with their menstrual cycles, period and pelvic pain have traditionally been understudied, undermined, and untreated.

To combat this gap, gynecological health startup Daye launched what may be the world’s first digital period pain clinic. The startup offers a range of services, including condition diagnosis, personalized treatment plans, and support from specialists.

5. A flying hospital took off

Nearly 2.2 billion people around the world have a vision impairment, according to the World Health Organization. In about half of these cases, the impairment could have been prevented or has not been addressed. This is largely due to a lack of access to eyecare, which in turn is a consequence of a lack of proper training and facilities.

To try and address this, eyecare nonprofit Orbis launched the Flying Eye Hospital. It's an ex-cargo aircraft equipped with an operating room, classroom, and recovery room, as well as an audiovisual system that streams live surgeries in 3D and enables simulation training in ophthalmology. 

So far, The Flying Eye Hospital, which has been running since 1982, has provided training to practitioners in over 95 countries (adding Zambia and Vietnam to the list in 2023) and now offers live online lectures and surgery broadcasts on its telemedicine platform Cybersight.

6. Greece made beaches more accessible to wheelchair users

Medical technology doesn’t need to look like a shiny gadget coming out of a sci-fi movie in order to have an impact. Sometimes an innovation as simple as a ramp can prove life-changing. This year, Greece took a huge step towards making its beaches more accessible to people with mobility issues.

The country installed solar-powered chairs attached to ramps across 150 of its beaches. The chairs can be adjusted and navigated using a remote control which users can have delivered to their homes or accommodation. 

The innovation comes with an online interactive map that shows which beaches are currently equipped with ramps, and some even offer live CCTV footage that broadcasts the local sea conditions. 

Health tech hopefuls might once have been used to a wealth of job options, especially in the pandemic’s early stages when investors pumped record-breaking dollar amounts into an unprecedented number of ventures.

That glut of opportunities meant workers could bargain harder for better job offers, demanding perks and flexibilities like permanent remote work or expensive fertility benefits. But belt-tightening and market consolidation across health tech companies have tipped the scales back in favor of employers, who are continuing to hire — for a seemingly dwindling number of positions.

It might feel like a downturn, although it’s possible that the industry is simply easing back into its pre-pandemic normal, before the massive infusion of venture dollars and the hype surrounding virtual care, said Brookings Institution research fellow Niam Yaraghi, who studies health care employment.

Carlsbad, California–based Nalu had its round led by new investor Novo Holdings. All existing significant investors — including Gilde Healthcare, MVM Partners, Endeavor Vision, Decheng Capital, Longitude Capital, Advent Life Sciences, Pura Vida and Aperture Venture Partners — participated, too.

Nalu plans to use the proceeds to accelerate commercial growth and expand clinical and health-economic evidence. It also wants to use the funds to continue product development and scale operations.

The company’s FDA-cleared spinal cord stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation technology treats patients with chronic neuropathic pain. It delivers gentle electrical pulses to the nervous system to modulate pain signals before they reach the brain.

Nalu system includes a fully featured, battery-free, miniaturized implantable pulse generator (IPG). An externally worn therapy disc wirelessly powers the IPG and the user can control it through a smartphone-based app. The company says its IPG, despite its smaller size, delivers treatment capabilities similar to larger IPGs. Nalu’s system also has an expected service life of 18 years.

“The Nalu team is excited about meaningfully expanding and improving the treatment options in the peripheral nerve pain space by setting a new standard of care while also offering a disruptive, minimally invasive, solution in the established spinal cord stimulation market,” said Tom West, president and CEO of Nalu. “We continue to invest in building clinical data to expand access for patients who often don’t have other therapeutic options. They are proud that their efforts serve the greater well-being of patients who suffer from chronic pain and benefit those that care for them.”

Barbie should consider expanding her medical and scientific careers into areas where women and other under-represented groups remain a minority, suggests a study published in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.

The ever-popular fashion doll has been everything from a construction worker, teacher, and veterinarian to a judge, scientist, and medical doctor, symbolizing careers that children can aspire to one day hold.

But no previous studies have analyzed Barbie medical professional and scientist dolls to determine the kinds of professions they hold and their professional accuracy.

To fill this knowledge gap, researcher Katherine Klamer set out to identify the kinds of medical and scientific fields that Barbie dolls worked in compared with other career dolls and to determine whether they met clinical and laboratory safety standards.

Her findings are based on analysis of 92 Barbie brand career dolls (53 doctors, 10 scientists, two science educators, 15 nurses, 11 dentists, and one paramedic) and a comparison group of 65 non-Barbie brand career dolls (26 doctors, 27 scientists, seven nurses, two dentists, two engineers and one MRI technician) from July to November 2023.

Doll careers were identified by visually analyzing clothing, accessories, and packaging, and their personal safety accessories were assessed according to Indiana University guidelines.

Barbie brand career dolls were overwhelmingly depicted as adult (98%), female (93%), and white (59%) and no doll was depicted as having a visible disability. Of the comparison dolls, 32% were white and one doll had a prosthetic arm.

Barbie brand medical professional dolls largely treated children (66%), with only three dolls (4%) depicted working with adult patients.

Other than three ophthalmologist dolls, all Barbie brand doctor dolls appeared to have either no specialty or were pediatricians with no apparent subspecialty.

Barbie brand dolls often came with items, such as laboratory coats, microscopes, stethoscopes, and glasses. However, no doll fully met professional safety standards for their respective fields. For example, 98% of the Barbie brand doctor dolls came with stethoscopes, but only 4% had face masks and none had disposable gloves.

More than two-thirds of Barbie brand female medical professional and scientist dolls also wore loose hair, and more than half wore high-heeled shoes, even in settings where this would be discouraged or actively prohibited for safety reasons.

Of the 12 scientist Barbie brand dolls, none met all proper personal protective equipment requirements related to hair and clothing.

While comparison dolls offered a wider range of age and ethnic groups than the Barbie doll group did, the dolls similarly struggled to portray a wide range of medical and scientific subfields and most comparison dolls did not wear proper personal protective equipment.

The author acknowledges that no in-depth statistical analysis was used, and while every effort was made to include as many medical professional and laboratory scientist dolls as possible, some dolls may have been overlooked.

Nevertheless, she says themed dolls help to inspire tomorrow's medical professionals and scientists and she urges all toy companies to create better, more accurate, and professionally diverse medical professional and scientist dolls.

"For young girls' sakes as much as her own, Barbie must keep shattering glass ceilings," she concludes.

"As surgeons in decidedly male-dominated fields, they support Klamer's conclusion that Barbies should represent a more diverse field of medical and scientific professions and that safety comes before fashion," say Sareh Parangi and colleagues in a linked editorial.

They note that female medical students are still disproportionately discouraged from pursuing surgical careers even at prestigious institutions, and say perhaps a childhood of playing with neurosurgeon Barbie or trauma surgeon Barbie could inoculate girls against sexist career assumptions and advice.

"We encourage and would welcome the creation of a surgeon Barbie, and would be happy to advise Mattel on the correct accompanying equipment and PPE to make sure the doll is realistic and fun," they add.

"With an expanded line, Barbies can be inspirational to young girls' views of surgeons and scientists, rather than allowing these careers to be aspirational," they conclude. "What better way than to have Barbie be the first as she has done in the past?"