Harrison - on biofilms

[laid up doc]

I was googling a dr I used to know years ago to see where he was - last I knew he was an infectious disease fellow at UNC.

Lo and behold.... he's involved in this: BioShape Solutions

So I thought of you! Just FYI...

[Harrison]

Interesting find, thanks for sharing…my 2 cents:

- This approach is doomed for failure – in the long term. There’s no way that this delivery mechanism can deliver antibiotic(s) that will counter-act ALL microbes indefinitely. Don’t forget that most chronic infections are polymicrobial and even polykingdom. Microbes are now exchanging resistance genes faster than we are developing remedies, and biofilms are a key part of that clever strategy. They’ve been doing this for eons, perhaps at an accelerated rate in the past 50 years.

- The more hardware inserted into the human body, the higher the risk of occult (chronic) infection. This can occur from the surgery – or result from bleeding gums 10 years down the road. Or many other ways once microbes are unchecked by the weakened immune system. BTW: who DOESN"T have a weakened immune system?

- The best defense from infecting your internal hardware is to take care of your immune system. I’ve focused on nutrition, detoxing and supporting all my major organs and I’ll do that the rest of my life. Why? It’s the BEST DEFENSE. The same is true if you don’t have hardware!

- It seems clear that this company has developed some neat technology, but simply want to sell their IP. There are similar systems in the pipeline commercially from different companies. I have no idea where the 30% stat comes from below that they use.

OrthoClip™ and SpineClip™ | BioShape Solutions
BioShape’s technology and product designs address the challenges associated with implant infection around fracture and spinal fixation devices. The near 30% failure of first course implant infection treatment drives annual costs exceeding $2 B in the U.S. healthcare system.

I've covered all this ground a few years ago to produce my documentary coming out in December 2011. I shared much of this research with the public already (both excerpts from interview and videos) here:

Expert Interviews

Or the "what is a biofilm?" video I created a while back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpI4WCM_9pM

Hope this helps.

[MeggieLynn]

I would think the technology should work for a short-term duration to some extant - For instance if there are any microbes on the implant introduced during the actual surgical procedure and if your immune system is healthy enough to help fight it off. Say 5 years down the road, you're feeling a little run down and you pick up a bug some where, it gets translocated from the gut or your respiratory tract, I doubt it could be very effective. It is really important to eat well and try to stay well after these procedures.

Harrison - Such a privilege to interview all these brilliant researchers! It's really very, very exciting for you to bring all this together to help the public understand what it is we're facing with infectious disease, chronic disease, and the potential ramifications with implant devices. Can't wait to see the film. Hope you win an Oscar!