The “High Steaks” article (The Economist, April 13th) citing hardening of the arteries, intestinal bacteria and TMAO is worthy of praise and especially for Dr. Hazen who has tackled vexing microbiome variables. As someone who suffered two years with an undiagnosed hospital-acquired infection and has since performed meticulous research on bacterial biofilms, I noted the author’s syllogism that Hazen’s study reminds us of medical science’s failure to account for our “bacterial guests.” The reasons for these failures are now obvious in this author’s view.

The microbial disease paradigm shifted decades ago in all the life sciences, with the unfortunate exception of medicine. All other life sciences have embraced a unifying knowledge of microscopic biofilm communities existing within nature, man and beast. Despite intellectual schisms between fields of medical specialties, these truisms have fostered medical innovations like molecular diagnostics and vastly improved treatments in woundcare, dental, orthopedic, ENT and other specialty areas.

The standard of care in American medicine to detect infections relies upon culture-based methods which were invented 160 years ago. These methods “see” only up to six percent of all microbes that can potentially infect the human host. Since the 1980s, doctors and medical researchers published tens of thousands of studies (especially on the dental-systemic connection) which clearly identify unique dental pathogens that colonize biofilms in the heart, circulatory system and of course the gut.

We patients, doctors and policymakers can help reduce human suffering, foster innovation, boost the economy and make the world a better place. But we must embrace “modern” molecular diagnostics and biofilm therapeutics. These technologies have been leveraged for decades and formed the bedrock of innovation that has quite literally germinated the microbiome project.

Richard Longland
Founder, Arthroplasty Patient Foundation

Hospitals Make More Profit When Surgery’s Go Awry, Study Finds
By Jennifer Broderick

A new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday said that hospitals often profit more when a surgery goes wrong. The study found that a surgical complication increases a procedure’s average contribution margin by 330 percent for the privately insured and 190 percent for Medicare patients…

A patient will typically end up spending 14 days in the hospital instead of three. If you have private insurance, the hospital makes $39,017 more in profit-$55,953 versus $16,936. If you have Medicare, the hospital makes just$1,749 more…

The study looked at data of more than 34,000 surgical discharges, and researchers focused on 10 severe and potentially preventable complications such as surgical site infections, deep vein thrombosis, and sepsis. A total of 1,820 patients had such complications…

Source: http://www.counselheal.com/articles/4954/20130416/hospitals-make-more-profit-when-surgerys-go-awry-study-finds.htm

- In my film, we discuss “tyranny of the minority” because many medical biofilms are controlled or “anchored” by a small number of bugs (often bacteria and fungi species). When you knock these out, the biofilm infection clears more quickly with the proper therapeutics. See more on this topic in my interview with Dr. Randy Wolcott, woundcare expert and biofilm therapeutics innovator.

- In China, app. 100,000 paid censors strictly control the ebb & flow of incendiary topics on the internet. In a country of 1.4 billion people (600M users) with more Netizens born every day, this is no small feat. This governmental control has many facets, some of which exhibits behavior that can be likened to a biological organism. The article in the Economist (A Giant Cage) calls one of these instruments of control “adaptive authoritarianism. “

- We the people who like the notion of smaller, efficient government were recently horrified to hear about Obama’s latest authoritarian overreach – a program to create tens of thousands of new jobs for “healthcare navigators.” The number of 100,000 new jobs was rumored (there’s that big magic number again). These new jobs are proposed to help patients navigate the new byzantine healthcare system that is evolving in complexity every day. It is noteworthy that already, CPAs are forced to check a compliance box on their clients’ tax forms to confirm or deny their tax client’s healthcare insurance. This quick check enables to IRS to debit monies more expediently from the client’s bank account.

Biofilms are the predominant life form on this planet. The pathogenic ones that cause chronic disease in humans are (usually) controlled by a small number of anchor species. In China, the adaptive tyranny of the Chinese government controls the censors who keep democracy and protests at bay. In America, the unabashed overreach of the executive office reaches into the lives and wallets of all Americans.

Is this too much of a cerebral stretch? I don’t think so. Microbes arrived here 3.2 billion years ago, but we appear to have some rather striking similarities in adaptive behaviors. Maybe the fact that there are 100,000,000,000,000 of these ancient lifeforms inside of us explains the controlling aspects of these behaviors?

- Does anyone have a new model laptop that they can donate? Something reliable and with a fast CPU (I present short videos)?
- Or can anyone make a tax-deductible donation my non-profit? I am sad to admit that I’ve received no donations in the last nine months and have enough for most operational expenses, but not enough for a new laptop and travel.

My presentations on the link between biofilms and chronic health conditions has been well-received, as has the film. So I need to keep going! I sent a copy to Dr. Oz last week, I hope he gets a chance to watch; even he has mentioned the risks of biofilms several times in his programs.

Any help is appreciated. See this link for donations: http://www.arthropatient.org/about/donate/

Lastly, I’ll be presenting in Miami at the Science Museum Planetarium May 27th in the evening. More later.

Students presented their research via posterboards, we showed short films that synergized with our presenters and then invited questions from the audience. It was three hours in total and was videotaped for the future DVD, which will be available in late March.

Some of the questions and comments from the audience were excellent, if not challenging. For example, some questions suggested difficult-to-treat biofilm infections like prostatitis and Lyme disease; others on linkages to atherosclerosis. On a related note, I am reading a few books on the use of essential oils and herbs to effectively treat these difficult infections.

A reminder that the film Why Am I Still Sick is dedicated to the late, great Dr. Bill Costerton, credited with being the “father of biofilms.” His contributions to starting biofilm science(s) is hard to overstate, since he is known around the world as a great thinker, researcher, innovator, teacher and friend to many. I showed a short film of him at the beginning of the night, and my friend and producer Kat Tatlock took this almost surreal picture showing the presenters in the foreground.

Their silhouettes provide a stark contrast to the past, present and future of biofilm innovations. Alas, it really does show Bill as he was: larger than life, and full of life!

BIOFILM INNOVATIONS 2013
Boston, Mass.January 30th, 2013

During the last thirty years, medical researchers have identified startling new facts of how bacteria survive in nature, man and beast. We humans depend on biofilm communities, the predominant microbiological life form, but they sometimes work against us by contributing to chronic disease. So how do we keep these life forms in check when they cause chronic wounds? Periodontal infections? Hospital infections? And myriad other conditions that cost our country more than $100 billion annually?

We’ll delve into these medical problems with our panel members, watch short films and invite your questions as we focus on one of America’s biggest healthcare challenges.

5:30 to 6:30 PM: Welcome reception: finger foods, refreshments and networking among your hosts, faculty and panel members. Also view students’ research and poster boards on biofilm topics.
6:30 to 7:00 PM: Introduction and opening remarks:  Richard Longland and Tom Webster, PhD
7:00 to 8:00 PM: Film shorts: three biofilm-centric videos in dental, orthopedic and wound areas. Each film is followed by commentaries from panel members.
8:00 to 8:30 PM: Panel discussion: our experts bridge the gap across medical specialties and discuss a unifying method of diagnosing and treating biofilm diseases.
8:30 to 9:00 PM: Question and answer: Here’s your chance to ask our panel members your tough questions on biofilms, covering all areas of human health.
9:00 to 9:30 PM:Closing remarks: Tom Webster, PhD.
9:30 to 10:00 PM:Last chance to network with the panel members and students!

OUR PANEL

Garth D. Ehrlich, Ph.D., Center for Genomic Sciences, Scientific, Governmental and Regional Affairs Liaison Officer Allegheny-Singer Research Institute, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, Professor and Vice Chairman, Dept. of Human Genetics, Professor of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Drexel University College of Medicine

Dr. Garth Ehrlich brought the biofilm paradigm to chronic infectious diseases of the airway more than 15 years ago and has since published half a dozen papers in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) detailing his findings. He has played a key role in the development of numerous molecular diagnostic technologies which permit the identification and characterization of biofilm bacteria that cannot be observed by standard culture-based methods, and has applied these broadly across multiple clinical specialties demonstrating their universal functionality and usefulness.

Daniel L Sindelar, DMD, President, American Academy for Oral Systemic Health
Dr. Dan Sindelar attended business school at St. Louis University and earned a dental degree at Washington University School of Dental Medicine. He has a private dental practice in St. Louis. As president of the American Academy for Oral Systemic Health, he is involved in expanding the awareness of the link between oral health and overall health to healthcare professionals and the public. Dr. Sindelar founded the Midwest Center for Oral Systemic Health to advance the research of biofilm and its elimination and has written and lectured on the subject. As the creator of the Four Centers of Health approach to oral care and practice management, he is involved with educating healthcare professionals on how to incorporate oral care systems into a multi-disciplinary approach to disease prevention. He has written feature articles for major publications, appeared on television and radio and authored a book discussing the linkages between oral health and overall health.

Randy Wolcott, MD, Southwest Regional Woundcare Center
Dr. Randy Wolcott has been practicing medicine for almost thirty years and treating “unhealable” wounds the last twelve. His research at the Wound Care Center’s Research and Testing Laboratories and his collaboration with biofilm experts in wound care have earned him international recognition. His work is published in textbooks as well as prominent journals like the Journal of the American Medical Association and Journal of Wound Care.  His clinic treats not only surface wounds, but the underlying causes that include poor circulation and insidious bacterial biofilms that prevent healing. By using “two stage” molecular diagnostics, they assess what bacteria are present in the wound bed. More importantly, their diagnostic data reveals the presence of biofilm and a “list” of both bacterial and non-bacterial microbes which create highly polymicrobial biofilm communities that form the foundation of chronic infections.

Event Hosts

Thomas Webster, Ph.D. Chair and Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University
Dr. Webster has been conducting research on nanomaterials for various medical applications, including reducing bacteria function and biofilm formation. He has graduated/supervised over 109 visiting faculty, clinical fellows, post-doctoral students, and theses completing B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. students. His lab group has generated over 9 textbooks, 48 book chapters, 306 invited presentations, at least 403 peer-reviewed literature articles, at least 567 conference presentations, and 32 provisional or full patents.  Some of these patents led to the formation of 9 companies. His research on nanomedicine has received attention in the popular press including MSNBC News, NBC Nightly News, PBS DragonFly TV, and ABC Nightly News. His work has been on display at the London and Boston Science Museums. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Nanomedicine, serves on the editorial board of 15 additional journals, has helped to organize 22 conferences emphasizing nanotechnology in medicine, and has organized over 53 symposia at numerous conferences emphasizing biological interactions with nanomaterials.

Richard Longland, Founder, The Arthroplasty Patient Foundation, Film Producer on Biofilms and Chronic Disease
Richard Longland is the Founder of the Arthroplasty Patient Foundation, a non-profit organization and ADRSupport, a global community to support spine patients with advanced degenerative diseases. Richard has obsessively researched chronic bacterial infections from a unique perspective: as a patient with undiagnosed and untreated pneumonia, patient advocate and now a film producer for the documentary titled, Why Am I Still Sick? The film focuses on bacterial biofilms and their role in chronic diseases that sicken and kill millions of Americans.

Please register for free at this site:

http://biofilms.eventbrite.com/

Let us know what you think!

And speaking of sharing with the world, the Chinese translation(s) will be complete soon. And today, we signed an international distribution agreement to show the film in all countries outside the United States! In case you are wondering who the people are in the film, here are the interviewees featured from the biofilm expert side:

John G. Thomas, MS, Ph.D.
International Educator and Global Microbiologist
Professor, WVU Dept. of Pathology, School of Medicine
Clinical Professor, WVU Dept. of Periodontics, School of Dentistry
Director(s) WVU High Complexity Laboratory & Biofilm Research Laboratory for Translational Studies

J. William Costerton, Ph.D.
“The Father of Biofilms”
Director, Microbial Research, Department of Orthopedics, Allegheny General Hospital
Director, Biofilm Research, Center for Genomic Sciences, Allegheny-Singer Research Institute

Dr. Randy Wolcott, MD CWS
Medical Director, Southwest Regional Woundcare Center
Founder, Pathogenius Laboratories

Timothy K. Lu, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Synthetic Biology Group
MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
MIT Synthetic Biology Center

Wilmore C. Webley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Vincent A. Fischetti, Ph.D.
Professor and Chairman
Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology
The Rockefeller University

Michael Wilson, GRSC, MSc, PhD, DSc, FRCPath
Professor of Microbiology
Eastman Dental Institute, University College London

David C. Kennedy, DDS
Past President
International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology

Doyle Williams, DDS
Chief Dental Officer
Delta Dental of Massachusetts

Eva Sapi Ph.D.
Associate Professor and University Research Scholar
Director of Lyme Disease Program
Department of Biology and Environmental Science
University of New Haven

Rodney M. Donlan, Ph.D.
Research Microbiologist
Biofilm Laboratory
Clinical and Environmental Microbiology Branch
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

L. Clifford McDonald, MD
Senior Advisor for Science and Integrity
Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Shirley Gutkowski, RDH, BSDH, FACE
Oral Healthcare Expert
Founding Member American Academy of Oral Systemic Health

Trisha E. O’Hehir, RDH, MS
Editorial Director of Hygienetown Magazine
President of Perio Reports Press

Nicolas G. Loebel, Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer & President
Ondine Biomedical Inc.

Kris Koss, D.V.M.
Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

Carlene Patterson, D.V.M.
Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
Sheep Meadow Animal Hospital

Thomas Webster, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Division of Engineering and Orthopedic Surgery
Director of Nanomedicine Laboratory
Brown University

Carolyn Cross
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Ondine Biomedical, Inc.

Steve Holland, MD
Chief, Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases
Chief, Immunopathogenesis Section
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Garth D. Ehrlich, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Center for Genomic Sciences
Allegheny-Singer Research Institute

John P. Kennedy, R. Ph., Ph.D
Assistant Professor
South University, School of Pharmacy
Savannah, Georgia

Dr. “Lon” H. Jones, D.O
Retired Osteopathic Family Physician
Founder, Xlear, Inc.
Author, No More Allergies, Asthma or Sinus Infections

Tom Masterson
Operations Manager
Ondine Biomedical, Inc.

Scot E Dowd, Ph.D.
Molecular Microbiologist & Microbial Geneticist
Molecular Research LP

There’s a huge disconnect in healthcare in regard to its approach to bacterial load and especially to the presence of biofilms. Biofilm is the biggest enemy we have in healthcare, and it’s being overlooked because of an older approach to the microbial disease paradigm. There are so many ways we can improve lives and reduce healthcare costs by looking through a new lens at the effects of biofilms on human health.

We live in a world where we have an ever-expanding number of resistant bacteria, and we now find out that they also protect themselves within a biofilm community. The bacteria are finding ways to combat everything we throw at them. An obvious example of this is the fact that there are five oral bacteria that come only from the mouth that have their DNA show up in the plaque buildup around the heart, which is one of the major causes of heart disease.

I especially commend Mr. Longland for his work on “Why Am I Still Sick?” the documentary, which is a great exposé on the effects of biofilm on our health.

Daniel L. Sindelar, DMD
President, American Academy for Oral Systemic Health
Author, Refresh Life

While Matt Ridley’s ponderings of evolutionary biology are interesting, he fails to include the pack of elephants in the room (Dirtier Lives May Be Just the Medicine We Need). The microbial disease paradigm shifted years ago in all the life sciences, with the unfortunate exception of medicine. All other life sciences have embraced a unifying knowledge of microscopic communities existing within nature, man and beast. Despite intellectual schisms between fields, these truisms have fostered medical innovations including molecular diagnostics and vastly improved treatments in woundcare, dental, orthopedic, ENT and other specialty areas.

While mankind has conquered many acute diseases employing Koch’s postulates of “one bug, one disease” doctrine, microbes of infinite variety thrived and evolved in biofilm communities. Decades later, we now face the consequences of our stubbornness to accept biology 101.

All kinds of tiny lives co-exist within slimy, protected microbial communities: the “good” commensal bugs and “bad” pathogenic bugs that cause junky, chronic diseases. This is one reason why our human DNA is so “messy” (Junk DNA’ Debunked, Studies Find Human Genomic Makeup Is Vastly Messier; New Disease Links Seen).

Indeed, certain forms of life do keep pathogenic bugs in check that cause disease; commensal bacteria, certain parasites and never-ending numbers of bacteriophages to name a few. But this is an incomplete and oblique observation of what is confounding doctors, ailing patients and costing Medicare billions of dollars.

We patients, doctors and policymakers can help reduce human suffering, foster innovation, boost the economy and make the world a better place. But we must embrace the truisms of biology 101: microbes live together in protected communities. The sciences born from that knowledge have been available for decades.

Richard J. Longland

Producer, Why Am I Still Sick?

Founder, The Arthroplasty Patient Foundation