The Wire with Joel

This week on the Tuesday Wire, Dr Allan Blackman joined Casper and Emily in studio to talk science news for our Dear Science segment. Casper spoke to Dr Shane Reti from the National party, as he does each week, this time discussing immigration policy. He also had a chat with the President of the Auckland branch of the Professional Firefighters Union about the industrial action they’re taking

Emily spoke with the Chief Executive of the New Zealand Orthopaedics Association Andrea Pettett to discuss the contentious ethics of private medical scanning. She also spoke to the Head of Nutrition at Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Regina Wypych about a recent study revealing an alarming increase in iron deficiency symptoms

The National Party has been claiming that the workforce shortages New Zealand is seeing is a result of mismanaged immigration policy.

This week, to address the workforce shortages, the government announced that skilled migrant workers will be able to be payed under the median wage, as well as a doubling of the working holiday scheme cap and an extension to currently held working holiday visas.

For Casper's weekly catchup with National MP Dr. Shane Reti, he asked him to explain what he thinks needs to happen regarding immigration policy, as well as how he views this latest announcement.

Allegations of unethical practices in private radiology are heightening tensions within the clinical community and prompting wider concerns about money being prioritised over patient care.

Doctors are going to the High Court to block surgeons from owning medical imaging services, arguing the practice is dangerous because they have a financial incentive to refer more patients. 

Emily spoke with Chief Executive of the New Zealand Orthopaedics Association Andrea Pettett about the claims and how the High Court ruling might affect patients and clinicians. 

The MBIE has granted $1.1 million in funding to University of Canterbury researchers to develop a hyper-realistic virtual therapy avatar to help high-functioning people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to better recognise emotions and reduce ‘social blindness’.

University of Canterbury Engineering researchers Distinguished Professor Geoff Chase and Lecturer Dr Lui Holder-Pearson have been awarded $1.1 million in funding through a partnership between MBIE and Soul Machines, an AI company in Auckland.

Their project, titled ‘AI-driven Two-Way, Feedback Controlled Emotional Recognition Training for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder’ combines three key elements:                

Hyper-realistic and responsive avatars from Soul Machines Digital DNA Studio able to show detailed emotions           

Computer vision to read subject emotional state, reaction rates in integrated tasks, stress levels (via heartrate, etc.), focus, and attention, incorporating critical subject feedback

Programmed standard, accepted therapeutic methods (behind the avatar) to respond to measured subject behaviour/actions

These technologies enable a virtualised true two-way therapeutic session, where current emotion recognition software has no subject feedback (is only one-way).

Trishil spoke to Professor Geoff Chase about his research and it’s potential.