Medgadget

AirStrip PATIENT MONITORING for iOS Now Available in U.S.

Gene Ostrovsky — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:56:45 +0000

GE and AirStrip Technologies have announced that AirStrip PATIENT MONITORING, a tool that streams live patient data to iPads and iPhones of critical care physicians, is now available in the U.S.

The FDA approved system joins AirStrip CARDIOLOGY, the offering that transmits ECG data to iOS devices, as an available option for purchase through GE Healthcare.

Bluetooth Low Energy Demonstrated for Portable Medical Devices

Gene Ostrovsky — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:15:06 +0000

The Bluetooth low energy (BLE) standard promises long term connectivity of digital devices minus the short battery life that traditional Bluetooth has often been responsible for in the past. Health monitoring technologies may turn out to be the biggest beneficiaries of BLE, since size and power consumption are usually critical when devices have to be worn by patients over extended periods of time.

Cambridge Consultants, a firm that helps other companies design new products, has developed an example iPhone app for interfacing a blood pressure monitor with the smartphone using BLE. The app currently talks to a dummy device that’s really just a Bluetooth radio, but the company says the feature can be integrated into pretty much any future BP monitors.

Tiny Device Propels Itself Through the Bloodstream

Stanley Darma — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:31:44 +0000

Engineers at Stanford University have demonstrated a tiny self-propelled device that can travel through the bloodstream in a controlled manner, potentially leading to a diagnostic and drug delivery revolution. The new device was presented by electrical engineer Ada Poon at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, California.

A common problem faced by implantable medical devices is a power source. A common workaround is to supply power wirelessly using inductive currents, avoiding the need for a bulky battery. Conventionally, high frequency radio waves are believed to conduct poorly in human tissue, so low frequency waves are used instead. However, these low frequencies require much larger coils, and therefore a bulkier device. Poon discovered, using the power of math, that high-frequency radio waves conduct in human tissue much more effectively than previously thought, and thus was able to engineer a much smaller device that is able to deliver equivalent power. Now Poon is deciding the best way to propel this remarkable device through the bloodstream. One concept involves using alternating electrical currents to make the device wobble back and forth to propel itself almost like a microscopic kayak. There are many possible applications for this new device concept, including delivering drugs and as a diagnostic tool.

Hitachi’s New Compact Ultrasound System, the F37

Gene Ostrovsky — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:19:44 +0000

Hitachi Aloka Medical is releasing a new ultrasound system designed for diagnostic use in primary care environments.

It sounds like the company intends to market the model F37 to hospitals and clinics in the developing world.

Boston Sci’s Drug-Eluting Coronary Stents FDA Cleared for Heart Attack Victims

Gene Ostrovsky — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:58:31 +0000

Boston Scientific just received FDA approval to market the ION Platinum Chromium and TAXUS Liberté paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent systems for patients suffering from acute myocardial infarctions.

According to the company, these are the only drug-eluting stents approved by the FDA to have an explicit indication for use in heart attack victims.

Chris Toumazou: Analog Computers to Improve Interaction Between Body and Medical Devices

Gene Ostrovsky — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:31:41 +0000

Chris Toumazou is an electrical engineer who has unexpectedly found himself helping to design medical devices. In the process he has realized that because biology is analog, our current digital approach to medical technology can be improved when interfacing devices with the human body. Here’s his talk from last year’s TEDMED where he explores this further:

World of Warcraft Boosts Spatial Ability and Focus in Older Adults

Gavin Corley — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:16 +0000

Researchers from North Carolina State University’s Gains Through Gaming laboratory have found that playing the massive multiplayer online video game World of Warcraft (WoW) appeared to boost cognitive functioning in older adults. The researchers hypothesized that playing a cognitively complex game such as WoW, which requires multitasking and extensive use of a number of cognitive skills such as map reading, planning and tracking of multiple status indicators, could boost the cognitive performance of the elderly.

The study, which is available on-line as a corrected proof at the journal Computers in Human Behaviour, initially examined the spatial ability, memory and focus of adults aged 60 to 77, to set a baseline. An intervention group of 20 adults then played WoW for roughly 14 hours over the course of two weeks, while a control group of 19 adults played no WoW over the two weeks. At the end of the 2 weeks both groups were re-tested for cognitive functioning. Ultimately the researchers observed a greater cognitive improvement in intervention group when compared with controls.

Philips Respironics Announces the SimplyGo Oxygen Concentrator

Gene Ostrovsky — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:06:10 +0000

Having to live with an external oxygen source is no fun for people with COPD. The patients who require supplemental oxygen often are tethered to a heavy gas tank or an almost as heavy oxygen concentrator. There are portable concentrators on the market, but the lightweight ones designed for travel usually only offer pulsed oxygen delivery, effectively leaving a lot of people to use heavier devices that have to be wheeled around.

Philips Respironics has developed the SimplyGo highly portable oxygen concentrator that weighs ten pounds (4.5 Kg) and offers both pulsed and continuous oxygen delivery. This means that almost anyone requiring external oxygen can go fishing with the nephew instead of being stuck at home. Just don’t get the oxygen delivery tube tangled around the fishing line.

BrailleTouch: Touchscreen Typing App for the Visually Impaired

Stanley Darma — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:08:54 +0000

Touchscreens lack buttons, making it very difficult for blind or visually impaired people to use smartphones and tablets. That is what Mario Romero, postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Tech, probably thought when he came up with the idea to develop BrailleTouch, an app that allows folks to type on the touchscreen without seeing it at all.

The application works by putting the 6 dots of a braille character on the screen in landscape mode with 3 on each side. Three fingers from each hand then press in the appropriate patterns to create the desired characters. There is audio feedback to confirm the correct input and the screen flips regardless of orientation so a user does not have to worry about the phone being “upside-down.”

Elekta Clarity with Autoscan for Robotic Ultrasound Visualization During Radiation Therapy

Gene Ostrovsky — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:54:01 +0000

Elekta, a Swedish firm, received FDA 510(k) clearance for its Clarity soft tissue visualization system with the Autoscan option.

The ultrasound system can now be used to automatically scan the prostate and surrounding anatomy from a control room during radiation therapy, providing live precision targeting without the unnecessary exposure of patients and clinicians to ionizing radiation.