Archives: 9/2006

Art

2006 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners

by Gene Ostrovsky on Sep 29, 2006 • 9:22 am

765679nsf 2006 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners

Body Code by Drew Berry (The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne, Australia); Jeremy Pickett-Heaps (University of Melbourne); François Tétaz

Fourteen images and multimedia presentations have been given this year’s Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge awards, a competition organized by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science.
From the announcement:

Currently in its fourth year, the contest recognizes outstanding achievement in the use of visual media to promote understanding of research results and scientific phenomena. The judges’ criteria for evaluating the entries included visual impact, innovation and accuracy, among others.
Winning entries communicate information about complex mathematical concepts, the intricacies of the human body, air-flight patterns, the latest scientific imaging technologies to analyze Leonardo da Vinci’s art, and more.

Take a look and enjoy: 2006 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners
The announcement…
Here’s a link to a 9-minute animation from above, that is described as “journey through the molecular universe of the body’s cells, tissues, and organs” (.mov, 36 MB; QuickTime 7 required)…
Also, check out Cardiac Bioelectricity and Arrhythmias interactive program (main page) from Cornell that received an honorable mention…

Telemedicine

Tuning In to Medical Device Regulation

by Nicholas Genes on Sep 29, 2006 • 2:50 am

Quick — name the government agency that is making sweeping pronouncements affecting the medical device industry, and shape (meddling?) in the technology that reaches patients?
We’ll forgive you if you guessed “the FDA” which is frequently the right answer on Medgadget.com. But in fact we’re talking about the FCC, which has recently made some key decisions regarding medical device communications and telemetry:

The FCC yesterday approved a notice of proposed rulemaking to create a MedRadio band from 401-406 MHz that would allocate an additional 2 MHz of spectrum for radio transmissions from implanted and body-worn medical devices.
Currently, the 402-405 MHz Medical Implant Communications Services (MICS) band is used for radio transmissions from implanted medical devices. Under the MedRadio proposal, the rules for this band would remain, including requirements that implanted devices be frequency agile.

We did some searching and learned “frequency agile” means the devices change their broadcasting and reception characteristics as conditions warrant, to better ensure transmission. We think. It sounds cool, but learning the ins and outs of another regulatory government agency leaves us a little wary…
More from the FCC…
Flashback: The FCC wants to hear from medical device engineers….

Nanomedicine

QuIET: A Single Molecule Transistor

by Gene Ostrovsky on Sep 29, 2006 • 2:40 am

quiet molecule small QuIET: A Single Molecule TransistorA group of physicists from the University of Arizona have developed a so-called Quantum Interference Effect Transistor (QuIET), a single molecule that functions through quantum mechanical effects as a working transistor. The discovery might have major implications for the future of nanomedicine:

The simplest molecule they propose for a transistor is benzene, a ring-like molecule. They propose attaching two electrical leads to the ring to create two alternate paths through which current can flow.
They also propose attaching a third lead opposite one of the electrical leads. Other researchers have succeeded in attaching two contacts to a molecule this small, but attaching the third is the trick — and the point. The third lead is what turns the device on and off, the “valve.”
“In classical physics, the two currents through each arm of the ring would just add,” Stafford said. “But quantum mechanically, the two electron waves interfere with each other destructively, so no current gets through. That’s the ‘off’ state of the transistor.”
The transistor is turned on by changing the phase of the waves so they don’t destructively interfere with each other, opening up addiitonal paths through the third lead.
“It took a while to go from the idea of how this could work to developing realistic calculations of this kind of system,” Stafford said. “We were able to do the simplest kind of quantum chemical calculations which neglect interactions between different electrons within a few weeks. But it took some time to put in all the electron interactions that demonstrate this really is a very robust device.”
According to the Semiconductor Research Corp. it typically takes a dozen years for a new idea to go from initial scientific publication to commercial technological application, Stafford noted.
“That means if the computer industry is to continue its recent pace in making smaller-scale computers, we should have had this idea yesterday, ” Cardamone said…
Nanocomputers could have a major impact in medicine, Cardamone said. “These machines could operate in solution, in vivo. There already are clinical trials of nanoparticles to deliver medicinal drugs. Imagine how much more powerful those little nanoparticles or nanorobots would be if they could count, or do simple computation. With our transistors packed at maximum density, you could put a microprocessor as powerful as the top-of-the-line workstation on the back of an E. coli.”
“Have you seen the movie, Fantastic Voyage?” Stafford asked.

Link at the University of Arizona …
Explanation for peasants at Tucson Citizen…

Military Medicine

We Hear That…

by Gene Ostrovsky on Sep 29, 2006 • 1:58 am

… the University of Nevada School of Medicine in partnershp with Rocky Research, a Nevada based company, is planning to spend a $2.1 million grant from the Department of Defense to develop thermal battery technology to cool blood for storage, and to warm it for transfusions in battlefield conditions where electrical power is unavailable.
Link…

in the news...

Connecting Biology and Electronics

by Gene Ostrovsky on Sep 29, 2006 • 1:56 am

765435camb1 Connecting Biology and ElectronicsIf you are looking for a purely medical story, this post ain’t for you. However the stuff below, an intersection of multiple scientific disciplines, is quite fascinating.
American Chemical Society’s Chemical & Engineering News features an article about Mountain View, CA company Cambrios Technologies. The company was co-founded by MIT’s Dr. Angela M. Belcher, a John Chipman associate professor of materials science and engineering and bioengineering. The company’s main line of business is finding ways to exploit all kinds of microbes for applications ranging from developing novel ways to make semiconductors, to engineering nanomaterials with custom functional properties.
Sounds far fetched? Well, this is from the article:

Belcher had observed how abalone and other sea creatures use proteins to create highly ordered inorganic films based on calcium and silicon. Using a screening process called bacteriophage display, she turned up proteins that would do the same with inorganic materials that have industrial applications.
The idea was good enough to attract $1.8 million in venture capital funding in late 2003.

Company explains the technology:

Dr. Belcher used the process called “bacteriophage display”, typically used in biological and drug discovery research to find tools for specifically studying molecules of interest, to develop therapeutic agents, or to develop elements of clinical diagnostic tests. Her laboratory has shown the applicability of this approach to a very broad range of materials including semiconductors, magnetic materials, metals, metal oxides, ceramics and other compounds.

(more…)

Net News

New Podcast: BMJ Talk Medicine

by Gene Ostrovsky on Sep 29, 2006 • 1:37 am

Clinical Cases and Images is reporting on the launch of BMJ Talk Medicine, “a pilot magazine programme with the latest medical news, opinion, and issues that matter to doctors.”
Podcast link…
Clinical Cases post, featuring links to all the major medical journals’ podcasts…

Genetics

Connectivity Map, a Novel Genomic Tool

by Gene Ostrovsky on Sep 29, 2006 • 1:11 am

876567bro Connectivity Map, a Novel Genomic ToolIn three papers being published in Science and Cancer Cell, scientists from MIT and Harvard make a case for the Connectivity Map, a computational tool that connects gene expression signatures via expressed proteins to chemical compounds that might influence these proteins.

The three papers demonstrate the map’s ability to accurately predict the molecular actions of novel therapeutic compounds and to suggest ways that existing drugs can be newly applied to treat diseases such as cancer.
“The Connectivity Map works much like a Google search to discover connections among drugs and diseases,” said senior author Todd Golub, the director of the Broad Institute’s Cancer program, an investigator at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. “These connections are notoriously difficult to find in part because drugs and diseases are characterized in completely different scientific languages.”
To build the Connectivity Map, the scientists described the effects of different drugs and diseases using the common language of “genomic signatures” — the full complement of genes that are turned on and off by a particular drug or disease. The scientists compiled the genomic signatures of more than 160 drugs and other biologically active compounds, forming a database of biological “barcodes” that denote cells’ responses to the different drugs. Then, they developed a computer program that matches the barcodes based on the patterns shared among them. Together, these features enable the first-generation Connectivity Map to directly compare the biological effects of different drugs with each other, and also with those seen in diseases.
Like other scientific databases, the Connectivity Map can be queried by nearly any researcher with a computer, where the search “word” is the genomic signature of a particular human disease, drug or other biological response of interest, and the search results consist of a rank-ordered list of reference compounds that have matching signatures. These comparisons can yield new scientific insights, particularly when a connection exists between a poorly understood drug (or disease) and a drug whose effects have been extensively characterized — the case for many of the compounds currently referenced in the database. This potential is underscored by two cases where the Connectivity Map has already been used: one, to discover the mechanisms underlying a novel drug candidate for prostate cancer and another, to reveal that a drug currently used to treat one disease may be useful in another.
“This is a powerful discovery tool for the scientific community,” said Justin Lamb, the lead author of the Science paper and a senior scientist in the Broad Institute’s Cancer program. “By analyzing just a small fraction of available drugs, we have already confirmed several biological connections between drugs and human disease, and made entirely new ones, too.”
One of the surprising results to emerge from the use of the Connectivity Map involves gedunin, a plant derivative that, despite a long history of medicinal use, is not well understood molecularly. Described in Cancer Cell by first author Haley Hieronymus, a researcher at the Broad and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and her colleauges, gedunin was first identified in a high-throughput chemical screen for molecules that disrupt hormone signals in prostate cancer cells. Then the researchers used the Connectivity Map to help uncover its molecular action, which as confirmed through additional work, disrupts a key quality control mechanism in the cell, mediated by the heat shock 90 protein (HSP90).

Link…
Broad Institute press release; Cell Press press release; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute press release…

Informatics

Mobile Clinical Assistant Platform from Intel

by Gene Ostrovsky on Sep 29, 2006 • 12:59 am

5434544intel Mobile Clinical Assistant Platform from IntelHere’s some interesting news from Intel. At its Developers Forum in San Francisco, the company has revealed a prototype information management system for busy clinicians:

The mobile clinical assistant platform is the outcome of hospital workflow studies, nurse and physician interviews, and ethnographic research among nurses at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, Calif. It focuses on the healthcare community’s needs to enhance patient safety, reduce medication-dispensing errors and ease staff workloads.
Products based on the mobile clinical assistant platform could offer a variety of features and technologies including: an exterior casing that can be wiped clean with disinfectant; radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for rapid user and patient identification; and barcode scanning to help reduce medication-dispensing errors. The platform could also include a digital camera to enhance patient charting and progress notes; Bluetooth technology to record patient vital signs; wireless connectivity to access electronic medical records systems. In addition to having a lightweight design, ergonomic features such as an integrated handle, and a spill- and drop-tolerant enclosure, the mobile platform could provide shift-long use made possible by to swapping batteries while in a docking station.
“To improve the quality of healthcare and staff workflow, the most critical task is to deliver the right information to the point of decision — which is most often at the patient’s bedside,” Burns said. [Louis Burns is vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Health Group --ed.] “This platform was designed in collaboration with the very people who must have access to up-to-the-minute patient care records and be able to document a patient’s condition in real time.”

We’ll have to wait and see. One thing is clear: it will be Intel inside.
Press release…
Intel in Healthcare page…
(hat tip: Geekzone; Engadget)

Informatics

MedAppz iSuite for Health Information Management

by Tim Odell on Sep 29, 2006 • 12:00 am

MedAppz MedAppz iSuite for Health Information Management
MedAppz specializes in integrated health-care information management. Their application suite allows for patient appointment scheduling and EHR management, all without papers or dedicated hardware….

Available individually or as a package, the MedAppz iSuite includes software to convert paper documents to electronic files, manage appointment scheduling, patient charting and diagnosis, prescriptions, billing and claims.
With iConsult, our unique evidence-based support for patient evaluation, diagnosis and management built right into the MedAppz iSuite, you can make better-informed diagnosis and educate your patient on the spot.
With our handwriting recognition tools, you can jot patient notes right on the screen of your tablet PC and MedAppz iSuite will transcribe your handwriting and store it as a permanent part of your patient record.
And because the MedAppz iSuite is provided as a service and accessed through our servers, you have all the functionality of a standalone application, without all the costs! The advantages to you are many: freedom from server maintenance, upgrades and back-ups, freedom from the cost associated with licensing fees and maintaining a huge IT staff.

Cool product, unfortunately buzz-wordy sounding name. Sure it sounds cool to the new college grad marketing department, but replacing Ss with Zs and preceding everything with “i” is simultaneously played out and irritating to anyone over 25.
Seems like a clever business model to have low entry-level costs. Institutional budget-minders are notoriously reluctant to spend large chunks of money all at once. Given how hard it is to convert one database to another, if you can get a facility to switch to this system for data management, you’ve got them hooked for life. Smart move, MedAppz.
Our picture really doesn’t do the system justice, so click through to the product page where they have screen shots of all the different modules.

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