Archives: 8/2007

The iPod of Glucose Monitors and Insulin Pumps

by Gene Ostrovsky on Aug 15, 2007 • 12:38 am

In April, Amy Tenderich, of Diabetes Mine, wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs complaining about the “clunky” state of blood glucose monitors and insulin pumps. She wanted more of an Apple approach to the design of these things. In response, a San Francisco design firm called Adaptive Path, not Apple, came up with the Charmr device concept. Watch the video:

Check out Amy’s site for more details and images of the device.
More thoughts, and with a hat tip, at Bernard Farrell’s blog…
Adaptive Path...

Telemedicine

Reach Out And Prick Someone

by Nicholas Genes on Aug 14, 2007 • 11:06 pm

glucophone Reach Out And Prick Someone
Amy at DiabetesMine brings us the story on the GlucoPhone — once considered vaporware, it’s been quietly introduced by HealthPia:

The GlucoPhone is not just for SENDING blood glucose data over the net. It’s actually a special glucose meter (GlucoPack™) that’s fitted onto the back of a cell phone. So yes, you stick your test strip into a little slot on the side of the phone and bleed on it, just like you would any meter. Then you can immediately “text” your results to a database available online with the subscriber’s permission, i.e. you set the access rights.
After several years of what seemed like empty talk, HealthPia has quietly “launched” its first marketable model, the Verizon LG5200 phone (CDMA platform) for the US market at last week’s AADE Conference.

Fox News has a demonstration online — we report, and you can decide how cool this is, for yourself. Amy, a journalist by training, also interviews the president of HealthPia on her site.
glucophone2 Reach Out And Prick Someone
So far the GlucoPhone is only available on Verizon, and the only molds available are for 2003ish-looking clamshells. It’s a start, but we’re still hoping the feel-good story of the year for techophile diabetics will be the upcoming GlucoBand.
More from HealthPia…

Psychiatry / Space Medicine

Aquanauts to the Rescue!

by Gene Ostrovsky on Aug 14, 2007 • 1:35 pm

NEEMO 13 Astronaut Ricky Arnold Performing PVTsm Aquanauts to the Rescue! National Space Biomedical Research Institute is sending a team of ‘aquanauts’ to Aquarius, “the world’s only underwater research habitat”, 60 feet below the surface around Key Largo, Florida, in order to investigate the efficacy of stress, fatique, and other psychological tests when performed by isolated individuals and teams, like those who go to space.

“The crew takes a three-minute test that measures vigilance, attention and psychomotor speed. We’ve learned from laboratory experiments that the test is sensitive to fatigue and other factors that impact a person’s ability to pay attention to a task and respond quickly,” Dinges said [David F. Dinges, Ph.D., team leader of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute's Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Factors Team -ed]. “The test is taken at least four times a day – on waking, before and after simulated moon walks, dives and habitat experiments, and before bed.”
The Psychomotor Vigilance Test, or PVT, was developed through Dinges’ work with NSBRI, NASA, the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. The user watches for a signal and responds when it appears, allowing the measurement of reaction times.
The crew also wears a wristwatch-sized device, called an Actiwatch®, that measures the sleep and wake cycle. The aquanauts provide saliva at various times each day including when they awake, before and after performing experiments and simulated moon walks, and before going to bed.
“With the saliva samples, we measure cortisol, a hormone that provides information on their stress levels,” Dinges said. “Cortisol is normally high in the morning; it’s a means of getting you going each day. If we see elevated cortisol after performing a high-level task, it would indicate some type of stress occurred during the activity.”
The crew fills out brief questionnaires about how hard they are working, so researchers can get a sense of their physical and mental workload. Another questionnaire focuses on mood and interpersonal interactions between the crew as well as with mission control personnel.

VRT Improves Brain Activity After Brain Injury

by Gene Ostrovsky on Aug 14, 2007 • 9:40 am

HULIQ.com is reporting that Columbia University medical researchers have shown, using fMRI, that Visiion Restoration Therapy increases brain activity in patients status post stroke.

Researchers, led by Randolph S. Marshall, M.D., M.S., associate professor of clinical neurology and acting director, Division of Stroke and Critical Care at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, examined the fMRIs of six patients aged 35-77 with vision loss on the same side of both eyes (called homonymous hemianopia) caused by stroke or traumatic brain injury. The therapy is based on visual stimulation, which the patient performs daily at home on a dedicated computer device. The fMRI data showed increased activity in visual processing areas of the brain as patients learned to detect stimuli in the borderzone between the seeing and non-seeing fields. This enhanced activity was identified one month after beginning treatment and suggests that the brain is responding accordingly.

The data is to be published in this month’s issue of Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair.
More from HULIQ…

Medicine

Effectiveness of Oral Insulin Spray vs Traditional Injections

by Gene Ostrovsky on Aug 14, 2007 • 8:35 am

oral lyn Effectiveness of Oral Insulin Spray vs Traditional Injections
Generex, makers of Oral-lyn™ oral insulin spray, have published the results of their study on the effectiveness of Oral-lyn™ in Type-1 diabetics.

The title of the published abstract is “Comparison of Oral Insulin Spray and Subcutaneous Regular Insulin at Mealtime in Type 1 Diabetes,” authored by Jaime Guevara-Aguirre, M.D., Marco Guevara-Aguirre, M.D., Jeannette Saavedra, M.D., Gerald Bernstein M.D., and Arlan L. Rosenbloom, M.D.
The published conclusion is that regular insulin and Generex Oral-lyn had similar glucodynamic effects in subjects with Type-1 Diabetes Mellitus receiving twice-daily insulin analogue as baseline therapy. Intensive monitoring and timely corrections with additional snacks, additional sc regular insulin, or Generex Oral-lyn(tm) puffs resulted in appropriate glycemic control as assessed by individual daily glycemic responses and especially, normal preprandial glycation decreased, but not significantly.
“This publication is significant in that it shows consistently and clearly that equivalent amounts of Generex Oral-lyn and injected regular insulin will yield comparable blood glucose control,” said Dr. Gerald Bernstein, Generex’s Vice President of Medical Affairs and a co-author of the article.

Press release from Generex…
Oral-lyn™ product page…
June 2007 issue of Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics was devoted to inhaled insulin studies…

Medicine

All the Nicotine, None of the Smoke

by Tim Odell on Aug 14, 2007 • 1:28 am

NSI med All the Nicotine, None of the Smoke
Wait, is that a good thing? It’s better than smoking, but there are still concerns about a nicotine inhaler under development by Next Safety (sounds like the name of an orange traffic cone manufacturer).

Its drug-delivery device works similarly to a medical inhaler. The device injects tiny droplets of medication – or nicotine – into the air passage as the user inhales through a tube. The droplets are then absorbed through the lungs and into the bloodstream.
This allows the body to absorb drugs faster than oral medications, said Phillip Weaver, the director of Next Safety’s pulmonary division.
About 30 people were tested using the device earlier this month, the company said. According to the tests, the device delivers a smaller amount of nicotine to the body than cigarettes, but provides a stronger “kick” than smoking.
Next Safety has big plans for growth. It has 20 employees and moved into a 32,000-square-foot building in July.
It is hoping to raise about $130 million in private equity this fall, Hunter said.
The company expects to hire 3,600 employees over the next 18 months, he said.

We’d be curious to see the regulatory hurdles facing this device as compared to the obviously more harmful cigarette industry. Oh, to be regulated by the department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms…instead of the Food and Drug Administration. (which one of those sounds like a more entertaining weekend?)
More from the Winston-Salem Journal and from Next Safety…

Public Health

Italian Town to Pay Residents to Lose Weight

by Tim Odell on Aug 14, 2007 • 12:20 am

First Ferrari, Lamborghini and Alpha Romeo…now yet another reason Italy is pretty cool…

Men living in the northwestern Italian town of Varallo will receive 50 euros ($70) for losing 4 kg (9 pounds) in a month, Mayor Gianluca Buonanno said. Women will get the same amount for shedding 3 kg (7 pounds).
If they can keep the weight off for 5 months, they will get another 200 euros ($280), he told Reuters.

There’s probably some good data out there as to whether or not there’s a net savings to the government to “incentivize” improving one’s health (particularly in Europe, what with nationalized healthcare and all). Unfortunately, we’re too lazy to do it ourselves. But if someone paid us…
More from Reuters…

Neurology

Treadmills for Brain Injuries

by Gene Ostrovsky on Aug 13, 2007 • 10:28 am

doubletreadmill Treadmills for Brain Injuries
A strange new treadmill is being investigated at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Maryland to help rewire the brains of stroke victims and others with brain injuries.

The split-belt treadmill is “a fascinating concept,” says Dr. Milton Thomas of the Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation, who was amazed that Bastian’s [Amy Bastian, MD at Kennedy Krieger Institute] experiments didn’t have people falling down. The research “showed both legs are taught to function almost independent of each other — or can be.”
First, Bastian tested the funky walking on 40 healthy people. Sometimes, the treadmill moved their legs in opposite directions. Sometimes it moved one leg up to four times faster than the other.
With a 15-minute session, she essentially retrained them to walk with a lurch. No matter how hard they tried to walk normally when the session ended, they couldn’t for 10 minutes or so — until automatic nerve systems recalibrated themselves again.
Tracking that adjustment, Bastian reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience last month that there are separate neural networks to control forward walking and backward walking, and each leg, too. That means researchers might target just the bad leg.
What about people with brain injuries? Thirteen stroke survivors who had limped for months saw that same brief improvement from the treadmill test, Bastian and University of Delaware physical therapist Darcy Reisman reported in the journal Brain.
That suggests the right circuitry for good walking is lying dormant in these patients, if doctors can learn to tap it.

Press Release…
More at CNN…
(hat tip: Irochka!)

Uncategorized

Cup&Up to Uplift Breasts

by Gene Ostrovsky on Aug 13, 2007 • 10:15 am

Cup&Up to Uplift Breasts
MIM, an Israeli startup, which calls itself after the procedure it’s developing (Minimally Invasive Mastopexy), has a less intrusive approach to breast augmentation.

As women age, breasts may begin to sag, a process often accelerated by pregnancy and nursing. Mastopexy involves massive interference with both internal and external breast tissues and the procedure is expensive requiring long term recovery with potential risks and complications. Despite the risks, millions of invasive breast procedures are performed each year.
Another problem with current procedures is their failure to prevent breasts from later sagging. “They last only for limited period of time after treatment,” Cohen told ISRAEL21c. “Newton is around, and gravity is working, and everything is falling again – what we call ptosis.”
“What we’ve done is build a silicon bra, insert it into the body and attach it to the ribs and to the fascia. It’s like a normal external bra,” he continues, “where a strip lies on the shoulder and attaches around the body. We attach it to the ribs instead of to the shoulder, and to the fascia in the lower part of the body.”

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