Hybrid Medical Animation, a Minneapolis, Minnesota company that creates custom motion graphics for the medical and scientific fields, won a number of prizes at this year’s Aurora Awards, a competition for independent film and video producers.
Their best of show, Platinum Award winning video, the Rexin-G Mechanism of Action, produced for the Epeius Biotechnologies Corporation, can be seen, along with some of their other work, at Hybrid Medical’s website.
Link to Rexin-G Mechanism of Action video…
Hybrid Medical Animation’s Demo Reel…
Aurora Awards…
(Hat tip: Nanowerk)
Archives: 9/2007
AXIOMTEK, a Taiwanese computer hardware developer, has introduced a computer for the medical industry that features Intel‘s Core 2 Duo processor, built-in webcam, and speakers, all in a waterproof 17″ monitor shell that has no noise-making cooling fans. This seems like a real achievement to embed a very hot microprocessor in a watertight, fanless box.
The built-in 1.3 mega pixels camera and microphone/speakers provide a most complete solution for VoIP and remote monitoring / telemedicine healthcare terminal. The MPC170-831-FL is suitable for POC (Point of Care), excellent HMI (Human Machine Interface) for medical equipments and remote monitoring / health care terminals (Telemedicine) and more.
With excellent thermal solution and dust & waterproof design (IP65 for front panel, IPx1 for whole enclosure), the MPC170-831-FL is extremely reliable and offers low-noise operation for any medical environments. Powered by Intel 945GME GMCH Gen 3.5 integrated graphic engine with maximum 224MB sharing graphic memory, this fanless panel computer has better graphic performance. “The design of round and smooth outlook makes MPC170-831-FL warm and streamline and provides more collision protection to patients” said Eric Chiang, Product Manager of the Panel Computer Department. This model pondered and comprehensives the biggest benefits for medical practitioners, users, patients, and environments.
The MPC170-831-FL is a 17″ medical panel computer with EN60601-1, UL60061-1, FCC Class B certification to limit power leakage and EMI. It supports a PCI interface for expansion purpose, an optional slim Combo drive, and an internal antenna for wireless (802.11b/g) expansion. Besides, the dual Gigabit Ethernet ports provide extremely high speed of Ethernet and highly reliable redundancy host connection. It is designed to work with noiseless, low power consumption, high reliability and high performance applications. Besides, excellent ID (industrial design) and user-friendly interface design make the MPC170-831-FL perfect with super slim, professional outlook, better user interface, and excellent protection at once!
More from AXIOMTEK…
Continua Health Alliance is a group of technology, medical, and related companies, that is working on developing communication protocols for use on at-home medical devices. The basic idea is that if you’re a diabetic and decide to purchase a new blood glucose meter, you’d choose from those that have the Continua logo because that would supposedly guarantee compatibility with the sugar tracking software on your computer, and the computer of your doctor. Considering the list of companies that are participating in defining these protocols, it does suggest Continua will end up being a popular medical communication standard. As such, they have begun releasing initial specifications, and should be finished with all of them early next year. David Whitlinger, Chairman of Continua, and Director of Healthcare Device Interoperability at Intel, said in a conference call this morning that he believes that by the end of 2008 we’ll see Continua approved products hitting pharmacy shelves.
The Continua Version One standards represent a marriage of well developed healthcare informatics data standards with proven consumer electronic technologies. This integration provides the specifications necessary to enable connectivity across a wide variety of personal telehealth devices and services. The Version One standards include the Bluetooth Medical Device Profile Specification (Bluetooth SIG), USB Personal Health Device Specification (USB Forum), ISO/IEEE 11073 Personal Health Device Specifications (IEEE), and Health Level 7 for integration with standards-based electronic health records (EHR). The comprehensive set of guidelines will help improve the quality of care by empowering consumers and their healthcare providers to more simply share information through common communication channels such as telephones, cell phones, PCs, TV set top boxes, as well as other dedicated health devices.
Press release: Continua Health Alliance Takes Next Step in Offering Connectivity to Better Manage Health and Wellness
Continua Health Alliance home page…
Two new endoscopes featuring video imagery have now been approved for sale by the FDA.
The ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) and TNE (Transnasal Esophagoscopy) scopes are the first two in the series of uniquely advanced digital endoscopy platforms to be introduced by Vision-Sciences. These lightweight videoscopes facilitate diagnostic and therapeutic procedures with the introduction of the world’s smallest diameter insertion tube that contains a high resolution, tiny CCD (charge coupled device) camera at the tip of the insertion tube, offering a sharp, high definition, vibrant full screen image.
Moreover, these advanced videoscopes are the first in the world that do not contain difficult-to-clean operating channels associated with scopes from other manufacturers. Instead, Vision-Sciences scopes are used in conjunction with the Company’s patented, disposable, sterile Slide-On(r) EndoSheath(r) technology that covers the entire scope. The proprietary EndoSheath(r) Technology not only isolates the endoscope from the patient, but contains a disposable operative channel, which eliminates instrumentation and patient tissue biopsies from coming in contact with the reusable scope, unlike when passed through the built-in channel of conventional scopes from other manufacturers. The EndoSheath(r) Technology eliminates the need for elaborate high-level disinfection between procedures, providing rapid equipment turnover, limiting capital investment for additional scope inventory, reducing exposure to toxic chemicals, and dramatically lowering repair and maintenance costs.
The ENT-5000 flexible video laryngoscope is inserted in the nose down to the throat, providing precise, vivid images of the internal structures of the nasal cavity, vocal folds, larynx and other areas of the throat. The TNE-5000 flexible video transnasal esophagoscope allows equally excellent visualization further down the esophagus and all the way down to the stomach. These advanced videoscopes will be used to examine patients suffering from various disorders, ranging from difficulty in swallowing (Dysphagia), difficulty in breathing, sleep apnea, asthma, chronic cough, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), Barrett’s disease and symptoms of cancer.
Press Release: Vision-Sciences, Inc. Receives FDA Clearance to Market the World’s First Video-Based Advanced Endoscopy Lines for Use With its New Generation EndoSheath Technology
Vision Sciences Endoscopes Product Page…
The August 2007 issue of Heart Insight magazine, a publication of the American Heart Association, has attracted attention of Dr. Westby Fisher, a Northwestern University cardiologist. Check out his little exposé.
This new scale with a built-in nutrition calculator from HealthTools LLC might improve one’s eating habits, and help with a diet plan.
Some of the features, according to the product page:
The only scale on the market which analyzes the nutritional content of food by portion size for both labeled and unlabelled foods.
The database stores the nutritional values for approximately 1,000 foods, which have been carefully selected to reflect fresh foods Americans actually eat.
The scale will instantly calculate the following cardiovascular nutrients essential for overall wellbeing:Calories Carbohydrates Fiber Sodium Potassium Magnesium Total Fat Saturated Fat Cholesterol Calcium Protein Vitamin K Additionally, the proprietary EatSmart Nutrition Facts Calculator is the only scale on the market that allows you to calculate nutrients for any food with a USDA Nutrition Facts label.
We have not seen or tested the product, so we wouldn’t know how easy it is to use in the kitchen, and how practical it is in general.
$75 direct from the company.
Product page: EatSmart Nutrition Scale™ …
Investigators from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and Cambridge University developed software that monitors cerebral perfusion pressure and intracranial oxygenation, and hence has the potential to provide better monitoring of brain hemodynamics in post-op and trauma patients. While somewhat similar to the INVOS System from Somanetics Corp., the new technology is purportedly much more advanced:
Healthy brains regulate blood flow and oxygen levels during drops and spikes in blood pressure, but injured brains may lose this fail-safe mechanism, leading to oxygen starvation and permanent brain damage.
Although monitors have long been able to track blood pressure and blood flow to the brain, the Hopkins-Cambridge team created a system that for the first time precisely determines the “breakpoint” at which the brain begins to lose its ability to cope with changes in blood pressure.
The software does this, researchers say, by gauging minute shifts in blood pressure and oxygenation every 60 seconds and alerting doctors when they approach critical levels.
Using a software program developed by two Cambridge scientists, Hopkins doctors fed data into a computer from two staples of the pediatric intensive care unit–an old-fashioned arterial blood pressure monitor and an oxygen meter that uses beams of infrared light to estimate oxygen saturation in the brain.
The software essentially makes these two devices talk to each other, researchers explain, showing in a continuous stream the interplay between blood pressure and oxygen levels, whether the brain is coping with pressure changes, and more importantly, what blood pressure range is conducive to that.
“This intricate interplay between oxygenation and blood flow was the big unknown in what is indeed a simple equation, and now we’ve pinpointed the level where arterial blood pressure needs to be in order to promote healing in the injured brain,” Brady says.
In traumatic brain injuries, some brain damage occurs on impact, but much damage and indeed many deaths occur in the critical two-to-five-day window following the injury, a critical time when brain function must be monitored to ward off damage. This is when and where the new system will be most useful, researchers say.
The technique could be also used in premature babies, who are particularly prone to ischemic strokes and bleeding in the brain because of their brains’ immature self-regulatory mechanisms and their fragile blood vessels.
Press release from Hopkins: Blood-Flow Detector Software Shows Promise In Preventing Brain Damage …
(hat tip: MTB Europe)
The staff here at Medgadget is definitely male-dominated, considering we’re all men. But we don’t want to seem like insensitive jerks, so we will present this product as straightforward as possible.
The Moon Cup is a re-usable cup designed to catch and hold menstrual flow. The company expounds on the environmental and economical advantages in their press release here:
Moon Cup offers safety from unwanted chemicals and plastics, and provides inexpensive protection and a healthy, environmentally-friendly choice. Soft and durable, the product should last for 10 years before needing replacement and can save a woman as much as $800 over the lifetime of the cup. The Moon Cup is made in the U.S.
It is estimated that a woman will use as many as 16,000 tampons over the course of her life. A 1998 study concluded that 6.5 billion tampons and 13.5 billion sanitary pads were disposed of in one year’s time. These products, often laden with chemicals such as dioxins, end up in landfills and sewer systems, sometimes even washing up on U.S. coastlines.
The Moon Cup holds about an oz. of fluid. If it fills up, simply take it out, empty it, wash it, and then put it right back in.
The moon cup isn’t the only product like this on the market, but it’s recent promotion caught our attention. It seems a little strange in concept, but there are a few rave reviews for a similar item on Amazon.com. If you have any experience with this or similar products, let us know what you think!
Moon Cup website…
Moon Cup press release…
Hewlett-Packard is teaming up with Irish company Crospon Ltd to commercialize an inkjet-based skin patch for “painless, controlled release of one or more drugs”:
The patch delivers medication intradermally — just below the surface of the skin — and enables precise control of dosage timing, access to dosage history, patient activation mechanisms and inherent safety protocols for preventing adverse drug interactions.
Transdermal patches (which rely on absorption through the skin) for nicotine delivery have become a mainstay for smoking cessation programs; however, they have not been a widely effective delivery mechanism for many drugs because the skin acts as a natural barrier.
The HP-developed skin patch uses microneedles that barely penetrate the skin; this radically reduces discomfort compared to traditional hypodermic needles and enables the technique to be used with a much wider variety of drugs and biopharmaceuticals. The microneedles allow medication to quickly enter the bloodstream, resulting in the potential delivery of lower and more precise dosages.
HP initially developed the drug delivery technology as a way to repurpose its inkjet technology for use in new markets. The technology in the skin patch is similar to that employed in HP’s patented process for its inkjet cartridges.
Press release: Crospon Licenses HP Technology to Create Industry-first Skin Patch for “Smart” Drug Delivery …
More from MIT Tech Review…
(hat tip: Gizmodo)
