Medical Technology News From Around The World
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Our website is written and published by a group of medical doctors and biomed engineers.
Lancet Neurology just published a study examining the benefit of using a two-way telemedicine platform, rather than a telephone, for hospital staff to consult with a physician regarding a patient’s condition after a suspected stroke.
Here’s a video example of one of these consultations:
Cisco Systems is trying to get healthcare to embrace telemedicine in all its forms, and they posted a podcast discussing how far the technology has come and where it is going (all thanks to network routers of course).
Download Podcast – Video in Healthcare Then and Now (MP3 – 12:05 min)
More from Cisco on healthcare…
Community Health Network, a group of care centers in the Midwest, is rolling out a set of tools to make the hospital experience easier, faster, and more productive. Based around personal health records and a credit card-like card for quick identification, the hospital network hopes to speed up its system, and provide patients better access to information, as well as other tools, like a personal blog for patients to write about their experience while interned.
Some of the services to be offered:
Online personal health record: Keep all your health care history information in one secure location. Information includes procedures, medications, your doctor list and insurance information. You can even print out a card to keep with you at all times.
Text messaging program: Choose the health topics that you’re interested in and receive text messages on your mobile phone.
Express check-in: At selected facilities, you can expedite your check-in process and take advantage of on-site concierge services. Community Health Network is the only health care organization in the Midwest to offer this self-service model.
SharingSite: A secure blog for new parents or long-term care patients to update their status and post pictures for loved ones anywhere in the country.
Find a doctor and request an appointment: Search by ZIP code, specialty insurance, gender and more. Request, schedule and confirm your physician appointment.
24-hour interactive online health resources: Exclusive ability to chat with a registered nurse, schedule your physician appointment, complete health risk assessments and utilize health and fitness tracking tools.
Mobile eCommunity: Community is the first health care system in Indiana to offer this type of smart phone service, applicable to any Web-enabled mobile device or smart phone with Internet connectivity. The technology allows you to order a prescription refill without using a phone tree or automated pharmacy line, get immediate directions and phone number access to your doctor.
Press release: Community Health Network unveils new program that will provide total health care integration for consumers; myCommunity offers convenient passport to complex health care world
myCommunity homepage…
(hat tip: our own system)
Reuters is reporting about research at the Swansea University in Wales to synthesize a compound based on excretions of maggots, that will be able to kill various strains of MRSA.
Alchemy Healthcare is an Oxford, England company started by an inventive pharmacist in a bid to make a better drug inhaler. The company’s new device, claimed to be simple enough to be manufactured as a disposable one, can be prefilled with different drugs. Perhaps the firm will consider naming the device better than the company has named itself, for alchemy has a rather poor track record.
Potential uses from the company page:
For Conventional Medicines
• Caters for those averse to needle jabs • May require lower dose than oral route • Good vasculature for absorption
For Vaccinations
• ..Ease of use in areas having low numbers of clinical staff– allowing mass immunisation • Delivered to the right part, formulated to adhere for immune response • DNA ‘vaccines’ in development
Why Alchemy Healthcare’s Nasal Device?
• High performance spray for dose accuracy and fast onset • Compact active device with high value • Self-treatment since unit dose with no inter-operator variability • Five parameters can be varied for different uses • Lockable with actuation indicators
Alchemy Healthcare…
Flashback: Cheap Dry Pill Inhaler May Fit in Wallet
(hat tip: Eureka)
Photonics magazine is profiling photodetectors made by Zecotek Photonics, a firm out of Singapore, that work well within strong magnetic fields, allowing engineers to make hybrid PET/MRI machines.
Zecotek is leading a collaborative research program with the University of Washington to develop a proprietary PET-MRI detector as the core technology of a new generation of medical imaging systems. The major barrier to a combined PET and MRI scanning device is the strong magnetic fields of MRI which destroy the photodetection capabilities of current PET scanning devices. Unlike the vacuum tube-based PMT, Zecotek’s MAPD photodetectors can operate in highly magnetic environment of the MRI making the LFS scintillation crystals and MAPD photodetectors critical enabling technologies for a successful fusion of PET and MRI into one scanning device. This new generation device will offer both higher resolution and faster patient throughput which in turn improves patient diagnostics and reduces costs to the medical system, Zecotek said.
Zecotek announced in mid-April that it successfully completed preproduction testing of the MAPD, which will be initially produced in an 8 by 8 format, with 64 individual MAPDs each measuring 3 by 3 mm, and scalable to larger dimensions. First run production has been slated for evaluation by select industry partners.
More from Photonics…
Product page: Micro-pixel Avalanche Photo Diodes (MAPD)
Vapotherm, out of Stevensville, MD, just received approval from the FDA to market its Precision Flow™ gas delivery device, “the first high flow humidification system to integrate gas blending, flow control and humidification technology into one device for the optimal conditioning of nasal cannula inspired gases.”
Features from the product brochure:
PRECISION FLOW™ is a high flow heat and humidification device for the non-invasive delivery of inspired gas flows from 1 to 40 liters per minute. The technology delivers a perfect synchronization of flow, temperature, humidity and oxygen percentage without discomfort via nasal cannula.
PRECISION FLOW™ moves beyond conventional humidification, giving the clinician the ability to manage the key factors in gas conditioning to achieve desired outcomes.
PRECISION FLOW™ helps clinicians reach their goal to deliver the maximum respiratory assistance safely and comfortably. More invasive techniques can result in iatrogenic effects and increased costs.
• Precise measurement of temperature and flow
• Built-in oxygen blender and oxygen sensor
• Disposable patient circuit
• Battery backup
• Rapid set up and circuit priming
• Single button control for flow, oxygen percentage and temperature values
• Color–coded, uncluttered display for alarms and indicators
• Engineered for reliability and streamlined maintenance
Press release: VAPOTHERM® PRECISION FLOW™ RECEIVES FDA 510(k) CLEARANCE
Product page: Precision Flow
Precision Flow brochure (PDF)…
Just because we cover medical technologies does not mean we can’t make a rare exception. When the world’s largest and most complex experiment is just days from start, and the 27-kilometer instrument is being cooled to 1.9 Kelvin, scientists promise to smash protons at 5 TeV revealing the secrets of physics and cosmology, we veer off in our coverage and take our hats off in a sign of a deep respect to the awesomeness of physics.
The Boston Globe has an incredible photo essay on the Large Hadron Collider.
Press release: CERN announces start-up date for LHC…
University of Pennsylvania Professor Shu Yang has developed a crystalline material which may aid in the diagnosis of brain trauma for soldiers in the field. The crystal patch, which can be applied to a soldier’s uniform, will change shape and therefore color when a shockwave hits the material. Researchers are still unsure as to how color changes correlate to the severity of brain damage and to neurological damage. However,shockwaves from bomb blasts can cause damage to the brain that cannot be detected by CT scanning or MRI. These crystalline-patches can potentially solve this problem and allow for the adequate and prompt treatment of these soldiers. The technology itself seems promising and has the potential to save many soldiers who have brain injuries that may not be apparent on CT or MRI scans.
From BBC News:
MRI scans pick up structural damage, such as bleeds on the brain, excess fluid or skull fractures.
But a shockwave, such as that caused by a bomb can cause damage on a cellular level, with microscopic tears in the brain.
This would not be picked up on a scan but like any brain injury can cause long-term problems with symptoms such as headaches, behaviour change and memory loss.
When a shock wave hits the material, which would be in the form of a thin film, like a small sticker, the crystals would change shape and thus colour.
“Depending on the damage, you’ll have different colour intensities,” said Professor Yang [Shu Yang, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia]. “Based on that information we can extract how much force the soldier has received.”
More from BBC News…
Image: Sample image from Dr Yang’s lab demonstrating the wrinkles created within the material after a bit of mechanical interference.
The Medical Revolution Will Be Blogged.
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Our website is written, edited and published by a group of MDs and biomed engineers.
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